“Why did you leave America for a Third World country?” I’m often asked by Iranians who have beat the odds to reach the Promised Land. Well, let’s see: The maddening pace of modern life. The triumph of steel, concrete and asphalt over nature. Restlessness. The dominance of money over everything. The disappearance of real, natural food. The decline of healthcare, education, security and civility. The rise of mental illness with multiplying armed lunatics determined to carry out atrocities on grander scales. Endless wars abroad.
Yes, America and its industrial allies are still better than a lot of places. If another world war breaks out, I’m not going anywhere near Russia or China. Cruelty over there is on a whole different level. But dividing the world into east and west, or first and last world nations, doesn’t make sense anymore. You cannot put your hopes in any government. They are all rotten to the core. Some enslave your body, some your soul, and some (the blessed Islamic Republic) crush them both.
We have to accept that the world is irreparably broken. Today’s world is like a train traveling without breaks with people trapped in their cabins, dreaming of higher salaries, fancier furniture and bigger TVs, with their heads stuck in social media. A few will try to better themselves and the world with yoga, spirituality, green tea, political activism and social work. But our global village is a giant ship on which people’s actions, good or bad, make no difference; sooner or later this monstrosity will hit that iceberg. The only way to salvation is to jump ship, land on a remote island and build your own paradise.
Latin America, like the rest of the world, also aspires to become more modern. The mega cities here are not much different than those in any other continent in crushing the human spirit. But the cancer that is industrialization is spreading at a slower pace here. From Mexico to Patagonia, there are many spots where life goes on at the speed of Mother Earth, in rhythem with your heartbeat. Satisfaction with life here cannot be measured in economic terms. While there’s a distinct sense of fatalism and hopelessness among the poor in other parts of the world, here just being alive is a blessing. Not having a lot of money, a car or a big house is not the end of the world. It doesn’t stop people from singing and dancing at every opportunity. Something the rich have no great desire or time for. Their time is moola.
Cusco, in southern Peru, is where I landed when I jumped over The Titanic. It has allowed me to be in a kind of bubble away from the crazy and depressing world beyond, protected by mountains and valleys; saving my life before drowning.
This is a translation of a blog I wrote in Persian.
Yeah...as the world gets more crowded, and opportunties become more and more competitive, only type A personalities survive. The rest, who cannot cope with the pace, go to live Cusco. :-)
PS- That place on my bucket list to visit. Not to live, but to visit. I'm pretty content to live in NYC suburbs and work in City itself. I enjoy it more and more very day.
Hope to see you some day. Maybe it will change your mind about New York :)
I live upstairs from Jahanshah. I echo his sentiments. He's put words to a very important reason why I've come to enjoy living in Cusoc, Peru. In my case, I stumbled into this perspective by accident, unexpectedly... I just knew I wanted to have a broader world view and to speak another language which is why I left the US. I gained that and more. I could go back to the US and live and I know I would bring the new perspective with me. I would also long to go back to Cusco. I see the advantages of both places... I think I do enjoy moving back and forth to both. Having my home base Cusco, however, as my point of reference gives me this immeasureable feeling of peace and safety. Still, I can't say there are many who have the internal flexibility required to ease into a different style of life without a certain kind of need. For me, I was going crazy with a deep sense of unnamable isolation and loneliness in the US. Something I've never felt for a second in Cusco. There are too many familiar faces in my little neighborhood here that I could never feel entirely alone or unrecognized. Well said, Jahanshah.
I've always dreamt of living in Chile. So, in a way, I envy you.
In fact, the only thing that kept me moving from the French Caribbean to Chile was my dog. Too old. According to the vet, wouldn't have survived the trip. So, instead of moving to Chile, I went from the French Caribbean back to Croatia.
But I still do. Dream of Chile, that is. Even though my family think I'm now too old for it. ;)
PS. On a more serious note: try to live in Cusco on average Peruvian salary.
PPS. Good thing, my dream of Chile made me learn Spanish.
It's never too late. Go for it.
You bet your ass you'll see me if I come down there. What, you think I'll stay at a hotel when I can crash your pad for free?!!
I want to see Machu Picchu. I know a few relatives of Jiram Bingham--I should actually say desecendants.
As far as NYC...you'll never change my mind dude. It's the greatest place on earth. I can't live anywhere else. I go out of mind with boredom when I visit my family in Florida. Everything is so dull there.
You're welcome to stay at my place.
Thanks. I will!
Dear JJ,
!آسوده بخواب که ما بیداریم
ده... چرا بیدارم کردی؟ :))
From my friend Dan Furst:
This is wonderful, JJ. Many thanks for posting it. if my body (at 73) could still take the Andean altitude, I'd still be living not far from you, in the Sacred Valley near Cusco. Now at Lake Atitlan in Guatemala, I'm in a place so beautiful that Aldous Huxley called it "too much of a good thing." People here know how to integrate issues of money and high-tech communications into a life that respects and resonates with the sacred Mayan traditions, and above all evaluates achievement in terms of what it contributes to the community as well as the success of the individual.
A note that I hope you won’t find annoying, from a fellow writer. The control that slows the train is the brakes, not breaks. In other life, when I don’t come back as a Virgo, I won’t event notice these things.
Cheers, be well,
Thanks so much Dan. We are among the lucky ones who escaped the rat race. We miss you in Cusco but I hear where you are is just as lovely.
To my Anonymous fellow New Yorker,
you seem to be missing the point when comparing Cuzco to Florida. Cuzco is the East Village and the West Village and Soho and the Times Square combined, with dozens of edifices on a par with the Cloisters and the Cathedral of Saint John the Divine.