Saturday, June 29, 2013
Tuesday, June 25, 2013
Monday, June 24, 2013
Sunday, June 23, 2013
Friday, June 21, 2013
Thursday, June 20, 2013
Wednesday, June 19, 2013
Tuesday, June 18, 2013
Monday, June 17, 2013
Sunday, June 16, 2013
Saturday, June 15, 2013
Friday, June 14, 2013
Thursday, June 13, 2013
Wednesday, June 12, 2013
Tuesday, June 11, 2013
Before You Retire To Latin America Please Do Careful Research
Ecuador is on a charm offensive right now. They send out videos of happy and content US citizens who have retired to a small city in Ecuador. We are told that medical care is very cheap and the cost of living is low. The local population is happy with their new gringo neighbors.
Please contrast this with an ordeal that I went through Friday night and Saturday morning. A dear friend of ours moved to Ecuador. She quickly discovered that there was a huge problems with kidnappings in Ecuador. She demanded that I remove all images of she and her children from You Tube and blogs. I calmly pointed out to her that anti-kidnapping experts never advice the clients they are hired to protect to remove all images from the web. I gave her a detailed report from Startfor on how to defend yourself against kidnapping. After all of this she kept hysterically demanding that I remove all of her images from the web. It took me some hours but I complied with her request.
I then did a lot of research on Ecuador and the results were not nice. In recent years eleven US citizens have vanished on the border between Colombia and Ecuador. At the same time there have been some 573 reported "Express Kidnappings" in the country.(I suspect that many more such kidnappings were never reported to the authorities) In this scenario one is kidnapped and forced to go to banks and draw all of the money out of their accounts. After all money is collected, the kidnap victim is generally released unharmed. I read reports of retirees being cheated by local lawyers and real estate agents when they went to buy a home or an apartment in that country.
The moral of this story is that it is vital to do some very serious and involved research before you seriously consider retiring to a foreign country. Google is a good place to start. Also carefully read US Embassy reports on any country that you are seriously considering for retirement.
Please contrast this with an ordeal that I went through Friday night and Saturday morning. A dear friend of ours moved to Ecuador. She quickly discovered that there was a huge problems with kidnappings in Ecuador. She demanded that I remove all images of she and her children from You Tube and blogs. I calmly pointed out to her that anti-kidnapping experts never advice the clients they are hired to protect to remove all images from the web. I gave her a detailed report from Startfor on how to defend yourself against kidnapping. After all of this she kept hysterically demanding that I remove all of her images from the web. It took me some hours but I complied with her request.
I then did a lot of research on Ecuador and the results were not nice. In recent years eleven US citizens have vanished on the border between Colombia and Ecuador. At the same time there have been some 573 reported "Express Kidnappings" in the country.(I suspect that many more such kidnappings were never reported to the authorities) In this scenario one is kidnapped and forced to go to banks and draw all of the money out of their accounts. After all money is collected, the kidnap victim is generally released unharmed. I read reports of retirees being cheated by local lawyers and real estate agents when they went to buy a home or an apartment in that country.
The moral of this story is that it is vital to do some very serious and involved research before you seriously consider retiring to a foreign country. Google is a good place to start. Also carefully read US Embassy reports on any country that you are seriously considering for retirement.
Monday, June 10, 2013
Friday, June 7, 2013
Wednesday, June 5, 2013
Monday, June 3, 2013
Sunday, June 2, 2013
Joao Santos Celebrates A Special Day!
Joao Santos is 44 years old today. He's an amazing man. He started life in one of Brasil's awful slums that are locally known as favelas. He used to go to the airport in Goiania and watch the planes taking off and landing. He dreamed of being able to fly away and see the world. His dreams came true. He first went to Sao Paulo and learned English. He caught the attention of some American missionaries. They recognized his talent and good character. He soon found himself in San Jose, California studying at San Jose City College. He married his sweetheart Djenane. They began their life in Silicon Valley. Joao got his BA degree at Golden Gate University. Djenane earned her BA at San Jose State University. Joao went on to get an MBA at San Jose State University. He and Djenane moved back to Goiania, Brasil. They bought an apartment and started their life in their hometown. Later a beautiful child named Bianca came into their lives. Joao you have come a long way and overcome a lot of obstacles. This is your special day!! Please enjoy it and be proud of yourself for what you have accomplished in life.
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