You must log in or register to comment.
Hope your life goes well in New Zealand. Leaving on the cusp of a new hope is an odd choice.
I get you’re trolling but it’s not funny anymore. It was barely funny in 2016 but with looming environmental collapse and the rise of a fascism. Just read the room, please.
I wish there was a way to down-vote this comment so much that your global internet privileges are revoked. Describe any one of Trump’s executive orders that instills hope in anyone?
The only good thing may be the lift on psychedelics that RFK announced, but that’s not worth the rest of the shit the Trump administration wants to do
Hope down under treats you better
congrats.
Nau mai ki Aotearoa!
Nice, NZ will welcome you here.
left the UK 13yrs ago and never regretted it
skills shortage list is how I got in, and being under 40 (at the time) gave me points in their system.
anyway just going to drop this here if YouTube is allowed
It hadn’t really occurred to me to seriously ask where an American could leave to and become a citizen. I’ve got a degree in Information Systems and I work I.T., which I would think would be relatively valuable somewhere.
There are a shit ton of companies in my area that are looking for IT people here in Germany, and I think thats the case all over Europe.
I looked into moving to Germany a few years ago, I also work in IT. The part I had an issue with was figuring out how much I need to get paid to have a similar life style there. Taxes and cost of living is was different, especially if you want to live near a city.
The other issue is my wife works in health care but her job seems to be covered by nursing with a specialty in respiratory therapy. Here in the states we have people that are only respiratory therapists, couldn’t figure out how that would move over.
Your wife’s job is going to be hard to translate to other countries. But if she has an education in healthcare, and it’s nursing adjacent, maybe reach out to the nurses unions in your target countries, they could maybe help you move forward. Everybody are screaming for healthcare professionals, so maybe the local health authorities would be able to help as well.
I have no idea about other countries, but in Denmark we have an agency of international recruitment and integration. They’re mostly involved with deportations, or so it would seem based on the news stories, but guiding potential specialists in translating their qualifications should be in their purview. Maybe other countries have something similar.
“IT” as in operations, networks, security, support, or? I mean a suitable background in networks and you’d make 130k USD plus pension as a networking consultant in Denmark. IDK about citizenship though. As with all the rest of Europe, we’ve seen a rise in right wing populism and are now suffering from its resulting inane immigration laws.
But if you’re in for the adventure, then you could look outside the list of English speaking countries. There’s The Netherlands, Denmark, Norway, and Sweden, we all speak English and we all have healthcare… But don’t go to Sweden, they suck :-)
Great choice and good luck!
Ahhh, the privileged leaving behind the many to suffer that want to leave but can’t.
Purity tests like this aren’t helping.
do you blame them? should they stay until everyone that wants to leave can too?
a lot of people fled nazi germany before they started killing people too….
and, you can leave too… just maybe not with much money….if i had a trans kid, i’d take them to any country that wasn’t trying to kill them…
Sorry to say for you and me, but suffering under fascism doesn’t solve anything. If we don’t defect or rebel, we’ll just end up in mass graves.
Don’t say that on Lemmy. It’s full of the privileged pretending to be the meek, and they dont like to be called out.
Take me with you
Congratulations! Made it to the UK from the US yesterday myself. Let’s hope our new lives will be great!
Would you mind sharing how you moved to the UK and what the requirements / difficulties were? Thank you!
I am happy to share, but I am afraid it won’t help many others. I am lucky because of who my father was.
https://www.gov.uk/apply-citizenship-british-parent/born-before-1983
Ah I see, well thanks anyways haha!
Damn, that’s great to hear. Welcome in Europe comrade.
Welcome to the uk did you pick up your complementary kettle on the way in? Sorry the rail network is such a mess but what can you do. Glad to have you bud o7
Honestly, other than the fact that we were really confused about where to go due to poor signage (and missed our train twice and got lost when we were supposed to change trains), we enjoyed the train ride. We did pay for first class on for the Avanti West portion, but it was worth every penny. (Or am I supposed to say worth every p now?) And since we came from the land of very few trains that all suck, the actual train rides were great. And people were super helpful with our heavy luggage.
Glad to hear you arrived safe and well. Also, for your information :
Galleons: The primary unit of currency, typically made of gold. One Galleon is worth 17 Sickles.
Sickles: The second unit of currency, made of silver. One Sickle is worth 29 Knuts.
Knuts: The smallest unit of currency, made of bronze.
P.S. : Next time for the train you should get to Platform 9 and 3/4That sounds a bit transphobic
It sounds like an RPG.
You mean they won’t accept cowrie shells or cocoa beans? What kind of a place is this?!
