Four Seas One Family

People choose to go and live overseas for many different reasons. In the beginning, some people may have gone overseas to further their education, search for financial opportunities, seek romance or to simply search for adventure. The desire to travel overseas can come from variety of different sources. The desire to travel abroad may come from someone we admire, a book we may have read or even a movie we may have seen. So as you see, the reasons are countless and sometimes can be left to the imagination. For some, the search for something missing in their current lives maybe the reason they look and travel abroad.

In this episode, I would like to talk about the times when an expat returns to their home nation for short visits; like for a vacation or for attending a family event like a wedding or funeral. We are not talking about repatriation, which is when a person returns, more or less, permanently to the nation of their citizenship.

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Thank you for listening to Four Seas One Family. We are all the same and at the same time uniquely different!

An expat may never be fully intergraded or accepted into all parts of a host nation. There will always be a far side of a host nation that an expat may never be allowed to reach and this is something that may just have to be accepted. The reasons for this may frankly be the way an expat converses with citizens, habits displayed or simply the way a particular expat looks.

Local citizens aren't under any obligation to completely accept an expat as one of their own. The only thing an expat can do, as a human being, is to strengthen the personal relationships he or she has built within their host nation.

Many national constitutions make it a clear point that in legal disputes between a foreign national and a citizen of their nation, any decision made must place their citizen's rights as having priority over foreign national's at all levels in any litigation.

Sovereign nations retain the right to expel any foreign national deemed as disrupting the political affairs of their country. Expats taking part in local civil disobedience within a host nation is a sensitive issue. If expats do take it upon themselves to take part in protests or civil actions in their residing nation, they must be fully aware and understand the consequences of their actions.

RELATED LINKS TO THIS EPISODE:

Article: As an Expat, is it my Place to Join Another Country's Political Protest?

Article: Should Expats and International Students Participate in the Protests?

Article: Why as Foreign People Allowed to Participate in Political Movement in Hong Kong?

Article: British Expats Take to the Streets in Spain to Protest Against Plans to Bulldoze Their Illegally Built Homes

Article: Expats in Penang Protest Against a High Rise Paln on a Tiny Plot of Land

THANK YOU FOR LISTENING TO THIS EPISODE!

Thank you very much for taking the time to share this podcast.

Please help us make this show better by filling in this Expat Life Expat Life Survey.

It will help us produce a better show for you and thanks!

If you have any feedback, please leave a note in the comments section below or leave a voice message via our SpeakPipe voice message page. We would love to hear from you!

If you enjoyed this please share it with your friends, family and co-workers by using the social media buttons you see at the bottom of the post. Please subscribe to the show on iTunes to get automatic episode updates of our podcasts.

And, finally, please take a minute to leave us an honest review and rating on iTunes. They really help us out when it comes to the ranking of the show and I make it a point to read every single one of the reviews we get.

Please help us spread the word and leave a review in iTunes by clicking here! Thank you for listening to Four Seas One Family. We are all the same and at the same time uniquely different!

In this episode we are having a wonderful chat with Pakistani expat Shehar Bano Rizvi (A name that James easily mispronounces.) who, at the time of this interview, has been living in Doha, Qatar for 13 years. Shehar is raising three children in her adopted home and shares how her little ones are adapting to a life that is constantly being in a mix of different languages, faces and cultures. Learn why Shehar sees this fact as a strong asset to her children's personal development. She goes into why she decided to not return to her high paced job in Doha to stay at home with her little ones. Also, hear how she and her husband are keeping their three young children connected with the culture and language of their home nation.

Shehar wasn't always upbeat about her life in Qatar after spending most of her life in Karachi, Pakistan, also known as the City of Lights, until the age of 13. Listen to how, after coming to Qatar as a Certified Project Management Professional, homesickness crawled into her life. Take a peek at how she worked her way into and integrated into her overseas environment. Hear how she uses her extensive blog postings to express life as an expat mother raising young children.

Find out who should be a candidate for the Urdu police.

