Keeping up with news and ideas

The UK and Netherlands are both fortunate to have strong public broadcast news services in the BBC and the NOS (Nederlandse Omroep Stichting).  Both are chartered to produce regular and frequent pregular and frequent public service programming, including, full and impartial news service and coverage of parliamentary debates and other national events.  Both are criticized for somewhat right-of-center coverage, and for giving legitimacy to fringe points of view in their efforts to remain unbiased.  But in general, they are my go-to sources for news and commentary when in the country.

Newspapers in both countries are private and varied: I am a Volkskrant / Guardian sort of reader, and keep up with both, each day.  While the coverage is free online and through their app, I do agree that quality independent journalism requires financial support, and so make a monthly subscriber’s contribution to each.  There’s little in the way of premium content that comes back, but I appreciate the International and cultural content that a robust newspaper provides.

Most papers are retreating behind paywalls now, a pay-to-read scheme that has gotten more difficult in the past year.  My subscription to the British news weekly The Economist is the best,providing full access to current and historical content.  My New York Times subscription gives full and historical access online or via my tablet, but requires an additional fee if I want to read on my smartphone, a pointless distinction.  The Financial Times went further, a £1/day subscription gives only limited access to the day’s contents: tiers of higher, premium subscription are needed for access to popular articles, business commentary, and more.  At the same time, they have dropped weekend columnists who I really enjoyed, and their app is  burdensome and slow.  I dropped my subscription over the summer.

The Wall Street Journal has long been pay-to-view, but made their blog pages, including the wonderful WSJExpat, free to read.  In a double hit, they have now ended publication of the blog, moving it to Facebook, and have moved the archive of posts and advice behind their paywall.  Its a senseless loss.

Beyond these  go-to publications, I try to read across a spectrum of news and opinion.  I look in on Rush and Andrew just to see how the other side is thinking (and Brietbart has been ahead on several stories that were late in getting to the Guardian or the Times).  I like the World Edition of the Atlantic and the New Yorker, and occasionally Slate, for their essays and commentary.  For thoughtful pieces, I really like Aeon and Brain Pickings: they challenge me with insights, ideas, and pointers to authors that I might otherwise miss.

Finally, when I’m in the car and n the air as much as I am, it’s hard to keep up with the written word.   Podcast fill the gap: I tend towards more conversational formats covering politics and lifestyle.  Current favorites include:

• Sinica:  Recently moved to join the SupChina news site, Kaiser and Jeremy bring wonderful interviews about China that also speak to the expat experience more generally.  A recent episode with an expat’s months in a Chinese jail was wonderful.
• On Taking Pictures:  Part of the 5by5 network, Bill and Jeffrey talk about the creative process with nods to photography.  Good natured and wide ranging, it’s like having a beer with college friends, discussing ideas like which phases of life produce best creative work, or whether better tools make for better art.
• Petapixel:  Sharky brings twice-weekly updates on photography gear and techniques.  ‘sounds dull, but his running commentary is a lot of fun and he’s ahead of many stories about photojournalism and copyright issues.
• On the Media:  A seriously lefty  and political spin on the US media landscape.  Bob and Brooke trade a lot of solid truths during their interview segments with academics and journalists.  They’ve been relentlessly hard on coverage of Trump, a nice tonic in a toxic election.
• Here’s the Thing: Alec Baldwin spends a 1-1 hour with a leading actor, politician, or journalist.  People complain that there is too much Alec in the conversations, but it think that it gives his guests something to play off of, yielding a fun and relaxing talk.
• Big Ideas:  An Australian podcast, this show spends an hour exploring single issues drawn from politics and science.  Although half the shows are of primarily local interest, occasional gems like Is Love an Illusion? keep this at the top of my playlist.

International calling plans

Our Saturday storm blew itself out ahead of Easter Sunday, black skies and spitting rain giving way to sunbreaks and rainbows.   Still, it’s unseasonably cold (even in England’s tropics), actually bracing to make the rounds from Sandbanks to Poole Harbour, stopping for a walk and a few pictures.  The Jazz Cafe served an excellent late morning breakfast that was a warm relief during the hail that started pounding the tables outside.

   

Afternoon finds me back at 5 Woodside, sorting through potential telephone plans that might make an impact on my costs without sacrificing quality.

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With the demise of Operator One, my mobile phone bill has magnified beyond all reason.  Most of it is due to ‘quickie convenience calls’, made to or received from US and European clients.  The bill has risen to several hundred pounds per month: something Needed to be Done.

There are basically three ways to arrange cheap overseas calls.  

The easiest is to effectively buy a local phone number in the US that connects directly to a dedicated UK number.  This was Operator One’s approach, but most other services are not two-way.

