Activism vs. "Digital Nomadism" (a Political Autobiography of sorts)

hey what's up there's a fad right now of
so-called digital nomadism taking the word nomadism and using it to encourage people to live a certain kind of reckless and irresponsible life and for me it's very strange to reflect on it because that's a life I feel I was forced into living that I didn't want to live but that circumstances beyond my control forced me to live for many many years I know what it's like to live out of an apartment in Hong Kong and to be prepared to pack up and move to another city the next month or the next week at any time I lived that way for many many years in Asia but in reality even when I lived in Europe and in Canada for most of my adult life that was how was living with no sense of permanence for many many years I remember saying to my my ex-wife I lived without owning a table you know just even investing in furniture you do the bare minimum or less because at any given time you've gotta pack it in and move on the type of nomadism I suffered or I endured including episodes such as being exiled from Laos Laos as a small country in Southeast Asia with death threats from government officials when I left Laos I had nothing but my backpack and my bicycle and actually most of my money was in a bank account inside Laos that I couldn't get at so I was really in a situation like a refugee after that were very very difficult situation but he but before that and after that too I have lived a life where the type of nomadism I've endured has been forced upon me I remember visiting a friend's apartment in Cambodia and seeing that he had set up little glass jars with spices and tea bags and other kitchen ingredients on the walls and I just remarked to him it's been so many years since I did anything like that you know i just did not live that way as an adult basically after I finished University the first time I instead lived in a state of of nomadism I would not even be call it digital nomadism although like everyone else my life was enabled by the internet and for me I mean what's now kind of a fad about minimalism the type of of minimalistic life I got used to having to put everything into a backpack in a suitcase and move on I wouldn't want to use the word minimalist for it but it was minimal now still today I've now lived in this part of Canada for more than a year but a lot of these habits haunt me and I'm now packing up to move again in this whole apartment I own two cups i'm going to show you one of them they're identical that's a metal cup aluminium cup I own two cups I own no glasses ionno other mugs that's it two cups so I can wash one and the other ones ready to go that's it I own two bowls they're also stainless steel you've actually seen them on camera at some of my videos two bowls no plates no other dishware of any kind two bowls so it's not possible for me to let dirty dishes stack up in the kitchen at any one time one of the bowls is in use the other ones being washed or on the shelf that's it so it is strange for me to see people praising or glorifying a lifestyle so-called digital nomadism so-called minimalism and the permanent vacation as i call it under under many different headings glorifying a lifestyle especially in Asia of quitting your job in the Western world of quitting your hometown of leaving behind your cares and responsibilities in America Canada or England to seek out this kind of life in Thailand now I did live in Thailand for it adds up to quite a lot of time Thailand is one of the places I live but for me it wasn't a vacation I was in Thailand because of a combination of humanitarian interest seeking humanitarian work research interests that includes language and historical work I was there partly because the jobs I could get and when I first arrived in Thailand I was employed by the museum Service National Museum service of the country I actually attended meetings in the equivalent to their their Parliament building is actually a building that's just called Government House I met you know senior government officials so when I first went there I had a reasonable paying job that let me say up a little money and then when I quit that job then I was I was truly nomadic to say the least I was really in a situation being homeless end up living in Vienna and the capital city of Laos but again I I was driven to be there you know ultimately by ambitions I've said many times the channel ambition is not just about money ambition can be about accomplishing all kinds of things like humanitarian work and ambition ultimately is about shaping type of person you want to be now I had I had a lot of reservations about Thailand but Thailand Laos Cambodia Myanmar Sri Lanka there's a large part of the world that I wanted to devote the rest of my life to both in terms of scholarship and in terms of humanitarian work but the disadvantages of nomadism were obvious to me from the start before I embarked on that journey I knew what it was to live in one place in Toronto I knew what it was to go to City Hall and give depositions at City Hall I knew what it was to be involved in local politics and Canada is not that big a country if you keep showing up at Parliament any Parliament whether it's provincial federal or you know local something like City Hall if you just show up regularly you know the politicians start to recognize you some of the politicians there they knew me even they didn't know my