Wednesday, November 23, 2011

A holiday message from a family member

An portion of a nice holiday email from a family member:

"You could care less about your family. And if you say you do, you’re a liar. If you cared about your country you would be here and not there excepting our money and bitching about how its being run."

Guess this family member doesn't appreciate the fact that I have spent more time visiting MY mother and MY family in the past ten years than he has. Guess this family member also doesn't realize that I get no money from my country, nor do I expect to ever get a dime though I paid in for 35 years. And I can bitch all I fucking want.

6 comments:

Laura said...

Ah Vicki, what a shame. The ex-pat life is mostly misunderstood. You have every right to both bitch and enjoy life....

Here I am watching "The Amazing Race" and they are in Panama! I'm sure there will be a video online somewhere.

Harry & Lisa said...

Hey, hold on a minute. We got one of those poison pen letters about eight years ago!! Those that remain in the US just wouldn't understand. Good to see you back on the Blog, we've missed you! Lisa and Harry

Margaret said...

Seriously? What a bitter, mean-spirited way to act.
But the world if full of all kinds.
In any event, this sure doesn't sound like the kind of relative you'd want to spend time with at the holidays anyway.

Elaine said...

Hi there. Margaret from Cachando Chile sent me your blog link. We are in Panama, in Altos del Maria near Coronado - in the mountains. My husband is originally from Chile and I am from Puerto Rico. We just finished construction of a house here BUT we are putting it up for sale and are now planning on moving to Chile. I would love to touch base with you, maybe we could even meet/talk. email: montalcino98@gmail.com Panama phone: 6378-2020

Gary & Nemo - Reflecting Pool Discourse Blog said...

I've had a belly full of the toxic flag-waving U.S. nationalistic hubris to last me a lifetime. Buy American??

America is the country that refused to sign the Kyoto Environmental Protection treaty that most of the civilized world signed onto in a desperate effort to save an environment devastated by the incontinent gluttony of countries like America.

The unmistakable image America now conveys to the world is the image of irresponsible greed and gluttony at the expense of the rest of global humanity - who must suffer the consequences of such a demented sociopathic American policy of exploitation and destruction of an environment that belongs to all of us.

Never mind about malevolent flag-waving American nationalistic fervor and loyalty. Our loyalty and devotion belongs with those countries and those people who respect and protect the environment we all share, while exhibiting enough self-discipline, restraint, conscience and honesty to sacrafice a few creature comforts for the benefit of the planet and its inhabitants - most of whom have enough brains to realize it is the only thing that sustains our existence.

In the over-all scheme of things, toxic American nationalistic flag-waving hubris is as 'expendable' and meaningless as anything can possibly be in this life. And it has now reached a toxic apex that can only be described as mindless self-annihilation.

Just as corporate greed has become globalized -- our loyalties, respect and devout allegiance needs to be globalized and directed to those countries and those people who, unlike the U.S., are dedicating to "protecting" humanity, not 'throwing them under the bus' as expendable 'road kill' enroute to greed's brain-dead pathological objectives.

Anonymous said...


That family member was not really complaining about what was on the letter. That family member was feeling the burden of responsibility as the one left behind. I felt it too when my brother left the country. I stayed close to my parents for my entire life till I too joined the expat world. Becoming an expat evened out the guilt nicely.