================================================= Expat Worlds Bi-Monthly Digest ================================================= 14 October, 2005 Vol. 7, Issue 17 .....IN THIS DIGEST..... ==== THE STORY =================== -=As Dual Citizenship Soar=- ==== OTHER EZINES ================ ==== EW SPECIAL ================== -=Free Paper PT book=- ==== HUMOR, TRIVIA, NEWS AND MORE... == -=Trivia=- -=News Story=- -=Jokes=- ==== THE RESOURCE TIP ============= -=AdNuker=- ==== INSIDE THE CURRENT EXPAT WORLD == -=Table of Content=- ==== THE STORY ================================== AS DUAL CITIZENSHIPS SOAR, OLD CONCEPTS OF LOYALTY AND PATRIOTISM FADE Teddy Roosevelt of Rough Rider and US Presidency fame once ridiculed dual citizenship as a "self-evident absurdity. Today following the lead of Europeans and other world citizens, untold numbers of Americans are taking steps to become citizens of other countries. Such a thing was nearly unheard of 40 years ago. For most of the country's history, dual citizenship was considered the civic equivalent of bigamy. In Roosevelt's words: "We must unsparingly condemn any man who holds any other allegiance." To which many Americans would now say: Not any more we don't. This shift in the culture and in attitudes toward a global community away from what Roosevelt called "Americanism" can be dated to 1967, when the US. Supreme Court struck down a law that forced people to relinquish their American citizenship if they acquired another citizenship. Now more Americans are becoming aware that having a second passport could be useful. Some are taking on another citizenship because they feel an emotional bond to the homeland of their ancestors. Some are immigrants who want to retain their ties to the old country, to take control of family land there, to vote or even to run for office. Others do it because acquiring a passport from one of the 25 countries in the European Union allows them to travel freely, work, go to school or retire in any EU country. Other's do it to side-step rules and regulations in one country. In essence taking the best of two worlds. And everybody likes the convenience: They can stand in shorter lines at airports and borders. Passports to convenience An Irish passport which is easy to get if you have Irish ancestry is one of the most sought after passports for it is an EU passport. It is said there are more Americans of Irish decent in Boston and New York carrying second Irish passports then there are "real" Irish in Ireland. When these folks go to Europe to work or live they don't have the usual paperwork hassle. Not an uncommon thing is multi-citizenship. EW knows of one person who is American by birth because she was born in America. She is Swedish because her mother was born there, and Canadian because her father was born there. Her Swedish passport helped make going to school and working in Sweden a breeze. She also met her Swedish husband, who's moved with her to the US. where "we're going to produce dual-citizen children," she jokes. Americans born in the USA to British parents have more than sentimental reasons for deciding, when they reach the age of 20, to claim their British citizenship as their dual citizenship. They can then use their national health card in England if they stay there or visit. Knowing the state of the American health care system, this is a real bonus. How many dual citizens are there? No one knows because no one keeps track. Officially, the United States does not "recognize" dual citizenship and discourages Americans from acquiring it even though legal by the highest laws of the land. The US bureaucracy puts its spin on things to discourage THEIR citizens from taking on dual nationality. For example, The State Department warns about potential "problems," mostly the difficulties diplomats might have assisting a dual citizen in trouble abroad. The US. Citizenship and Immigration Services, tells this story: "Many Americans are not sufficiently aware of the "consequences" of dual citizenship. "They could be subject to the laws of that country, including military conscription and/or taxes," he says. The Embassy of Ireland says a "sizable" number of Americans have taken Irish citizenship in the past 10 years but won't be more precise. Germany, which permits descendants of victims of the Nazis to reclaim the citizenship their parents or grandparents unjustly lost, also is vague. Any Jew has an automatic right to Israeli citizenship, but has to move to Israel to claim it. Last year, 3,300 North Americans moved to Israel for that purpose. According to the Mexican foreign affairs ministry, 60,500 people around the world (but most in the USA) have applied for dual citizenship since 2000. No one doubts that the number of dual citizens in the USA by now is probably in the millions and growing, especially among those who are American by birth. "And it's absolutely clear there's been a dramatic increase over the last 15 years," says Peter Spiro, a professor of immigration and international law at the University of Georgia law school. Restrictions have ebbed One reason is that more countries now allow their emigrants to retain their original citizenship when they become American