I can only imagine how casualties are hidden… for a start they probably retain the information whatever they can. Eventually they have to communicate to their families but probably they tell them that it is a matter of “national security” and that the “hero” died for the country in a very secretive operation and not to communicate publicly… who knows, even they may sign them a confidentiality paper…

I wish people were far more skeptical of governments that for a century is routinely sending hundreds of thousands youngsters thousands of miles away for “defense”.

Thanks for that wired link. Was not aware of it. It is 2 years old but important still. Now, that is not from the president of Spain, but its minister Fernando Grande-Marlaska, a extremist and, I would say, a compromised guy that works more for foreign entities than Spain’s interest and should have been fired long ago. For instance, last week he signed a contract with a Israelś company to purchase munition… the outrage in the coalition government was such that Sanchez had to step in and canceled the already signed contract.

On wanting to stop anonymity, 100% with you, but hard to find any leader is not on board with that.

Don´t get me started with the assets seizure (and interest straight robbery), let alone banning apolitical players just for being born within the wrong coordinates. The harm here will be felt for years to come and in the hundreds of billions just for a posture thought by a handful of heads in Washington and Berlin that actually could care less for their own economies, let alone Ukrainians. Switzerland was rapid to stop that and already taking some of the funding usually would have gone to the EU… bu the eyes for capital is looking toward Asia.

For real, where do you get that the President of Spain wants to ban encryption?! That debate has been held in Germany, France and UK but not precisely in Spain… like nothing at all. In that talk President Sanchez just talked about the massive and pernicious powers social media have in the society (true) and that he supports the EU Digital Services Act (DSA), at highly misguided and bad thing, but not spearheaded by Spain. None of that is wanting to ban encryption… letś no mention almost impossible to enforce properly too. If digital freedom is your aim, options like Australia is a bit off, you are good until you touch sensitive things for the US.

True! It is a mystery the intentions of China regarding the currency. Slowly but steadily disposing of their dollars but nothing mayor in wanting to replace it either… probably a good move not to put wood in the fire. Europe missing the chance of a lifetime meanwhile!

The are many potential reasons for Social Anxiety, but for most tend to exaggerate enormously what other think of ourselves and the truth is, no one cares much. One single public smile does more for you social skills than talking for three hours. For me the cure was “age” or, better yet, wisdom. Now, if you are inpatient, there are things that you can do to accelerate the cure before that… do get expose, open the window blinds more often and enjoy the sun and wave hi if someone checks you out… Look for activities where you can excuse the talk level like biking.

First, it is different experience if land crossing or through an airport.

Your intuition is right, the impression through the media is not accurate. I´d land crossed the border a few times this year and did not notice any changes… if anything is the Canadian side that is a bit more scrupulous with the questioning but nothing concerning. Now, for sure, some border officers may feel more embolden to do harm than before, but it is not much of a noticeable shift from previous years.

Remember, that border officers have a unusual broad authority that leave us, mortals, without much recourse, so be courteous and the numbers say you will be fine. In the past, I had said a wrong word like “I had to do a training” and zap… I was retained for 8h for “intention to work” and had to contact HR in both countries… avoid sensitive with words that can be triggers for them… for starters… do NOT mention your username ;-)

Glad for you. It is not as easy as they paint it, specially here, but moving to Linux still good in so many aspects and I applaud you for doing so. Hold on tight on the ride, it is frustrating sometimes but worth it overall.

Chat control, ban encryption? Where do you get that? I follow occasionally Spanish politics and never came across that. It may have been raised by some lone politician but highly unlikely to happen, unless other countries like France or Germany does it first, nor the people will follow with any mandate. The problem is if the main opposition party gets in power… they are more inclined to do that but even there I don´t see it spearheading any of that by themselves.

In Asia it already is… even Japan and S Korea start to think so. Countries like Singapore, Vietnam, Malaysia etc had realized that years ago.

In the West, we still with the anti-China propaganda that the US/UK had invested so much in fomenting. Countries in LATAM and Africa… or even Spain are like Japan now… highly considering jumping ship… or, at least, soaking their toes there. The west media still at full steam with anti-china rhetoric but less and less people will be buying that in the coming months, let alone, years.

Now, unless China comes with a new currency scheme (more internationalized, backed in gold, or other mechanism) I don´t see flocking there yet… confidence with money takes time. When the Spanish and British empires collapsed, their currencies remained long passed the empire.

If the EU had it just a bit together, it would flourish both economically and prestige. The entire world is looking desperately for a reserve currency, for a place where to invest or even just to go and so a master or doctoral work… and yet Germany decided to go for self-harm and censure, north of Germany all bellicose, the south of it all lost after the lost of leadership and Ursula all authoritarian… let us no mention disregarding decades of support from the oppressed in the middle east and full on board with the US policies now.

Without doing nothing the EU would had become today the beacon whether a Chinese merchant, an Argentinian industrialist or an Angolan PhD candidate, instead… here we are… So back to Buffett, true, other currencies are more desirable but no one are posed to massively stand out for now.

“At least to me it would be impossible if my head was still in the US”. I completely understand it… contributing with taxes to these policies from Washington DC may feel appalling… Now, the US has plenty of small and diverse type of communities some would find remarkable, like bubbles within the Empire… some can easily find peace there. Emigrating to another country is not recommended, nor feasible to everyone, but just moving within the US can be day and night different. Moving just a few miles away and and your lifestyle and friends can potentially change almost as much as moving abroad, and still close to your family/job.

Switzerland has many protections you want and the salaries are very good too. Now, I don´t consider life there as ideal thought. It is a bit depressing, so much beauty around but something is sad… reminds it of Paris… not to that extreme, but a bit like it. Of course it is a stable economy and you sense that peace of mind when there.

