Posted on 10/23/2008 10:32:41 AM PDT by David
IOW... stupid. Illogical. And about what we've come to expect...
well
thank you for your link....repeated here:
I spent about 1/2 hour reading only the first 1/2 of this and scanned the rest.
FReepers, if you, like me, have not seen this collection before, I urge you to read it now.
I copied it so I could have it in the (unlikely??) event that it gets removed or if the author Don Fredrick cannot maintain the web site...
He offers two books for sale...which I must consider purchasing...
He has a long list of other postings besides this incredible timeline...with 360 footnotes....
Remember the “USS Clueless?” Or “Eject, Eject, Eject...??”
This site is, for me, at least the equal in its depth and interest to those classics.
BTTT
The Obama Timeline...required reading HUGH and SERIES
AGAIN FREEPERS...visit this site:
Incredible...Don Fredrick moved from Chicago to Brazil in December 2007....so he is doing this research and posting this blog from Brazil...
http://www.gringoes.com/articles.asp?ID_Noticia=2171
Brazil Through Foreign Eyes
August 25, 2008
Meet Don Fredrick from the USA who retired to Brazil last year. Read the following interview in which he tells us about some of his most memorable experiences and gives some useful advice to newcomers.
1. Tell us a little about yourself, where are you from, what do you do, etc.?
Aside from an early 1970s stint in the Army, I lived in the Chicago area all my life - until retiring to Brazil in December of 2007. To earn a living I spent more than 30 years with a large, multi-employer pension fund. In my spare time I enjoy genealogical research, oil painting, reading and writing. I am the author of two books (Colony 14 and What You Don‘t Know About Economics Can Hurt You, at http://www.colony14.net), and I am currently trying to sell a screenplay.
2. When did you arrive in Brazil and what brought you here?
My wife is from Sao Paulo, but she has lived many years both in Europe and in the Chicago area. We married in late 2003 and went on a delayed honeymoon to Brazil in 2004, where I met her family in Sao Paulo, and then visited Rio de Janeiro, Paraty, the Amazon, Iguassu Falls, Blumenau, and Florianopolis. I visited Brazil twice more before deciding to return for good. We now live in Peruibe, on the coast, about two hours drive south of Sao Paulo.
3. What were your first impressions of Brazil?
The people are incredibly friendly, generous, and talkative, and certainly know how to throw a party. Sao Paulo has more concrete, graffiti, dogs, traffic, noise, motorcycles, and poverty than I ever could have imagined.
4. What do you miss most about home?
Dr. Pepper, Home Depot, closets, hot water at the bathroom and kitchen sinks, decent napkins, HVAC systems, and windows that keep out cold, wind, rain, and bugs.
5. What has been your most frustrating experience in Brazil?
As many foreigners quickly discover, the delays and bureaucracy are maddening. Frustration can be defined as waiting in a long line only to be given a form to complete before being ushered into yet another long line. (The locals told me it used to be a lot worse!) You need document A to obtain document B, and you need document B to obtain document C, but, of course, you need document C to obtain document A.
The boat with our furniture and belongings arrived a few days early, but then the container sat on the dock for three weeks while the paperwork got processed. Luckily, we beat Carnaval by a few days, or we‘d have had to wait another week or two. In a wonderful Catch-22 situation, in order to have our belongings released we were asked for documentation which was in the sealed container on the dock! Throughout the entire ordeal, no one ever seemed to know anything, and after several days on incredibly crowded Sao Paulo subways and buses to get documents (like my wife‘s birth certificate, which the city‘s records office misplaced for a week) the shipper‘s local representative simply laughed when I asked for a delivery time-frame. (Cashing my check proceeded quickly, of course.)
6. What has been your most memorable experience in Brazil (specific incident)?
Taking first place would be a birthday party arranged by my in-laws and friends. (They tried to keep it a secret, but my comprehension of Portuguese was not as pathetic as they had assumed.) Although it‘s not my nature to want a birthday party, it turned out great and the affection shown was truly genuine and heart-warming.