citizens. Nearly 20 million immigrants in the USA were naturalized from 1907 to 2003, the most recent year for which statistics are available. Theoretically, the majority of those people retained their original citizenship, even if they didn't want it or use it. But increasingly, they do. Several naturalized Americans have even run for office in their home countries: A Republican state chairwoman in Nevada who holds US. and Romanian citizenship ran for president of Romania last year but lost. A California man who holds U.S. and Mexican citizenship was elected to a Mexican state legislature last year. And Virginia man who holds dual US. and Liberian citizenship is running for president of Liberia. The people who view this trend with alarm believe that up to 40 million Americans would be eligible for a second citizenship. "We need to pay extra attention precisely because we don't know how big a problem this is," says Mark Krikorian, director of the Center for Immigration Studies, a Washington think tank. "It shouldn't be allowed even if only 12 people in the whole country are doing it." What a redneck view in the opinion of EW!! Critics see dual citizenship as part of a larger, pernicious pattern of trends that help diminish traditional attitudes towards patriotism and assimilation. "At a time when the national community depends very heavily on the attachment of its citizens to their country, anything that helps or stimulates citizens to look beyond or outside their country is a matter of some concern," says Stanley Renshon, a professor of political science at the City University of New York who has studied dual citizenship trends. But Many take the professor's worries as pure hogwash. Take a Boston businessman who expects his Irish passport to arrive soon who says he doesn't care if people question his patriotism. "For me, it's a no-brainer," he says. "If you could do this for just $200 (in paperwork fees) and be able to live in up to 30 countries in Europe, why wouldn't you?" ARE YOU ELIGIBLE There are many ways to get dual citizenship today. Countries sell their citizenships through what they call economic investment programs. Even the USA does it for a minimum of 5 million dollars and some stipulations to set up a company that employs US citizens. Caribbean countries have been doing this for years at much lower rates but the US authorities have put pressure on most of them to "discontinue" their programs. Belize is the best example. Other countries give second nationality under a variety of schemes including "meritorious service" to their country and still others provide second nationality , including passport, through ambiguous laws on their country's books that allows granting of citizenship to individuals at the discretion of very high government officials. These are usually know as the gray glove programs as opposed to the pure white glove program like Canada has. Other countries grant citizenship to superb athletes that can help bolster the countries fame in Olympic Games. The easiest and less costly way to get second citizenship is by an affiliation with a country. There is increasing interest in dual citizenship indicated by the buzz on genealogical websites, such as www.ancestry.com, where users are seeking information on how to prove they have parents or grandparents born abroad. Ancestry.com has 11 message boards with a lot of dialogues going about dual citizenship. If you want to find out whether you're eligible, here's how to get started: If your parents and grandparents were born in the USA, you're probably not eligible. But your parents or grandparents might be because their parents or grandparents were born abroad. Once they get dual citizenship, then you can apply. If your parents or grandparents were born abroad, check US. Census records for information about their place of birth. US. Census records are stored on microfilm at the National Archives in Washington, D.C., or one of its 13 satellites around the country. Also, many libraries and family history centers have access to these records. Or, for a fee, genealogy websites offer searchable access. Once you know the country of your ancestor's birth, check with its embassy or consular website to see whether it allows dual citizenship and how to apply. You'll need documentation, such as birth certificates, your connection to your ancestor and your ancestor's connection to the country. ANOTHER 2ND PASSPORT Even the naive can understand that it would be to one's benefit in many areas of privacy and freedom of travel to consider obtaining a second passport from another nation. And by the way it's perfectly legal for US citizens to be "dual national" and have another one or more passport outside of their US one. We can tell you how and where to do it. We know of one super program we can direct you towards. For details email: office@expatworld.net. Put "GUA" in the subject heading. Get it while the "gettins good" ==== OTHER EZINES & BOOKS ======================== ASIAN TIMES ONLINE Asia most trusted source for news, business,commentary and analysis from throughout Asia and our world. (www.atimes.com). ----- SURVIVAL BOOKS Go to and check it out! ----- japan-guide.com