What Would Be The Final Straw?

[mmoon]

Well, I think we can all agree that another war with Britain would be NOT GOOD, and not just for British expats.
I think the restrictions are what freak me out the most. It's like death by a thousand cuts…once you start to heal from the last one, there's another one coming, and it's usually bigger and deeper. This new "security emergency" in BA province seems tailor made to be abused.

 

[Yogur griego]

My final straw with living in Latin America in general is honestly safety. I don't want to live in the suburbs, I don't want a white picket fence, I've never owned a damn iPhone or iPad and I don't much care, but I would like to live in a city (preferably a large one) where I don't have to constantly watch my back. I have grown accustomed to electric fences and 24-hour rotating security guards where I live currently, and that depresses me. The increasing crime in Buenos Aires has been a nightmare for those who live there and is only going to get worse for the time being. So yeah, final straw, safety. I will never take it for granted again as long as I live. This one con outweighs the many pros of life in Latin America for me. I say this as a person who has never been so much as pick pocketed in her life, believe it or not. I felt like a damn alien when I was in NYC this year for the first time in a decade and saw the way people compose themselves on the street. They looked so relaxed to me. I miss being able to live like that.

I recognize myself in your post. Even in the safest areas of my native country, I am still neurotic when it comes to safety. When looking for a new appartment a few months ago, I was doing an insane security check and only after 30 mins of looking at even the smallest details and possible weaknesses I finally asked myself: ''A bit of caution is very useful indeed, but what the heck am I doing?''. On another occasion, I suddenly asked someone an awkward and somewhat confused question about a possible roof people might climb on, and I had to explain myself by referring to my ''Latin American experience''.

Another example. I am often on the outlook for thieves and motochorros when I cross the street. From a materialistic point of view, I am just a poor fellow, I don't have a lot of stuff people could be interested in but I regularly catch myself analysing my environment like a marine in a conflict zone. I also just don't trust people that easily anymore. My experience has taught me to be overly careful, which might be beneficial in some situations, but I also feel like an idiot sometimes.

Somehow, I can't just tell myself to relax, it's not that easy. It's not that I am really afraid or something, I guess it's just some form of learned strategic thinking that has gotten out of hand.

 

[ajoknoblauch]

The milicos thought the US was going to support them, due the anti comunism fight and kills and desaparecidos and repression, all pro-US, they did. They also supposed the british wouldnt bring their fleet. If the war supposed the only exit to a very tough situation to the Junta, with everyone talking of Human Rights violations, growing distaste, I think it also represented the same to Thatchers popularity, and I dont discard there was an intelligence job by the US and or the british, to make the war happen, some kind of impulse to the militars. The same as they did with Pearl Harbour.

So, you don't need Faux News to provide conspiracy theories!

 

[steveinbsas]

Just curious, since I've been on this forum for several years and have seen some of the ups and downs of living in BA/Argentina, as well as watched some of the long-time active forum contributors leave the country for other pastures..
.
If... an unpredictable economy won't cause you to pack up and go (assuming you are an expat and have another country where you could live and work legally)...what would be the final nail in the coffin?

Since I predict an even worse economy in the only other country where I could live and work legally, and I already have my own pasture in Argentina, the final "nail in the coffin" for me will be the actual need for a final nail in the coffin.

 

[Redpossum]

Since I predict an even worse economy in the only other country where I could live and work legally, and I already have my own pasture in Argentina, the final "nail in the coffin" for me will be the actual need for a final nail in the coffin.

Well said!

Hier stehe ich und kann nicht anders.

 

[citygirl]

No final straw - we're here with no plans to leave. *

* Unless someone made an offer on our property in which case we would be at the airport the minute the check cleared.

 

[steveinbsas]

Well said!

Thanks. "Short, punchy, clever, and simply stated, these are the keys."

 

[lajeclay]

We are a young, middle class couple with pretty good jobs. However, we realized how impossible it would be for us to be able to buy property in any decent area. Plus, neither of us have a property garantia, so every time we have had to move it's three or four months of desperation until we find someone willing to rent to us.

Plus, neither of us is from a big city, and we don't like the idea of raising kids with so little nature around.

That's why we are thinking about leaving.

 

[Redpossum]

Thanks. "Short, punchy, clever, and simply stated, these are the keys."

/me awards Steve a gold star

 

[ajoknoblauch]

Thanks. "Short, punchy, clever, and simply stated, these are the keys."

Ayn is usually far windier.