MENTIONED IN THIS EPISODE:

Website: Diary of a PMP Mom

Article: Qatar and Me

Article: From My Kicthen

Facebook: Diary of a PMP Mom

Twitter: Follow @diaryofaPMPmom

Youtube: Diary of a PMP Mom

Some of Shehar's Memorable Quotes:

(05:47 mins.) "Do you get Burger King there?"

(11:03 mins.) "After about six months I started to get depressed."

(12:10 mins.) "I couldn't cook."

(00:00 mins.) "Unless the she learns to speak the language, we are not.... "

(24:44 mins.) "Ask daddy."

(28:43mins.) "Why aren't celebrating Christmas? "

(31:25 mins.)"..but deep down they're all her friends."

(37:30 mins.) "Having that ability to adapt is the key to living abroad."

THANK YOU FOR LISTENING TO THIS EPISODE!

Thank you very much for taking the time to share this podcast.

Please help us make this show better by filling in this Expat Life Expat Life Survey.

It will help us produce a better show for you and thanks!

If you have any feedback, please leave a note in the comments section below or leave a voice message via our SpeakPipe voice message page. We would love to hear from you!

If you enjoyed this please share it with your friends, family and co-workers by using the social media buttons you see at the bottom of the post. Please subscribe to the show on iTunes to get automatic episode updates of our podcasts.

And, finally, please take a minute to leave us an honest review and rating on iTunes. They really help us out when it comes to the ranking of the show and I make it a point to read every single one of the reviews we get.

Please help us spread the word and leave a review in iTunes by clicking here! Thank you for listening to Four Seas One Family. We are all the same and at the same time uniquely different!

In this episode, we chat in the Marilyn Monroe suite with Angela Carson. Angela is an American expat from Southern California who has travelled all over the globe to over 33 different countries looking for adventure (I said "adventure" not trouble! [smile]). Angela has not only managed to travel the world and commit to an exciting career as an accomplished travel blogger (Boy! Am I jealous! [wink!]), but also raise, as a single parent I may add, a wonderful daughter. Find out what Angela's daughter considers the best thing that has ever happened to her. What is it that she discovered? What is it that she learnt?

Listen to how Angela got the travel bug at an early age and avoided many obstacles along the way. She explains further how she took some terrible ideals and made the best of the experience.

Find out why I call Angela the female "Rambo"!

Memorable Quotes:

(04:52 mins.) "I was attacked by bandits on a mountain road."

(07:02 mins.) "You regret the things that you don't do more than the things that you do."

(08:30 mins.) "That's not really how I work"

(12:22 mins.) "Oh yeah, I really don't roll that way"

(15:10 mins.) "I had shoulder pads and everything...purple leggings."

(16:35 mins.) "We sat down on the sofa. We open up Google Maps and I said "Okay, where do we want to live?"

(27:50 mins.) "Sounds stupid want to say it out loud sometimes, but because he was such a jackxxs..."

(31:12 mins.) "We went from being in Barcelona...where we cared about labels... we cared about being cool, looking pretty, all those thingsto moving to India and... where you had to cover up."

(32:10 mins.) "When she was leaving...Peace of mind on her back shoulder."

(32:52 mins.) "Really? ...and she said "It's the best thing that eever happened to me."

(36:37 mins.) "There is so much to learn about the world and ourselves by stepping outside our doors."

(38:00 mins.) "If you're happy first as a parent, as a woman or man, then you'll bring happiness to your children."

MENTIONED IN THIS EPISODE:

Website: Expat Angela

Article: I've Never Been More Embarrassed To Be American: By California Expat Living in Muslim Country

Website: Angela's Bangalore

Website: Luxury Bucketlist

Facebook: ExpatAngela

Twitter: Follow @ExpatAngela

Youtube: Angela's Adventures (Angela Carson-ExpatTravel)

Instagram: expatangela

THANK YOU FOR LISTENING TO THIS EPISODE!

Thank you very much for taking the time to share this podcast.