Internet calling may be an option if your data plan is cheap enough, but remember that Skype is surprisingly data-intensive:

• Skype-to-Skype calls: 50kbps or around 375KB for one minute of calling
• Calls to mobile numbers or landlines: 6-20 kbps or around 150KB for one minute of calling
• Video calls between two mobile phone devices: 500kbps
• Video calls between a mobile phone and a computer: 600kbps

The most common is to buy a phone card that promises special rates: prepay the card, dial the access number, and place the call: the card is debited the amount.  It seems like a lot of work to fumble for cards and dial a lot of codes.

An all-in-one solution are plans that use a special direct access connection to the local provider before dialing the international call.  The call is billed at cheaper rates through the local provider and the charges show up on the regular phone bill.  I worry about transparency, though, and who has responsibility.

The best solution, from my perspective, was a service that would  transparently intercept and reroute international calls through the low-cost provider.  I chose Rebtel, which installs a light app on my phone that reroutes calls and debits a credit account that I keep with them.

Note added:  Rebtel has worked well for me: Call quality has been very good, and only seems to drop connections when refilling the credit.  Most importantly, it has dropped my bill to under £50 per month for the same number of calls.

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The usual disclaimer: I have not been asked to review plans, and have not been compensated for recommending one.  These are my own findings and thoughts, and I pay full-fare for the plans I use and the calls I make.

Cross-cultural education

The NS to Amsterdam was filled with young  and old people, couples and friends, stacked high at 7 am on a misty weekend morning.  Muziekfeest of voetbal? I asked the girl across from me.  “De laatste dag van de maand,” she told me, the last day to use summer discount coupons, and everyone was headed to north for a day out.  She showed me her design website and talked me through her landscape photographs.

We didn’t hit track works until den Bosch, where we all exited for the snelbus to Utrecht, spiraling up the stairs with luggage or children in hand.  I was running early, so the delay provided more chance to see the countryside and chat with the seatmates.

 

 

I caught up with reading the weekend papers, the FT questioned the purpose of design museums (but I still like them) and devoted it’s magazine to Parisian foods.  The Shrink and Sage asked whether we should stop moaning  (Okay if it is intermittent, well-founded, and mutually shared with a friend). The NYTimes had the more intriguing question though: Schools should be safe, but learning should be dangerous: Should teachers and curriculums include provocative topics and ideas that students must react to?

It seems like it’s good to be challenged and broadened in a safe space: a bit like having your mind indirectly vaccinated through encounters with subversive literature and experimental theater.  And, if not in the schools, where should children learn how to interpret and respond to the many philosophies and practices that they will encounter later in life?  Home, church, on the street, when-it-happens?

I thought about applying the idea to something more practical: understanding people in other countries.

In the 60’s, we studied cultures in the 60’s: culture and tradition in social studies and language classes.  People from Peru wore embroidered red dresses and wide-brimmed hats; people from Paris ate snails (we made a batch) and rode bicycles (It’s a bit like Life in the UK testing.)  In later decades this gave over to promoting diversity and multiculturalism: study of emerging political and social voices through literature and current events, building awareness of minorities and post-colonial guilt.

But none of it really prepares you for actual encounters with people from another culture. I was fortunate to have been on the Experiment in International Living: a summer in Switzerland at 17, living on a farm. You come to understand how everyday things get done and how people think differently about social and political institutions. Its been true throughout my life since.  The Dutch experiences in World War II are not written in our history books: I needed to talk with people about their grandfather’s stories of hardship and hiding during the Occupation to really understand.

But we can’t send students across the world to experience other cultures.  How can we give them provocative experiences of another culture to react to and learn from?  Back in the day, some people had Pen Pals, overseas friends that they would exchange letters with.  Technology could potentially update the idea: we can give students a telepresence with immersive visual and audio links through Glass and other lifelogging tools.  What if a live hour of touring home or community, going shopping, or hanging out with friends could be made available, shared, discussed and compared?

The key to understanding lies in the experience of ordinary life for an individual person today; we can use our tools to do this better than when I was growing up.

The plane was winging into Southampton by noon, I’d planned for a walk along the Thames if the day turned sunny.  It was, and I did: relaxed conversations beneath the willows, a pint of ale, watching autumn arriving.

 

Life in the UK

Sunny, humid highs have graced the Jurassic Coast this week, punctuated by anemic thunderstorms.   I’ve been loyal to the Lilac Room, calls and emails to keep our legal agreements, production facilities, fundraising and clinical trials rolling.  Midmorning coffee with friends, late afternoon walks along Sandbanks, keep it all (somewhat) balanced.

