The Weekend Vigilante August 25, 2012

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Hello from Asuncion, Paraguay,

Both Ken Johnson of TDV Passports and I have spent the week in Paraguay. I’ve been here before and still call it an unknown jewel as far as places to visit. No one seems to know about Paraguay or even to have heard of it. Paraguay is similar to Mexico in terms of personal freedoms and a wide variety of incredibly excellent restaurants, bars and hotels. Paraguay, however, is an even better bargain than Mexico.

TDV subscribers obviously have figured this out as we kept running into them, completely unexpectedly around town. For instance, we showed up at a small boutique hotel quite a ways outside the city for a business meeting. The woman who owns the hotel was giving us a tour of the property and she pointed to two guests happily lazing under a shady tree. “They are from Canada, like you,” she said.

I laughed and said, “Oh okay,” not sure how someone being born in the same region as me had anything to do with anything, but trying to be polite I said, jokingly, “Well, I think the chances I know them are pretty small.”

As we walked up to them the man looked really surprised and stuck out his hand, “Mr. Berwick, funny finding you here!”

Later that evening at a bar we ran into another TDV subscriber who had moved here from the US… and then just tonight, two more… a couple from Canada here also on our recommendation. Ken was surprised that we kept running into subscribers, but I wasn’t. I’ve said many times in the past that Paraguay is a hidden jewel and our subscribers tend to take action once they find something they like. Plus, many others were in town going through the citizenship process… so we felt right at home down in Paraguay.

As well, we had literally nonstop meetings, lunches and dinners with pretty much anybody who is anybody in Paraguay. Top lawyers, congressmen, judges and many more. That is also one of the things I keep trying to tell to westerners… in countries like this, you are an immediate big shot and can get meetings with almost anyone you’d like. In fact, they’ll find you. That’s what happened to us. Once people heard who we were and what we were doing here (looking to facilitate Paraguayan citizenship while also bringing a lot of rich foreigners to Paraguay who may also be interested in purchasing land – as are we) we had most of Paraguay knocking at our door. And, the amount of opportunities here is simply absurd. But because it’s a smaller, recently capitalist focused country, they are short on the #1 ingredient: capital. So anyone who has some money available to invest will find a lot of opportunities here. Opportunities of every kind… and they’ll just fall into your lap.

CHEAP AND FREE

As one example of that and to give you some examples of the freedoms and costs in Paraguay, consider this event from last evening.

We have a full-time taxi driver here for about $100 per day (and I think we are really overpaying on that – but he does a really tremendous job, as you’ll see, so we tip well). Ken and I hopped in his cab last night and asked him where was the best Italian restaurant in town. He said Rolandi, so we told him let’s go there. He was a bit confused, though, because every other night we’d had a dinner meeting but on this evening we didn’t. He asked, “You have no company for tonight?”

We said, “No, just going out for a relaxing dinner after a long week of work.”

He said, “Then I’ll get you company!”… We were a little confused as he began calling people. Soon, he pumped his fist victoriously. “I have two of the most beautiful girls in the world for you, we will pick them up in five minutes.”

“Oh,” I said, in Spanish, “We don’t want hookers...not that there’s anything wrong with that.”

He replied, “No, no, no… they’re not hookers, they are just beautiful university girls who like to go out and have fun with foreigners.”

That was pretty tough to turn down… plus I’m always up for an interesting story, so we said yes. We went out for dinner and drinks and fun conversation with those girls all night. They explained that they like to meet foreigners because they don’t know many. But, being married I had to wish her a fond farewell as the sun was coming up. Ken, who is single, however, will likely be married by next week.

The whole evening, being driven around whilst drinking and smoking, with every bar and restaurant offering us the finest scotch and cigars until 5am and with a fantastic meal came to a total cost of about $200… plus free company.

And, upon arriving and leaving, no date rape.

Something here smells like freedom.

AN EXTREMELY SHORTENED VERSION OF THE WV

It is for this reason my dispatch to you today is so short. If you are what you eat then I am nearly entirely wine, scotch and cigar smoke at this point. This must be how people felt going to the US to do business in the 1950s. Men were men, women were women… Cigars ,sir? Cigarettes? Anything you want… usually for a reasonable price?

Not now. I’ve barely had time to skim the news this week but from what I can tell cops in NYC are just going out into the streets and shooting serfs now.

Or, swarm gang-tackling kids in LA for literally no reason.

Or emptying 40+ shots into a mentally unstable man with a knife.

Where is the outcry for gun control? We need to get guns out of the hands of the government and cops!

What happened here in Paraguay this week? Nothing but a lot of good business, fine spirits and excellent cigars… and many more good things…. Just ask Ken. And, as my taxi driver just told me proudly, “Another reason why Paraguay is better than the US, we’ve never had a serial killer”.

I understand why… everyone is too busy being happy to sit in their apartment and plot out horrendous things. Meanwhile, in the US, expect to see much, much more violence as the slaves awaken to find out the American Dream is the American nightmare. Anyone want a Paraguayan passport?

Until next week, if you’re not free, what are you waiting for?

The Dollar Vigilante

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