Kith & Kin: a recurrent issue

[Stan]

I've always figured we're pretty much on our own...

Most still do think so. But (a big but), half of the problems with expats is their status at the embassy in question and their (the expats) lack of desire to get engaged with the embassy counselor's service section (dedicated to assisting and keeping expats informed). Can't maintain contact with the unwilling How quickly they come a runnin' though

We performed a massive evacuation in the 90s due in no small part to being engaged with our expat community. The missionaries are a tough bunch, but still managed to help and also got out while the getting was good. Coordinating an airlift in a war zone is no fun and having some ungrateful expat makes it just more fun.

Now that I've been on the other side of the fence for 18 years, I've encouraged expats to assist and maintain contact. The embassy can't help you if they can't contact you. Seems simple enough !

Yeah, half the emails are bogus and a PITA to delete and the invitations every year for the 4th are just a pathetic attempt to show you "they" care, but, without some input and occasional assistance from expats, the embassy is doomed to fail.

Some folks need a reality check and some are just too difficult to even save.

[Dayuhan]

Most still do think so. But (a big but), half of the problems with expats is their status at the embassy in question and their (the expats) lack of desire to get engaged with the embassy counselor's service section (dedicated to assisting and keeping expats informed). Can't maintain contact with the unwilling How quickly they come a runnin' though

We performed a massive evacuation in the 90s due in no small part to being engaged with our expat community. The missionaries are a tough bunch, but still managed to help and also got out while the getting was good. Coordinating an airlift in a war zone is no fun and having some ungrateful expat makes it just more fun.

Now that I've been on the other side of the fence for 18 years, I've encouraged expats to assist and maintain contact. The embassy can't help you if they can't contact you. Seems simple enough !

Yeah, half the emails are bogus and a PITA to delete and the invitations every year for the 4th are just a pathetic attempt to show you "they" care, but, without some input and occasional assistance from expats, the embassy is doomed to fail.

Some folks need a reality check and some are just too difficult to even save.

Some folks in the embassy need a reality check at times.... the ones here seem generally to inhabit a different universe.

I confess, I've never bothered to engage with the embassy. I also confess that I've no objection to being on my own. In the unlikely event that I need them, I'll go to them, with low expectations.

The embassy here admittedly has a fair bit on its plate; there are a lot of American expats here and a lot of them are obnoxious, demanding, and ignorant. On the rare occasions when I've been in the consular services section (usually for a US notary stamp or some such) there always seem to be some buffoon making a scene; I don't envy those who work there. Their communications and (I assume) their plans seem calibrated to the average, which is understandable, and are fairly irrelevant to me personally. I certainly don't think they'd be coming up here to give me a hand, in the unlikely event that it was needed!

My guess is that if you called them up and told them you were dying, they'd e-mail you a list of embassy-approved funeral parlors, but that is perhaps unkind

[Stan]

Some folks in the embassy need a reality check at times.... the ones here seem generally to inhabit a different universe.

I confess, I've never bothered to engage with the embassy. I also confess that I've no objection to being on my own. In the unlikely event that I need them, I'll go to them, with low expectations.

Yep, there are some strange folk at the fish bowl (embassy), and some do need a wake up call. I used to think State forced most to have multiple lobotomies as I had no other explanations when queried

We were affectionately referred to as "other than State" when it came to decisions and finance. So it comes as no surprise to hear expats talk of the embassy personnel being from another planet !

Many of the reasons the embassy is incapable is due to a lack of knowledge of the country they occupy and call home for a scant 2 years. The expats fill that gap - assuming the embassy personnel realize they are not the center of the universe and that the expats are in fact humans.

The embassy here admittedly has a fair bit on its plate; there are a lot of American expats here and a lot of them are obnoxious, demanding, and ignorant. On the rare occasions when I've been in the consular services section (usually for a US notary stamp or some such) there always seem to be some buffoon making a scene; I don't envy those who work there. Their communications and (I assume) their plans seem calibrated to the average, which is understandable, and are fairly irrelevant to me personally. I certainly don't think they'd be coming up here to give me a hand, in the unlikely event that it was needed!

My guess is that if you called them up and told them you were dying, they'd e-mail you a list of embassy-approved funeral parlors, but that is perhaps unkind

ROTFLMAO !

No excuse, but, the counselor is the lowest denomination and youngest FSO at post with the greatest amount of Bravo Sierra one could expect on a first tour abroad. He/She should, and normally does, have a few locals to bridge the gaps. The embassy local staff generally have the greatest amount of experience and get to deal with all the disgruntled locals and Americans while the US staff barely figure out how to get home each evening before their tour is up.

In short, without people like you and I, the embassy can't help the rest. I just drove someone to the emergency room the other day - about 120 meters across the street from the embassy, held that person's hand and returned same to the embassy. I probably had at least a thousand other things to do that day too. Nobody else cared and nobody else could have negotiated the labyrinth of local bureaucracy to be seen within one hour on any typical day.

I doubt the embassy in the PI could even give you a list of local funeral parlors Not sure about your situation, but if I was dying I would drive myself to the graveyard - it would be faster !

