The good old "home" country...

belgiank

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Jun 13, 2009
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After reading all replies on Robert's topic "What is your frustration?"... I got frustrated... lol

And therefore... a similar thread with the same rules Robert had... you can only post one frustration on why you left your home country, and moved here...

The reason I left... very simple... the big brother is watching everything syndrome...

In my home country they check everything... if you deposit more than 1,500 $ in your bank-account you have to prove that the money did not come from white slavery (girl prostitution) or drugs, or terrorist activities...

I personally got a very weird look, when I deposited a couple of thousand dollars in a branch of my bank (where I normally do not go) and got asked those questions, and replied that if that was all I made over a weekend in those activities, I should look for another job... whahahahaha

So, I am curious... a lot of expats here complain about all kind of things here, but there must be a reason why they moved here...
 

Lambada

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Mar 4, 2004
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Almost can't remember because it seems a lifetime away :cheeky: but I know I was fed up with the rat race and had nothing left to prove professionally so was looking for something different, in a nice climate, with a few challenges.

Expectations met on all counts :).
 

Daniel10

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Apr 19, 2010
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danny-in-dr.blogspot.com
Can't comment on the other thread, as I'm not in DR yet, but will arrive there in July. I already left NL 6 years ago, for the same reason as Belgiank. All computer systems connected: tax, social welfare, car registration, criminal records and more. It's convenient, fill in one form and everything is sorted, but on the other hand very scary.
Other reason is the habit of the Dutch to create a rule for every law and a law for every rule. Tipping point was an outcry from the public because a man couldn't be charged for licking the feet of woman that where sunbathing in a public park. If voices starting to call for a law against toe-licking in public just because one weirdo pervert is doing it... ...Adios!!
Now, after 6 years in Ireland I'm moving again. Reason: fully incompetent political leaders that brought a country to its knees and will require high taxes to ever get up again. Failure to bring proper internet connections to a first world country and cronyism embedded in politics and in the work force. To quote a Dutch manager in an Irish bank: "Half of my department is full of Irish people without the proper papers and education. And they are all family members of other employees".
In DR I expect this to happen as well, but I don't expect this kind of behaviour in a state that's a member of the EU.
 

joejamchicago

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Dec 29, 2008
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Immigrants do well when they make some effort to assimilate at least a little and to appreciate the culture of the new instead of employing selective memory to romanticize the old. Dominicans, to a much greater degree than Americans, have retained a familty oriented culture and live a much more live and let live philosophy. Here there are not cameras on every corner and taxes on every word, deed, and thought. Those who come here from afar and imprison themselves in the expat bubble have only themselve to blame that all they see is poverty and garbage, which, of course, exists not in the United States, except in the ghetto areas of places like the murder capital, Chicago, where I lived for 40 years. Poverty here is much more democratic and not out of sight and out of mind. At least the Dominicans have a partial excuse in that the Dominican Republic is not awash in dollars squandered in foreign conquests: in my lifetime, VietNam, Cambodia, Laos, Panama, Grenada, Dominican Republic, Lebanon, Afghanistan, Iraq).
 

dulce

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Jan 1, 2002
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One frustrating reason for leaving my home country is not enough and one frustration of living in the DR is not enough. Maybe we should start a thread about how do you deal with those frustrations while living in the DR.

I left the US mainly because I had lost my job. I moved to the DR because at that time I could live for a much longer period of time on much less money. I am back in the US now because I have a job. I would love to move back to the DR and work through the frustrations (as I did before) but it is too expensive to live there now.
 

Chirimoya

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Dec 9, 2002
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I don't have any particular frustration about my previous country of residence, apart from the obvious - the weather, but my work allowed me to travel and I would schedule most of my work trips and leave during those long winter months. I moved to the DR for positive reasons - love for a person, a need to move on professionally, and love for the country.
 
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Kozy

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Jun 1, 2002
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I agree with the idea that leaving ones home country to live in the DR usually entails multiple motivations. But for many ex pats here, its more about what one likes about the DR than what one dislikes about their home country. And for the vast majority of the thousands of single ex-pat men who live in the DR, after you cut through the blah blah blah, motive numero uno is- of course, the Dominican women. Yes, the weathers great, its a beautiful island, its less expensive than back home ect ect. ect. But all of this is just icing on the cake. As far as our single female ex-pat counterparts, I really don't know because I don't know many. I would love to hear some feedback from them K
 

beeza

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Nov 2, 2006
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Having to give almost half my salary to the government.

And for what?

Political correctness?
Immigration out of control.
Health and safety.
Quangos.

In the recent general election in the UK, I stumbled across an interesting fact that 22% of the electorate works for the government!

And people think the DR is corrupt!
 

J D Sauser

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Nov 20, 2004
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I have learned to better understand the most about my country of origin, living abroad. Why things are the way they are, why the cost, the taxes, the schools and work and how that leads to a different result.