name like you know I remember one of the famous politicians at the time guy who later ran for Prime Minister Canada but I remember when I wasn't he referred to me as our bald friend look he heard me speak at a few things he knew what was the guy who stood up and you know I don't blame him for not remember my name it's not my point my point is that politics is actually small enough and you start participating you start even in a totally informal volunteer capacity people start to recognize you including people in power and if you have any talents if you're contributing anything positive they'll remember you positively so it was very much aware of the local and pragmatic aspect of politics and again i can say actually for myself autobiographically for me that was also partly a way to escape the madness of abstract and international politics I knew the insanity of communism of left-wing extremism in general I knew history on the level of wars of international politics this kind of great conflict and I knew that someone like myself could not make a positive contribution those areas but someone like myself could show up at City Hall do research that was relevant to the issue being debated that day at that meeting at City Hall I could show up and give a deposition that showed that I had analyzed the facts that I knew something the government didn't know or didn't notice and I could influence real-world outcomes frankly with nothing with nothing but my own mind with no money with no organization and what have you and it was interested then as you purposely a million times on this channel of trying to get organized with just five people with just ten people with just finding a few other intelligent people who cared about the political issues the ecological issues etc that I cared about and if you had the humility and the pragmatism I knew on that level you could make a difference but all of that is rooted in and relies upon commitment to a place ultimately you have to have a fixed address he heard me market in recent video here by contrast when I lived in Hong Kong I felt that I was just there temporarily I was just there for the money I would even say had no mad I was an expatriate you know I had a job in Hong Kong I was going to do that for a certain number of months didn't know I didn't know for how many months living in a very uncertain situation there too but I knew at some point my clothes go back in the suitcase I get back in the airplane and I leave and that's it and politics in Hong Kong were fascinating and extreme the ecological situation stream many of the problems extreme but I knew this is not for me these are not this is not my fight and I don't I don't want to pretend and that's partly an emotional and subjective decision I did not feel that way about every country i lived in as a foreigner for an extreme contrast in taiwan taiwan is also culturally chinese but taiwan is a separate country in effect in taiwan i did want in in taiwan not only was i I was really passionate of with local politics than a tremendously rewarding just to read the newspapers there and follow what was happening from we to read the newspapers in English wasn't reading in Chinese in Taiwan I was both interested in embarked on a long-term plan of going to law school becoming a lawyer and practicing law locally with in Taiwan and so that I could be part of those ongoing political questions and in Taiwan above all else I really had deep respect for their democratic system Taiwanese system of government is an imitation of western systems of government but in in many ways it's more impressive than the system of government we have in Canada and I mean that sincerely so again many people say well what's the difference between Hong Kong and Taiwan there are myriad differences many objective differences that really exists in the world politically and and actually physically but my point here is part of the difference is just with me when I was in Taiwan I felt that I could stop being a nomad there that that was somewhere I could live long where I commit to the education system the political system become part of that society become committed to and engage with local politics at City Hall at whatever humble level I felt I could make a difference that and I was going to do that and of course that involved years of learning the language and I was going to ultimately go to law school and become a lawyer there or get some similar credential I did a lot of research related to all those options the different diplomas I could get the different roads to achieve that and so on and of course at the time I was married to a woman who was completely fluent in Chinese and spoken chinese she was completely fluent so this this is not as crazy a plan as it might seem if you don't know maybe we don't know the other aspects of my life but look what if i wanted to do serious fundraising to start a foundation to start a charity to make a difference the world what if i wanted to do fundraising for any kind of a project you know much more seriously than what I've just done on on patreon the reality is that rests on my having a permanent address in one place at one time in most countries you need at least five people sometimes 10 or 12 people who can be the board of directors who can sign a piece of paper for a registered charity who can have a bank accounts in one place at one time here in Canada sometimes you need all the people to live in the