However it is not that democratic as they claim, for instance, twice the country voted for restriction on EU immigration (a silly thing since it greatly benefits the Alpine country and its society) but still the politicians keep dragging their feet and give excuses to disregard the resounding already decade old mandate (and at the benefit of the economy)… so wise yes, democratic not! Likewise, Switzerland has caved much to the powers of US and EU to several international topics so it is not the independent it used to be. Then it is the ethical aspect of collecting monies from spurious sources (Ireland lives of that too, but at least, the Celtics are more transparent of that)…

Spain vs Portugal is a tough one… Spain has better protections on paper but the people can be more vocal when opposing something they don´t like. Portuguese, in general, are far more amicable and genuine, specially outside the too touristic areas, but prospective for jobs to foreigners is slim outside the two main cities. Yes, Portuguese are far more amicable than Spaniards, but, like I mentioned in other post, the test is put when circumstance change, with the flock of foreigners buying property in Lisbon an Porto, they are far less welcoming there now too. For the long term, Spain, has a better track record, if you ask me.

After been in 5 continents in 30+ countries and living in 6… the best for your requirements is Spain. Spain, even the opposing parties are unlikely to touch most of those protections since it has wide support among the population. Now, Spain is not panacea, it still has stigma against Gypsies, older people face job discrimination, etc.

Regarding privacy is OK, more due to inaction than protection but far better than most neighbors in the north.

On corruption… the ‘perception’ is that there is plenty but no more than I witnessed in countries like Germany, UK or USA… the difference is that corruption in Spain is highly exposed by rival parties/media while in the other countries it is no so sensationalized, that is why of the increase ‘perception’. By the way, Scandinavia, that I used to admire, above local governments, I don´t see it much better on corruption levels, specially since late 2000s.

Regarding foreigners, Spain has many offers in certain jobs, where English is a requirement, but not easy at all for more common jobs where the local language is what is mostly used, even if you dominate it well. Now, you will be surprised how many companies are moving jobs to Spain since it is easier to attract talent to Barcelona or Malaga than to Berlin or Grenoble… and they save in salaries.

Now, if you put less emphasis in sexism and LGBTQ, certain countries in Latin America like Mexico or Uruguay, or across the ocean others like Malaysia may be more appealing, it is not that they are expressively against those groups, it is just they demand a more quiet sexual expression from you.

Lastly, countries like Australia, New Zealand and the like have become so corrupt at high level and against privacy and freedom of expression in certain topics, should be disregarded if you emphasis on that. Ireland, is the only exception in the Anglo world, now, like Switzerland and Norway, they are floating in money o every one is okay while economies are good… the test comes, as always, come in challenging times. Till, then, consider those three too.

That is very hard to asses. I prefer to look it like this, what chances is that you will find a partner (like for marry to) out of 100 or so. I do believe, if given equal chance of interaction, you could find a marrying-material partner every 7 or 8 people. Now, in a world of plenty of choices, biases etc, we shuffle through hundreds of people before settling with one… and, even then, still unhappy with the choice for the people we haven gone through yet in our search. Now, that is for me… Chances is you would choose a different person out of these very same 7 to 8 people. Both chosen persons have the same chance of being equally good persons, as the non chosen ones.

It is normal… first Social Media desensitizated all of us… by the masses. It is hard to prove now what is true or false… Even “sensible Governments”, left and right are applying techniques that Trump popularized… Look at the EU today! Add that to a fragile real economy (not what you see in the stock market) so everyone is afraid of a bold move and being written into a black list. I used to have a professor in that showed us documents (from FOIA) how, in the 80s, the FBI contacted his employers after his interviews no to hire him because his Communist ideas… Today you would not even get FOIA on that. Imagine now with the technology how a government hostile to you can ruin your life. The best way to survive, put your head down and go as unnoticed as possible.

Thanks for the article! Yes, South America is not free from this. One thing I have learned in my life is that how similar people we are everywhere… only circumstances make us seem different. Long gone are my admiration for Scandinavians! What most South America seems however (specially if a sizeable country), is distant enough from China, US and Russia to be easily dragged along in a conflict… and also their governments are weak enough to implement a global draft for instance.

I hear you! That is why I wanted to go with the definition of Fascism, but you are right. Let me rephrase it; If the world continues the path it is going, countries like Mexico seems to be a great bet to move in if you come with some good financial resources since you can compliment’s government security with private methods ones (like a gated community). Mexico will likely be neutral in a global conflict. Likewise, Spain seems good because I don’t see Spaniards been dragged by Brussels into any global conflict and if their American bases there get attacked, I see most people just ask to withdraw from NATO before entering in conflict themselves. Morocco, in spite I despise what they do to West Sahara’s (in tents for 40 years) and its coziness with Israel, it is quite stable too… If Morocco leadership (and Spanish!) could only see how greatly they could benefit from the current situation if they both acted like Mexico… being neutral and be a beacon for skilled/affluent migrants and investment!

If we take its actual definition; far-right, authoritarian, and ultranationalist, countries like Cuba for sure fits the bill. Now Cuba is authoritarian (and normal since they are in permanent and genuine threat from its neighbor) and probably that is not what is in your mind. Latin America is, as many as you pointed out, no ideal… but most countries there at least lacks of a strong government to enforce things (for better or worse) so, in a turbulent world, it is indeed a better bet. I think, for the time being, Spain has proven to be resilient to authoritarianism and even the voters of “extreme” parties are not that extreme themselves! In Latin America, Mexico is proven to have an amazing leadership (today, I consider it the best worldwide) so unlikely to change overnight. Colombia, Chile and Uruguay seems promising too.