November 28, 2006

the ex-pat manifesto

4 Comments

Ben Cur­tis, a Bri­tish expa­triate living in Spain, sent me “The Ex-Pat Mani­festo”:

1. I live here because I want to. Just because I could be paid bet­ter for the same job back home does not give me the right to com­plain about it. In fact, just because anything at all is dif­fe­rent here, I do not have the right to be rude about those whose country it really is (”the locals”).
2. Having infi­nite patience means it goes on fore­ver, or, no mat­ter how long those effing Spa­niards (insert other expletive/nationality as appro­priate) take to pro­cess a form or fix the plum­bing, I’m the only one that cares if I loose my patience.
3. Even if I am con­ned, rob­bed, humi­lia­ted, lonely or home­sick, it is worth remem­be­ring after­wards that I deci­ded to step out of my com­fort zone in the first place.
4. It really doesn’t mat­ter if I hang out with the locals or with other ex-pats, as long as I am happy…
5. But those who con­ti­nually com­plain about their new surroun­dings are to be avoi­ded. It’s con­ta­gious.
6. Wow, everything is… new… it’s not the same as where I came from! What a chance to sti­mu­late my sen­ses! I will take pho­to­graphs, maybe write a blog or keep a diary, pro­duce pod­casts, videos — I’m enjo­ying the fact that my new point of view is neces­sa­rily dif­fe­rent, I’m reve­lling in these new oppor­tu­ni­ties to feel creative!

I liked this mani­festo because it is about SOMETHING rela­ti­vely tan­gi­ble and real-world, not just touchy-feely etc.
[gaping­void mani­festo sub­mis­sion gui­de­li­nes are here.][Mani­festo archive is here.]

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4 Responses to “the ex-pat manifesto”

  1. Srijith says:
    November 28, 2006 at 12:46 PM

    I am not too sure of point 4. If everything was gea­red towards making one ‘happy’, what exactly are the points rai­sed by 1 – 3?

  2. Just Mohit says:
    November 28, 2006 at 1:21 PM

    Thanks Ben for the mani­festo. As an expat (Indian living in UK), I could totally relate to it.
    And a big “Thank you” Hugh, for making this (& all the other mani­fes­tos) pos­si­ble!
    Rock on!

  3. MG says:
    November 29, 2006 at 1:55 AM

    Another use­ful and posi­tive mini­festo — thanks, Hugh! thanks, Ben! — yet I can’t help but quib­ble about that third point.
    As a fellow expat, I’d sug­gest that a) those of us who tole­rate being con­ned or rob­bed as part of the expat deal risk being com­pli­cit in allo­wing other poor suc­kers to be shaf­ted; and b) expats (espe­cially longs­tan­ding expats) can help change things for the bet­ter in their new homes, and expat sta­tus isn’t always an obs­tacle to doing so. The trick is to avoid being an obno­xious tool about it.…
    My own 7th point would be “now that I’ve moved to this splen­did new country I will not waste my days (nor tole­rate other expats was­ting my days) whin­ging about poli­tics back home.“
    Nice work, Ben. Hope you con­ti­nue to love being “abroad” as much as I do.

  4. veedub says:
    November 29, 2006 at 5:40 AM

    7. Only eat Heinz beans made in Hayes, Middlesex.