Sent to me from a friend:
Letter from Scotia Bank (update, I’ve removed the pdf and have included a link to Scotiabank’s nicely formatted Winter newsletter which contains the same text).
Sent to me from a friend:
Letter from Scotia Bank (update, I’ve removed the pdf and have included a link to Scotiabank’s nicely formatted Winter newsletter which contains the same text).
My place of birth has begun to bother me more than ever with the systematic rise in discrimination of those with US birth places, clearly obvious for all to see the moment that you open your passport, by banks and other financial institutions due to FATCA. Yes, that horrible component of your personal data that, along with your name and date of birth, allows you to be systematically categorised and cataloged. For many, where you were born also happens to be where you grew up and where you most identify with. Many are born, live and die in the same city their entire lives and come from families that go back generations in the same city as well. Some of my French friends have even told me that an unwritten rule in Paris is that you need to be no less than the 5th generation to be born and raised in the city to be a real “Parisian”.
I would encourage anyone here who has the time to post responses on the TSR Infrarouge website in order to fuel the debate and increase awareness amoung the Swiss of how bad the situation is:
http://www.infrarouge.ch/ir/thread-364069-suisse-protege-assez-peuple-contre
I am pleased to have now invited Jeff D Tomas, nom de plume, from Switzerland to contribute here at Isaac Brock. To give you a sample of his writing, I reproduce here his recent comment at Isaac Brock and his editorial, in French, at Infrarouge. As many at Isaac Brock are able to read French, they can see how embarrassing it should be for the United States to be criticized in this manner, as the US policies violate not only the US constitutional protections but forces other sovereign states to violate their own human rights codes, not to mention the Universal Declaration of Human Rights of the United Nations. Jeff commented:
I love to share my concerns with you all. I am a dual citizen Brazil/USA and I always saw the USA as a fair country, like they say, Americans always do the right thing after trying everything else. But lately I have been questioning this belief because of the enormous difficulties I am having trying to comply with the IRS demands on Americans Living Abroad.
They seem so unfair to me. My reactions so far can be summed up under FEAR. And perhaps CONFUSION. Love to exchange ideas with you all.
Anyone who tells you otherwise, anyone who tells you that America is in decline or that our influence has waned, doesn’t know what they’re talking about. That’s not the message we get from leaders around the world, all of whom are eager to work with us. That’s not how people feel from Tokyo to Berlin; from Cape Town to Rio; where opinions of America are higher than they’ve been in years.
U.S. President Obama’s State of the Union address, January 24, 2012
Soon after I finished my PhD, I had the experience of teaching as an adjunct professor in Ontario. Eventually, I quit because I felt that the working conditions for contingent labor in higher education sucked–and they do: just google the terms “adjunct hell”. Then, I worked another job which I soon quit. But to damage my reputation after I quit, one of the people from the second job asked for a reference via e-mail from the first employer and soon a flurry of e-mails had damaged my reputation among about a couple dozen people. The first employer had even gone so far as to accuse me of “unpleasant breaches of trust”, not realizing that the term “breach of trust” is legaleze, usually for criminal behaviour related to money or the virtue of young women. Later, the man apologized to me, saying that what he meant is that I had let them down.
Just Me has a fine rebuttal to this Washington Post hit piece aimed at Americans living abroad. Add Al Kamen to the Isaac Brock Hall of Shame.
I was looking at usxcanada’s site and came across this:
In more than 4 out of 5 of 3233 responses (as of 14 Jan 2012) to a Globe and Mail online poll, individual U.S. citizens in Canada indicate either uncertainty or an intention to do nothing in the belief that they can remain undiscovered by U.S. authorities. — G&M Poll
It is hard to believe this is as of last Saturday. There doesn’t seem to be an easy way to get this message across. I shudder to think that the worst is yet to come. Any thoughts about this?
From Just Me:
10 reasons the U.S. is no longer the land of the free
the opportunity to add reason number 11..
FATCA and citizenship taxation.
There are lots of comments, and mine will get lost, but here is what I added for what it is worth….