| “Paint
Your Wagon” |
| Transplanted
In The Islands Of Tonga |
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| July 2005
That old musical
tells the story of “moving west,” to the new frontier. Back
then it was California. Horace Greeley’s “go west” advice still
stands good, but the frontier has moved decidedly more west. These days,
“Tonga or Bust” is the new call to freedom. Folks are painting their
wagons (that would be shipping containers today) and heading to the Southern
Hemisphere. Tonga is indeed the new and perhaps last frontier. To find
it, you continue going west from California, and a little south, too. At
about where you begin to go east again, stop there. That will be the South
Pacific. The Kingdom of Tonga is right in the middle of the South
Pacific. |
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Here is
where you will find what every pioneer is looking for, and more: freedom,
opportunity, fresh air, pristine environment and good folks of similar
mind - same ole frontier - different country.
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“Home is
a place for coming from, with dreams of going to, which with any luck…,
never will come true.” A line from my theme song for many years, taken
from Paint Your Wagon; “born under a Wandr’n Star.” It is so true. |
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| I moved to
the Kingdom of Tonga four years ago with my wife, our baby born here and
even grandma flew in. There are a few wise grandmas out here. We chose
this group of islands for a lot of reasons, one being they seem to still
have an appetite for new-comers, a door that will be closing slowly as
the turmoil in the Nordstrom Hemisphere drives more of the wary off-shore
in ever increasing numbers.
“What’s
it like to live there?” is the question most asked by those who have
seen my ads in the Tonga real estate section of www.escapeartist.com.
The answer is complex, but in short; it is like living in an earlier time,
in an epic movie with soap operas every few minutes instead of commercials.”
Yes, it is
paradise with the classic island backdrop, like the Microsoft screen display
choice of “Azul.” |
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Offshore
Resources Gallery
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| (Use that
for temporary relief) Palm trees sticking out of islands, azure seas,
blue skies and the white sand beaches. Throw in a bunch of fruit trees
and we are back in Eden - complete with a new beginning and new apples.
Now, people tend to repeat mistakes, it matters not what garden they are
in. This article is about moving to paradise with a little peek inside.
For those who
are dreaming about living outside the cubical, like an island castaway
(with a new car and speedboat) in a safe and idyllic environment,
it is actually a lot easier to accomplish than it might appear. Most people
would never consider it; same as most cows wouldn’t walk over a “cattle
guard,” even the ones just painted on the road. Conditioned, programmed
or just plain stuck in a mindset that prevents the body from moving over
the imaginary line can keep us in bondage. The same mind that, from dirt
water and air, created cars, airplanes and spaceships (bombs and bullets
too) can’t seem to put it together to move out of harms way, even when
we now know that the light at the end of the tunnel is a train coming straight
for us. If it is only paint between us and where we want to be, know that
you can get free with a little paint remover. |
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| Where do you
get that kind of paint remover? The answer is; same place you got the paint
- in the mind. It is all in the mind. Just change your mind, paint your
wagon and come along. Just do what your ancestors did, sell out and move
out, if you are so inclined.
If your life
depended on it, you would find a way; something to ponder in light of the
recent turmoil. In today’s world, you are only 12 hours away from“home”(North
America)by air.Twelve hours and $1,200.00 USD later you can be out here
or back there, round trip either way. So it is not like you drop off the
earth, flat as it is.
