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Welcome to the Free Cities podcast.

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My name is Timothy Allen and this is the official podcast of the Free Cities Foundation.

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Hello and welcome to this episode number 138 of the Free Cities podcast.

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Yes, hello to you all. I hope you're having a phenomenal week.

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We're enjoying beautiful summer weather here in the UK.

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Very fortunate indeed for our two Spanish exchange students currently living with us.

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We're eating outside every evening, swimming in the river after school.

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late night kids playing in the long grass in the fields very perfect here indeed in fact it's their

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first time in the uk too um i haven't got the heart to tell them that it's not always like this

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but anyway let's not forget as always today's show is sponsored by our most fantastic supporters

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and the purveyors of the best luxury freedom oriented communities in latin america veritas

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village that's the coronado panama edition of veritas village and the reason i've said that

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is because guess what they've just announced a new community in panama that's a chirokee veritas

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village only a few minutes drive from a costa rica border new location same situation solar

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powered homes close to nature but also to amenities full of freedom lovers health and

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Convenience on your doorstep. There's a new hospital just seven minutes away from the new location.

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International airport within 30 minutes for easy travel.

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Grocery stores, hardware stores and anything you would need is within five minutes.

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You're basically living in the tranquility of nature with all the modern conveniences just around the corner.

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And you're surrounded by people like yourself.

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Lovers of freedom who just want to be left alone.

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www.ecovillages.life forward slash free cities for more info that will take you to the page

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advertising the Coronado development you'll have to send them a message through that page if you're

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interested in the new Cherokee village it's brand new hot off the presses they haven't even created

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a page for it yet that's kind of how they roll they have a lot of interest from people who already

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own properties in their other villages so if you want to get in on that send them a message through

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that page write today's show and it's a conversation with somebody who most definitely voted with their

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feet and left their home country to search for a better life something you might be thinking of

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doing mylene salawaraya and i should say salawaraya because that's how you pronounce it i just sound

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stupid when I do it. Mylene Salawarrea is a former Cuban who fled the communist country in 2001

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to build a new life and family as a US citizen. She shares her experiences living in Cuba

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and then living in America, drawing comparisons between life under a communist regime

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and the current state of affairs in the US. Now I'm going to refer to The Fountain Apps

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episode summary here for the lowdown not my normal ai but since i've started hosting the podcast with

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them there are all these new features and i've just ended up using them they're pretty good

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now fountain says the key topics in this conversation are cuba and america political

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indoctrination in education government overreach and regulations erosion of freedoms and individual

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rights, refugee experience and immigration and defunding the government and promoting freedom.

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Sounds about right. Mylene is very vocal about drawing attention to the dangerous things

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that she sees emerging in the US, which were huge red flags familiar to her from her experience with

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the communist regime back in Cuba. Obviously, something to be aware of if you are a freedom

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lover like myself and especially if you live in the US but also applicable to your own government

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organization. Many thanks to Mylene for your time and for helping me out so much on our last trip to

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the USA when we recorded this conversation and also many thanks of course to Trey Franzoy for

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supporting us so generously on that trip and bringing us out to the leadership program of

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the Rockies in Colorado. Many thanks also to my new subscribers who chose to support the show with

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a premium subscription on Fountain. I'm genuinely happy about this. Thank you, Dovidas, Cousin Vinny,

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Matthias, Bullish Mike, Christopher Albanese and CB. Many thanks for swelling the Free Cities

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podcast strategic bitcoin reserve they're all pledging six dollars a week now as subscribers

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and as such a subscriber you get early access to some shows like last week's episode with ben gunn

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it was so long i had to split it into two and as a subscriber you've got the second episode

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immediately seven days before everyone else and as a result you also get bonus episodes of which

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last week because you'd already heard the second part of the ben gun episode you had a brand new

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conversation with one of my favorite bitcoin og's gg the second part of that conversation

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will be coming soon and in fact the second part is is even better than the first seems to happen

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a lot in my podcast don't know why that is anyway one comment from a subscriber this week remember

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I'm only going to say the comments from people who subscribe.

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Not everyone else, unfortunately.

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Man's got to earn a buck.

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Right.

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Cousin Vinny says, what a coincidence.

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I look forward to talking to Ian soon about his thoughts on governance and what he knows about NOSTA.

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Bitcoiners and great minds think alike or not.

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We'll see.

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P.S. BTC Sessions has no content on YouTube.

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how long is it going to take for us to leave these platforms even if it means bringing only a fraction

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of our audience with us right cousin vinnie there is talking about my conversation with ben gunn and

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and he's talking about by the looks of it ian underwood who is a free stater who i had a

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phenomenal conversation with that's episode 129 and yes i did know btc sessions he's a very popular

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Bitcoin YouTuber. I did know he had been taken off YouTube. He's back on now.

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But long term, yes, I think moving to platforms like Nostra, which are decentralized,

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makes the most sense if you're a freedom lover. If you're not, stick with the old ones. Anyway,

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right. Time for the show. Have a phenomenal weekend, people, and really, truly be thankful

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for what you've got if you can but also you could just you know sit back relax and enjoy

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my conversation with Mylene Salabaria

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I haven't got any specific thing I want to talk about

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but based on what we've been speaking about

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you know over the last few days

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because we've spent quite a lot of time together

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I think Cuba might be a nice little starting point because you are someone, correct me if I'm wrong, who's experienced life in Cuba and life in America.

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Yes.

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And you can kind of compare and contrast them quite well.

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I surely can do.

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And what I'm particularly interested in, of course, is what relevant lessons you can learn from living in Cuba under that particular regime.

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What are the lessons that you can apply to what you can currently see in the US?

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Because I know, you know, a lot of, well, a lot of people, let's say, are unhappy with the way that America appears to be, the trajectory that America at least was on.

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Maybe there's a big turning happening now, it's hard to say.

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But certainly, if you look at the America of old, the America of the founding fathers, there are some people that are genuinely concerned that it's not the America that they want.

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I think you're one of them as well, aren't you?

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Yes.

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I mean, when you were born and raised in a communist dictatorship, like I was, I mean, I left Cuba in 2001 as a young adult.

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If you think about it in a trajectory of lifetimes, it wasn't that long ago.

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For good or for bad, you have like this trauma embedded in your head where your radar to see these red flags is like on 24-7.

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And granted, when you are born and raised and brainwashed and indoctrinated in a communist country like I was in Cuba,

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It takes a little learning curve to be able to articulate the message and the explanation, the logical, factual information behind it.

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But I can tell you for a fact that you can literally feel it in your gut when you see those things.

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Obviously, after being in the United States for 23 years, I'm doing all the trajectory of professional work that I have done.

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And I'm able to articulate that a little bit better, I hope, with accent and whatnot.

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It's not the same when I first came to the United States with this idea that, you know, I'm literally coming to the land of the free, the home of, you know, the freedom, the things that I'd never had in Cuba before, which still is the case.

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But it is in a very, very delicate situation.

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And like I usually tell people when I'm doing my speaking engagements and presentations, tyranny not always knocks on your door wearing green fatigues and carrying a Russian AK-47 like it happened in Cuba before I was born.

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And I was able to realize and firmly believe that nowadays, even more as an American citizen, because nowadays the way that you see it in the United States is just via bloated big government and overregulation and constant infringements on the laws of the free market and the individual natural rights that we have granted by the Constitution and the founding principles of this country.

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When you say it's a kind of gut feeling, let me tell you my version of that.

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Because during COVID, during the pandemic, there were so many things happening that I disagreed with.

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And whenever I saw them, I was like, oh, God.

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And recently, for example, in the UK, there was a bird flu virus, kind of scare, let's say.

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and I felt that same

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is that what you're talking about?

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Yeah, that's kind of

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So something you lived through in

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Cuba and when you see it here

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it doesn't

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have to be as overt as many

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Americans might think. Exactly.

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So come on then, what are the things that give

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you the... I mean I can give you for example

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the case

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of education and

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you know the progressive, the radical

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progressive left

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infiltration in the education system. Now that I, you know, I'm a mom, I have two American-born

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children. I was able to see that funny thing that you mentioned COVID because that was the great

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awakening for, I would say, the biggest majority of American parents when they realized what was

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happening with our children in school. And for me, it was like some sort of like trauma flashbacks

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when I started seeing that because I was like, oh, my God,

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this is the same way that I went to school all my life in Cuba

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from kindergarten until I graduated from law school.

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It was like this constant indoctrination and brainwashing from the government.

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And now I'm realizing it's exactly the same thing.

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It's just here we have it in English and with Wi-Fi.

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But was it the same things?

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I mean, like what was it?

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By things I mean, yes, it is like this completely separation and movement away from the basics of academic instruction, of the proficiency that students need to have on each grade level of a school.

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And you can see the total and constant infiltration of political agendas and ideologies that do not have a place in an elementary classroom or a middle school or a higher school.

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I think it was last month, the national organization that tracks the proficiency rates of students all over the United States released the numbers from last year. It's like over a third of American students are technically illiterate. They cannot read at grade level. They cannot do math at grade level.

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And then I know it's because they're not even public schools. They're government control and grant schools funded by taxpayers. But again, we've reached a point where we have been talking this weekend in so many topics that still a larger majority of my fellow Americans are not even ready for that conversation yet.

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They don't understand the role that family and parents' independent decision from whatever the government wants to put into the classroom plays in the academic development of a student.

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So it doesn't really matter what's being taught then.

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You just mean that it's a reflection of a political agenda.

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Of course it is.

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The academic proficiency of the students stopped being a priority a long time ago.

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and it is political dynamics what is behind it

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because it's the teacher unions the one that are calling the shots.

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That's why we call them cartels.

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That's what they are.

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The teacher unions operate in the United States

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like cartels that are being funded by their members

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and they are in bed with the most radical left line of politics

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in the United States.

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That's something I wonder why.

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Why is it that the radical left is...

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This is started, gosh, this is started decades ago.

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And that's another thing that I tend to debate with people here in the United States a lot,

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because in this short-term memory mindset that we live, people tend to think that,

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oh, it's this administration or it's the previous one.

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Oh, if we get a new administration, this is going to change.

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Yeah, we're kind of like just buying ourselves.

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some time for eight years, some of the systemic problems of government over-regulation and

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control in our lives, again, using education only as one example, started decades ago.