😋 Today i learned about :
Cowrie shells
(from GPT) … were widely used as a form of money in many parts of the world, particularly in Africa, Asia, and the Pacific Islands. Their durability and portability made them a practical medium of exchange.
Such culture ! I’m convinced you will find a great job and i hope the best for your kid as well. Take care 😌Thanks!
It’s still known as pennies here. It makes more sense for a pence to be called a penny than it does for a cent to be called a penny.
Welcome! Weather’s a bit shite at the moment and monsoon season (February to May) is just around the corner, but it’ll brighten up for 2 weeks in June and for the last 2 weeks of August.
Drop me a DM if you’re heading up Manchester way and I’d happily give you a tour and you’re more than welcome to come over to my family’s place for a Sunday Roast.
You should have seen what it was like when we left the U.S. in terms of weather. This is far better. Thanks!
We welcome you!!!
Thank you!
Wondering why I hadn’t see you posting much recently. May and September are the two best weather months on the south of the UK.
Good to have you here comrade.
Glad to be here!
You’d better have a tv license or your going to jail
Oi sunny boy u got a loisense for that loisense?!
Let me see your license request license
Oi sonny Jim this isn’t a loisense request this is a loisense request request it’s a different department Oi hope you’ve got all yer paperwerk in order jimbo
And a stabbing license
Stabbing? American here, never heard of it…, it’s like shooting but no range, lower body count, and not something a physically inferior person can do to anyone equally effectively, right?
I’ve heard this joke many times, never understood it.
Does UK need licenses for everything or something?
They have a license you’re supposed to have to watch the BBC basically a TV tax for people who actually watch it. License enforcement has always been off their rockers. Back in the day they said they had a TV detector van that they would drive around and detect if you were watching a TV without a license. They send you threatening letters if you don’t have a license. They’ll even come to your door and try to make you prove you don’t have a tv. You can just tell them to leave.
Or learn the old “eat the TV before the inspector arrives”.
I guess I’m showing my age, but hopefully enough old folks get it.
“Don’t worry, lads. I always poo before I get up.”
Only if you have a TV. Theoretically, you need one to stream the BBC/ITV and such on a computer/phone, but the onus is not on you to prove that you didn’t. You’ll get letters asking to confirm that you don’t need a licence, and then threats of an inspection to make sure you don’t have a TV that’s on and being used to watch TV, though I’m not sure if they follow through with the latter. (In the analogue days, they had detector vans that either could detect TV tuners tuned to channels or were a bluff to get people to pay up, though they seem to have given up on that.)
The detector vans were real, and they weren’t a bluff, but the tech they used wasn’t some high tech signal detector. The secret is that they just pointed a parabolic microphone (possibly a laser microphone at a later time) at your window and listened for the audio. The operator would flip through TV channels in his van and try to match the audio from your house to the audio from a currently broadcasting TV station. That was sufficient to determine if someone was watching broadcast tv or not.
They don’t follow up on the threats - or at least not regularly. (9 years and counting here - even if I somehow get caught and fined the max amount I’ve still saved money)
Ah interesting, here in Switzerland the rule was if you have a capable device that’s enough. They didn’t have to prove usage.
And now that they also stream online, any computer and smartphone counts. So they recently changed the rules to just charge every household.
Hopefully OP can live with trading “needing a TV license for a TV no one uses anymore” and “actual healthcare” for a “failing democracy turned Christian nationalist oligarchy”!
Congrats on having a backbone. Hope you enjoy the vast experiences in your new life!
Having a backbone would be to stick around and fight this shit; not flee.
People have been fighting for like 8 years now.
Its over, sometimes it best to just walk away.
Neither is easy.
That’s a bit harsh. Like my old man always said, “you gotta know when to hold 'em; know when to fold 'em; know when to walk away and know when to run.”
That song is about a gambler’s desire for selfish self-preservation, not “having a backbone”
You’re kidding me! Now I need to go and read the lyrics.
It might be, but if you think about it, it also applies to life in general, which has a lot in common with gambling. Sometimes you have to take risks, sometimes the risks are stupid…
Your dad was Don Schlitz? Or was he Kenny Rogers?
Actually, my dad hated that song. It was my mom who was whistling it all over the house.
It’s not. Granted, I 100% respect and understand someone’s decision to leave the USA at this time, but there’s very little that’s courageous about putting yourself into a better situation. It’s the next option up from rolling over and dying.
Yeah, walking away from every person you’ve ever known and every support system you’ve ever had in hopes of a better future with no real promises to fall back on if it doesn’t work out isn’t courageous at all.
I’d call courageous moving into a red state… and then everything you said above still applies. I moved from a red state to a blue state in October. Everything you said applies to me, but I can assure you that my decision was not one that was “courageous.” It’s self preservation.
