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| This is an
ezine ostensibly read by/for expats, and expat wannabes. Many are actually
living the dream, others are looking for it. There are many interesting
articles written about faraway places, but there are other supposedly "how
to" articles that are more often than not, fraught with hype and or hawking
of some real estate angle or other. Seems to me they are included in the
reading fare for just that purpose. Why can´t we see some objective
articles about the true costs and conditions about a place from an insiders
point of view, that is not trying to "sell" something. For example, I live
in Mexico, on the Yucatan coast, in a section they now call the Mayan Riviera,
which is just south of Cancun. The place is exploding, and it´s full
of expats, with more coming everyday. I never see anything about this area,
like the brand new town they are preparing to build, which is a 10 year
project near Puerto Morelos. That´s ground floor I would think in
a proven expat haven. Nor do I ever read about the lifestyle of the extensive
expat community, and the opportunities that exist for others to come here.I
hear and read all the time about Panama, Cozumel, Costa Rica, and Nicaragua
etc. All up and coming places, and all slanted with the "sell". What about
the established places like the this, that still have alot to offer, that
people hear little about. ....Lou Lewis long time expat.
Good point
Lou and thank you for bringing this area to our attention. We rely
on feedback such as yours to improve our ezines and inform our readers.
I will look into it. Thank you - Editor |
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Hmmm, well, after 5 years living
on the "Turkish Riviera" I can say that burglaries are a regular fact of
life (in small towns or larger cities, houses or apartment buildings) the
cost of living has not ceased to rise steeply in hard-currency terms (rents,
food, everything but local airfare), and real-estate agents and developers
are unforthcoming with the truth at best, or plain dishonest at worst.
By that I mean more than in western or developed countries. (Horror stories
include my foreign neighbors being evicted by the police from their houses,
which have been "sold" half a dozen times each, and miraculously always
end up in Turkish hands. By the way, one of those English-speaking avukats
(lawyers) got one of the homes in my complex as "commission" for screwing
those Irish-Swedish-Belgian and Dutch people out of their homes.) Not to
mention condominium management committees colluding to fleece "infidel"
owners (yes, for most locals, even for those western-seeming ones, at the
end of the day we are the infidel).
Ahh, construction quality, still
very third-world, but with trendy granite countertops and stainless steel
kitchen appliances now. They still cannot build a house that won´t
leak, a toilet that won´t smell like fecal matter all the time, or
a staircase with equally sized steps, no matter how many hundreds of thousands
of pounds the sucker foreigner pays... My house came with 4 bathrooms and
not a single shower stall or bathtub. The layouts are still ridiculous,
a 300 m2, 500k euro house will not have built-in wardrobes in the bedrooms
or a wall to accomodate them, etc., etc. And everything is painted PINK!
Not to mention the cultural chasms
that begin to emerge with greater familiarity. The gauntlets of mustachioed
men sitting on the sidewalks any woman has to go through in any trip downtown
in absolutely any town in Turkey, large or small. The attempts to rip off
the foreigner whatever it is he or she is buying or contracting. The gawking
at the beaches (no, it´s not a western or even westernized country),
the unshowered-for-a-month masses on any public transport. The submissive
nature of a people happy to live under authoritarian paternalistic rule.
The unquestioningly, pathologically nationalistic disposition of most people.
The absence of civil society, notion of community, of greater good, or
of individuality for that matter. The pervasiveness of abuse of local women
(physical, financial, psychological) which if not suffered by the foreigner,
is something to witness regularly if one is to interact with the locals
at all. Physical violence as a fact of daily life (I´ve never witnessed
more fights in my life as I have in the past 5 years. Usually the locals
vs Kurds, wherever I am on the coast. Which brings me to terrible hatred
and racism, benignly condoned by the government. And never before had I
had a molotov cocktail thrown at my table in a bar... nothing personal,
just a disgruntled bar employee´s manifestation of displeaure). Rampant,
socially accepted homophobia, absence of diversity in terms of restaurants
or food (how many combinations of aubergine, olive oil and tomato can one
stand?) What about the absolute disregard for the value of human life,
the fact that any ignorant peasant who has sold his orange grove to a real-estate
developer and acquired a Mercedes 4x4 believes he can run over any of his
poor cousins just because they are attempting to cross the street on foot
or they have an old, cheap car?
Hey, no country is perfect, I like
the place and some of its people, (after discounting the fake friendly,
smile-and-stab-you-in-the-back crowd), I even married a Turk (I will spare
you the chapter on Turkish families), and it is true that the sun shines
many months in a row, the views are beautiful (whenever not blighted by
the horrid architecture) and that the vegetables are fantastic, but I think
all this info above would be of interest to potential buyers or people
looking at relocation alternatives. Sugarcoating the full realities of
Turkish life or life in Turkey is a disservice to everyone but those in
for a profit. Actually providing some of the less happy news is a good
way to avoid later disillusionment and bad experiences.
I have been an expat in 4 countries
over the past 20 years, so I understand that being able to deal with a
country happily requires a lot of denial. I find I am much more tolerant
and understanding or just willing to ignore a problem in another country
than in my own, so I see why you would "focus on the positive." But by
the same token I believe that a large portion of success in relocation
comes from managing expectations, and it´s a lot easier to be quickly
disappointed if a rosy picture disintegrates before ones eyes, than if
one comes properly warned about the negative and without too many misconceptions.
Thus, the current real-estate crash in most of the Turkish coast...
Best regards,
Anonymous
Thank you for your very frank observations.
As you say, no country is perfect and as an expat you have to balance whether
your life is better in your chosen country against the country you chose
to leave behind. Editor |
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