... J-D.
 

dv8

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Sep 27, 2006
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like chiri i have moved to DR because of love for miesposo. i did not have bad feelings towards my home country when i have left and i did so because i had no job, no perspective of a job and no hope that once i get a job i will be able to afford living on my own.
i truly liked my adopted country - UK and i parted with it with much sadness. i would love to go back to europe one day but not to poland - that has become a source of minor frustration after i have lived abroad for a while.
 

pedrochemical

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Aug 22, 2008
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Having to give almost half my salary to the government.

And for what?

Political correctness?
Immigration out of control.
Health and safety.
Quangos.

In the recent general election in the UK, I stumbled across an interesting fact that 22% of the electorate works for the government!

And people think the DR is corrupt!

Each to their own but just a coupe of points.

I actually agree with most of what you say.

The health and safety thing is for all the right reasons but is ridiculous.
For example, one of my favourite things to do is get all the lads in the back of the pickup truck, go fishing, drink a couple of beers and return home with a smile on my face and some stories to tell. I do this responsibly, nobody gets hurt - the occasional fish maybe, but only maybe.:mad:
Just because some 6 stone weakling who never drank before crashed their car after drinking 1 can of Newcy Brown back in 1982, that means that we all have to be subject to rules designed to account for the lowest common denominator.
I am not promoting driving whilst drunk, but in the UK it has been decided that people are not responsible enough to regulate their own behaviour. That SUCKS!!!! So I left.

Immigration out of control - so I emigrate? I appreciate the irony there so cannot complain about that.

22% of folk employed by the government? That includes teachers and health service workers. Education and health are two of the things that the UK does relatively well. In fact as I approach middle age and start spawning kids these would be 2 reasons not to live in the D.R. (Actually I just moved back to Haiti but the same applies) Police, firefighters, council workers, parks departments, refuse collection, libraries, tax officers all go to make a 1st world country.
And yes Tax officers - bless them. I believe in tax to pay for all of the above. Tax is good! Tax provides health services and education.
I enjoy paying tax. It just ****es me off when the tax collected is spent on QUANGOS and given away to friends of government in dubious 'public private' schemes. THAT SUCKS! So I left!

I see no inherent corruption in having 22% of the workforce contributing to the country's well being by working for the government -
Quangos, however, make my blood boil sometimes. Unelected, overpaid, answerable to nobody with any real teeth - these administrators are riding the gravy train in first class. THEY SUCK! So I left.

But mainly it was the fact that I want to live on or near a beach and never be cold.

As I keep saying, when you leave the UK for the D.R. you sacrifice a bit of standard of living for a lot of quality of life.
 

flyingfox

New member
Sep 10, 2008
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Perfidious Albion

I have lived here now for a year and 8 months.
I was one of those who gradually came to hate the Establishment that was the Great Britain I grew up in. Perhaps the new 'leaders' can bring it all back?!

For me...life took a tumble...post divorce, rents high, couldn't afford to see my children as often as I wanted to, no spare cash, council tax, utility bills, car fuel/maintenance/insurance, bureaucracy of RBS, staff who became 'headcount', new-"business-speak", dreadful management, CSA wanting so much..and needing to know the ins and outs of even erstwhile partners' business affairs,started a business...my good ethics got in the way of serious cash...so changed to a delightful job with low pay and once again eventually realised...lousy management.,
Always expecting nasty brown envelopes to come through the postbox, ...having to fight tooth and nail for everything that should have been an expectation for hard-working folks who always followed the law, All offices seemingly staffed by 20 somethings with no common-sense, no courtesy and the recognised "Computer says 'No' "attitude, All offices changing to premium rate numbers when you call...only to be kept waiting, NHS waiting lists, Dental price hikes,Banks interference and intransigence such as when your daughter is in the DR trying to use an ATM and they block it believing it to be fraudulent, only to rescind it if they talk to her in person...which took 24 penniless hours for her,political correctness and the Bin Laden factor where everything is suspect, extreme difficulty in finding anyone who would take responsibility to sort out a problem and be helpful.
"Helpful" is gone forever in England it seems.
Only the Cornish air and scenery and long walks kept me sane but did not pay the bills.
The lifeboat was the DR and my Dominican wife...a breath of fresh air...and an introduction to the strong family support system over here, the happiness in the face of poverty, adversity and yes visible corruption.
I miss my old friends and family but the internet helps, I miss the long walks since I have a long commute every day and I live in the middle of a Barrio.
I alternatively love it and hate it, depending upon my day. I guess I wanted to be really accepting of the new culture, and maybe I still will eventually. I am slower at adapting than I thought I would be and She who must be obeyed and myself haven't had the best of health since arriving...but I'm still hoping that one day we can work for ourselves, help some tourists with visiting and accomodation and have enough left over to visit the UK each year for up to 90 days...but the UK's pension rules pushed that idea back 5 years (another story).
We are not rich here, nor were we there...but peace of mind is not only where you find it but when you find it. I'm still putting the pieces together in this life's jigsaw puzzle at the age of nearly 50. Anyone doing the same..."Good Luck!" Esperando sigue el tiempo mejor!
 

whirleybird

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Feb 27, 2006
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Firstly, we came to get warmth into tired and old bones to ease pain but also to, like the OP, get away from 'big brother' and rules and regulations.