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There is an excellent documentary that when I talk about this, I always recommend people

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to watch because it has a huge segment that does like this history backtracking on it.

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It came out in 2021 and is titled, Whose Children Are They?

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The first two segments of that documentary explore that historical question, how the person that founded the biggest teachers union in the United States spent years living in the Soviet Union and literally taking notes and copying the model of the way that the Soviet Union and the Soviet Communist Party control education for generations and generations, which is the same thing with Cuba.

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You know, that was the educational system I went through.

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So it goes back then.

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Back then, there is one famous, I think it is in that documentary too,

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one famous quote from this guy that was leading the union saying that,

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I will worry about the students' proficiency and their needs when they are union-paying members.

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I mean it from the mouth of their own babes We got it right there In Cuba though what kind of stuff was being taught that was obvious or no no I mean like for example if you if you look at the current education system in most countries you see a number of unusual things being taught in particularly the sexuality stuff like you say

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obviously not really relevant certainly not at most stages it's not really relevant but

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um and so what kind of things were being taught in cuba that were just

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like red flags how much time do you have i have 27 years of testimonies to give you

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just i just want to understand whether there's a like because i i don't a lot of the a lot of the

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A lot of the strange stuff that gets taught now, I struggle to understand why it's being taught.

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I think the end goal, it's really not that different, Tim.

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There is nothing new under the sun.

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You know, things and methods just change, especially with technology.

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But at the end, when we do that traveling back in memory lane, you can see that the steps, the goals that they want to achieve are the same.

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Like in my case, for example, in Cuba, we had a student record. It was in paper. It was not in computers like they have them today in every school district in America, where, yeah, there was one or two pages that they would include your academic information and all that.

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But every year they would fill out pages and pages, putting information about your parents' political affiliation, whether there were members of the Communist Party or not, whether my mom, the women, were members of the Federation of Women, whether they participated in the so-called voluntary work on the weekends.

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And I use air quotes because, yeah, it's voluntary. It was mandatory. If you wouldn't go, you would get in trouble.

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So religious affiliation, there were segments where they would ask you if you heard your parents say anything negative or bad about Fidel Castro, about the Communist Party, about the government.

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I mean, and they were, it was like the oldest version of the data mining that we see with technology and children in government control schools nowadays.

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Again, I can speak for the examples that I have seen by myself in the United States,

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but it's happening all over the world, including Latin America.

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So that's just like one example.

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It's that kind of like divide and conquer to be able to control the mindset of younger

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students.

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The brainwashing becomes easier when you put your children to fight against their parents.

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The classic example that we have today with this gender ideology is because you have schools, government employees and teachers that are constantly whispering into our children's ears that we are the enemy.

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And if we don't reaffirm their gender confusion or whatever it is that they're going through their teenage years, then we are the enemy.

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And then the government bureaucrats are their lords and saviors.

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That's exactly the same thing.

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the Cuban government and the Communist Party did when I was in middle school and high school in Cuba.

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So you think it's that overtly understood? It's not a random thing that's happening. This is

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very much a... I don't believe in coincidence. All this is very well done on purpose because,

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again, the more younger generations you brainwash and you detach. I mean, the nuclear family is the

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foundation of the Western civilization. When you look at any history of any communist totalitarian

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uncentralized regime in the world.

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The steps of what they do, they're always the same, Tim.

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They start by removing your...

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First, they come in and they sell you hope and change.

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Then after you took that first bait, then they come after your guns.

204
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And then they come after the big companies.

205
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And then first is the American companies because they were the evil ones.

206
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And then they were the big Cuban companies because this is, you know, they are like rich

207
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and bourgeois people that don't care about the working class.

208
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And then they came after the small businesses.

209
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Like my grandmother used to have a little restaurant.

210
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I mean, she didn't have anything to do with the big scheme of politics or social politics they were trying to impose.

211
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But at some point, they came after her small business too.

212
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And then you're seeing the same thing here.

213
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But like I say, ironically, the method and the goal is the same.

214
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It's just that in here we have it in English and with Wi-Fi.

215
00:21:58,858 --> 00:22:06,598
when you say came after her small business how do you mean like overtly taxing it regulating it

216
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oh no they completely confiscated it was expropriated okay right that's very far down the

217
00:22:13,018 --> 00:22:20,818
line right what what example do we see anything close to that happening here like i don't know

218
00:22:20,818 --> 00:22:26,237
about specific examples but i think that one i have another one that i i can think of that it was

219
00:22:26,237 --> 00:22:32,578
for me, like another, you know, tip in that awakening is I remember when I was living in Cuba,

220
00:22:33,178 --> 00:22:38,217
the political prisoners or people that, you know, were being investigated by the police and all that,

221
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they would go to your house without a warrant, search everything. Even if they found evidence

222
00:22:44,737 --> 00:22:49,398
of you committing a crime or not, they will literally empty your refrigerator and the food

223
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that you have inside. And the police officers will keep all that. You could have been, you know,

224
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declare innocent at the end of whatever time the trial went to and still you never saw your things

225
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back and you have no idea of the multiple cases of similar examples that i have seen right here

226
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in the united states it's with the same thing and then you have to go back to court and battle to

227
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get your property back on what grounds though on the ground whatever it is it could be for example

228
00:23:21,477 --> 00:23:37,957
Let's say that you have a business that you're battling lobbies that, you know, are using money and, you know, the state, what is it, the state monopoly on force to their advantage to support the big companies or the big business that they want to support.

229
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If someone else comes and tries to do something like a small business entrepreneur, they're going to use those political influences, those lobbies to crush the competition.

230
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I mean, it's the definition of colluding with the power of the state to crush your competition and violate the rules of an actual free market.

231
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Right. They come and they rate you, they take your property, and then you have to engage into another legal battle to try to get your property back.

232
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I came to this country thinking that here you're innocent unto proven guilty because I come from a place that operated the opposite.

233
00:24:13,758 --> 00:24:28,118
As an entrepreneur in this country for many years with many colleagues, clients and people that I have seen, it's been very disappointing to realize that the same things that I run away from in Cuba are happening right here in the land of the free.

234
00:24:28,758 --> 00:24:35,878
Like the example of the schools and the indoctrination in the government control of schools that are being paid by my own taxes.

235
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What about, so how does it work then in the case of, like you have here in the US, obviously, you know, the Bill of Rights, you have the, you know, the amendments, you have these things which seem to at least secure this future.

236
00:25:02,618 --> 00:25:05,477
They secure a future which isn't that.

237
00:25:06,118 --> 00:25:13,078
So how does that same ideology undermine all that stuff and get away with it in the end?

238
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Because we human beings, we Americans have fell asleep in the wheel.

239
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We fall asleep in the wheel and we allowed a government to grow uncontrollably and to take the reins of aspects of our life that should have been our own responsibility.

240
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responsibility. And now we're not talking about 10, 2,000 people. We're talking about generations

241
00:25:34,717 --> 00:25:40,838
of America, of Americans, that even though we have these great founding principles in this country,

242
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these younger generations, they truly believe that big government is going to solve all their

243
00:25:46,098 --> 00:25:50,838
problems. They have been brainwashed and indoctrinated in government-controlled public

244
00:25:50,838 --> 00:25:55,338
schools since they were younger, that whatever they cannot achieve is always going to be the

245
00:25:55,338 --> 00:26:00,518
fall of someone else or the fall of someone that has a different skin color or someone

246
00:26:00,518 --> 00:26:03,217
that has a different income or different type of business.

247
00:26:03,217 --> 00:26:07,237
And then the government is the only one that can come and save you from that.

248
00:26:07,237 --> 00:26:15,578
So the fundamental concept that our freedoms, our natural rights do not come from the government,

249
00:26:15,838 --> 00:26:22,538
quite the country, that idea has been lost and continue to get lost in many generations

250
00:26:22,538 --> 00:26:30,678
of America to the point that they don't realize that that state, that big government they think

251
00:26:30,678 --> 00:26:37,197
is their savior, is actually the country. That's the one that has the monopoly and force to infringe

252
00:26:37,197 --> 00:26:44,697
on their rights on a daily basis. I always like to explain it to people like the story of the

253
00:26:44,697 --> 00:26:50,858
frogs in the boiling water, right? They're sitting in there little by little, generations and

254
00:26:50,858 --> 00:26:56,498
generations of frogs, they don't realize that somebody back there is cranking up the hot water.

255
00:26:56,598 --> 00:27:00,438
They're just sitting in there, you know, with the margarita, with the colorful umbrella. Oh,

256
00:27:00,438 --> 00:27:05,518
I'm leaving the land of the free. And I have the Second Amendment and I have the Constitution and

257
00:27:05,518 --> 00:27:11,398
this and that. They might even think at some point that the water is getting hot, but they are unable

258
00:27:11,398 --> 00:27:18,518
to see that whoever is controlling that knob is not an individual enemy. It is an ever-growing

259
00:27:18,518 --> 00:27:24,477
state that day by day is infringing on their freedoms a little bit more. By the time they

260
00:27:24,477 --> 00:27:29,058
open your eyes, it's going to be like Cuba, it's going to be too late. You can vote yourself into

261
00:27:29,058 --> 00:27:34,217
the government being your savior in whichever modern form of collectivism and government

262
00:27:34,217 --> 00:27:37,878
control we can have today, but you can only shoot your way out.

263
00:27:40,058 --> 00:27:45,878
So, tell me the story about how you came from Cuba.

264
00:27:46,538 --> 00:27:49,418
Like, is it a simple story? Probably not.

265
00:27:49,438 --> 00:27:49,898
Oh, no.

266
00:27:50,778 --> 00:27:57,358
So when I left in 2001, the whole system was quite different from what it is right now.

267
00:27:58,258 --> 00:28:00,737
I was in a tropical plantation.

268
00:28:00,918 --> 00:28:04,498
I needed to request permission from the slave master to leave the island.

269
00:28:05,798 --> 00:28:11,078
And you had to submit an application on a petition, you know, to be able to leave.