[Dayuhan]

Yep, there are some strange folk at the fish bowl (embassy), and some do need a wake up call. I used to think State forced most to have multiple lobotomies as I had no other explanations when queried

Lobotomies were probably not necessary, they simply imposed an incomprehensible labyrinth of restrictive and contradictory rules governing every aspect of what anyone is allowed to do or say, which has the same effect. The embassy here is not at all like a fishbowl. You can look into a fishbowl.

Many of the reasons the embassy is incapable is due to a lack of knowledge of the country they occupy and call home for a scant 2 years. The expats fill that gap - assuming the embassy personnel realize they are not the center of the universe and that the expats are in fact humans.

I've never heard of anyone from the embassy here asking an expat for information or an opinion. Certainly nobody has ever asked me, though I might conceivably be useful. Maybe they talk to the expats who frequent their (very limited) social circles, who of course are the ones least likely to be able to tell them anything useful.

The embassy local staff generally have the greatest amount of experience and get to deal with all the disgruntled locals and Americans while the US staff barely figure out how to get home each evening before their tour is up.

Disgruntled locals don't get in the door here. The numerous disgruntled Americans are dealt with by a corps of unreasonably pretty local girls, which I guess is suppose to defuse the disgruntled. We have large numbers of retirees here, mostly male, perennially disgruntled, and often with serious alcohol problems... that's a stereotype of course, but it is not without basis. Of course those who meet that stereotype are the ones most likely to have problems and least likely to be able to solve them on their own! There always seems to be some old geezer in there shouting about how he built a house for some girl he picked up in a bar and she threw him out of it and gawdemmit the US guvvermint oughta do something about it!

In short, without people like you and I, the embassy can't help the rest.

Here they're so isolated that I can't imagine how I'd help them, or even offer to. They aren't even allowed to reveal their names, for security reasons.

I doubt the embassy in the PI could even give you a list of local funeral parlors Not sure about your situation, but if I was dying I would drive myself to the graveyard - it would be faster !

I know they have lists of approved doctors they give to people who are sick, and lists of approved lawyers they give to people who have gotten into legal issues. There's a possibly apocryphal tale of someone who called a lawyer on the list and discovered he'd been dead for some time. A funeral parlor list wouldn't half surprise me.

I don't fully blame them for the distance and the mess over there; it really is an awkward job. I know they are constantly inundated with requests to locate Americans who have gone AWOL and immersed themselves in a sea of booze and hookers, with families imagining kidnapping or worse. Then there's the mail-order bride seekers, the pedophiles, the crooks on the lam, and other assorted dregs. Good reason to stay away from the expat scene, for those who can.

They have a system here for reducing traffic in the offices. There's a deal with FedEx where you send docs in, they process and send back by FedEx. I had a phone conversation once with someone who absolutely refused to believe that FedEx does not deliver to the place where I live, in fact that they'd have to deliver c/o someone else 120km away, who would then send stuff up on a local bus. She kept telling me that "FedEx delivers everywhere".

It's not just the US embassy, of course. Some years back an Irish fellow went in the caves here (where I live) without a light or a guide, fell down a shaft, died. The local guides retrieved the remains and set up a proper drunken Igorot wake. The embassy was notified. No reply was received. Eventually he started to stink, so they buried him in the local cemetery. Nothing was ever heard from the embassy. Months later some family members showed up, decided he was ok where he was, and left. Sic transit gloria mundi...

[Stan]

I'm darn glad I served in places where most of the people you have don't want to go

We will have to get together, and over several brews recant our stories !

Eventually he started to stink, so they buried him in the local cemetery. Nothing was ever heard from the embassy. Months later some family members showed up, decided he was ok where he was, and left. Sic transit gloria mundi...

That's priceless !

[ganulv]

Some years back an Irish fellow went in the caves here (where I live) without a light or a guide, fell down a shaft, died. The local guides retrieved the remains and set up a proper drunken Igorot wake. The embassy was notified. No reply was received. Eventually he started to stink, so they buried him in the local cemetery.

If I were to see the end of my days in Igorot country I would much prefer my remains get the hanging coffin treatment. Though what with the caving and all I would guess this fellow is happily spending eternity beneath the ground.

[Dayuhan]

I'm darn glad I served in places where most of the people you have don't want to go

I don't have to deal with them either, luckily... they rarely come up to where I am, and if any stray in they generally leave quickly. Lived in the Subic area for a while, and that was strange. That place has more than its share of the moldy expat community.

We will have to get together, and over several brews recant our stories

Stop by if you're in this hemisphere. That would be a lot of stories, I suspect!

If I were to see the end of my days in Igorot country I would much prefer my remains get the hanging coffin treatment. Though what with the caving and all I would guess this fellow is happily spending eternity beneath the ground.

Cliff burials are actually unique to our town, never heard of them elsewhere in the area. You have to be a respected elder to get one, though, and falling down a hole doesn't earn one much respect here. Another odd part of that story is that the relatives who came over said the guy's father had died in a fall on a construction site. Apparently the family had some issues with gravity.

[ganulv]

[T]he relatives who came over said the guy's father had died in a fall on a construction site. Apparently the family had some issues with gravity.

They fought the law. And the law won.