In second place on the memorable-meter are the almost daily near death experiences on the Brazilian streets and roads. I have yet to see someone come to a complete stop at a stop sign (many don‘t even slow down), and crossing the no-crossing lines without any consideration of oncoming drivers seems not to make anyone feel guilty. Blink your eyes and suddenly a horn-blaring, overloaded truck with bald tires is inches from your bumper - even though you‘re in the right lane and going well over the speed limit.
7. What do you most like about Brazil (in general)?
I certainly enjoy no longer having to shovel snow. Mostly, however, it is wonderful how most people are non-judgmental... they seem to like (or dislike) you for who you are, rather than what you own. That is, of course, in contrast to the United States, where your value as a human being is often measured by how much money you earn, the size of your house, and the kind of car you drive. In Brazil you are more likely to be judged by your character - everything else is properly irrelevant.
8. What is your favorite restaurant/place to hang out here?
I enjoyed Bourbon Street in Sao Paulo, where the muffalettas were close to authentic, the band was good, and the Bloody Marys weren‘t bad. And the Café Paraty in that town-that-time-forgot was worth the visit; the night we were there an excellent singer/guitarist named Andrea Gorgati performed.
9. Do you have any funny stories/incidents to tell about your time in Brazil?
We left our car with a mechanic for a few days for some repairs, and apparently he assumed that gave him permission to use it for personal errands. After we picked up the vehicle and returned home, we discovered in the car‘s center console a thumb-sized plastic bag filled with a white substance. That kept me awake with thoughts of the policia confiscating my car and putting me in prison, or drug dealers shooting their way into our house looking for the remainder of a drug cache. The next day we returned to the mechanic, who had me taste the white substance to prove it was only table salt. Apparently his church distributes little packets of “blessed” salt. (Maybe their holy water is in short supply?) Needless to say, I was relieved... but would not suggest “holy salt” as a reasonable item for distribution in little plastic bags!
When we were running low on bottled gas for the kitchen range my wife told me her mother always advised using “leaky gas.” That seemed rather dangerous to me - until I learned that was the pronunciation of the local gas company, “Liquigas!”
10. What difference between your homeland and Brazil do you find most striking?
Brazilians are incredibly patient. Lines are unbearably long and slow-moving at the banks, for example, yet no one withdraws their money in protest. We Americans expect fast service and everything to be in stock at all times. In Brazil, you‘ll return to the store in a week, after the item is ordered for you. In the United States you won‘t consider waiting, you‘ll simply take your business to another store.
Brazilians also seem quite noise-tolerant. It seems that the most obnoxiously loud construction work is scheduled for 7:00 a.m., and noisy music, loud conversation, fireworks, and overly-sensitive burglar alarms do their best to prevent sleep from midnight until the construction starts. Should you manage to attempt a catch-up nap at the beach, a vendor may very well awaken you in his eagerness to sell you a trinket.
11. How is your Portuguese coming along? What words do you find most difficult to pronounce/remember or are there any words that you regularly confuse?
Well, I‘m likely never to be able to properly pronounce avô (grandfather) and avó (grandmother)! And I don‘t think I‘ll ever be able to bring myself to say “ohr-kooh-chee” for “orkut” (as in www.orkut.com).
I have been incurably lazy about learning the language. Watching novelas with Portuguese subtitles is helpful. My ability to read Portuguese is improving steadily, but as a listener I still can‘t keep up. Like most foreigners, I find that the nouns and adjectives come more easily, while the verbs and their tenses take more effort, and the use of articles often drives me crazy! My greatest problem is that I ask many questions, which drives the locals (and my wife) crazy. Their answer always seems to be either, “It‘s just an expression,” or “It depends on the context.”
An awful lot of Portuguese words seem to have multiple meanings. Because I knew that “massa” meant “pasta,” I was confused by the report of a politician “speaking to the pasta” - until I learned that “massa” also means “masses of lower class people.” (That was “massa” definition number 11 in my dictionary.)