Please help us make this show better by filling in this Expat Life Expat Life Survey.

It will help us produce a better show for you and thanks!

If you have any feedback, please leave a note in the comments section below or leave a voice message via our SpeakPipe voice message page. We would love to hear from you!

If you enjoyed this please share it with your friends, family and co-workers by using the social media buttons you see at the bottom of the post. Please subscribe to the show on iTunes to get automatic episode updates of our podcasts.

And, finally, please take a minute to leave us an honest review and rating on iTunes. They really help us out when it comes to the ranking of the show and I make it a point to read every single one of the reviews we get.

Please help us spread the word and leave a review in iTunes by clicking here! Thank you for listening to Four Seas One Family. We are all the same and at the same time uniquely different!

In this episode, we have American-expat Drey Gibson who is, at the time of this episode, living in Germany. He is also an expat guest with a military background. Drey is from a place in the U.S. where people from his small town, at the time of his service in the U.S. military, had limited access to information regarding traveling and living overseas.

Drey is an engaging speaker who goes into how he coped with life overseas while in the military. It is easy to hear that his clear and positive state of mind helped him enjoy life abroad. He mentions how being overseas with his fellow soldiers in the late 1990's is a factor that keeps them united even to this day. He also states clearly that going abroad and interacting with the local people directly changed his perspective of the world and its people.

With a background in media, Drey is now working in the education field. He and his German wife, have three wonderful children with very different and unique personalities. He points out that, partly because of his military postings, he is pleased that his children were able to travel with him to different countries and be exposed to different cultures.

Drey is also the host of the secular interview podcast.

Another Atheist Podcast

Our guest is a strong believer that expats have a responsibility to share their experiences with those who, for various reasons, aren't able to travel. He feels it's important for expats to plant seeds in the minds of people in their hometown or nation that encourages them to travel abroad to see and learn about the world. Maybe by doing so, people will see at a personal level how much they really are alike.

MENTIONED IN THIS EPISODE:

Website: Another Atheist Podcast

Facebook: Another Atheist Podcast Page

Some of Drey's memorable quotes:

(13:08 mins.) "Coming here changed my perpective."

(16:33 mins.) "Why do you stay in touch with them?"

(17:14 mins) "We called ourselves "113"."

(22:10 mins.) "They thought that all black people drove around in Cadillacs"

(27:18 mins.) "I stay positive for one."

(30:57 mins.) "Yeh, but none of that of what you just said is true."

(42:15 mins) "We are looking at the election in a different manner."

(48:15 mins) "I stride to be a good human being."

(49:40 mins.) "It's our duty to ... try to relate our experiences with other people."

THANK YOU FOR LISTENING TO THIS EPISODE!

Thank you very much for taking the time to share this podcast.

Please help us make this show better by filling in this Expat Life Expat Life Survey.

It will help us produce a better show for you and thanks!

If you have any feedback, please leave a note in the comments section below or leave a voice message via our SpeakPipe voice message page. We would love to hear from you!

If you enjoyed this please share it with your friends, family and co-workers by using the social media buttons you see at the bottom of the post. Please subscribe to the show on iTunes to get automatic episode updates of our podcasts.

And, finally, please take a minute to leave us an honest review and rating on iTunes. They really help us out when it comes to the ranking of the show and I make it a point to read every single one of the reviews we get.

Please help us spread the word and leave a review in iTunes by clicking here!

Thank you for listening to Four Seas One Family. We are all the same and at the same time uniquely different!

In our efforts to further understand the expat experience while raising children abroad, we are lucky this episode to gain further insights into the topic with our guest and fellow podcaster, Ms. Jennifer Langkjaer. Jennifer is an American expat currently living in Switzerland near Zurich.

Jennifer briefly talks about how her children kept up with pop-culture in the US and the type of education her children are getting in Switzerland as opposed to what they may need upon returning to the United States. She also talks about how important it is to try to learn to communicate in the local language. She mentions one experience when she had to use the local language which later made her proud. At the moment of this interview, Jennifer is connecting to us during a semester stay in Houston Texas.