Extensive, up to date online guide on Japan living and travel related information. http://www.japan-guide.com/ ==== EW SPECIAL ================================= "THE PAPER PT" FOR THE 21ST CENTURY SECRETS REVEALED - Live a life free of government interference. Information your lawyer won't tell you even if he knew. Get your money out of the country before your country gets the money out of you. All can be done via the "PT" manner and philosophy as prescribed by the late, great, W.G. Hill. This book takes "PT" one step further by not necessarily voting with your feet but using a "paper highway" instead. Freedom and privacy is possible in the 21st century with this book.. Our newest book is NOT FOR SALE. The ONLY way to get a copy of the 109 large-page PAPER PT is to subscribe to the of the EXPAT WORLD newsletter or renew your present subscription. We will send you the PDF format file via email with the complete book on it. It's readable on line or print it yourself for reading at your leasure. So cutting to the chase, this book is yours free if you subscribe to the Expat World newsletter. Subscribe today to the Expat World newsletter. Go to www.expatworld.net - click "Newsletter" at the top menu and go to the "Subscribe" section, enter a subscription and then put 'PaperPT' in the "Gift Certificate" box. ==== HUMOR, TRIVIA, NEWS AND MORE... ================ NEWS STORIES You want a smoking or non-smoking cave? SALMON, Idaho (Reuters) - There's no room service, no swimming pool, no microwave oven, no coffee machine, no television, no electricity. But the accommodations do include mattresses and wood stoves. An 89-year-old retired construction worker this month began advertising cave stays in east-central Idaho for $5 per night, or $25 a month. Richard Zimmerman, also known as "Dugout Dick," said his dwellings can double as bomb shelters and serve as mining sites for people who bring their own picks. Zimmerman, himself a cave resident, has spent decades carving out a dozen quarters from a hillside overlooking the Salmon River rapids. Now he said it's time to break from his labors and help jump-start tourism in this remote mountain community. The caves stretch as far as 100 feet into the hillside and are bolstered by rocks, peeled fir poles, mud and straw. So far, a few tourists from overseas -- one from England, another from Spain -- have taken him up on the offer. Zimmerman said they did not take to life underground. "It's not for everyone," the self-styled Salmon River caveman acknowledged. But "I expect the trade will pick up anytime now." --- Aussies not sane after all AUSTRALIANS perceive themselves as the most emotionally stable people in the world - but this is more myth than reality. Research, published in the journal Science, compared a country's perception of its national character with personality profiles and found most people failed to live up to their nation's stereotype. Like most countries, the study found Australians' view of themselves was highly exaggerated. "Australians thought they had the lowest levels of neuroticism than any person in the world," said academic psychologist Jane Shakespeare-Finch, who led the Australian component of the research. "We think we're highly emotionally stable. We think we're rocks but ... we're actually somewhere around the middle in that department. "It's not that we're unstable. We're just average." And although Australians rated themselves more highly extroverted than other nations the Northern Irish topped the world in that regard. Germans felt they were more conscientious than they actually were and Canadians turned out to be much less agreeable than they thought they were. --- Shepherds wanted -- accountancy skills preferred BUDAPEST (Reuters) - Do you have an accountancy qualification and are you familiar with the bureaucracy of the European Union? Perhaps a career as a shepherd on the plains of southern Hungary beckons. The "puszta" flatland, traditional home to more than a million sheep, is running out of qualified shepherds and is now importing them from neighboring Romania. Not only are herd numbers growing, but shepherds must have accountancy skills and, since the country joined the EU last year, be capable of applying for grants, the newspaper Nepszabadsag reported Tuesday. Ference Silay, who trained as an architect, is an ethnic Hungarian from Romania who now earns a living from the award-winning herd he owns in Domaszek, southern Hungary. "Being a shepherd isn't just sitting next to your dog on the field all day, smoking a pipe," he told the paper. ----- Spy service opens website FOR decades so secret it did not even officially exist, Britain's overseas intelligence agency MI6 has emerged from the shadows with a website aimed at dispelling "myths" and recruiting would-be spies. The Secret Intelligence Service, or SIS, as MI6 is officially known, said it hoped the information on the internet would help quash "ridiculous" conspiracy theories such as the notion that British agents murdered Princess Diana. The website – www.sis.gov.uk and also www.mi6.gov.uk details the role, history and cause for being of the organisation, which gathers overseas intelligence while its counterpart