“Banco” means both “bank” and “bench” (as well as a few other things), so when I went shopping for a bench for my garden I kept getting directed to the bank - until my wife suggested using the word “bancinho.”
“Tempo” means both “time” and “weather,” although one might logically expect two separate words, yet the Brazilians have a separate (and, to me, seemingly unnecessary) word for a popcorn seller (”pipoqueiro”). When I questioned my wife about that, she asked, “Well, what do Americans call someone who sells popcorn?” I don‘t think she believed me when I replied simply, “a person who sells popcorn.” And she insists I am wrong when I say I have heard many people pronounce “agora” (”now”) as though it were spelled “agwora.” When I asked, “Which is correct?” she responded, “You‘re crazy, no one says that.”
Yes, I know, just stop asking questions and practice. But if “estrangeiro” means “foreigner,” then what is the word for a stranger who is not a foreigner?
12. What advice do you have for newcomers to Brazil?
Learn to like concrete, gates, locks, and more concrete. Assume no one at any store will be able to readily make change. Expect no electrical outlet to be where you‘d like (or to have steady voltage or proper grounding). Most importantly, DO NOT stand in one place for too long - you are likely to have large tiles cemented to you!
13. What are some things that you would recommend for a visitor to do in São Paulo (or anywhere else in Brazil)?
In Sao Paulo you can find many good restaurants and bars. But do not visit Brazil without seeing Iguassu Falls; it is an amazing sight you will never forget. Spend a few days in Paraty. Fly to Manaus and, from there, take a boat up the Rio Negro to tour the Amazon up close, staying a few nights up river if you can. Accept all invitations and enjoy the people. Everyone is friendly and kind, and curious to speak with estrangeiros.
Other legal issues with the zone are set out in the article.
One of the posters on the main thread has lived in Panama throughout the entire period and has an extensive description of exactly what the physical relationships are--and they appear to be confirmed by the maps.
By whom?
N & V, is this a different map than what you and Gatun have?
http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/news/2113310/posts?page=49#49
See that dotted line around Colón?
Notice that outside that line it says CANAL ZONE, and inside that line it says PANAMA?
Just to hammer home the point, under that, inside the line it says: “PROVINCIA DE COLÓN/DISTRO DE COLÓN”.
Colón is a bit like West Berlin, surrounded by East Germany, but part of West Germany.
::rimshot::
Thanks!
Odd. His unquestioned birth certificate says PANAMA, not CANAL ZONE. 
Oh, and the Coco Solo Naval Hospital?
It wasn't even built until McCain was in first grade...
So Colon is outside the zone.
Did you ever receive the legal findings in support of the assertion?
That timeline was verrrry long but also verrrry informative. It’s all stuff I’ve read before but never in a logical order. That man has to be stopped, by the electorate if possible but if not.....
Excellent.
Fully covered as a citizen. Maybe even as a "Natural Born Citizen" depending on if the Founding Fathers intended to follow jus soli (the law of soil, or birth location) rather than jus sanguinus (the law of blood, or ancestry) for the term "Natural Born Citizen" There are good arguments to be made for either side of this one. "natural born citizen hasn't had a solid legal definition since the 1795 law superseded the 1790 law.
"...Colón, Panama. «koh LOHN» (2000 pop. 204,208), is the second largest city in Panama, at the Caribbean end of the Panama Canal. Colón was surrounded by, but not part of, the former Panama Canal Zone. Colón is an important port, commercial center, and tourist destination. It was made a free trade zone in 1953 and is the world’s second largest duty-free port..."
Worse, in 1981 he travelled to Pakistan at a time it was closed to all non-muslims in general, and specifically closed to [non-diplomatic corps] American citizens.
It's what they taught us Marine Corps Brats, in a school on the base, being taught by teachers hired by and supervised by the Marines. We were told explicitly that this meant those of us born overseas couldn't hold the Office of the President.
Whether that is correct or not we may know by the end of this election cycle.
Eh?
EXCELLENT!!!!
ummmm, did you vote as a non-citizen? ;^P
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