edel

I hear you, I am worry too. But again... this is a risk at the European level, not at the Spanish one; in Spain, it simply would not pass today. with a different government, of course, it can.. Of all freedoms, this one concerns me the least, simply because it is mostly impossible to enforce for citizens.

Back to the original question though, of the 8 requirements, this one on privacy we could leave as a contentious point. But it is because law, it will affect all EU contenders ( and Switzerland will be pressured to oblige too soon after)

Ad someone who goes to Canada every two months in the last 15yrs, I had witnessed the regression not only in the liberties, but also mood of the people. No one would have guessed a decade ago how a country with so much potential and human capital would had become in this state! I would not only blame the Liberal party though... it is something bigger than them, same in the US... and most of the West.

Who does not have the visual of the movie 300's when Leonidas throws his spear at Xerxes face to prove his mortality?! Yemen and its people will continue to suffer but they will be remembered for their fierce conviction.

Again, that seems to be a personal vendetta of the minister Grande-Marlaska that keeps going secretly against the government policy (like the recently Israeli munition purchase that wast promptly canceled). No parliament debate on encryption or even public debate has been brought up at all. If it does, the minute it comes up, it would be turned down swiftly by the current coalition government. The President has no made any statement on banning encryption either, nor I think he would either. However, he did talk on identification on social media, but he will not spearhead that, nor it is doable to implement for now.

Thanks for that wired link. Was not aware of it. It is 2 years old but important still. Now, that is not from the president of Spain, but its minister Fernando Grande-Marlaska, a extremist and, I would say, a compromised guy that works more for foreign entities than Spain's interest and should have been fired long ago. For instance, last week he signed a contract with a Israelś company to purchase munition... the outrage in the coalition government was such that Sanchez had to step in and canceled the already signed contract.

On wanting to stop anonymity, 100% with you, but hard to find any leader is not on board with that.

For real, where do you get that the President of Spain wants to ban encryption?! That debate has been held in Germany, France and UK but not precisely in Spain... like nothing at all. In that talk President Sanchez just talked about the massive and pernicious powers social media have in the society (true) and that he supports the EU Digital Services Act (DSA), at highly misguided and bad thing, but not spearheaded by Spain. None of that is wanting to ban encryption... letś no mention almost impossible to enforce properly too. If digital freedom is your aim, options like Australia is a bit off, you are good until you touch sensitive things for the US.

The are many potential reasons for Social Anxiety, but for most tend to exaggerate enormously what other think of ourselves and the truth is, no one cares much. One single public smile does more for you social skills than talking for three hours. For me the cure was "age" or, better yet, wisdom. Now, if you are inpatient, there are things that you can do to accelerate the cure before that... do get expose, open the window blinds more often and enjoy the sun and wave hi if someone checks you out... Look for activities where you can excuse the talk level like biking.

First, it is different experience if land crossing or through an airport.

Your intuition is right, the impression through the media is not accurate. I´d land crossed the border a few times this year and did not notice any changes... if anything is the Canadian side that is a bit more scrupulous with the questioning but nothing concerning. Now, for sure, some border officers may feel more embolden to do harm than before, but it is not much of a noticeable shift from previous years.

Remember, that border officers have a unusual broad authority that leave us, mortals, without much recourse, so be courteous and the numbers say you will be fine. In the past, I had said a wrong word like "I had to do a training" and zap... I was retained for 8h for "intention to work" and had to contact HR in both countries.. avoid sensitive with words that can be triggers for them... for starters... do NOT mention your username ;-)

Chat control, ban encryption? Where do you get that? I follow occasionally Spanish politics and never came across that. It may have been raised by some lone politician but highly unlikely to happen, unless other countries like France or Germany does it first, nor the people will follow with any mandate. The problem is if the main opposition party gets in power... they are more inclined to do that but even there I don´t see it spearheading any of that by themselves.

"At least to me it would be impossible if my head was still in the US". I completely understand it... contributing with taxes to these policies from Washington DC may feel appalling... Now, the US has plenty of small and diverse type of communities some would find remarkable, like bubbles within the Empire... some can easily find peace there. Emigrating to another country is not recommended, nor feasible to everyone, but just moving within the US can be day and night different. Moving just a few miles away and and your lifestyle and friends can potentially change almost as much as moving abroad, and still close to your family/job.

Switzerland has many protections you want and the salaries are very good too. Now, I don´t consider life there as ideal thought. It is a bit depressing, so much beauty around but something is sad... reminds it of Paris... not to that extreme, but a bit like it. Of course it is a stable economy and you sense that peace of mind when there.

However it is not that democratic as they claim, for instance, twice the country voted for restriction on EU immigration (a silly thing since it greatly benefits the Alpine country and its society) but still the politicians keep dragging their feet and give excuses to disregard the resounding already decade old mandate (and at the benefit of the economy)... so wise yes, democratic not! Likewise, Switzerland has caved much to the powers of US and EU to several international topics so it is not the independent it used to be. Then it is the ethical aspect of collecting monies from spurious sources (Ireland lives of that too, but at least, the Celtics are more transparent of that)...

Spain vs Portugal is a tough one... Spain has better protections on paper but the people can be more vocal when opposing something they don´t like. Portuguese, in general, are far more amicable and genuine, specially outside the too touristic areas, but prospective for jobs to foreigners is slim outside the two main cities. Yes, Portuguese are far more amicable than Spaniards, but, like I mentioned in other post, the test is put when circumstance change, with the flock of foreigners buying property in Lisbon an Porto, they are far less welcoming there now too. For the long term, Spain, has a better track record, if you ask me.