270
00:28:11,078 --> 00:28:16,457
and they would send you back in the mail like a little white card saying that you know you were

271
00:28:16,457 --> 00:28:23,018
able to go wherever you were going did you have a passport uh yeah i have to pay i have to do and

272
00:28:23,018 --> 00:28:29,798
pay a cuban passport as well as this but then you need to have somebody outside of cuba to pay for

273
00:28:29,798 --> 00:28:35,938
everything because to travel you have to pay all that in u.s dollars in cuba you get paid in cuban

274
00:28:35,938 --> 00:28:47,018
And with the levels of inflation even now, even back then, the currency exchange in the black market was like, I think it was like 185 Cuban pesos for one dollar.

275
00:28:47,578 --> 00:28:53,578
So we were only able to do that because there was family that had already left and they financed everything.

276
00:28:54,038 --> 00:28:56,258
I was supposed to go to Netherlands.

277
00:28:56,558 --> 00:28:58,778
That's where I lived when I first left Cuba.

278
00:28:58,918 --> 00:29:00,938
I lived in Amsterdam for almost six months.

279
00:29:01,998 --> 00:29:03,898
We were supposed to go there to a wedding.

280
00:29:03,898 --> 00:29:07,778
But the party has been so good that they're still waiting for me to go back.

281
00:29:08,378 --> 00:29:09,598
Is that how you worked it?

282
00:29:09,878 --> 00:29:11,717
That's how we did it.

283
00:29:11,918 --> 00:29:13,998
So who were the people getting married that you knew then?

284
00:29:14,158 --> 00:29:15,998
It was my former mother-in-law.

285
00:29:16,457 --> 00:29:18,358
She was married with a Dutch guy, which is true.

286
00:29:18,457 --> 00:29:19,717
I mean, they're still married.

287
00:29:20,138 --> 00:29:22,858
And we were supposed to go there to attend their wedding.

288
00:29:22,998 --> 00:29:27,418
So the government genuinely thought you were just going to come back?

289
00:29:27,737 --> 00:29:29,078
I mean, it was a bit obvious, isn't it?

290
00:29:29,158 --> 00:29:29,898
I don't know.

291
00:29:30,118 --> 00:29:30,977
But yeah, exactly.

292
00:29:31,118 --> 00:29:32,158
That's how they would do it.

293
00:29:32,158 --> 00:29:37,378
They will give you the authorization to leave Cuba for only three months and then you will have to go back.

294
00:29:37,457 --> 00:29:42,938
But here is there's so many like really sick and twisted caveats in all their processes.

295
00:29:42,938 --> 00:29:47,858
And again, you know, you fast forward time now, 20 years is different.

296
00:29:48,358 --> 00:29:53,838
But at this, I mean, at the same time, it really not much has changed.

297
00:29:54,477 --> 00:29:59,658
They don't want people to leave because that's, you know, the labor that you have.

298
00:29:59,658 --> 00:30:17,957
They just use this system that I call the pressure cooker. When things get too hot, they kind of like let people go a little bit and then they cramp it back again. That's how we end up, you know, with the Marielle Bull lift in 1980. That's when how we end up with the rafter crisis in 1994 during the Clinton administration. I was in Cuba when all that happened.

299
00:30:17,957 --> 00:30:34,498
So, again, going back to the process, we did that. You have to back then, I don't think it is like that right now, but back then when I left, the minute that you submit the application to ask permission to leave, they would fire you from your job.

300
00:30:35,058 --> 00:30:35,418
Immediately.

301
00:30:36,018 --> 00:30:36,358
Yes.

302
00:30:36,878 --> 00:30:37,398
Lovely.

303
00:30:37,398 --> 00:30:52,457
So I spent almost a year unemployed because I used to work in the tourist industry, which is controlled by Gaesa, which is the biggest military conglomerate that controls 98% of the economy in Cuba.

304
00:30:52,638 --> 00:30:57,618
And they took their sweet time to give me the response on that.

305
00:30:57,998 --> 00:30:59,258
I finally got it.

306
00:30:59,558 --> 00:31:01,298
And then we left.

307
00:31:01,578 --> 00:31:04,697
I graduated from law school in December of 2000.

308
00:31:05,217 --> 00:31:12,697
I never registered with what would be the equivalent of the board or the Ministry of Justice to actually, you know, practice law in Cuba.

309
00:31:12,697 --> 00:31:18,998
Because I knew the minute I did that, I was going to be in the database professionals that they have and they will have never let me go.

310
00:31:19,538 --> 00:31:24,398
So I graduated in December of 2000 from law school.

311
00:31:24,638 --> 00:31:30,338
I boarded a plane in Havana International Airport on January 21st of 2001.

312
00:31:31,098 --> 00:31:32,878
And I have never looked back since then.

313
00:31:32,878 --> 00:31:36,038
And I presume that was always the plan.

314
00:31:36,398 --> 00:31:37,938
Yeah, of course it was always the plan.

315
00:31:38,298 --> 00:31:42,918
So when you got on that plane, or was it, you flew out, I take it.

316
00:31:43,717 --> 00:31:44,538
Were you excited?

317
00:31:45,237 --> 00:31:46,477
I mean, were you happy?

318
00:31:46,477 --> 00:31:56,658
It was, I mean, and now that I think of it, there was two really like, what is a life changing airport experience.

319
00:31:56,658 --> 00:32:03,098
The first one was when I left Cuba, and the second one was when I came from Amsterdam to the United States as a refugee.

320
00:32:04,197 --> 00:32:10,938
The first one, it was like, I mean, like any Latino family, can you imagine the telenovela of the goodbyes in the airport?

321
00:32:11,898 --> 00:32:14,838
And I'm the only child of my mom and my dad.

322
00:32:14,838 --> 00:32:26,178
I always give credit to my father for my adventurous life and nomad tendencies because he was the one that always instilled me.

323
00:32:26,658 --> 00:32:30,518
to be like that and to do that and not to be afraid of doing those things.

324
00:32:30,518 --> 00:32:37,158
And I remember there was like this glass hallway that, especially in international departures in Cuba,

325
00:32:37,697 --> 00:32:41,758
that once you go there, you know, all your goodbyes and everything has to be before.

326
00:32:42,098 --> 00:32:45,678
And as everybody started to get, you know, crying and this and that,

327
00:32:45,818 --> 00:32:51,938
I remember my dad held me through my shoulders like this and he just literally got on my face

328
00:32:51,938 --> 00:32:57,938
And he was, you're going to turn around and you're going to walk to the end of that hallway.

329
00:32:58,178 --> 00:33:00,898
And I do not want you to look back.

330
00:33:01,197 --> 00:33:03,518
You have no future in here.

331
00:33:03,717 --> 00:33:06,697
Your future is on the other side of that glass.

332
00:33:07,578 --> 00:33:08,578
He's a good father, actually.

333
00:33:10,258 --> 00:33:11,378
Makes me quite emotional.

334
00:33:12,018 --> 00:33:12,498
It's.

335
00:33:13,778 --> 00:33:19,217
And I couldn't because I knew if I turned back, it was going to be crying a river.

336
00:33:20,338 --> 00:33:21,858
And it was my dad.

337
00:33:21,938 --> 00:33:24,058
It was my dad, the one that told me that.

338
00:33:24,237 --> 00:33:26,477
And before him, it was his brother, my uncle.

339
00:33:26,658 --> 00:33:28,118
He passed away before I left Cuba.

340
00:33:28,998 --> 00:33:35,957
They were the generation that they truly believe in the hope and change that they were sold in 1959.

341
00:33:37,098 --> 00:33:46,498
And when dad told me that in the airport, all the images that I have in my head was my uncle, his brother's face in his deathbed in a hospital in Cuba.

342
00:33:46,498 --> 00:33:49,938
He got us. We're three cousins that we all were raised together.

343
00:33:49,938 --> 00:33:55,197
My dad and my uncle are brothers, and my aunt and my mom are sisters.

344
00:33:55,398 --> 00:34:00,018
So we even have the same last names because it was a brother marrying, you know, the sisters.

345
00:34:00,758 --> 00:34:07,197
And I remember that he got us, all of us, around his bed and he told us.

346
00:34:07,778 --> 00:34:10,377
Back then, I didn't even know I was going to leave Cuba.

347
00:34:11,018 --> 00:34:13,558
Teodoto told us, you girls need to get the hell out of here.

348
00:34:13,718 --> 00:34:15,398
This is not what I fought for.

349
00:34:16,038 --> 00:34:16,898
You're all young.

350
00:34:16,898 --> 00:34:19,457
You have an entire future and life.

351
00:34:19,938 --> 00:34:23,558
ahead of you, you're not going to find it here.

352
00:34:23,558 --> 00:34:25,218
I don't know how you're going to do it.

353
00:34:25,218 --> 00:34:27,798
I want you always, to all of you, the four of you,

354
00:34:27,798 --> 00:34:31,798
to stay safe, but you need to get the hell out of this mess

355
00:34:31,798 --> 00:34:34,258
because you have no life in this country.

356
00:34:35,158 --> 00:34:46,235
And dad did the same version at the airport when he told me that Wow You know as a father that a

357
00:34:46,955 --> 00:34:48,135
But it's what you're supposed to do.

358
00:34:48,215 --> 00:34:51,775
But it's a deeply painful thing to do.

359
00:34:51,775 --> 00:34:52,215
It is.

360
00:34:52,215 --> 00:34:53,155
It is.

361
00:34:53,615 --> 00:34:56,735
And my dad, dad is not a man of many words.

362
00:34:57,115 --> 00:35:00,215
You know, he's like a very quiet person.

363
00:35:00,375 --> 00:35:04,275
He doesn't speak too much unless he has had two cua libris or two mojitos.

364
00:35:05,235 --> 00:35:06,515
And that's all he said.

365
00:35:07,375 --> 00:35:13,415
Like, I mean, I can't, it's like a picture that I have ingrained in my brain.

366
00:35:13,895 --> 00:35:17,375
His face in mine, him holding my shoulders and telling me,

367
00:35:17,455 --> 00:35:22,115
you're going to walk away in that hallway and I don't want you to turn back

368
00:35:22,115 --> 00:35:23,835
because you have no future here.

369
00:35:24,275 --> 00:35:26,815
So what did you, what was it like on a plane though?

370
00:35:27,475 --> 00:35:29,095
I mean, what did, you know, like how did you feel?

371
00:35:29,095 --> 00:35:33,075
I don't know, like a deer in the headlights type of thing.

372
00:35:33,395 --> 00:35:35,035
I mean, I have flown before.

