Hatshepsut
Crusader
Last edited:
Replacing HAL with COB
2012 Cook Odyssey
Look at the pics, read the reviews and the blogs - La Guadeloupe is a World Class resort, filled with places to go, things to do, natural beauty and a near constant climate temperature gradient.
http://www.tripadvisor.com/Tourism-g147300-Guadeloupe-Vacations.html#17626805
Its like being exiled to Hawaii, only with a more international atmosphere.
Look at the pics, read the reviews and the blogs - La Guadeloupe is a World Class resort, filled with places to go, things to do, natural beauty and a near constant climate temperature gradient.
http://www.tripadvisor.com/Tourism-g147300-Guadeloupe-Vacations.html#17626805
Its like being exiled to Hawaii, only with a more international atmosphere.
Anyone really interested in moving to the Caribbean would be wise to start off with a subscription to International Living. It's one stop shopping for the majority of what you'll need to know. You can also purchase reasonably priced manuals for immigrating to many countrys. I've purchased and read their manuals on Panama and Equador and each is a wealth of relevant information from those who have made the move.
http://internationalliving.com/
http://www.ilbookstore.com/home.php
I think your buying the tourism board promotions and fantasy rather than the reality. Read the forums where people discuss moving/retiring there, its very different reality from the people who merely spend a weeks vacation there.
Obviously there will be some nice resorts on the island but they won't be living at a resort. The island is totally dependent on subsidies from France to survive, their unemployment rate is high. They do as much as the can to pump up the "island paradise" image in order to get desperately needed tourist dollars. It obviously has natural beauty in spades but like many of those islands you have rich tourist land sequestered from the towns of struggling locals.
But its not comparable to Hawaii, it doesn't have the near the infrastructure or economy to be on par with Hawaii. Not that everyone wants a built up, modern, westernized island to live on like Hawaii, but I think you will be getting quite a bit of the 3rd world flavor and problems on Guadalupe.
If they were heading to St. Barts or St. Croix, rather than one of its poorer relations, I would tend to agree with the mega payoff living in island paradise line. However, it seems their selection has a lot to do with being able to live their on a fixed income, rather than diving into the lap of luxury. Also, the whole not speaking French thing is very odd - esp when their were plenty of islands with English speakers to chose from.
I agree with Bunny Skull. I lived on St. Croix for about 3 years in the 70's and it was VERY different than the lush, blue water pictures that were used for tourism.
Most everything one take for granted on a "mainland" economy is very different on an island. Most familar food is imported, the economy sucks because it is a one trick pony (tourism), alot of political unsrest beneath the surface (in the case of St. Croix at the time based on resentment of the "haves"). I happened to get a job at a specialty store that catered to the small year round money crowd and could afford to buy parsley (yes that was imported), potatoes, and cheddar cheese. It was the only place on the island you could get brown rice so I met alot of Rastas. The owner would fly these items in from New York via Puerto Rico twice a week. The regular stores had everthing come in by barge so moldy onions, green potatoes, and velveeta and tinned beef. There was a famous Obeah woman on St Croix who "threw the bones" for various political people from down island nations and windward island nations. One of them she told to always wear red to prevent asassination. He did.
It takes alot of getting used to to live in the Caribean. And the over layer of French Administration, ugh.
I agree with Bunny Skull. I lived on St. Croix for about 3 years in the 70's and it was VERY different than the lush, blue water pictures that were used for tourism.
Most everything one take for granted on a "mainland" economy is very different on an island. Most familar food is imported, the economy sucks because it is a one trick pony (tourism), alot of political unsrest beneath the surface (in the case of St. Croix at the time based on resentment of the "haves"). I happened to get a job at a specialty store that catered to the small year round money crowd and could afford to buy parsley (yes that was imported), potatoes, and cheddar cheese. It was the only place on the island you could get brown rice so I met alot of Rastas. The owner would fly these items in from New York via Puerto Rico twice a week. The regular stores had everthing come in by barge so moldy onions, green potatoes, and velveeta and tinned beef. There was a famous Obeah woman on St Croix who "threw the bones" for various political people from down island nations and windward island nations. One of them she told to always wear red to prevent asassination. He did.
It takes alot of getting used to to live in the Caribean. And the over layer of French Administration, ugh.
I did. It's not.
And in order to reside there you need a visa. And they are awkward to get and require several hoops. Do a search on it and you will see what I mean. Visitors do not. Citing promotion from travel agencies to get people to go there not exactly presenting things in context mon vieux.
I do not think that Cook is going to suffer there though it would not bother me a great deal if she did as the woman is an asswipe of the first degree, I am sure she and wayne will have themselves a quiet and OK time.
I just doubt that they are going there because it was their idea.
No Frogspeak? That's what the Rosetta Stone software is for, and it is relatively inexpensive. With constantly hacking the 4 Rosetta stone Frogspeak courses, to take you from ordering off a menu to actually speaking the language, plus constant exposure to it where you live ... they can be more or less up to speed within half a year. No employment? All that is needed is a living that can be done off the web and a high speed hookup. A corporate entity based in the US can do it all for her, operated remotely. Her situation requires some out of the box thinking, for sure, but it is not impossible.
One last comment ... assuming she received a payoff or is receiving a structured payoff to stay down there ... what was her alternative? Outside of any possible murders done by the Cof$, and I believe there may very well have been ... outside of a selective frameup with actual jail time ... there is Gerry Armstrong. Gerry has stood, and stood, and stood, etc. And it has cost, and cost, and cost. The Cof$ put a beat down on Michael Flynn who in turn pressured Gerry into an unfavorable settlement that was totally one sided, and then used that to harass him ever since. And while we on ESMB all know who he is, what he did, and what he has been forced to suffer at the hands of the Cof$ ... who outside of the ex Scientologist community knows who he is or how he has stood up? So what if these were the choices ... become the next Gerry Armstrong, have PI's follow you wherever you go, have oinksters sicked on you whenever possible, have the courts sicked on you, and everytime you turn around there is a process server handing you a thick wad of court papers to fight ... that is one choice ... or, keep your mouth shut, receive a nice fat monthly check, and live on a tropical island with tourism, great beaches, fun places to visit, amazing sunsets, exotic rum drinks ... a life of de-stressing and working on getting your physical health back, considering her condition ...
Bottom line, I don't judge folk for not wanting to go the Gerry Armstrong route ... and Gerry Armstrong is someone I admire greatly for his stand and for what he has done. But I don't buy that everyone is up to that, and, even if you are, you have to evaluate the costs you will incur vs. how much damage you can lay on the b'tards.
Pete
Yes, of course there is another side to the scene than that presented by the tourism sites. But it is a discussion board and if everyones' point of view falls in line with a few leaders then it can become boring, fawning choir practice.
So test the premise - push it and see what falls out. Now it does seem Debbies fate might just be better than if she was moving to say, Christmas island in the Pacific.
And as far as DM, DC, their lawyers, secret agreements, its a mega conundrum that makes for interesting discussion.
I wish we could all take time out ourselves and go to La Guadeloupe as a group and get royally snockered whilst discussing what was, is and might have been.
It gives me something to do besides wish having a full relationship with my daughter who is still in was easier than walking a tightrope while capturing the mercury beads in a labyrinth game or thinking how great it would be if my friend Pamela Lancaster-Johnson, still in the SO after nearly 40 years and pouring what remains of her life into the cult at CC Int, saw the truth and became free.
Jus' sayin'