I Left the US

and the UK, and Colombia

Based on the recent podcast episode of the same name with Chris Musei-Sequeira, PMP

I left the United States.

It was 2003.

I was living in New York City.

I was there when 9/11 happened, as I’ve mentioned in a previous post.

I was disgusted by what the US was doing in response, and I had visited my in-laws in the UK, and had experienced, what I used to call, a civilised country with good public transport, via trains and buses, a wonderful health care system, the BBC: high quality entertainment and news without advertising.

This seemed utopic to me

and so when we had the opportunity to move to the UK, I was really excited about it.

Of course, later I came to realise the UK's own role in the war on Iraq and Tony Blair, etc, etc, but it became my home for 17 years.

I didn't consider myself an activist at the time of leaving the US, so I didn't really have a sense of staying and fighting.

It was more to do with wanting to see what it was like to live in another country, a country that seemed to have, and it’s still true, a lot less individualism and a better sense of social support.

And I wasn't a target in the United States for any kind of oppression,

apart from the common one, being a woman.

So I went to the UK, and I did become an activist there.

And of course, I spoke the same language, worked on climate change activism.

And then I left the UK.

This was prompted by having a child.

Partly it's because I wanted her to be around a lot of family, and a particular culture that values family quite a bit, which we have here in Colombia,

and partly because I had climate change on my mind and societal collapse,

and I believed, and I still believe, that the Colombian culture is more resilient to those kinds of crises because of its own history and never having experienced the level of so-called development that people in the UK and the US feel entitled to.

However, I had trouble figuring out how to make a living after a year,

and I also felt like my activism, being able to speak English and not being able to speak Spanish, meant that I could do more good by going back to the UK.

So that is when I began doing the activism around asylum seekers and refugees. I understand that system very well. I understand the culture very well, and I was able to support these humans fleeing to the UK, seeking better lives.

And then, for the family reasons, I left the UK again. But again, I felt a strong urge to go back and fight when the Labour Party led by Jeremy Corbyn lost the elections in December 2019.

I felt like things were going to get a lot worse for everyone. And I thought I should be there and be using the fact that I can speak English. I could do more good there.

So I went back, did some activism. But the pandemic hit, it felt very isolating, and again, I wanted to be back with family, and I left the UK.

Now I say:

I’m not leaving Colombia.

There is a benefit to living in a place where the cost of living is low for someone like me who can earn money from outside the country. It means there's a distribution of wealth from Europe and the US into Colombia, and it means that I can work less and do more activism, which is in the English language, virtually.

And we are around a lot of family, and now I have a partner here, so I'm not leaving Colombia.

These thoughts were prompted by a podcast episode that we heard, Chris, about people deciding whether or not to leave the US, given the current political situation.

And I think some of it comes down to: Are you a target? Are you in danger?

Would you be able to do more from outside?

We have a mutual friend that questions very strongly whether people with privilege should be leaving the US if they're not targets,

I have that in me as well.

I worry about the privileged people all leaving, and then what's left are the people most vulnerable who can't afford to leave, and the people who want them dead.

I do worry about that.

Obviously, I could go back to the US and fight.

I speak the language, I have a US passport,

but I honestly I don't know how I would live.

I don't know how I would be able to afford health care.

And as I say, it feels like I can do more from here, and at the same time, giving my daughter a quality of life that I would like her to have and quality of education and being bilingual and having a sense of strong community with the huge family that we have here.