Some of Jennifer's memorable quotes. Find out why they were said:

(05:45 mins.) "The things that you thought you were going to have access to aren't the things that you actually have access to."

(07:00 mins.) "A case of you don't know what you don't know."

(09:00 mins.) "Everything that is just a normal easy part of everyday living becomes much harder becasue …"

(19:58 mins.) "There's nobody falling into employment in Switzerland."

(28:31 mins.) "If you can't fit in were you're living, you won't make it to be a long-term expat."

(31:36 mins.) "Never compare because you will always find something coming up short."

(31:56 mins.) "…not reject your home culture unless …"

(32:18 mins.) "If you're living as an expat, then it's important to embrace things from home and things from the host and teach your kids to do that too."

MENTIONED IN THIS EPISODE:

Website: Parenting Abroad

Facebook: Parenting Abroad

Facebook: Americans Parenting Abroad (The American Schoolhouse)

THANK YOU FOR LISTENING TO THIS EPISODE!

Thank you very much for taking the time to share this podcast.

Please help us make this show better by filling in this Expat Life Expat Life Survey.

It will help us produce a better show for you and thanks!

If you have any feedback, please leave a note in the comments section below or leave a voice message via our SpeakPipe voice message page. We would love to hear from you!

If you enjoyed this please share it with your friends, family and co-workers by using the social media buttons you see at the bottom of the post. Please subscribe to the show on iTunes to get automatic episode updates of our podcasts.

And, finally, please take a minute to leave us an honest review and rating on iTunes. They really help us out when it comes to the ranking of the show and I make it a point to read every single one of the reviews we get.

Please help us spread the word and leave a review in iTunes by clicking here!

Thank you for listening to Four Seas One Family. We are all the same and at the same time uniquely different!

When did you start podcasting, why did you start podcasting and what's your show about?  

Hello, my name's James Thomas. The host of the podcast Four Seas One Family the podcast where expats and future expats can share and learn about life experiences abroad. I'm an American expat from the South Bronx (AKA Fort Apache) and partly educated in Beijing, China and now living and working in Taipei, Taiwan. I started podcasting in 2009 and I have a background in television and film production so doing a podcast came naturally.

I created Four Seas One Family in 2014 to lower the walls that separate cultures via an expat experience. By the podcast generally focusing on expat living and lifestyle, a door for the acceptance of different cultures can be opened and explored to see that we, as a people, have a lot more in common than we think.

What's your podcasting set-up? Hardware, software, CMS, etc.

I have a very unique hardware setup which includes Blackmagic and Teradek gear. In my studio, my host microphone is a Rode Procaster and the guests microphones are the Audio-Technica AT4040. I use the AT4040 for guests in my quiet location because most of them do not know about proper mic technique and don't stay up close to their microphones. I use pop-filters and just tell my guests to project their voice into them.

The microphones go into a Behringer Xenyx X1622 USB mixer that sends audio through a Behringer MDX4600 4 channel compressor. I then have the treated audio from the compressor sent to a Tascam DR-70D recorder to record each microphones audio to a separate audio channel. At the same time, I record on one audio track the combined audio from all inputs in Logic Pro X. I then import the audio from the DR-70D via it's USB connection into Logic Pro X and place these files onto separate tracks. I then mute the combined audio track. If needed, I will further treat the audio. After editing, I then send the mp3 file into the desktop version of Auphonic to level out at -16 LUFS and, in the end, add the needed metadata to the leveled audio file.

I also have a Mac mini to accept Skype calls and a connection that allows a cellphone to also accept Skype calls. All in all, I am currently setup to connect to 8 live connections.

In the studio, headphone connections are adjusted through a Behringer AMP800 headphone amplifier.

A diagram of how my gear is connected can be found at: http://www.fourseasonefamily.com/gear/

How have you promoted your podcast? 