It’s ‘Life in the UK, my secondary project.

My Residence Permit expires in January, and I need to get serious about the Indefinite Leave or the Dual Passport options.  I’ve no interest in giving up my US Citizenship, which would be required by the Dutch, yet still want to be able to remain in Europe and have some flexibility in where I finally settle down.  Anti-immigration sentiments are making it increasingly difficult to remain as a long-term expat, even when creating businesses and jobs, bringing unique skill and experiences, and that ‘special relationship’ between our nations.

Lisa Pollack wrote about the difficulties in a column in the FT last week.  I hadn’t realized it, but only 417 Americans qualified for a Tier 1 Visa the year that I got mine.  Since then, the qualifications and quotas have tightened considerably, and extensions will no longer be granted after next April.  Her experiences are exactly parallel to mine (we even both went through renewals at the Croyden offices); we only differ in that I have relied on skilled help to navigate the unforgiving assembly and prosecution of an application.

So I called my advisors and said that it was time to get the ball rolling.  “Save your bank statements, pass your test, and call me in September,” he counseled before leaving on an enviable holiday.  I picked up my copy of Life in the UK and started studying.

For the most part, the social and political section seem straightforward.  Although things are differently named, there is sufficient overlap between US and UK systems of governance that it all seems familiar in principle.  The differences are mainly in vocabulary, always a problem, and exceptions for Wales, Northern Ireland, and Scotland.  The main issue has been in memorizing 2000 years of detailed history, heavy on names and dates.  The timelines and details in Project Britain have been invaluable in summarizing the information.

My test, then, is scheduled for the 31st: I’ve paid my fee and I spend an hour each day on the exercise bike, studying, before  heading to Penn Central for a beer and a test.  I’ve never enjoyed oral testing, and this is a daily Quiz Night, but my practice scores have risen from the 40s to the 90s, far above the 75 needed.

The only negative is that I’ve become a fixture on the terrace, slurping a Doombar as I mumble answers into my earpiece.  Several people greet me as I enter now, asking how its going, one woman tried to buy me a beer last night. 

Distracted and out of practice, I failed the pick-up test miserably.  I managed to be both surprised and confused by her interest, alongside the w.wezen’s laughing critiques and queries through the earbud.

Fortunately, that wasn’t the real test.

So, as with so many things in my life:  ‘still practicing….

Thinking ahead about expat health

An expat’s biggest risk is ill health.  Most of the inconveniences, from visas to language, can be solved with time, money, and persistence.  But a bout of sickness or an accident requiring hospitalization can precipitate a real crisis.   Do you know how the health care system works and how to access care should you need it?  Will anyone realize that you’ve been injured; can anyone help during your convalescence?

Equally worrisome is the other side of the coin: if something were to happen to someone at home, how would you know and how could you help?

The healthcare needs of expats are growing quickly.  A recent survey reports:

There are over 50 million expatriates, and by 2020 this will be 60 million. 232 million people now live away from their country of birth. Between one in two and one in three expatriates has no international health insurance, although a minority is covered by domestic health insurance. Several countries seek to get expatriates and migrants to pay for healthcare or have compulsory health insurance.

The Boy Scouts have it right: Be Prepared.

Its important to think through the scenarios, put sensible measures in place.   Then you will have the processes, resources, and contingencies available should you ever have to rely on them.

‘A few thoughts from my experiences that may point you in the right direction (expathealth.org also offers relevant news and many practical tips):

1. Stay Healthy.

Eat healthy, get exercise and sleep, keep life bounded and in balance.  Avoid unsafe situations or foods, get an annual checkup and keep vaccinations current.  In short, stay ahead of problems before they grow into emergencies.

Expat life is inherently stressful, and good mental health practices are also important to consider and maintain.

2. Use the Buddy System.

I live independently, social and connected but not particularly stationary or scheduled.  If there were an emergency, it could be days before I was missed. 

Make sure that you stay c0onnected0 with someone who cares, and make it a daily habit to keep in touch about your plans, progress, and affect.  I use location-aware time-stamped messaging to send short updates to a key contact throughout the day: “Leaving on train from Amsterdam”, “Joining Robert for dinner”, “Made it home”. 

3. Register with a primary care clinic, then use it a few times.

Health care is good in Europe, but its organized, accessed, and paid for differently from place to place.  In the Netherlands and UK, patients access care through primary care physicians who you register with and who maintain my records and billing numbers.  If you have a minor complaint or illness, use the walk-in once or twice to get the hang of the system: when the walk-in hours are, how to fill a prescription, and how to access secondary providers like vision and dental clinics.  of course, know where the nearest hospital is located and the emergency services number (112 in Europe).

