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Anyone have any experience with getting dual citizenship (US adding EU)? I'm looking at the "Slovak by Descent" program as a bit of a lark, and was wondering if there were any pitfalls (aside from the obvious "no longer able to apply for jobs that need a US security clearance"). Seems to me to be all upside, no downside.
This isn't likely to be persuasive to someone who doesn't feel it in their bones, but I don't think you should hedge when it comes to the land of your fathers, and I don't want to live in a nation surrounded by such hedgers. A class of trans-national elites with no particular loyalties to hearth and home is a bad thing in and of itself, and you shouldn't participate in its propagation.
I recognize this is probably at least partially a result of a character flaw of mine, but I'm viscerally disgusted by the idea of dual-nationals and think we should amend the constitution to explicitly prohibit American citizens from being citizens of any other nation.
It makes travel significantly more convenient depending on where you're going. A proper third-world passport is actually more useful than EU for this, since countries who have beef with one tend to have beef with both. And even if you're purely a US citizen you need two passports to travel to both Israel and much of the Middle East. Also worth doing if you're wealthy and have a second home outside the US, tourist visa limits can get inconvenient and citizenship can make dealing with homeownership bureaucracy easier.
Am I one of the only people out there that thinks traveling just fucking sucks ass? Straight up. I mean yeah, I’ve always wanted to visit the morbid, desolate and forbidden stay away zones your mother would never want you to go to as a sense of adventure, but not as a way to marvel and mull over the fact that they have toilets and take a shit “just like we do!,” all the way in China. I mean it’s more or less “like this” almost anywhere you go (where you don’t want to put your life at risk).
Out of curiosity, where have you actually been? I grew up in Malaysia and now live in Australia, I've travelled all over Europe and Oceania, been to North America and most recently have been exploring Asia, and could not disagree more with it being "like this" almost anywhere you go.
To be blunt, I find many westerners to be overly scared by countries that have been marketed to them as "third world" and as such overwhelmingly travel to a restricted range of relatively culturally similar places, though I actually often find them (particularly the Asian ones) safer and more pro-social than much of the West is today.
"Morbid, desolate and forbidden" are the last descriptors I would apply to China, and I am going again this year. You're not going to be arbitrarily detained unless you want to sell drugs or something. There's extremely rich history, fantastic infrastructure, some really great food (outside of Beijing at least), it's very safe and cheap, albeit the digital ecosystem there can be a pain and people there smoke like it's 60s America.
Frankly, out of all the places I've been I would use that word to describe urban Canada. In other words, there's a lot of places I would deem as viscerally different while still being very safe.
Yeah. China's fine these days, maybe a bit of issues with sameyness in their urban renewal but it's also absurdly cheap and comfortable in the vast majority of places I've been in the country. Most of the places in the world I've been to and felt like I'm unsafe/witnessing urban decay have been in the West such as New Orleans and Belfast (Yes, I'm sure I could go find worse places in Asia but like no real desire to do that).
What's wrong with Beijing food? It's not my favorite regional cuisine but I've had some great meals there.
My perception was that the flavour profile of Beijing food had a good bit less depth and spice than the other regions of China I visited (such as Shanxi, where I really enjoyed the food), and I crave spice to an absurd level. Admittedly I've not spent too long in Beijing, just four days so I probably haven't had the chance to try too much; I had kaoya, zhajiangmian, Beijing-style shaomai in the Qing dynasty restaurant that spread these dumplings throughout China and a small handful of other regional specialities, I'd say they were fine but not great. I'm sure there's great food there though and am happy to accept recommendations for the next time I go.
Agree with most of your points. There's also lots more traditional practices going on in China than most people tend to think, IMO. People almost seem to believe all culture got supplanted by Communism - I've seen people assert that communist China "destroyed" things that a 5 minute Google search would prove still exist - but honestly it's quite clear visiting Mainland China that a lot of varied regional practices remain extant and have flourished heavily under liberalisation (sometimes you can find some seemingly really improbable things still being practiced, like the hermit lifestyle in the Zhongnan Mountains that stretches back all the way to the Qin dynasty). Aspects of traditional stuff actually seem to be cool among the younger generation in China unlike most other places in Asia I've visited, and as a Malaysian Chinese much of what I saw felt rather familiar to me.
I agree that Beijing food is a bit nonspicy/plain compared to other Chinese varietals but I wouldn't call it bad perse. There are countries where the baseline is a lot worse.
Also I'd agree on the cultural stuff as a white person living in a Malaysian Chinese family in Malaysia. I do feel that the average Malaysian Chinese adherence to cultural stuff is higher than the average Mainlanders, but also the sheer scope, regional focuses and population of China means that if you travel you'll see a lot more random showings of cultural practices that you wouldn't otherwise expect. A lot of the old temples have been overrun by XHS photo-takers, but sometimes you'll see people doing things the old ways. I accidentally walked into a closed temple (Somebody left a door open and I think the person watching it wasn't confident enough in their English to warn me from going through) on top of Taishan last time I was there and there was a lot more monks and elaborate offerings than I expected.
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