My podcast is fixed in a very small niche and it doesn't carry many keywords or buzz words that are popular in the podisphere. The types of interactions I have while interviewing my expat guests from all over the world is a capsule of reflections of what needs to be done to lower and hopefully eliminate the fears and hate towards people from other nations. I promote the podcast mainly on a Facebook page, Twitter, Google Plus and Youtube. Sometimes, I post to Pinterest and Instagram. I also take part in many Facebook groups and handout my podcast's name cards as well.

What do you know now that you wish you knew when you started?

Before I got into podcasting, I wish that I knew that it would be a little bit difficult to do the type of podcast I host from abroad. Because of time differences, trying to setup interviews sometimes becomes a cat and mouse game. Waking up at 4 o'clock in the morning to drive 45 minutes to the studio can run anyone down. Above everything else, promoting podcasting locally has been an uphill battle as most people in this region see podcasting as mainly a "Western" thing. I am currently creating two separate projects that I hope will make podcasting a common part of people's vocabulary in this region.

I can be founded along with my website at:

Website: http://www.fourseasonefamily.com Email: [email protected] Twitter: @4seas1family Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/4seas1family

I have been receiving email from listeners across Facebook and Twitter about covering the topic of parenting overseas. So over the next few weeks, I will be trying to deliver more information about the nuances of parenting as an expat abroad. I will also try to gather information from a variety of expats located in different parts of the world and focus on the commonalities of trying to raise children outside of their passport nation. So beginning in this episode we sit down for a chat with an American expat from Michigan, now living in Abu Dhabi, Ms. Liz Tracy.

Liz has taken to the road abroad with her cute seven-year-old daughter who isn't having any problem adapting to the expat experience. In fact, Liz's little doll has been traveling since she was six months old! As a result, she has become used to hearing different languages, observing different cultures and meeting people of all colors, shapes and sizes. In her young innocent eyes, she is just seeing people for what they really are….just simply "people".

At the time of this episode, Liz, who is a teacher with a degree in anthropology, has been living in Abu Dhabi with her daughter for four years and she doesn't miss anything about the snow people back in her hometown get in Michigan.

- Running helps Liz unwind.

- Find out what is the "A" word in Liz's home because somebody has to be one.

Some of Liz's quotes:

26:25 mins. "Sometimes you just need to cry and that's okay."

26:27 mins. "Sometimes you just need to eat a pound of chocolate and that's okay."

26:40 mins. "We can have a break now and that's okay as long as we pick up the pieces and stand back up."

27:30 mins. "When you say "yes" to everything, it gets expensive."

31:13 mins. "I became parent so that I can parent. Whether it's good or bad, that's what I chose to do."

MENTIONED IN THIS EPISODE:

Website: Liz's website: http://www.liztracywriting.com

Twitter: Follow @liztracywriting

LinkedIn: Liz Tracy Writing

Facebook: Liz Tracy Writing

Instagram: Liz Tracy Writing

THANK YOU FOR LISTENING TO THIS EPISODE!

Thank you very much for taking the time to share this podcast.

Please help us make this show better by filling in this Expat Life Expat Life Survey.

It will help us produce a better show for you and thanks!

If you have any feedback, please leave a note in the comments section below or leave a voice message via our SpeakPipe voice message page. We would love to hear from you!

If you enjoyed this please share it with your friends, family and co-workers by using the social media buttons you see at the bottom of the post. Please subscribe to the show on iTunes to get automatic episode updates of our podcasts.

And, finally, please take a minute to leave us an honest review and rating on iTunes. They really help us out when it comes to the ranking of the show and I make it a point to read every single one of the reviews we get.

Please help us spread the word and leave a review in iTunes by clicking here!

Thank you for listening to Four Seas One Family. We are all the same and at the same time uniquely different!

In this episode, James is talking to American expat, part-time musician with a voice that any radio announcer would dream of having, Mr. Jim Santos. Jim is a retired network engineer from the DC area someplace near Chesapeake Bay and is connecting to us from Ecuador. I found Jim from one of his articles posted on the Wall Street Journal website.

