I told myself I’d ignore politics for a while and comment – if and when I could – only on things that might help people figure out what to do financially.

But two recent stories call for comment.

The first was yesterday’s story about mob violence between Uighur Muslims and Han Chinese in China. The violence was said to have been triggered by the influx of Han into the oil-rich Uighur lands, which has led to resentment from the Uighurs. They see themselves as less well-off… and also as exploited by the Han. The Han regard these feelings as a sign of the Uighurs’ backwardness and stupidity.

Apparently, photos were circulated on the net of Han gloating over dead Uighur. That seems have led to violent confrontations between Han, Uighur and police. Chinese authorities also blame a nonresident Uighur activist for instigating violence over the photos. “Activists,” demands for disclosure of photos, and the web, all came in for blame.

The second story is in today’s news. Apparently, US Treasury and other web sites were subjected to Denial of Service Attacks that had them down for a long time.  The same thing happened to some South Korean banking sites. The attacks are said to have been very sophisticated and to have originated with North Korea, which has been firing missiles defiantly over the past couple of weeks.

My first worry is – is this all posturing or is something bigger afoot?

My second worry is – is this going to be used to clamp down on the net and on net activists? After all, yours truly has written several articles since 2005 demanding that the US government disclose photos of torture of Iraqi women – those articles could also be seen as inflammatory. Am I inciting jihadists with articles like that? I have no idea. My thinking is that people brainwashed into jihad probably don’t need much of a motive beyond the history of US policy to get them going.

But I’m willing to admit that it probably adds a bit of gasoline to some fires.

What to do? Should one NOT demand disclosure and assume the state has its reasons that reason knows nothing of?

But what if the state is circulating its own fiery propaganda with lethal results? Don’t you sometimes fight fire with fire?

Fight fire with fire and the whole world turns to coal, says Mahatma moralist.

George Herbert said something better though. He said the whole world turns to coal anyway.

Only a “sweet and virtuous soul still chiefly lives.”

The question is how does a virtuous soul act in such times and in such complexities?

I have no answer.

It rained the whole of yesterday. I walked out a bit at 10 AM to see if I could see a few things, but the wind here is strong and drives the temperature, from around 8-10 degrees to zero. It’s too humid to freeze or snow, though. Small mercies.

The first week I was down here – the last week of June – the weather was chilly and damp – the kind of damp that makes your knees and knuckles ache.

At first, I shrugged it off. Nothing’s perfect, I told myself.

Then a particularly cold blast from the ocean sent me scuttling to the provinces in search of warmer weather. But after a couple of days, I realized that with only English, a small town can pose problems, and I came back, sheepishly.

You can’t have beautiful old colonial houses, pristine air and water, safe streets… and complain because the weather is a bit chilly for a few months in the year. What kind of a pioneering attitude is that, I told myself.

Then again, I don’t fool myself I’m pioneer material. At heart, I’m a traditionalist. Even a bit of stick-in-the-mud. It’s an accident that I end up in the vanguard of things.

And the reason for that…the problem.. is rationality. I tend to argue things to their logical conclusions and then follow those conclusions – even when they don’t necessarily come easily. I call this a problem, because I’m not convinced that rationality is the best way to arrive at decisions. Instinct – gut – is better in most cases. And in some, just doing what the other fellow’s doing seems to work just fine. But I’ve always had a tendency to fall for beautiful symmetries – even when they’re misleading. Especially when they’re misleading.

And the beautiful, symmetrical argument is that the safest bet for most people is land.

They aren’t making cheap farmland in the US. There was still some in places like Alabama and Mississippi and Tennessee, until recently. But now it’s all been bought up. And what’s left is probably the dregs, as far as fertility goes.

Holing up in the Ozarks with a cache of ammunition probably works for some Americans. But somehow, I think a foreign born citizen taking to moonshine country might not work. It would be a shame to survive the Feds – and then succumb to the locals.

No offense meant.