Self preservation can take courage.
You’re being nitpicky for no reason. Something can be courageous without being the most courageous thing anyone has ever done.
If the US had an actual democracy and ability to fight back, you’d be right. But we don’t, so you aren’t.
You can’t expect people to take up arms and go kill cops and politicians, even if that’s what’s needed. That is a hell of a lot to ask of someone. Why aren’t you doing that right now? Are you scared?
Yeah, them and everyone else is too.
good luck on your journey.
Isn’t New Zealand currently going through their own slide to the right? The Māori only represent like ~17% of the population over there. New Zealand just elected a conservative coalition.
Seems like you’re just moving from one place you (presumably) don’t agree with to a new place that also just signed up for shit you probably aren’t going to agree with.
I mean it looks beautiful but if your travel is for political reasons I fear you’re just heading to a different slice of the same.
Have a safe flight.
a different slice of the same.
Hilarious that I, in NZ, can’t see this!
Same…
I thought it was your national anthem?
No that would be https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=K5kmSgCPpXw
It’s nowhere near as bad here in NZ
Oh absolutely not. It’s a much smaller population and being an island it’s got a figurative and literal buffer to the rest of the world.
I have always loved New Zealand. It’s like the cooler uncle of Australia minus all the spiders the size of my head.
And it’s just a beautiful place. Makes me wanna go frolicking in the mountains with an elf, dwarf and old white guy lol
Just because an island has a smaller population doesn’t make it any more or less predisposed to egalitarianism, nor do large populations have to be predisposed to authoritarianism.
…I never said either of those things?
“It’s a much smaller population” literally your second sentence, or do you not comprehend your own writing? Why is their smaller population relevant?
I should have been more clear. I never said the words “egalitarianism” or “authoritarianism”.
That would be those “either” of the things I was referring to me having not said.
Smaller population simply means each person’s vote counts for more. Easier for small groups to have an effect when they only need to reach a smaller number of potential voters.
EDIT: spelling
Smaller population simply means each person’s vote counts for more.
What about the smaller tribes who live under strict patriarchies that can’t vote? Plenty examples of those in history and today (cults for instance). There are also examples of massive cities with egalitarian urban planning with no centralized temples or food storage. So again I ask, what makes you think population size has anything to do with their politics?
Please stop assuming that a) politics are the same as your country, and b) you haven’t been fed a load of “see, everywhere is right wing now?” propaganda
I never said the politics were the same as my country.
And many countries are currently in the middle of or already have elected right wing leaders. Not really propaganda when it’s verifiably a fact.
The world’s billionaires are heading back to NZ
BusinessDesk talked to real-estate agent Caleb Paterson, who works with a number of offshore agents and high net-worth individuals mainly out of the US and UK markets. He said interest had “definitely perked up” since National said it would repeal its ban on foreign buyers.
Foreign buyers, with the exception of Singaporean and Australian citizens, have been barred from owning NZ properties since 2018.
Assuming it makes up the next government, National’s plan would open the door to all foreign buyers to purchase NZ homes valued at more than $2 million, with a 15 per cent foreign buyer stamp surcharge clipped on, from the 2025 fiscal year.
Enjoy paradise while it lasts.
These billionaires aren’t going to pillage NZ.
It won’t be like last time
You might have misunderstood me.
Billionaires aren’t going to NZ to sell subscriptions or strip mine the wilderness. They’ve already done that elsewhere.
They’re going to NZ to live out the coming apocalypse in a mansion with servants.
Billionaires aren’t going to NZ to sell subscriptions or strip mine the wilderness.
They’re going to demolish nature preserves to build mega-mansions and juice up the police force to press gang local indigenous people.
Just like they’ve done everywhere else.
Billionaires want to exploit people and places but they don’t want to live in an exploited place with exploited people.
As in don’t shit where you eat.
Ultimately I think billionaires wanting to spend their billions in NZ is a good thing for NZ.
Much of the world is sliding to the right. And much of it is not sliding nearly as far or as fast as the USA.
I’m not gonna pretend I know the exact details of how much of a slide and to what severity each countries election is going. I was nearly saying that it seems global we are in the middle of a shift right is all.
America’s always cranking things up to 11, including fascism.
And then exporting our culture, so, strap in everybody
Rest of world: “America sucks! Bunch of fascists!”
votes for far-right candidates in their countries
It’s almost like capitalism isn’t the best way to organize civilization.
Marx has been proven right about that, at least.
Basically the global political situation back in the '30s.
But with the added existential threat of climate change!
My tinfoil hat is telling me they’re related.
Conservative parties have always been part of liberal democracies. They could sometimes govern responsibly.