From his overseas vantage point, Jim uses a direct and, at times, strategic humorous point of view to highlight the events currently going on in the US.

He talks about unfortunate events brought him and his wife together and to life in Ecuador. Jim points out that there is a big difference between vacationing somewhere and living abroad. For Jim and his wife home is anywhere they are together and happy.

In this interview, Jim honestly lays out what he notices from the events taking place in his home nation. I really appreciate he's straightforward and honest opinions.

MENTIONED IN THIS EPISODE:

Jim words of wisdom while living as an expat:

(05:04) "I give good phone."

(07:08) "The Most Wonderful Time of the Year."

(07:54) "Home is just where we are together and happy."

(08:25) "Your place doesn't matter as much as where you are inside matters."

(13:14) "People are still people no matter how different the culture is."

(13:47) Jim talks about the two common complaints American expats mention while living abroad.

(14:24) "Mañana" doesn't mean tomorrow. It means not right now, not today."

(14:54) "It's the time you spend with people that is important not to time as it is measured on your clock or on your calendar."

(29:26) "You don't run away from something to enjoy yourself."

(30:30) "Reminds me of the George Wallace campaign."

Jim's powerful blog posts

Website: Jim's informative blog: Jimsantosblog.com

Article Make America Hate Again

Article: The Most Wonderful Time of the Year

Article: Do You Believe in Forever?

Article: Masters of Distraction

Additional links of interest:

THANK YOU FOR LISTENING TO THIS EPISODE!

Thank you very much for taking the time to share this podcast.

Please help us make this show better by filling in this Survey.

It will help us produce a better show for you and thanks!

If you have any feedback, please leave a note in the comments section below or leave a voice message via our SpeakPipe voice message page. We would love to hear from you!

If you enjoyed this please share it with your friends, family and co-workers by using the social media buttons you see at the bottom of the post. Please subscribe to the show on iTunes to get automatic episode updates of our podcasts.

And, finally, please take a minute to leave us an honest review and rating on iTunes. They really help us out when it comes to the ranking of the show and I make it a point to read every single one of the reviews we get.

Please help us spread the word and leave a review in iTunes by clicking here!

Thank you for listening to Four Seas One Family. We are all the same and at the same time uniquely different!

I truly believe every single person on Earth has the ability to show compassion towards their fellow human beings regardless of the many countless obstacles. In my podcast, Four Seas One Family, I frantically try to construct cultural bridges to shorten the distance between common beliefs and mutual concerns.

Global events displayed daily on our televisions, read in newspapers and on-line causes us to develop a pessimistic view of the world. The large numbers of innocent people suffering and dying for causes they may not even care about or understand casts a negative view of the world that is being passed on to our children and future generations. This, in turn, is causing them to become suspicious, lose faith, feel insecure and, in the end, hopeless about their future.

The side-effects of these feelings, situations and unfortunate events is a state of heightened fear that becomes multiplied over time. This constant state of fear affects everyone regardless of their location or social political status. Fear has taken on the effects of a wide spread disease and effects us all on multiple levels that aren't easy to detect. The physiological signs of fear can be quickly and easily observed within our communities. However, the signs of psychological fear isn't that easily detected and monitored. Today, it is easily seen that fear is a leading stimulus in the creation of many national policies and practices. And sadly, many of these policies and practices are causing harm to people who don't possess financial and political power. Many of these policies discriminate against people of color, different political ideologies, sexual orientation and religious views. Fear is not benign.

Fears are also directly responsible for the rise of social evangelists and politicians who propagate these fears to those who feel that they are losing control of their political power, wealth, social status and freedoms. So, in an attempt to protect their way of life, those with the power and wealth that harbor these fears look for and develop legislative means to protect themselves from, what they perceive as, the types of people threatening their (social, political, religious and financial) existence. Rules and regulations are made and amended to separate themselves at all levels from the offending group or groups.