same province you need all the people to meet once a year the list of bureaucratic and procedural requirements to have a registered charity is really worth thinking about it's worth thinking about who that excludes and who that benefits in life but if you want to make a difference you can't you can't be a nomad so-called digital nomadism as they say I feel I had it forced on me it was the opposite of what I wanted in life what I wanted was to make a difference in the world through pragmatic hands on politics not ideological politics not war ito not some not the kind of crazy theoretical politics I knew from communism and other you know political philosophy I really had the humility and pragmatism to be the guy who went to City Hall and said look I read this 50-page report on the sewage treatment plan and here are the problems in it that nobody else has bothered to point out because journalists won't do that and the contractors won't do that and the people who sit there and City Hall the elected councillors they're not going to do it and you know you being the one person who read the report and did a little bit of research you actually can have an impact and you may you may be received positively for that you may be valued for meeting their contribution but really that experience didn't change me the whole series of changes took place in my life to bring me up to that point to be that guy who would go to City Hall and do that and now obviously I could never be that person in Cambodia I could never be that person in Laos Laos is a communist dictatorship I could definitely never be that person in Thailand Thailand is closed to foreigners in some ways not with discussing here but interestingly in a place like Taiwan by contrast I thought I want in this is a political system this is a democracy where I can settle down and be a meaningful part of the struggles that are going on that include indigenous minority languages ecology veganism in a huge way until one sure it was a crew that was one of the reasons I moved back there it's not why I moved there the first time it's but veganism was a huge part of why I moved there the last time a huge part of it absolutely but if you're choosing to be a digital nomad I think in many ways this is the Peter Pan syndrome really it's a choice never to accept those grown-up responsibilities never to be part of a community and you know you may not care about it but it means you're never going to own a set of dishware you're never going to own a set of glasses a set of cups you're never going to own any of the things a normal poor person owns if they just live in the same city continuously and you're never going to be part of a community both in the political ways I'm talking about in the sense of responsibility and the sense of being good citizen you're never going to do that and also in terms of the benefits you might get from really being a member of a community in a deep sense so a lot of autobiographical information therefore pretty simple reflection because basically what I have to say is be where a lot of people are trying to glamorize what's really a somewhat grim and desperate situation that many people find themselves in a 21st century of having no medical benefits no fixed address no home no work visa even of having to get on an airplane every three months because in their passport it just says they're a tourist and of trying to make money on the internet and trying to make money with no real University diploma or no real skills that'll get you a job and in the end it's a swindle it's a swindle because it keeps you trapped in the situation of being a powerless individual and for most people if you're not born a multi-millionaire your power is not going to come from money your power is going to come from community or at a minimum your power is going to come from cooperation i'm having some network of trust of other people who can cooperate with you whether that's somebody you trust enough to babysit your children someone you trust enough to sign a piece of paper to be an executive with you in starting a charity and starting foundation when i was talking to the violent vegan he's trying to start a little vegan business you know obviously to promote veganism not to make make money and he says it's so hard to find someone he can work with someone he can trust somebody can walk cooperate with well if you fly all over the world and never build up you know home base in one place that kind of trust cooperation rely on other people that's real community and that's why it's so sad when I hear these hollow claims about the vegan community on the Internet what you're calling community those people aren't going to babysit your kid they're not going to meet you in the hospital if you're sick they're not going to come to your funeral if you die when you have a problem will they really help you out really and vice versa if you're a grown adult you're not kid anymore who are you helping you know you're not taking care of your own grandparents who takes care of you and who are you taking care of on the tiny scale of the isolated individual these are sort of the first and most fundamental political problems and it's very sad for me to see people dodging that with the delusion that living from one airplane ticket to the next and living out of a backpack with a bicycle is a you know beautiful lifestyle it's not if it's a vacation fine but at some point the vacations got to end