But the Republican party under Trump is something completely different. Trump, Musk and friends are there for state capture. You cannot compare them to New Zealand’s conservatives
Re NZ politics - Yes and no.
The currect situation is due to some very specific circumstances thst emerged in the chaos of the last 10 years.
-
The centre left Labour Party & PM were hugely popular during covid & won an unheard of majority (normally our electoral system requires a coalition). A swing back to the centre-right was inevitable.
-
The centre right National party, usually our most popular party, had their leadership retire & endured years of in-fighting that made them unelectable
-
Because of this, they’ve bled a lot of voters to the “libertarian” & “centrist” parties (ACT & NZ First)
-
Also because of this, the current National Party leader is rather inexperienced & has given up some things in the coalition agreements that are more extreme than the public likes leading to record breaking protests.
-
The “centrist” party leader (Winston Peters) is a whole thing that I can’t neatly summarize, but imagine a political party designed to cater exclusively to the oldest & dumbest 5% of voters run by that Monorail guy from The Simpsons
In summary, less a slide right & more a correction back to status quo + a few unpopular chaos agents
The “centrist” party leader (Winston Peters) is a whole thing that I can’t neatly summarize, but imagine a political party designed to cater exclusively to the oldest & dumbest 5% of voters run by that Monorail guy from The Simpsons
I cant neatly summarise him either, but I have disliked him immensely since he verbally abused myself and some other students at Waikato back in '93
For anyone is interested in NZ politics, I’ve been enjoying BHN
I would characterize it differently.
- Labour was hugely popular, I agree, but the popularity left when Jacinda Ardern left. She was a extremely charismatic figure; and Labour was at the end of two terms (6 years); with the halo effect gone a lot of the poor decisions they made were highlighted (a lot of the times unfairly).
- National along with Act and NZ First, pushed hard on the government debt rhetoric during the last election. Blaming Labour for inflation, which it had little control over, but it didn’t matter the populous were hurting from low wage growth and high inflation. They were looking for a change.
- The center right bloc won with a decent majority, though not specular.
- National fucked up hard! during the negotiations with Act and NZ First. Luxon in a rush to form a government; gave away so much it is frankly baffling.
- In NZ politics:
- The Green Party has stated they will never work with National or Act.
- Labour have said they will not work with Act.
- This forces Act to only be able to side with National, from Nationals point of view Act should be a minor player on the right of National.
- NZ First are a bit of a wild card, Winston Peters the leader is an old cunning and in my opinion untrustworthy ally.
- Te Pati Maori (TPM) will work with both parties, which ever gives them the most of what they want.
- National could have gone with TPM or NZF along with Act to form a government, they choose to go with NZF and between Winston Peters and David Seymour; got played like a fiddle. In one crazy political power play, Luxon had a meeting setup to negotiate with Winston and David, they didn’t bother showing up and made him come to them in another city.
I could go on but, the politics here is just as complex as anywhere else. Overall we have shifted right, further than we traditionally have but not too much further.
The current government has made some truly stupid calls, and has scored a lot of own goals. Their popularity is very low this early in a parliamentary term. They have been in for a little more than a year; if things keep going the way they are, they may be the first one term government we have had in a long time. Our term of 3 years, is short, so most governments get more than one term to show what they are made of.
You make some good points, my comment was originally 3x longer at first but I cut it down in the interest of not rehashing 185 years of history
I was thinking of going into far more detail…but the comment was already getting long.
As a kiwi that left for the US, things are getting a bit strange in New Zealand. So many folks are becoming openly racist vs. what I see in the states. Granted, I don’t live in the south, but still… I was shocked when I went back to visit at the rhetoric being used.
NZ has always had a racist underbelly, they have become more emboldened since trump 1… with trump 2 I fear it will get worse.
Afaik the shorter version of this is: real estate crooks from the Queenstown area took over politics.
Well that’s… Good to hear? Certainly sounds better than whatever shit show the US currently has kicking off.
Fascism. The shit show in the US is called fascism. Help.
I’m a bit more optimistic. This is just the pendulum swinging back as it always does. Don’t worry it’ll probably swing the other way in 4 years most likely.
No one is coming to help. We are on our own.
That’s the mindset of how Yugoslav Partisans kicked out the Nazis and beat the Ustaca. But that wasn’t a piece of cake.
-
Maori only represent 17% of the population however because of our founding document they have a permanent place in government and will always be heavily involved in governance.
Our country elected the national party which is right after two terms of our left wing government. Its expected since our elections always bounce between left and right. The current right wing government is stupid but nothing compared to trump. The controversy comes mostly from their coalition partners bills Act who are led by a complete moron.
Labour is going to win next election because national has fucked up almost every area they campaigned on.