Many of you may think that I'm only talking about the recent events now taking place in the United States or other Western nations. On the contrary, I want it to also be known that these same types of social suppressions can be observed in nations that have lesser global political and financial influences. Even in nations like these, national and local law enforcement agencies are given the powers to suppress opposition by threatening, incarcerating, physically punishing and, in some cases, killing those who refuse to abide by the limitations placed upon them or just about anyone who is perceived as a threat to the privileged ruling class.

Believe me when I say that I've been promoting the expat experience as a way to share, celebrate and benefit from the unique differences and commonalities of the many cultures of the world. By inviting people to come on the podcast and share their overseas experiences, other people from different parts of the world looking to experience life abroad may find a reason to tune in and learn that there isn't always a reason to challenge differences. I hope that they become curious about seeing other parts of the world and look forward to experiencing different cultures and learning other languages and be exposed to people who have different backgrounds, beliefs, politics and religions.

I do this podcast with the hope that by giving people a bit of audio exposure to the experiences of other people who have lived in difference parts of the world and within different cultures that they themselves would desire to make plans to explore similar paths. This would lower the "fear factor" that have developed and extinguish misunderstandings before they set in and become a problem. It is a fact that when people experience life and living outside their home nation they develop a more global understanding of the world because they can at a personal level understand that we all have more in common than we think. Collectively, people need to accept differences for what they simply are instead of seeing differences as attacks on everything they feel they must protect at all costs.

Now, let's have a wake up moment. It may sound depressing but let's be real. Differences do exist between people and let's face it that some people will never be able to learn to or accept living peacefully with others. Some will even try to cause harm to those who aren't like them or hold their personal beliefs and this is unfortunate. The goal should be to foster a course of understanding and a line of communication with respect. There are many things that prevent people from getting along and things like greed and ideology can get in the way. Sure, there are people (from all walks of life and cultures) who want to purposely cause harm and install reasons to fear and hate another group of people. They want to keep people from different backgrounds, beliefs and cultures separated so they can't find a common ground of communication, but thankfully they aren't in the majority. The truth is, most people would rather live in peace.

However, today I would like to make a comparison between a few events that have taken place in the United States and in Great Britain. Both nations are going through a systematic and problematic crisis that is causing serious conflicts among it's citizens. Also, and unfortunately, both nations have a long history of issues related to the human rights of minorities within their borders. In the US, the numbers of African Americans dying at the hands of the police, who are sworn to serve and protect American citizens, has sky rocketed in numbers beyond recent memory.

Both the police and the citizens are afraid and this is an obstacle for open and honest discussions between the two. The US has been the world leader in many aspects of living standards. However, today because of the relatively easy access to guns, the US has become a leader in mass public shootings by criminals and the mentally unsound.

At times it appears that there is an international gag order placed on open discussion of certain issues and this is the same as placing your head in a hole in the ground.

Fear and prejudices can even be found in financial policies and practices that some have towards members of minority communities that are seen as a threat to the financially connected and politically empowered.

The U.S. and the U.K. aren't the only nations that are displaying signs of intolerance within their borders. Nations like Brazil and India, nations that aren't often a headliner in western main stream media, are also nations facing incidents of intolerance. People are being killed in these nations for having a different sexual orientation and more women are reporting being raped at alarming levels and, in some cases, just disappearing.

My little podcasting platform will not change the world on a major level but it can help create some dialog and raise awareness that we all have to face in our "home nations". I also hope that fellow expats bring some of their experiences back home to share and maybe at lease some people we interact with will try to see our differences as an opportunity to learn more about one another. TOPICS MENTIONED IN THIS EPISODE:

Brazil Must Resist Rising Wave Of Violence And Intolerance

8 Incidents That Show How "Intolerance" Became The Word Of The Year In India In 2015

Overcoming Indian's Official Homophobia

U.S. Leads World in Mass Shootings

Boozy, ignorant, intolerant, but very polite – Britain as others see us

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