4. Check your coverage.

It can be a surprise to learn that expensive US health plans don’t cover lengthy overseas stays.  You may further need to pay for care yourself, then be reimbursed by your insurer.  I found that my life and disability insurance  had exclusions in some countries.  I found that plans can be extended with notification or a small rider for wider geographic coverage.

A local insurance plan (mandatory in the Netherlands) may be the best option.  But even then, you may need a further supplement for holiday travel.

If you need hospitalization or specialized treatment, allow enough time to set up a care plan and coverage.  I needed a long negotiation to secure coverage (in writing) and a referral from a US physician for a foot surgery.  Fortunately, the negotiated plan also covered temporary housing near the clinic and some transportation costs, which helped out a lot.

5.  Enable location tracking.

Make sure that someone can determine where you are.  Phones and tablets are GPS-Aware, and periodic location information can be stored or sent with a variety of apps.  Its reassuring to everyone if they can put a finger on where you are if you are long-overdue.

6. Stock your meds

Available over-the-counter meds and supplements vary widely from country to country, and remedies that you customarily rely on may not be available locally.  I keep some cold meds, throat lozenges, melatonin, low-dose aspirin, and a 60-day supply of prescription meds (eg: Lipitor) on hand, and help other expats replenish their cabinet when I visit the US.

7. Carry a notification ID.

This can range from a simple laminated printout to a full blown Medical ID bracelet or dogtag.  My card has my name, age, allergies, and emergency contacts: expanded information could include nationality, physician contacts, and chronic conditions or devices (eg: a pacemaker).

8. Know how to evac.

In a serious situation, facing extended hospitalization or rehabilitative treatments, you may need to go back to your home country.  Evacuation insurance can be useful: a friend suffered appendicitis and needed emergency surgery. It progressed to a serious abdominal infection, immobilizing him in Italy.  His US plan paid for a consult and progression to a flight back when his condition stabilized.  He had many months convalescence before he was fully recovered, but could have been pinned down alone in Europe without the cover.

Tech tips: Location tracking

This is a map of my whereabouts for the past 30 days, rendered from my Nexus history.  Lots of north/south business travel in England, a couple of east/west runs to Maastricht and Schiphol. ‘Days spent’ in different locations isn’t well represented; movements are sampled more frequently than stationary periods.

Despite the obvious (and accelerating) pace of my life, it’s also evident that it’s scope has been pretty restricted this spring.

When I first moved overseas on the Corporate expat program, I remember being called into security to discuss emergency procedures.  If there’s trouble, we can find you, they advised in a windowless room. “From my Outlook calendar?”  I was such a naif (naief).  No, as soon as you activate your phone, we’ll track it.  I imagined a room with a map displaying my big red dot, expecting a call if I didn’t move as predicted some days.

Now, in the wake of the Snowden reports, that seems almost quaint.  All of  my calls and texts, border crossings and cash transfers, have likely been gobbled up and stored, analyzed and discarded.  I still attract a moment’s attention from British and US Border agents, questions about the duration and reasons for my absences.  But surveillance is the norm, not the exception.

Why not put it to good use?

Location tagging is built into most devices not, and I leave it on by default.  It helps for my camera to tag my pictures, people appreciate location tags on text messages and Facebook posts, and I’ve been able to use Android Device Manager to locate wayward phones and tablets on a couple of occasions.

Location tracking is built from the history of  location tags: after enabling it, tracks can be viewed in Google Dashboard or with a tool like View Location History, used to make the picture above.

Location sharing goes the further step of pushing my location to others.  I’m experimenting with two apps, Glympse (which sends a series of locations to someone for a specified interval) and Hemisphere, which allows people to query my current location.

So, what would I like to do with all of these capabilities?

Self-monitoring:  Similar to a sleep of fitness app, it would be useful to monitor my ‘travel intensity’ as a way of keeping track of stress and facilitating better lifestyle management.  Eliminating the back and forth, knowing when movements are ramping up unknowingly, monitoring whether I drive too fast or route inefficiently between stops would be interesting.

Business connections: I’d like business associates to have select capability to query my location, progress, and availability.  I manually set my location in Skype and message people about my travel progress, but it would be neat if they could directly query my time zone for a call or my progress towards a meeting.

Safety:  I carry a card with “Who to call” contacts in case of emergency.  There are also a couple of designated people who receive regular texts with my location who would follow-up if they didn’t hear from me.  But I would really like something that tracked me for anomalous movement, that could ping my phone for a response if I wasn’t sending calls or messages, and that would notify designated people of my location if there were a likely emergency.