373
00:35:35,235 --> 00:35:39,835
I think that I briefly told you about that when I lived in Libya when I was a kid.

374
00:35:39,835 --> 00:35:50,015
So the whole thing of, you know, flying and traveling, being internationally, being in other countries and all that was not completely a foreign concept for me.

375
00:35:50,735 --> 00:36:03,635
The problem or, you know, not problem, but the point in this case when I left Havana, it was that I knew I was leaving, Tim, but I didn't know when I was going to go back.

376
00:36:03,635 --> 00:36:08,495
I never knew where I was going to end up being able to stay.

377
00:36:08,815 --> 00:36:13,355
I didn't know when I was going to see my family or my parents again.

378
00:36:13,495 --> 00:36:18,835
And I had my entire life in stuff in two suitcases and I only had $200 in my pocket.

379
00:36:19,475 --> 00:36:19,915
Wow.

380
00:36:20,195 --> 00:36:22,135
So that was literally a leap of faith.

381
00:36:22,375 --> 00:36:26,555
But was America part of the plan or was it just like get to Europe and see what happens?

382
00:36:26,675 --> 00:36:29,415
It was kind of like part of the plan, yeah.

383
00:36:29,415 --> 00:36:38,755
But initially, since I have two siblings in Germany, one of my cousins had already left Cuba like six months before I did, and they were in Spain.

384
00:36:39,435 --> 00:36:43,195
And then it was, you know, the ex-husband family in Amsterdam.

385
00:36:43,435 --> 00:36:47,915
We were kind of like open the idea to explore Europe first because we already had family there.

386
00:36:48,215 --> 00:36:55,835
And only when we realized that there was not a way, there was not a path to, you know, to legal refugee status or anything like that.

387
00:36:55,835 --> 00:36:59,555
Back then, we still had the Cuban Adjustment Act in the United States.

388
00:36:59,655 --> 00:37:09,055
And that's when we decided, you know, to do the second leap of faith and try to seek that, you know, refugee status and protection in the United States.

389
00:37:09,115 --> 00:37:14,135
And that's when the second part of the airport stories come in.

390
00:37:14,555 --> 00:37:19,135
We spent like almost six months in Europe, like I told you, trying to find a way.

391
00:37:19,135 --> 00:37:26,295
we find out that it was not going to be possible to actually be approved for any type of asylum or refugee status.

392
00:37:26,295 --> 00:37:30,395
And then when we learned that the United States still had the Cuban Adjustment Act,

393
00:37:30,455 --> 00:37:35,755
which was completely eliminated by the Obama administration, I don't know if you're familiar with it,

394
00:37:35,775 --> 00:37:42,835
but it basically gave you like a temporary legal status when you were a Cuban escaping, you know, the communist regime.

395
00:37:42,835 --> 00:38:02,655
You will be like in a probation time, 100 days and one, I think it was 100 days and one day, a year and something, where you had to prove that you were either going to school, that you have learned English, that you were working, that you didn't have, what is it, criminal records or anything like that.

396
00:38:02,975 --> 00:38:07,155
And then they will grant you the right to apply for the residency.

397
00:38:07,155 --> 00:38:15,955
You needed to do tests, interviews and all that, pay a lot of fees to immigration authorities here in the United States.

398
00:38:15,955 --> 00:38:20,355
And then you could get your green card and be a legal permanent residence for five years.

399
00:38:20,395 --> 00:38:30,775
And then after five years, you will go through a similar process to then apply for your naturalization, do another exam, several interviews, pay all the fees and become an American citizen.

400
00:38:30,775 --> 00:38:32,335
That's what I did in 2009.

401
00:38:32,335 --> 00:38:38,495
so it reached a point where it was yeah we realized that the way it was coming to the

402
00:38:38,495 --> 00:38:45,315
United States it was like the longest non-stop flight that I ever had in my life all the way

403
00:38:45,315 --> 00:38:55,575
from Skippo Airport in Amsterdam to Miami the caveat with this you know refugee path status

404
00:38:55,575 --> 00:39:01,415
that you have for Cuban Americans is that you need to literally be standing on American soil

405
00:39:01,415 --> 00:39:02,755
to qualify for that.

406
00:39:02,795 --> 00:39:04,395
And these apply also for people

407
00:39:04,395 --> 00:39:06,455
that will come in the homemade raft.

408
00:39:06,635 --> 00:39:08,595
Like if they rescue in the ocean,

409
00:39:08,675 --> 00:39:09,755
they send you back to Cuba.

410
00:39:10,135 --> 00:39:12,235
If they find you in a plane,

411
00:39:12,355 --> 00:39:13,455
they send you back to Cuba.

412
00:39:13,735 --> 00:39:15,995
So you literally have to be standing

413
00:39:15,995 --> 00:39:17,535
on American soil.

414
00:39:18,475 --> 00:39:21,215
The deckway that connects the plane

415
00:39:21,215 --> 00:39:22,535
to the airport always

416
00:39:22,535 --> 00:39:24,815
is not considered American soil.

417
00:39:24,815 --> 00:39:25,935
Oh my God.

418
00:39:26,615 --> 00:39:29,975
So that was probably the longest walk

419
00:39:29,975 --> 00:39:32,055
that I have ever done in my life.

420
00:39:32,555 --> 00:39:33,395
I was sick.

421
00:39:33,715 --> 00:39:34,955
I was like running a fever.

422
00:39:35,095 --> 00:39:36,655
I think I was having some sort of like, you know,

423
00:39:36,715 --> 00:39:38,855
respiratory infection or something like that.

424
00:39:38,895 --> 00:39:40,475
So I was miserable.

425
00:39:41,115 --> 00:39:45,235
But then it was, I was traveling with my then husband

426
00:39:45,235 --> 00:39:47,215
and he didn't speak English.

427
00:39:47,395 --> 00:39:49,095
I was the only one that spoke some English.

428
00:39:49,375 --> 00:39:50,715
I learned to speak English in Cuba,

429
00:39:50,975 --> 00:39:53,675
working in tourism, was able to practice it more.

430
00:39:54,015 --> 00:39:56,335
And obviously living near Amsterdam,

431
00:39:56,635 --> 00:39:58,595
which is a dual language country,

432
00:39:58,595 --> 00:40:04,455
you know, I was able to get even more fluent. So I had to take one for the team. And I was the one

433
00:40:04,455 --> 00:40:11,835
that walked through those hallways in Miami International Airport after, I don't know how

434
00:40:11,835 --> 00:40:16,835
long I prayed in that jet bridge, like, oh, my God, I don't want anybody to stop me. If they stop me

435
00:40:16,835 --> 00:40:20,315
here and they ask me, they're going to send me back because I already knew that that was not

436
00:40:20,315 --> 00:40:27,035
considered, you know, part of the what is a wet food, dry food policy that you have to be standing

437
00:40:27,035 --> 00:40:33,755
on American soil to be granted the opportunity to seek that, you know, that protected status.

438
00:40:33,755 --> 00:40:41,495
So I had to be the one walking in that long customs hallways, getting to the, you know,

439
00:40:41,595 --> 00:40:46,275
the usual little desk stand with the person on the other side with the glass.

440
00:40:46,695 --> 00:40:50,815
And all I have was my American passport.

441
00:40:51,055 --> 00:40:53,675
I mean, my Cuban birth certificate in my pocket.

442
00:40:54,635 --> 00:41:00,275
And I remember that I just get it out of the back pocket of my jean and try to put it like under the little glass.

443
00:41:00,355 --> 00:41:02,455
And my hands were like shaking like this.

444
00:41:03,495 --> 00:41:05,435
And I finally was able to put it.

445
00:41:05,595 --> 00:41:13,235
And all I had to, all I was able to order in that moment was, I am Cuban and I need the protection of the United States government.

446
00:41:15,835 --> 00:41:18,955
And that was like the second big leap of faith.

447
00:41:18,955 --> 00:41:23,375
I became an American citizen in 2009 and I have not looked back since then.

448
00:41:23,675 --> 00:41:29,295
Wow. So needless to say, you're heavily invested in the country.

449
00:41:29,295 --> 00:41:52,975
Of course I am. Of course I am. Because even though I make fun of it and I call it the irony, it's like, can you imagine making that kind of decision as someone, you know, who was born and raised in an island prison, completely controlled by the government, looking to give my future children a chance at something different?

450
00:41:52,975 --> 00:42:06,655
Imagine how do I feel now as an American by choice with children that were born in the United States and seeing the way that things are turning, the same thing that I escaped from.

451
00:42:06,655 --> 00:42:26,315
I mean, what would be the point? And that's why I always tell everybody, this is the hill where I am happily going to die on, because I didn't start my life with two suitcases and $200 in my pocket for my American-born children to end up living in the same disaster I have to run away from.

452
00:42:27,695 --> 00:42:30,595
Fair enough. I've got a question about refugees.

453
00:42:30,595 --> 00:42:40,115
what makes what's the difference between someone appearing on someone crossing the border in you

454
00:42:40,115 --> 00:42:46,455
know like the Mexican border and someone coming in like you did what what distinguishes is someone

455
00:42:46,455 --> 00:42:53,135
as an illegal immigrant and someone as a refugee it depends on the United States immigration

456
00:42:53,135 --> 00:42:59,815
legislation at that moment and it's such a convoluted disaster that that's why we have

457
00:42:59,815 --> 00:43:05,855
the issues with immigration that we have in this country, because again, there has been a huge need

458
00:43:05,855 --> 00:43:11,815
for immigration reform for many, many years, and it has not been done yet. Even with the case of

459
00:43:11,815 --> 00:43:17,375
refugees from Cuba, it has changed so much. This Cuban Adjustment Act legislation that allowed me

460
00:43:17,375 --> 00:43:23,375
to find a path to citizenship when I was able to make it to the United States was abolished by the

461
00:43:23,375 --> 00:43:28,195
Obama administration, and now it's completely different. They're doing something that they

462
00:43:28,195 --> 00:43:34,195
call a parole or like a temporary status. And then the whole process of requesting or doing a process

463
00:43:34,195 --> 00:43:39,255
of political asylum is even harder because in that case, you really have to demonstrate that

464
00:43:39,255 --> 00:43:43,095
you have been in prison. And this applies to everybody, not only to QA, that you're being

465
00:43:43,095 --> 00:43:47,875
politically persecuted by the government of the country you're running away from. But again,

466
00:43:47,875 --> 00:43:53,195
it's so convoluted and it's such a disaster. And the United States government doesn't have

467
00:43:53,195 --> 00:44:00,575
anybody else to blame by themselves. Because having a path and an immigration reform that is

468
00:44:00,575 --> 00:44:08,875
based not only in that component of humanity that has always been, you know, the top goal or the top

469
00:44:08,875 --> 00:44:14,335
principle of this country that was built on by immigrants too, but also one that is embedded

470
00:44:14,335 --> 00:44:20,955
with free market rules and based on the needs of the economy and the market. And you talk to people

471
00:44:20,955 --> 00:44:24,095
and a lot of them know that that's what the country needs,

472
00:44:24,275 --> 00:44:25,615
but nothing gets done.