In times of difficulty, people tend to stick to race and faith. I think it’s to be expected. I’ve begun to grow suspicious of everything foreign too – although personally, I’m nothing but a patchwork of foreign and borrowed.

It also sits much better with many people  – morally – to hold a piece of dirt than to cling to ingots ….or scraps…of precious metal. Maybe childhood stories about golden calves…about Midas turning his little girl into gold…bother us at a certain level.

And gold mining is one of the worst businesses when it comes to water usage and damage to the environment.

Even if no one wants your piece of dirt…even if it crumbles with every other asset class into nothingness…..you can always scrape in the dust for turnips and roots. There’s something reassuring about that. Something solid.

You can’t eat wind – which is what we have an oversupply of now.

So – it’s land for many people.

And that’s what I’m seeing. Americans and Canadians are moving down here in something stronger than a trickle. Some of them, on a temporary basis. But the temporary seems to change into longer term for many.

My interest is both personal and professional. I came down to see for myself how the economic crisis is playing out in this part of the globe. And why Soros…among many other investors…is down here….

I’m on an assignment, it goes without saying. But one I’ve set myself.

I hope to leverage the information. How, I don’t know..

So, what does it feel like to breathe free air again?

Invigorating…

By the way, an apology…

I just noticed that some more radio interviews seem to have disappeared from the web. This one was on the Gary Null show a few years ago. I just saw that it had been removed.  It joins a growing list: a Money Dots interview in 2008, another small interview on Dollar Daze in 2009.

What on earth could I have said that was so upsetting?

I have no idea. But I apologize because these shows were listed on my credits on this blog and their disappearance from the web makes me look like a liar….

A few random observations:

The concept of customer service is overdeveloped in the US…. and underdeveloped most other places.

A barbecue on coal is for wimps. Real men barbecue on wood fires.

Avoid changing money outside a bank and always check your money.

Always get a receipt.

32 hectares can mean 32 square meters of road frontage.

Try to avoid driving a car directly through a rice field.

There are a lot of Americans buying homes abroad. A lot.

Don´t say too much to the person in the expat group who brings up the Zionist lobby.  Tell them you love it… or better yet, say nothing.  He/she could be an informant.

My new piece, “Going Over the Mountain,” http://www.lewrockwell.com/rajiva/rajiva21.html, is posted at Lew Rockwell. So many of you had written asking where to go that I thought I’d write a piece answering some of your questions – and stoutly refusing to answer some of them.

Which questions DIDN’T I answer? Questions like is Panama better for you than Mexico. How would I know? It all depends on what you want to do and who you are.

Meanwhile,  I am going to be AWOL at this blog for a few days.  So bear with me if you don’t find your mail answered or posted here.  I value everyone of my readers and contributors and hope to help you out much better after I’ve finished making a few arrangements for myself.

When I’ve done that – it should take a few months more – I will be in much better shape to answer more of your questions…

Meanwhile, the blog isn’t broken or discontinued. I’m just unable to write for a few days.

So adios for the moment.

I wrote a long post at midnight two nights ago describing how someone was posting on my site deceptively. I described the hacking and threats/warnings [from whom I’m not sure, but the evidence points in a certain direction].

Anyone who thinks that a single individual can easily stand up to a corporation in court is dreaming. Unfortunately, some associations trail behind you like a ball and chain, dragging you down, no matter how hard you close your eyes and run away. The one thing that’s verboten in a masquerade is for someone to see through it.

Musing on how prone life is to imitating cheap fiction, I bought myself a small item of self-defense.

Writing is not a profession but a vocation of unhappiness

–  George Simenon

Update

The individual who owned the blogs was upset by my post. Actually, I posted no personal information, only the IP address, country and profession of the pseudonymous mail, not the letter with the real name.  And I took the material down quickly on my own. A blog post in the middle of the night is a low-profile way to send a message.

What message?  Something like, don’t post repeatedly under different names on a blog that’s just been attacked and where the blogger suspects stalking. The targeted blogger will justifiably assume you’re the culprit. Sorry….that’s the way it is.