Living in
these islands is physically much like how you see in photos of the
south Pacific, movies and magazines. A beautiful setting of crystalline
waters, emerald islands and white sand beaches, palms and native island
culture, complete with outrigger canoes. |
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Offshore
Resources Gallery
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| Escape
From America Magazine - The Magazine To Read To If You Want To Move Overseas |
| - Began Summer
1998 - Now with almost a half million subscribers, out eZine is the resource
that expats, and wantabe expats turn to for information. Our archives
now have thousands of articles and each month we publish another issue
to a growing audience of international readers. Over 100 people a
day subscribe to our eZine. We've been interviewed and referenced
by the Wall Street Journal, CNN, The Washington Post, London Talk Show
Radio, C-Span, BBC Click Online, Yahoo Magazine, the New York Times, and
countless other media sources. Featuring International Lifestyles
~ Overseas Jobs ~ Expat Resources ~ Offshore Investments ~ Overseas
Retirement - Second Passports ~ Disappearing Acts ~ Offshore eCommerce
~ Unique Travel ~ Iconoclastic Views ~ Personal Accounts ~ Views From Afar
~ Two things have ushered us into a world without borders... the end of
the cold war and the advent of the world wide web of global communications
? commerce. Ten years and over one hundred issues! We're just
getting started - Gilly Rich - Editor |
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| The air is
balmy, pure and healthy. The natives are friendly and the pace is slow
and full of grace. In Tonga, everyone counts, everyone is important and
has a say in what happens. Town meetings will take you back in time. When
you come to these islands, you be transformed from a number to a person;
you will become a larger being. For some, those with a deflated ego, that
can be quite a boost, for others, hiding the larger personage, it is difficult.
So, you don’t come here to hide, to escape mayhem maybe, but to hide you
will have to find an uninhabited island in this lovely little island group
(we have them too). This phenomenon of becoming bigger, like the big fish
in a little pond, is one of the potential pitfalls for both the newly arrived
and the community that has endured.
“Every refuge
has its price; nothing is perfect; every story has two sides,” are some
of the sayings that apply to most everything, including living in paradise.
It would be unfair to use the paint we removed that was holding you there
to repaint you out here without hearing “the rest of the story.”
We are here
because we want to be… and because they let us stay. That’s one point to
consider; you could get booted out. It would take quite a bit of nonsense
to provoke that, but it could happen. Speaking of nonsense, that larger
being I mentioned makes for an interesting observation and study of human
nature. When your integer drops from one in 250 million (US) to, one in
18,000 (Vava’u) and then to one in 100 (Expats here), you become a more
significant percentage of the population of the group you are a part of.
What you say suddenly has impact. This can be like being promoted from
janitor to vice president in a single move. So one needs be a little careful
about what one says and does with this new voice. The freedom to be your
unrestricted self is certainly here, but you may be wearing it around for
a while. The results can be amusing (sometimes annoying) and part of what
makes the soap opera more interesting. Like in a movie, you don’t introduce
a character unless they are going to be significant in the film. Here,
most everyone is playing a leading role and we do have some characters.
Fortunately our mix of expatriates is a pretty good representation of largely
kind and gentle folks from around the world. A scene from “Paint your Wagon”
indeed.
Alice
in Wonderland noted that things got smaller in her world, but in
Tonga, it is quite the opposite. The magnifying glass effect is what I
call it. Everything is a bigger deal in a smaller place. If someone breaks
their arm, we all know about it and are in some way drawn into dealing
with it. Feuding between any two effects us all, but worse, the parties
to it can suffer in more ways out here than back there. Imagine not getting
along with the only electronics repair guy in town. There goes your TV
and appliances. Anyway, the only TV we watch are DVD movies now and then.
The prime time shows are the real life episodes. Reality TV is boring once
you find this channel.
Movies and
life are related, maybe more than what we think. As you pick your movie,
you can pick your life. If a change is in order, you will feel it. If you
feel it and don’t get it taken care of, it may fester into an illness.
Overcoming the resistance to seeing the doctor, breaking the ties and stepping
over the barriers that are just painted seem to be necessary sometimes
to live life more fully. I don’t know what we paid to get in this life,
but I want my money’s worth. If islands, freedom, safety, healthy environment,
adventure, funny people and situations turn you on, go for it.
Not long ago
Mr. Z was a nobody in his home country, today he owns a small resort on
an island and is in heaven. He and his wife sold out, converting their
house in the Northern Hemisphere into a few native style rental units.
Now they can live happily ever after, entertaining their guests with stories
of how they stepped over that painted barrier to freedom. You have to live
somewhere, might as well be in paradise. Paint your wagon, and come along.
The following
is Robert's previous article for the magazine:
To contact Robert
Click Here |
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Article
Index ~ Tonga
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