The current panic-demic surrounding the Emperor’s New Corona has reminded me of some of the reasons I feel grateful to live where we do. Worth reviewing for the benefit of people interested in possibly living here:

1) relative stability regarding political authority. (Remember just a few months ago how all you read about were riots in Hong Kong, Chile, Peru, Bolivia [though protests in the incredibly polluted Chinese cities evaded the headlines] — isn’t it just amazing how that has all gone away with the Emperor’s New Corona?)

2) short supply lines. Were transportation reduced to horse-drawn carts, we could still have fresh produce. Think “30 mile salad” compared to “3,000 mile salad” in the Untied Snakes.

3) fresh produce. OK, the oranges can get a little funky this time of year for lack of irrigation, but fresh local produce is available throughout the year.

4) clean air. Unless you’re subject to ANCAP’s daily morning air pollution event in Montevideo, the air for the most part is clean. If you live along the coast, it’s usually off the ocean. Your ironwork won’t be happy, but your lungs will.

5) clean skies. Yesterday morning the sky was brilliant blue in the morning, and brilliant blue in the afternoon. In North Carolina and Washington State, where we lived before 2007, brilliant blue morning skies more often than not became laced with “contrails*,” and gray by early afternoon.

6) low population density. Unless you’re in Montevideo (and I’ve never understood why one would choose to live in a city if not necessary, but that’s just me), you’ve got easy access to sunshine, fresh air, and for many of us, barefoot walks on the beach.

7) the people. Two parts to this:

• though it can be frustrating when, for example, you’re trying get something — anything! — done, the overall laid-back attitude serves well in an engineered panic-demic such as we’re experiencing now;
• largely European. When we left rural Mexico in 2009, I noted with amusement how I considered “tall” anyone whose head was higher than my shoulder. Much as Ecuador, Peru, and Bolivia looked interesting, I was aware that when SHTF your chances are probably better in a place where you don’t stick out like a sore thumb. Fear breeds division: just look how we’re being programmed now to consider every other human being a potential death threat! Not a situation in which you want to be a potential scapegoat because you look different.

8) largely ineffectual police and military — apparently. Of course Uruguay had brutal times in the 70s, and anything can change any time, but the general demeanor is non-threatening at this point.

Of course it’s not paradise. Uruguayans seem proud to be front-runners in the global EM-radiation pollution experiment called 5G, but that, with its flu-like symptoms and respiratory distress, appears to be inevitable. Still, when I think, as I have since 2009, of many other places I might live, I’m grateful I can live in Uruguay.

*if you believe they’re “contrails,” please PM me — I’ve got a great bridge for sale!