473
00:44:27,995 --> 00:44:33,675
So briefly talk me through what happens when you appear as a refugee

474
00:44:33,675 --> 00:44:39,735
and with just your birth certificate, probably handwritten, I would imagine.

475
00:44:41,255 --> 00:44:44,815
I spent my first three days in the United States,

476
00:44:44,895 --> 00:44:49,315
I spent it at the immigration detention center in Crom in Homestead in Florida

477
00:44:49,315 --> 00:44:54,435
that because you have to go through, you know, processing and all that. And then they call

478
00:44:54,435 --> 00:44:58,035
your, they connect you with your families or your relatives and they come on and pick

479
00:44:58,035 --> 00:45:04,995
you up. The funny thing about this adventure is my parents didn't know the dates when I

480
00:45:04,995 --> 00:45:10,535
was coming from Amsterdam to Miami. I never told them because, you know, they ping the

481
00:45:10,535 --> 00:45:16,055
phone calls. They can hear you. They listen to the conversations. They, I mean, they still

482
00:45:16,055 --> 00:45:21,275
do that nowadays, probably with better and more advanced technology, but they still do that. And I

483
00:45:21,275 --> 00:45:25,555
didn't want, you know, to give away anything, number one, to the Cuban government. And number

484
00:45:25,555 --> 00:45:30,695
two, I didn't want to worry my parents either. I mean, what they were going to able to do, nothing.

485
00:45:31,755 --> 00:45:38,495
And then I, so I started a phase that I described to people like living inside a washing machine.

486
00:45:38,935 --> 00:45:44,315
Imagine one of those front-loading washing machines and you are inside and somebody pushes

487
00:45:44,315 --> 00:45:50,295
the start button on it and then everything is like this like the first five years that I live

488
00:45:50,295 --> 00:45:59,795
in Miami that's how I remember them from learning how to use a microwave to learning to write a

489
00:45:59,795 --> 00:46:07,635
check to doing like two extra years of English classes you know like the higher levels because

490
00:46:07,635 --> 00:46:12,355
I already spoke some English when I got here it was everything was like that it was like being

491
00:46:12,355 --> 00:46:19,155
inside a washing machine trying to cut up not only with technology, but even with concepts and

492
00:46:19,155 --> 00:46:24,935
things that I could not even make up in my head. And that's why it was just so convoluted.

493
00:46:25,395 --> 00:46:30,855
I never went back to law school. You know, the common law system in the United States is

494
00:46:30,855 --> 00:46:35,355
completely different from the one that we studied in Latin America. But I did get the recognition

495
00:46:35,355 --> 00:46:40,955
of my degree. And then I was able to just go straight into a master's programs. And that's

496
00:46:40,955 --> 00:46:45,615
how I ended up studying mass communication and journalism at Florida International University.

497
00:46:46,275 --> 00:46:52,335
I didn't have any kids then, so I did that master full-time in evening classes, where I was still

498
00:46:52,335 --> 00:46:56,735
working full-time because somebody had to pay, you know, the rent and the expenses and all that.

499
00:46:57,095 --> 00:47:03,715
And then when I graduated in 2004, I got a job offer for a newspaper in Colorado. I packed my

500
00:47:03,715 --> 00:47:09,515
apartment, everything in a truck, drove. There were no, I didn't even have a cell phone back then.

501
00:47:09,515 --> 00:47:15,275
It was one of those fleet motorolas that you have to load the car with the credit to be able to make phone calls.

502
00:47:15,275 --> 00:47:24,935
I remember I printed the driving directions at the public library on MapQuest, and I had the papers in the truck.

503
00:47:25,395 --> 00:47:31,415
And then I drove all the way to Greeley, Colorado, and that's where I started my life working in the newspaper.

504
00:47:31,715 --> 00:47:34,635
I was already in Colorado when I became an American citizen.

505
00:47:34,635 --> 00:47:40,195
I got my mom out of Cuba, living in Colorado, the same with my dad when I became an American citizen.

506
00:47:40,195 --> 00:47:42,435
I did the family reunification program.

507
00:47:42,575 --> 00:47:45,915
They were already retired, and that's how I brought them to live with me.

508
00:47:46,395 --> 00:47:46,455
Wow.

509
00:47:46,815 --> 00:47:48,455
So I didn't know you were a journalist.

510
00:47:48,815 --> 00:47:51,735
You didn't mention that over the last few days.

511
00:47:52,355 --> 00:47:54,095
Just like a local journalist?

512
00:47:54,335 --> 00:47:55,655
I was working.

513
00:47:55,955 --> 00:47:59,715
I worked for almost four years, I think it was.

514
00:48:00,175 --> 00:48:03,595
There is a big newspaper in northern Colorado called the Greeley Tribune.

515
00:48:03,595 --> 00:48:09,815
and in 2004 they launched like a weekly edition of the newspaper that was in Spanish.

516
00:48:10,155 --> 00:48:14,595
So they hired me to be their investigative reporter for the Spanish edition

517
00:48:14,595 --> 00:48:17,775
and also to be obviously doing community outreach

518
00:48:17,775 --> 00:48:20,575
because I by then was fully bilingual

519
00:48:20,575 --> 00:48:23,195
and also to be like the in-house translator

520
00:48:23,195 --> 00:48:26,575
and they could flow the stories between the English and Spanish edition

521
00:48:26,575 --> 00:48:29,595
without having to outsource that content.

522
00:48:29,595 --> 00:48:32,275
Is there a big Spanish-speaking community in Colorado?

523
00:48:32,515 --> 00:48:33,275
It is, yeah.

524
00:48:33,275 --> 00:48:35,255
It is, especially on the north side.

525
00:48:35,455 --> 00:48:39,315
And I would say in the entire state, but in that area where I was, yes.

526
00:48:39,835 --> 00:48:43,015
Because, you know, I mean, in places like Miami and stuff, you notice it.

527
00:48:43,035 --> 00:48:43,995
I haven't noticed it here.

528
00:48:44,115 --> 00:48:47,355
Not that I've had a good look around, but I didn't realize that.

529
00:48:47,495 --> 00:48:48,535
Yeah, there is a lot.

530
00:48:48,615 --> 00:48:49,615
And that's how I end up here.

531
00:48:49,675 --> 00:48:51,215
The kids were born in Colorado.

532
00:48:51,515 --> 00:48:55,855
Like I said, when I got my parents out of Cuba, they came straight to Colorado.

533
00:48:56,015 --> 00:49:03,235
Granted, we still have family and cousins and aunts and longtime friends in Miami and all, you know, all over.

534
00:49:03,275 --> 00:49:07,335
the country, but that has been our home base for the last 20 years.

535
00:49:07,335 --> 00:49:08,135
Do you go back to Cuba at all?

536
00:49:08,695 --> 00:49:08,895
No.

537
00:49:09,235 --> 00:49:10,075
Haven't been back once?

538
00:49:10,075 --> 00:49:10,455
I can't.

539
00:49:10,815 --> 00:49:11,915
Right now, I can't.

540
00:49:11,955 --> 00:49:12,855
But did you go back before?

541
00:49:13,075 --> 00:49:19,355
I went only once before I started working as a journalist. After that, especially because

542
00:49:19,355 --> 00:49:24,615
at the same time that I was working for the newspaper, I started writing a lot of political

543
00:49:24,615 --> 00:49:32,315
commentary about Cuba. I started doing a lot of public speaking and presentations about

544
00:49:32,315 --> 00:49:36,055
how life under communism really looks like,

545
00:49:36,695 --> 00:49:39,235
to the point that not that long ago,

546
00:49:39,375 --> 00:49:41,675
we were looking for some family documents,

547
00:49:41,675 --> 00:49:45,355
and I just learned that I don't show up in any database

548
00:49:45,355 --> 00:49:48,455
of the birth registries in Cuba.

549
00:49:49,075 --> 00:49:49,155
Really?

550
00:49:50,155 --> 00:49:51,435
Why would that be there?

551
00:49:51,535 --> 00:49:52,335
I don't know.

552
00:49:52,495 --> 00:49:53,655
That's an excellent question,

553
00:49:53,775 --> 00:49:55,535
but I'm not going to risk it going back there.

554
00:49:55,595 --> 00:49:56,395
I was going to say, yeah.

555
00:49:56,635 --> 00:49:59,275
Because the more that I have been involved working with politics,

556
00:49:59,275 --> 00:50:05,435
I started in Colorado locally up to the point in the last three years that I have been doing nationally and internationally too.

557
00:50:06,055 --> 00:50:10,575
I know that my name is out there in some of one of their lists and I'm not going to risk it.

558
00:50:10,635 --> 00:50:16,135
I have two kids to raise and they're way, way more worth it than going back to that hellhole.

559
00:50:16,135 --> 00:50:28,975
Okay, let's talk a little bit more about what you see here in the US and what we should be looking out for, according to what you know from experience.

560
00:50:29,475 --> 00:50:36,175
Obviously, you said there's quite a number of red flags in there, just even in the education system.

561
00:50:36,635 --> 00:50:44,775
What else are you noticing currently that might lead us down or lead you down?

562
00:50:44,775 --> 00:50:50,355
I think, I mean, we could use like so many different examples in different fields.

563
00:50:50,535 --> 00:50:55,795
However, the core issue of all of those examples is the same.