spying agency MI5 concentrates on domestic security. "It's important for the public to know more about the service and to explain why MI6 has to be secret in its operations and personnel," MI6 spokesman Nev Johnson said ahead of the website's launch. "Also, some of the allegations, myths and rumours that have grown up around the service, such as conspiracy theories that Princess Diana was murdered, are so ridiculous that they need to be corrected. "And the best way of enhancing the public's knowledge of SIS's roles and responsibilities is a website because that is accessible to everyone." Diana died in a car crash in Paris in 1997, which an official French investigation found was caused by excessive speed and a drunk chauffeur. The openness is a far cry from the tradition of the agency, which was founded in 1909. Although its existence was widely known, MI6 did not officially exist in government records until as late as 1994, when the then-government acknowledged the role of the agency in a new law. The MI6 internet site even has a careers page, which warns budding agents that their working lives will not be the stuff of James Bond films all the time. In a frequently asked questions section, the site says the "glamour and excitement" of Bond films is not reflected in the real job. But it adds: "Nevertheless, staff who join SIS can look forward to a career that will have moments when the gap between truth and fiction narrows just a little and the certainty of a stimulating and rewarding career which, like Bond's, will be in the service of their country." Other web pages give profiles of three MI6 agents, although some details are changed to protect their identities. "I've already been in some pretty testing situations abroad," says "Andrew", a 28-year-old politics graduate. Aspiring spies should get in touch, said Johnson. "If you think you have the qualities described on the website please apply, don't wait for us to get in touch," he said. --- Oxymoron: Original Copy ----- "Nobody in football should be called a genius. A genius is a guy like Norman Einstein." -- Football commentator and former player Joe Theismann ----- A good sermon should be like a woman's skirt: short enough to arouse interest but long enough to cover the essentials." -- Ronald Knox ----- Scientists Decode the First Message From an Alien Civilization... Simply send 6 x 10^50 atoms of hydrogen to the star system at the top of the list, cross off that star system, then put your star system at the bottom of the list and send it to 100 other star systems. Within one-tenth of a galactic rotation you will receive enough hydrogen to power your civilization until entropy reaches its maximum! IT REALLY WORKS! ----- Two friends were out drinking when suddenly one lurched backward off his barstool and lay motionless on the floor. "One thing about Jim," his buddy said to the bartender, "he knows when to stop." ----- This aussie caught this Kiwi having a bit of fun with a sheep..... "Mate", the aussie said, "Over there we shear them". The kiwi replied, "Mate, I'm not shearing this with innyone" ==== THE RESOURCE TIP ============================ AdNuker Filter Junk E-Mail Spam, Ads, Pop Ups advertising, Viruses, Tojans & Spyware. Works with POP3 & IMAP. This tool uses intelligent filtering of annoying Popup ads, e-mail spam, Spyware, Adware, Trojans, Viruses, Spyware Cookies. Unique features allow you to block all popups and spam or allow only the ones you want to receive. AD NUKER is embedded in IE toolbar, Protecting you while you are surfing the internet from annoying ads & banners, Download it at . ==== INSIDE THE CURRENT EXPAT WORLD =============== EXPAT WORLD NEWSLETTER (VOL.17 ISSUE 18) Table of Content: - AS DUAL CITIZENSHIPS SOAR, OLD CONCEPTS OF LOYALTY AND PATRIOTISM FADE - BITS & PIECES - WELL DESERVED REST - APOLOGIZE OR NO EATS - TO DEATH DO US PART - SCAMS, SCAMS, SCAMS,EXPAT WORLD'S, WORLD OF SCAMS - CREATIVE STOCK SCAMS - FROM THE KINGDOM OF REVEREND GENE - CHURCH BULLETIN BLOOPERS - MORE CHURCH NEWS - SURVEYED -- THE WORLD'S TOP RETIREMENT PLACES - LETTERS FROM AMERICA - BUSH CHENEY REGIME COMPELS US EXPATRIATION - EXERCISE COULD BUILD BRAIN CELLS IN ELDERLY - SEX MAKES WOMEN HAPPY - GET YOUR MONEY OUT OF THE COUNTRY BEFORE YOUR COUNTRY GETS THE MONEY OUT OF YOU - COSTA RICA - WHERE DO I LIVE IS A CONSTANT FRUSTRATION IN COSTA RICA. - THE WORLD - NO POWER TO THE PEOPLE - BOCAS DEL TOROS - WATCH YOUR BACK - CHEAP CHARLIE'S FREEBIE PALACE - INTERNATIONAL SNIPS AND CLIPS - BIG BROTHER IN EUROPE - CRAPPER RAPPER - PRESIDENT BUSH SELLS LOUISIANA BACK TO THE FRENCH - IN HEAVEN - A XENOPHILE'S PLAN FOR AMERICA YOU MISSING SO MUCH Each week the EXPAT WORLD DIGEST gives you just a smattering of what you can find in the EXPAT WORLD newsletter that we produce once a month. Why not get the whole story and subscribe now to our electronic version for just US $30 per year. Go to our website: www.expatworld.net to sign up. ********************************************************************* EXPAT WORLD - the newsletter of international living URL - http://www.expatworld.net Email - office@expatworld.net ---------- End of Expat World Digest --------------------------------