billymg: the "populist" candidate won in the cr elections
billymg: leading up to the election the media's description of him was always along the lines of "populist" "like trump and bolsonaro" "danger to 'our democracy'" etc.
billymg: i never even heard of Chaves (the winner) until after the first round of elections when he came in second. then it was "who could've predicted? is this a sign of dangerous populist sentiment?" etc.
billymg: whereas Figueres, the clear globohomo pick, had billboards everywhere
awt[asciilifeform|billymg]: billymg: was getting pretty sick of his soy face
awt[asciilifeform|billymg]: Just talked to a guy about ES immigration
awt[asciilifeform|billymg]: Looks like same options as in CR, but somewhat cheaper + soon the ability to get residency through holding a certain amount of "volcano bonds"
awt[asciilifeform|billymg]: Will try to get him on pestnet
billymg: oh neat, volcano bonds
billymg: awt: iow no btc option?
awt[asciilifeform|billymg]: billymg: actually no
billymg: my cr process has been a nightmare because of the 1.5 year covid shutdown of the immigration office
awt[asciilifeform|billymg]: billymg: may be able to buy the bonds with btc. They mature in 5 years after which you get 50% of the gain in btc back, meanwhile 6% (annual?) interest.
awt[asciilifeform|billymg]: US citizens will need to be accredited.
billymg: awt: to purchase the bonds?
awt[asciilifeform|billymg]: (don't want to give the impression I think there's 100% or even 50% chance you'd get your money back btw, but would at least get residency)
awt[asciilifeform|billymg]: billymg: yes
awt[asciilifeform|billymg]: Also seems I survived eating raw oysters on the beach. Must not be too much sewage in the ocean.
billymg: good to hear lol
billymg: what's it like in general over there? livable?
awt[billymg|asciilifeform]: billymg: parts are quite livable. Other parts are still pre-columbian.
awt[asciilifeform|billymg]: Tunco is a very nice beach town.
awt[asciilifeform|billymg]: El Zonte is like a hippy surfer commune
awt[asciilifeform|billymg]: Will might like it
billymg: sounds promising
awt[asciilifeform|billymg]: Worth an expidition
awt[asciilifeform|billymg]: Learned that gang members make up about 1% of the population i.e. 70k out of 6 mil
awt[asciilifeform|billymg]: hard to believe they fit more than the entire population of CR in here
billymg: i wonder what the gang-affiliated percentage of the population is here
billymg: but yeah, i wouldn't have guessed that their population is bigger than CR's