564
00:50:56,075 --> 00:51:02,835
It is a government that has grown completely out of control, a system of checks and balances

565
00:51:02,835 --> 00:51:08,595
on separational powers that is completely corrupted, the lack of turn limits that made

566
00:51:08,595 --> 00:51:13,755
politicians do their post careers to get themselves rich instead of representing and protecting

567
00:51:13,755 --> 00:51:19,815
not only what is established as the grounding fundamental rights that we have in this country,

568
00:51:19,815 --> 00:51:26,455
but also as the minimum respect to the free market and the respect to our private property,

569
00:51:26,555 --> 00:51:29,235
the way that is enshrined in the United States Constitution.

570
00:51:30,255 --> 00:51:37,335
And then you have, which I think, in my opinion, is probably the biggest one, which is the regulatory state.

571
00:51:37,575 --> 00:51:42,155
The regulatory state, everybody's looking now in social media and in the news,

572
00:51:42,155 --> 00:51:45,055
what Doge is doing with the United States government.

573
00:51:45,055 --> 00:51:47,095
And you see people getting up in arms.

574
00:51:47,095 --> 00:51:50,395
Oh, my God, I didn't know that this was happening.

575
00:51:50,395 --> 00:51:52,835
Like, where were you looking at?

576
00:51:52,835 --> 00:52:14,552
I mean it been written on the wall since the New Deal started And I am the person that is still learning about American history and politics And just and that the thing you have like this bloated federal government where like the whole idea of separation and local control it being lost in corruption and lobbyism and whatnot

577
00:52:15,133 --> 00:52:24,032
And then when you combine all that, like I said, you don't get collectivism via Green Fatigue and AK-47s.

578
00:52:24,032 --> 00:52:45,713
You get it via unelected government wankers passing regulations and legislation that day by day and little by little infringe on your individual rights, on your constitutionally protected right to private property, on the forces that should rule the market, the free market economy.

579
00:52:45,713 --> 00:52:59,593
And that's where you see in so many examples, not only in education. I mean, I use that one because it's kind of like one of the most recent ones. And because my kids are still, you know, school age kids, it's the one that is really close to me.

580
00:52:59,593 --> 00:53:04,613
But it's like the whole taxation system that we have in the United States.

581
00:53:04,713 --> 00:53:08,532
I mean, let's not even go there because we're going to have to be sitting here like for three days in a row.

582
00:53:08,933 --> 00:53:14,873
You know, it's like, well, yeah, I have property rights because they're constitutionally protected.

583
00:53:14,873 --> 00:53:23,273
But yeah, when I learned that if you don't pay the property rights on the property taxes on your house, then your house is never yours.

584
00:53:23,373 --> 00:53:25,453
You're literally leasing it from the government.

585
00:53:25,573 --> 00:53:29,073
And that's exactly how you own a house in communist Cuba.

586
00:53:29,073 --> 00:53:31,332
is exactly the same thing.

587
00:53:33,552 --> 00:53:35,713
Okay, then what do we do?

588
00:53:35,992 --> 00:53:36,713
What do you do?

589
00:53:37,453 --> 00:53:39,453
How do you make government smaller?

590
00:53:39,832 --> 00:53:41,573
I'm ready to go galt,

591
00:53:41,713 --> 00:53:43,532
but 99% of the people around me

592
00:53:43,532 --> 00:53:44,973
are not ready for that conversation.

593
00:53:46,073 --> 00:53:46,433
All right.

594
00:53:46,793 --> 00:53:49,473
Give me the strategy long-term, though.

595
00:53:50,173 --> 00:53:52,633
As an outsider looking in,

596
00:53:52,693 --> 00:53:55,552
and we have the same problems back in the UK, obviously.

597
00:53:55,552 --> 00:54:07,512
It's just that here they're more obvious because you have a foundational kind of your country's founded on principles which would be against what's going on.

598
00:54:07,573 --> 00:54:09,473
At least we don't even really have that.

599
00:54:10,512 --> 00:54:13,232
But what would a good plan of action be?

600
00:54:13,413 --> 00:54:20,552
Because it seems very hard to imagine that a government might make itself smaller, which is basically…

601
00:54:21,232 --> 00:54:22,073
It's never going to happen.

602
00:54:22,073 --> 00:54:26,713
I mean, the bigger they are, that's literally their cash cow.

603
00:54:28,093 --> 00:54:33,393
So I think the way that we could start, and again, this is not going to be an overnight solution.

604
00:54:33,593 --> 00:54:43,793
We're not going to fix in one administration what has been being built up, destroying the principal grounding foundation of this country for the last three decades.

605
00:54:43,793 --> 00:54:50,093
But I think a good starting point would be like a multifaceted approach of several things.

606
00:54:50,093 --> 00:54:57,873
Number one, things like what is happening now with the cleanup, like literally spring cleaning at the swamp in Washington, D.C.

607
00:54:58,012 --> 00:55:15,933
But at the same time, you need to have some sort of like outreach, education, very purposeful plan where you need to start teaching younger generations of America the way the government should be.

608
00:55:16,473 --> 00:55:18,352
Because right now we don't have that either.

609
00:55:18,352 --> 00:55:30,752
We have, like I was saying before, three or four generations of young Americans that in these government-controlled public schools, all they have learned is that the government is their savior.

610
00:55:31,052 --> 00:55:40,453
And any problem or anything that they have is not going to come from their own volition and individual responsibility, but it's the government, the one that is going to save them for it.

611
00:55:40,453 --> 00:55:53,073
So it has to be, you know, like a multifaceted approach that at the same time that you're cleaning up the mess, you need to be educated and teaching new Americans what being an American really should be.

612
00:55:54,752 --> 00:56:01,232
Wow. I don't think I've ever heard anyone speak like that, actually, say it in that way.

613
00:56:01,232 --> 00:56:10,073
um it's a i mean i know we're in a battle of ideas but um you know europeans we we all think

614
00:56:10,073 --> 00:56:16,133
i suppose when we look at america we think it's a big blob of freedom lovers actually it is you

615
00:56:16,133 --> 00:56:21,573
know let me take you let me take you to a point that i actually argue very often when i'm talking

616
00:56:21,573 --> 00:56:26,993
about this you know whether it's presentations that i'm doing for high school kids or whether

617
00:56:26,993 --> 00:56:33,032
it is conferences for business people or like, you know, think tanks, freedom oriented organizations

618
00:56:33,032 --> 00:56:38,193
like this one, is that we basically took our freedom for granted.

619
00:56:38,852 --> 00:56:40,153
That's a fact.

620
00:56:40,212 --> 00:56:44,433
And that's why we are in the regulatory mess that we are nowadays in the United States.

621
00:56:44,973 --> 00:56:49,493
However, perspective is a great equalizer team.

622
00:56:50,232 --> 00:56:52,173
Yes, we have a lot of problems.

623
00:56:52,712 --> 00:56:53,973
The country is not perfect.

624
00:56:54,552 --> 00:57:10,832
But when you look at the rest of the world, and this is how I explain it to the high school kids, I always tell them, look at the traffic direction of the homemade raft in the Florida Strait when Cuban are, you know, trying to float and make it to the other side.

625
00:57:10,832 --> 00:57:28,153
In which direction do you see the influx? Do you see a bunch of Americans jumping into homemade raft made with inner tubes, getting away of Key West because this United States is so evil and going to Cuba and Venezuela because everything is so free and wonderful there?

626
00:57:28,153 --> 00:57:41,173
Or do you see the masses of Cubans like I've seen with my own eyes, my neighbors, my childhood friends jumping into those pieces of wood and raft that many of them we've never seen before?

627
00:57:41,273 --> 00:57:49,252
We don't even know if they're alive simply to try to take a chance at having a better life in the United States.

628
00:57:49,252 --> 00:58:02,512
So, yes, it is a fact that we have a lot of problems here. But again, when you look at the rest of the world, America is still, you know, that what is it, the Chinese city on the hill. It's still the beacon of freedom.

629
00:58:02,512 --> 00:58:14,032
The problem that I see is that if we don't get responsible about it, the window of opportunity for that light to be still on on top of that hill is getting smaller and smaller.

630
00:58:14,573 --> 00:58:16,532
It's getting smaller and smaller.

631
00:58:16,532 --> 00:58:31,212
And it's something that only civic duty engaged individuals and being active and proactive, especially in the local politics and the things where you as an engaged citizen can actually have some impact.

632
00:58:31,212 --> 00:58:35,433
That's where the difference can be made, in my opinion.

633
00:58:36,393 --> 00:58:42,032
It's true what you say about look at the direction of the flow of individuals.

634
00:58:42,332 --> 00:58:44,893
But we have the same argument when we talk about economics.

635
00:58:45,073 --> 00:58:45,813
That's what I was going to say.

636
00:58:45,813 --> 00:58:58,712
You see these people that are, I don't know, super experts into it, or like we call them the wise saviors thumping their chest in the United States.

637
00:58:58,712 --> 00:59:06,413
Oh, no, you cannot build a phone and pay somebody in Cuba or Venezuela or, I don't know, Singapore, $2 an hour.

638
00:59:06,573 --> 00:59:11,832
And I'm like, do you have any idea what $2 an hour meant for me when I was in Cuba?

639
00:59:12,093 --> 00:59:23,453
When I started working in tourism at the same time that I was going to law school, I was being paid dishwashing, working in the kitchen, $2 per shift.

640
00:59:24,473 --> 00:59:26,212
And they were 12-hour shifts.

641
00:59:27,173 --> 00:59:39,953
So are you going to tell me from the comfort of your million dollar house in New York and your brand new car that you are the one that is going to decide that I cannot make two dollars in Cuba?

642
00:59:39,953 --> 00:59:42,732
You're comparing not even apples to oranges.

643
00:59:43,073 --> 00:59:47,493
No, you're not even in the same farm field of what you're talking about.

644
00:59:48,273 --> 00:59:50,073
And that's what I mean by perspective.

645
00:59:50,073 --> 00:59:54,052
And the same thing applies not only to the market and economics and labor.

646
00:59:54,052 --> 01:00:11,852
Or it also applies to this whole concept of America still being, you know, the beacon of freedom, because it is no other country in the world, especially in the Western world, has ever been built in the foundational principles that we have in this country.

647
01:00:11,852 --> 01:00:21,552
And I find it ironic that you usually have to take somebody that came from the darker side.

648
01:00:21,653 --> 01:00:23,032
That's what I always tell the kids.

649
01:00:23,113 --> 01:00:26,993
You cannot take it for granted because I never had it until I came here.

