So here's some fun Colombiana for you:

Colombia monitors bank accounts proactively at tax time. Aug to Oct are for '23 taxes, but since the gov't has had low levels of tax participation in recent years, it sent emails today to everyone who had over a certain threshold move through their banks last year, offering a quick path to filing because of the possibility of more taxable income (based on guesses from bank traffic).

Every surveillance state is different, but sometimes in interesting ways!

@MLClark I find your situation intriguing. How did you come to be where you are, there in Columbia? I don't want to pry, and I'll completely understand an answer of "That's just the way it worked out.", but I'll be interested in whatever you care to share. No pressure! LOL!

@Ironworker229

Whew! Big question.

I hit a dead end in Canada. All but defence, I had to leave my PhD program. Wrong committee, out of money. It was a really hard loss of dream and identity. I'd been working hard across multiple jobs in a tight market, but mostly I was miserable because the whole culture seemed obsessed with performing status. "But you're so smart! How could you not make it?" I felt surrounded by people whose priorities were all skewed, except for one group... /x

@Ironworker229

...folks I'd come to know in my neighbourhood, displaced Colombians and immigrants from elsewhere in South and Central America. And somehow there was just... this difference in perspective. When people don't make, it's not a mark against them - life's tough that way. Why add it with constant complaints over little things? As I learned more about Colombia in particular, I was stunned to realize how different *many* conversations were in that culture. Most notably... /x

@Ironworker229

While Trump was emboldening racism in Canada, too, and N America couldn't get reds and blues to work together, Colombia was doing something extraordinary with its peace deal, transitioning guerrillas into peacetime government. And the country was absorbing Venezuelans in flight with great dignity, while racist Canadians were complaining about far fewer Syrians, etc, seeking safety in our country. I realized that there were whole other conversations I could be learning from... /x

@Ironworker229

...so I saved up for a year, living on rice, lentils, and peanut butter while working wherever I could, to leap to a country where the education I did have might grant me a chance not only to start over, but to really *learn*. It took years to shake off many toxic WASP-y ideas that had made life in Canada so unbearable, & I'm *still* always learning, but there's just so much less judgment & so much more gratitude here. I finally found the cultural context in which I best thrive.