I am continuing my experiment of boycotting foreign businesses in Costa Rica. My rule is that I can buy things that are not easily available from locally owned businesses.
Today I was craving sushi. There are no tico sushi restaurants. I drove around for some options but they were expensive and not exactly what I wanted. In the end I ordered lobster at a marisquería.
This boycott is good for clearing my head. Last month I fasted for a few days when releasing a past relationship and it revealed to me the addictions I had, the voice of my mother. The choices I make now is making my mind more clear.
There is such a massive deliberate pushing of ones identity required to relocate to a new country. You need to have a purpose for what you are doing even when you don’t want to do it anymore. I moved here when I felt satisfied with my financial achievements and I wrapped up solving the problems of my life. I felt the need to explore the world and lend my energy to others problems. I thought I would meet similar people.
What kind of person decides that their life in their own country, with their vast resources and social network, is not sufficient, comes to another country, opens a business and starts a life, pushing out the locals, knowing of their privilege, not caring? What does it take to make your life a statement of oppression, of asserting power over another in such a deliberate way? Moving here wasn’t easy I’m sure. ‘Dealing’ with locals to assert your place here I’m sure wasn’t easy. Yes they manipulate to survive. And the ones who don’t manipulate are punished by the rest. Every foreigner that makes a life here at some point has to face a decision to assert themselves and to oppress, whether that is aggressive action or an aggressive ignoring, or to see, truly see what the world is.
SUBLIME COURAGE 
Leave a comment