650
01:00:27,113 --> 01:00:30,653
I come from the darker side of this equation.

651
01:00:30,752 --> 01:00:32,512
And trust me, it's not pretty there.

652
01:00:33,052 --> 01:00:40,173
So if you don't get moving, if you don't get awakened, if you don't get red pill, whatever phrase they're using these days, you're going to lose it.

653
01:00:40,173 --> 01:00:44,653
And by the time that you open your eyes and you realize that you lost it, it's going to be too late.

654
01:00:45,532 --> 01:00:47,332
It's going to be too late.

655
01:00:48,373 --> 01:00:55,093
Yeah, I've often thought, talking about signs, you know, predicting the future,

656
01:00:55,752 --> 01:01:00,933
and going back to what you were saying about watch the flow of traffic, is it going in or out?

657
01:01:01,993 --> 01:01:07,073
You see that more and more governments around the world talking about exit taxes now and things like that.

658
01:01:07,593 --> 01:01:09,712
And it's the same thing.

659
01:01:10,173 --> 01:01:17,693
You know, it's exactly the same thing. I think if governments were overt about stopping people from leaving, there'd be an uproar.

660
01:01:17,693 --> 01:01:33,793
But if they slap a tax on you and say, look, sure, you can leave Germany, but it's going to cost you 65% of your net worth, you know, and it's happening, you know, like these conversations are happening more and more in different places, talking about it back home in the UK even.

661
01:01:33,793 --> 01:01:38,832
and it's all a response and this it's always bugged me about things like that it's always a

662
01:01:38,832 --> 01:01:45,073
response to the call for a government to become more competitive you know it's like okay people

663
01:01:45,073 --> 01:01:50,293
are leaving they're going somewhere else so the government's first thought should be okay we need

664
01:01:50,293 --> 01:01:54,732
to do better here because we're not really attracting people but no no their answer is

665
01:01:54,732 --> 01:02:01,232
let's use our force because governments operate as control freaks they do not operate as you know

666
01:02:01,232 --> 01:02:08,473
free market forces mindset they don't it's funny isn't it i mean i often tell people this who come

667
01:02:08,473 --> 01:02:15,852
on this podcast but i've been on a pretty long journey of understanding you know that many things

668
01:02:15,852 --> 01:02:21,752
that we take for granted now are a scam like you know and one by one you really like the first big

669
01:02:21,752 --> 01:02:27,913
one for me was because i'm a bitcoiner was like wow fiat money is a scam you know but the the kind

670
01:02:27,913 --> 01:02:34,832
a final boss is the government's scan, you know, not in totality, but in its current form.

671
01:02:35,032 --> 01:02:41,973
Because even a small government, I think, ends up becoming a big government. I'm not sure there's

672
01:02:41,973 --> 01:02:47,732
ever going to be a small government that just stays small. We only need to look back in history.

673
01:02:47,893 --> 01:02:52,793
It's the same cycle, Tim. Again, there is nothing new under the sun. Look at how,

674
01:02:52,793 --> 01:03:07,153
Well, we talk so often about how cities, states independently years, years ago in Europe and all that, how everything became Rome, how big Rome became, how corrupted it became, how it crumbled.

675
01:03:07,313 --> 01:03:10,693
And then you have the same cycle over and over again.

676
01:03:10,693 --> 01:03:20,252
The only difference this time is I think that we as individuals have the power to become more aware, educated and awakened in a sense about it.

677
01:03:20,293 --> 01:03:23,752
And obviously technology is a great equalizer for it.

678
01:03:24,032 --> 01:03:36,293
But whoever wants to do psychology and philosophy, trying to find a good side of the government and the state, it's in the wrong line of investigation because that's never going to happen.

679
01:03:36,293 --> 01:03:38,012
Exactly because of what you said.

680
01:03:38,012 --> 01:03:49,752
When they see something that is running away from them, like we're seeing, you know, in the UK, how high wealth productive individuals and company are literally running away from it.

681
01:03:49,813 --> 01:03:56,093
Like you said, they don't look inward to see, oh, what can we do or what can we change?

682
01:03:56,173 --> 01:03:59,032
They go into more power and more control.

683
01:03:59,212 --> 01:04:02,373
Why? Because the government and the state are not producers.

684
01:04:02,673 --> 01:04:03,693
They are moochers.

685
01:04:03,693 --> 01:04:05,693
They get rich.

686
01:04:05,852 --> 01:04:06,653
They get corrupt.

687
01:04:06,793 --> 01:04:07,453
They manipulate.

688
01:04:07,453 --> 01:04:12,453
They do everything they do because we, the taxpayers, are the ones writing the checks.

689
01:04:13,052 --> 01:04:20,093
The minute they have to operate the government like a child would do a lemonade stand on the weekends, their whole premise would change.

690
01:04:21,413 --> 01:04:24,493
But by now we know that that's not how they operate.

691
01:04:24,793 --> 01:04:28,332
You'd be a great advocate for the free cities movement.

692
01:04:28,693 --> 01:04:31,613
You're basically spinning all our talking points.

693
01:04:31,732 --> 01:04:34,893
I know you're in a different world.

694
01:04:34,893 --> 01:04:59,273
I mean, I already have been doing that on my own. It's like I tell everybody when they ask me what I do for a living, I'm like, I'm a normal entrepreneur. I'm, you know, especially working in outreach, engagement, communications and things like that as a consultant is like I get to pick the causes, the clients, the companies that I want to invest my time and my talent because I want to be on the side of the producers.

695
01:04:59,273 --> 01:05:07,673
I do not want to have to do anything with feeding the monster that is destroying our concept and our way of life in the United States.

696
01:05:07,673 --> 01:05:09,012
I refuse to do that.

697
01:05:09,532 --> 01:05:14,752
You did just now, just before you said that, you did allude to the fact that maybe this time is different.

698
01:05:15,232 --> 01:05:20,012
When you were talking about the cycles, you know, like, say, Rome,

699
01:05:20,352 --> 01:05:26,313
you were alluding to the fact that with the current technology we have and that maybe this time is different.

700
01:05:26,313 --> 01:05:31,953
Maybe it's not that the empire collapses and then something comes out of the flames.

701
01:05:32,073 --> 01:05:32,413
I don't know.

702
01:05:32,512 --> 01:05:32,893
What do you think?

703
01:05:33,193 --> 01:05:45,293
I think the way or the reason why I think this time might be different is basically because of technology and how fast technology works nowadays.

704
01:05:45,712 --> 01:05:50,653
And I mean, look at how many examples in the free cities movement do you have with people talking.

705
01:05:50,773 --> 01:05:53,212
I am not like a science person.

706
01:05:53,552 --> 01:05:55,212
You can see it by now.

707
01:05:55,212 --> 01:05:58,633
I'm very into our letters, communications and whatnot.

708
01:05:58,893 --> 01:06:04,813
And even people like me, I'm like fascinated by, for example, the ocean energy recapture

709
01:06:04,813 --> 01:06:10,332
technology that can you imagine how much you can grow and apply things like that when it's

710
01:06:10,332 --> 01:06:16,552
in the framework of private companies and private individuals wanting to voluntarily

711
01:06:16,552 --> 01:06:18,752
engage in solving something like that?

712
01:06:18,852 --> 01:06:24,273
Look at the examples of eggs, SpaceX and Elon Musk and what they have done in a short

713
01:06:24,273 --> 01:06:31,752
period of time what the NASA was never able to promote or with millions and millions in budgets

714
01:06:31,752 --> 01:06:38,113
paid by American taxpayers. So that's what I want to be hopeful. And I think my hope is going to be

715
01:06:38,113 --> 01:06:44,993
placed heavily in that combination of how fast we can get good technology with so many examples that

716
01:06:44,993 --> 01:06:51,993
can support something like that combined with having brilliant minds and people that are

717
01:06:51,993 --> 01:06:58,133
individuals that are freedom oriented, individuals that operate in their mindsets and the things that

718
01:06:58,133 --> 01:07:05,693
they built and they do as producers and not as moochers. That's where my hope is. And that's what

719
01:07:05,693 --> 01:07:11,012
I meant when I was telling you earlier that maybe this time it's going to be different,

720
01:07:11,012 --> 01:07:16,532
not because the collapse could be avoided. I'm still a little bit, you know, I don't know,

721
01:07:16,532 --> 01:07:23,012
reluctant about it but because we are going to be able to come up with better choices and better

722
01:07:23,012 --> 01:07:31,573
options faster and hopefully in a better way than it has happened before my i have my own particular

723
01:07:31,573 --> 01:07:41,893
spin on that which is um my my preferred future i think in the i mean we're all after a smaller

724
01:07:41,893 --> 01:07:48,113
government right this is this is obviously yep the the kind of the net result we're all looking for

725
01:07:48,113 --> 01:07:53,813
and for me personally i see that defunding the government is the way is the way you get that

726
01:07:53,813 --> 01:07:58,413
and the way you defund the government is you use bitcoin that would be it i know i know not everyone's

727
01:07:58,413 --> 01:08:04,012
a bitcoiner but if you understand how bitcoin works you see the reason we're in this situation

728
01:08:04,012 --> 01:08:10,173
now is because they can print money with a button exactly yeah and we need that needs to be sorted

729
01:08:10,173 --> 01:08:15,473
someone might say right you need to sort of stop on printing but that seems very hard you need

730
01:08:15,473 --> 01:08:21,433
actually to create something which has been created that um that as long as it's adopted

731
01:08:21,433 --> 01:08:27,572
and this is the here's the tricky point if it's an if it's adopted um it's unprintable but it

732
01:08:27,572 --> 01:08:32,232
needs to be adopted and i'm almost certain the war of ideas will revolve around that at some point

733
01:08:32,232 --> 01:08:38,993
it's definitely going to be a big factor on it um probably not the only one but probably the one

734
01:08:38,993 --> 01:08:44,732
that we're going to see moving and actually impacting change the fastest, because it's

735
01:08:44,732 --> 01:08:48,873
probably the fastest and the most effective way to defund the state.

736
01:08:49,493 --> 01:08:51,112
There's so many other ways.

737
01:08:51,273 --> 01:08:56,093
I mean, people can do so many things at their own individual level, too.

738
01:08:56,232 --> 01:09:00,852
But at the same time, you as a person have to be in that mindset, in that position.

739
01:09:01,072 --> 01:09:04,053
Some people reach it for one event right away.

740
01:09:04,152 --> 01:09:05,533
Some people go through a journey.

741
01:09:05,533 --> 01:09:12,093
I think that that was the wonderful thing, quote unquote, on that wonderful of the pandemic

742
01:09:12,093 --> 01:09:14,352
and COVID and what they tried to do.

743
01:09:14,352 --> 01:09:20,413
I mean, if people don't get that this, that that was a testing ground of the state to push

744
01:09:20,470 --> 01:09:26,630
boundaries and see how much more people could take without, you know, revolting against themselves.

745
01:09:27,010 --> 01:09:32,390
Again, I don't know in which planet they were living because that was the veil came down. It's

746
01:09:32,390 --> 01:09:38,090
like all the true colors were out in the open when that happened. I remember I was between Colorado

747
01:09:38,090 --> 01:09:45,150
and South Carolina and I will get blue in my face talking to people that I consider very

748
01:09:45,150 --> 01:09:51,070
very intelligent, smart professionals, accomplished entrepreneurs and business owners

749
01:09:51,070 --> 01:09:58,290
falling for it like if they were kindergartners. And I'm like, am I the only crazy Cuban that is

750
01:09:58,290 --> 01:10:02,550
seeing what is happening here? And then I was trying to explain them and they would tell me

751
01:10:02,550 --> 01:10:08,790
exactly that. Oh, no, that's just crazy Cuban theories. And I'm like, oh, OK, let's see what

752
01:10:08,790 --> 01:10:12,730
happens. And then you and I can resume this conversation if you make it at the end of this

753
01:10:12,730 --> 01:10:18,990
tunnel. But that's the sense of the state. That's the only thing they do. They use their

754
01:10:18,990 --> 01:10:23,870
monopoly on force and power to get bigger, to get more money and to crush the competition.

755
01:10:24,010 --> 01:10:27,050
That's the best way to explain it. Go on then quickly then before we go,

756
01:10:27,150 --> 01:10:35,410
because I can see we've been talking a long time. I was telling you, I think Bitcoin is one of the

757
01:10:35,410 --> 01:10:39,510
solutions. You said it's what you think is one of the solutions. How else do you defund the

758
01:10:39,510 --> 01:10:46,910
government then what are that what other what other ways of um moving outside of the

759
01:10:47,650 --> 01:10:56,430
aura of a government i think i think that finding ways to escape the tax plantation is crucial too

760
01:10:56,430 --> 01:11:03,070
it doesn't matter it doesn't matter whether you are you know a tesla executive or whether you are

761
01:11:03,070 --> 01:11:07,830
a small business owner with a little cafe with three tables and two restaurants.

762
01:11:08,390 --> 01:11:13,110
Finding ways to, you know, starve the beast, literally.

763
01:11:13,710 --> 01:11:32,494
Finding ways to do it in whatever is the little scope if you can do it inside the United States if you have a way to do it in another part of the world becoming part of a truly freedom liberty group a tribe in a sense

764
01:11:35,714 --> 01:11:45,674
I think the fact that we have to undo the generations of brainwashings in younger Americans,

765
01:11:46,014 --> 01:11:48,094
that's something that needs to be done, too.

766
01:11:48,094 --> 01:12:00,454
Because you're not going to find freedom-oriented, enlightened individuals willing to do that if they have been brainwashed for 12 years of their life thinking that the government is the one that is going to give them everything.

767
01:12:00,914 --> 01:12:04,434
Or thinking that, oh, I got free this or free that.

768
01:12:04,554 --> 01:12:14,054
I'm like, no, if the government is giving you something for free, that means that somebody else produced that money and the government took it by force via taxation from them.

769
01:12:15,054 --> 01:12:22,394
So it's actually somebody else gave you that as a gift, and the government is just being the middleman on it.

770
01:12:22,734 --> 01:12:28,074
So it has to be, I mean, I don't know, I don't have like a golden answer solution.

771
01:12:28,754 --> 01:12:39,914
I think that leading by example, in a sense of whoever, again, can do whatever step you can into that, because you literally have to put your money where your mouth is.

772
01:12:39,914 --> 01:12:48,894
And I think that that's usually the best driver of change, whether it's within your family, whether it's within your community.

773
01:12:49,214 --> 01:12:52,054
Actually, probably starting with your family is the number one.

774
01:12:52,854 --> 01:12:57,474
That's where you can actually plant the seeds of change for something like this.

775
01:12:57,474 --> 01:13:05,094
it's like like you say uh that if it's a battle of ideas it's a decentralized battle as well

776
01:13:05,094 --> 01:13:11,614
because once the ideas are out there they form a inverted commas army from the ground up

777
01:13:11,614 --> 01:13:18,234
and you know even what you're seeing currently with doge and what's happening there these are

778
01:13:18,234 --> 01:13:39,438
still individuals acting on their own accord and deciding to do that and there plenty of them by the looks of it And not that I would say great the government sorting out the government because i don think that the solution but at least you see individuals operating in that way and it a good example for a mass movement the

779
01:13:39,438 --> 01:13:43,258
only thing i worry about and i don't know what you think about this is are there enough people

780
01:13:43,258 --> 01:13:50,818
that care enough i mean back home at least people who are into freedom and liberty they're we're a

781
01:13:50,818 --> 01:13:55,838
minority and i think will always be a minority i don't think it's necessarily everyone's cup of

782
01:13:55,838 --> 01:14:01,038
tea and most people are quite happy to live inside a cage as long as they get left alone

783
01:14:01,038 --> 01:14:06,718
and even when the cage gets really really small you know as long as they get their three free

784
01:14:06,718 --> 01:14:14,518
meals they they still will choose the cage because doing otherwise requires courage yes requires

785
01:14:14,518 --> 01:14:22,718
not being afraid of taking a leap of faith like the ones that I have taken in my own life before.

786
01:14:23,058 --> 01:14:29,658
The thing is that the most wonderful things in life are usually on the other side of that leap.

787
01:14:29,658 --> 01:14:37,378
But no, you're never going to have 100 percent, you know, compliance or support of individuals behind this idea.

788
01:14:37,458 --> 01:14:43,558
But that's the whole point of not being a herd and being like a decentralized society.

789
01:14:43,558 --> 01:14:56,578
I think it's one of the main reasons why every time you see big governments, everything you see, totalitarian regimes and things like that, one of the first things that they immediately attack is the nuclear family.

790
01:14:57,138 --> 01:15:07,458
And they attack the nuclear family because they know that once all those principles and that those connections are spread apart, number one, they can control the younger ones better.

791
01:15:07,458 --> 01:15:12,778
and then number two, it's harder for the older generations to rebuild from the ground up,

792
01:15:12,778 --> 01:15:17,618
the way that you were saying. So that's why I'm like, what happened in the schools and what

793
01:15:17,618 --> 01:15:21,998
happened with the destruction of the nuclear family, it's not a coincidence, it's not a random

794
01:15:21,998 --> 01:15:39,441
thing It very well planned because that how the state and the government keeps getting bigger and keeps staying in power That a good place to leave it in fact And I think ironically we got a lot of very vocal youngsters all around us now

795
01:15:39,501 --> 01:15:42,101
You know, this is an entrepreneur's kind of conference.

796
01:15:42,101 --> 01:15:46,921
It's like one of the ladies explained to me, it's a bit like The Apprentice.

797
01:15:47,421 --> 01:15:49,161
They're all coming up to pitch their ideas.

798
01:15:49,321 --> 01:15:50,681
It's great. It's been great.

799
01:15:50,681 --> 01:15:55,541
I have been seeing them practicing their elevator speeches and their presentation.

800
01:15:55,841 --> 01:15:57,481
It's great to see they're doing that.

801
01:15:57,581 --> 01:16:00,961
Exactly. And I'm happy to have them in the background.

802
01:16:01,181 --> 01:16:02,981
I don't know, but they are quite loud.

803
01:16:03,821 --> 01:16:06,041
Anyway, Maylin, thanks. It was great talking to you.

804
01:16:06,121 --> 01:16:10,741
And I genuinely was touched by your story of leaving Cuba.

805
01:16:10,941 --> 01:16:18,221
I think, you know, most of us don't really connect with the refugee story

806
01:16:18,221 --> 01:16:23,521
because refugees are often, you know, them and us.

807
01:16:23,741 --> 01:16:27,061
Or something that you only see on the news far away from you.

808
01:16:27,061 --> 01:16:30,881
Yeah, but, you know, this country is a country full,

809
01:16:31,401 --> 01:16:33,921
literally to the brim of various types of refugees.

810
01:16:34,101 --> 01:16:38,561
And I think, you know, in Europe we don't connect with that in the slightest.

811
01:16:38,681 --> 01:16:39,601
So thank you for sharing that.

812
01:16:40,461 --> 01:16:42,281
Like I said, I was deeply moved, in fact.

813
01:16:42,461 --> 01:16:43,681
Thank you for having me.

814
01:16:43,961 --> 01:16:44,541
Yeah, I know.

815
01:16:45,381 --> 01:16:47,381
It's crazy.

816
01:16:47,381 --> 01:16:52,141
I mean, it was hard. It was probably one of the harder things that I have done in my life.

817
01:16:52,941 --> 01:16:56,801
But at the same time, I haven't looked back since then.

818
01:16:56,961 --> 01:16:59,861
I do not regret one single thing.

819
01:16:59,981 --> 01:17:03,801
The good, the bad, the ugly, the hard, everything in between.

820
01:17:03,981 --> 01:17:05,681
It's made me who I am today.

821
01:17:06,241 --> 01:17:09,261
Brilliant. And hopefully there's been plenty more people like yourself.

822
01:17:09,761 --> 01:17:11,161
Thanks for spending the time.

823
01:17:11,181 --> 01:17:11,841
Thanks for having me.

824
01:17:12,201 --> 01:17:13,341
And I'll see you next time.

825
01:17:13,421 --> 01:17:13,661
Okay.

826
01:17:13,661 --> 01:17:14,161
I don't know where I'll be.

827
01:17:14,381 --> 01:17:14,681
All right.

828
01:17:14,961 --> 01:17:15,821
That one's good.

829
01:17:17,381 --> 01:17:47,361
Thank you.