RepoMan007: She’d been living in Miami for around three decades and had built a life that she loved.
But Julie Balzano, originally from Long Island, found herself struggling to keep up with the rising cost of living in the “Magic City,” recently ranked as the 10th most expensive city in the world on Swiss private bank Julius Baer’s annual Lifestyle Index.
After selling her home in 2021 with the intention of downsizing, Balzano couldn’t find anything within her price range and decided to rent a townhouse for a year in order to “let the market stabilize” and eventually “buy back in.”
However, as time went on, the 60-year-old, who is divorced with two grown-up children, realized that this was unlikely to happen anytime soon, and she’d need to come up with a different plan for her future.
‘Falling behind’ “Property prices were rising exponentially,” Balzano tells CNN Travel. “My income was not keeping up, and I was slowly but surely falling behind.”
With her rent “creeping up and up,” Balzano was determined to reduce living costs so that she’d be able to retire, or at least think about retiring, in the not too distant future.
“So how do I get from where I am currently, to there?” she thought to herself.
Balzano had been visiting Colombia regularly for around eight years while working for a trade association, and one of her good friends had recently relocated to the South American country.
As she weighed up her options, she began considering the prospect of doing so herself.
And when the same friend offered to put her up in her home in the city of Medellin to give her some time to get on her feet, she decided to go for it.
“I made the decision in April,” Balzano, who is of Italian-American descent, explains. “And then my lease was up at the end of July. So I said I will make the move when my lease is up.”
She then spent three months “basically divesting” herself all of possessions, selling and gifting some, donating others, and putting 14 boxes into storage, until she was left with two suitcases and two boxes of personal items.
Balzano says that her son and daughter, both in their 20s, were supportive of her decision, encouraging her to take the leap.
“They’re grown and living their lives,” she says, recalling how her daughter, who lives in North Florida, pointed out that they were already hours away from each other by car, and she would only be a three-and-a-half-hour plane ride away now.
She boarded a plane from Miami to begin her new life in August, just three months after deciding to take the leap. She boarded a plane from Miami to begin her new life in August, just three months after deciding to take the leap. On August 2, Balzano hopped on a plane from Miami to Medellin to begin a brand new chapter.
“It’s interesting, because I recorded myself in the airport,” she says. “And I had lived overseas when I was younger, so the move overseas was not something I was completely unfamiliar with.
“But as a woman who was married with a home, who has raised my children, and was there for my parents for their end of life care.
“To find myself at this stage of my life completely unencumbered by any other responsibility other than myself – it’s a very surreal, liberating and also frightening experience all at the same time.”
While she entered on a 90-day tourist visa, Balzano, who works in marketing and business development, decided to apply for a digital nomad visa, which would need to be renewed after a year, hiring a lawyer to guide her through the application process.
‘My money goes a lot further here’: This woman moved to Italy because the US was too expensive “I submitted my application in mid-August, and I got my visa one month later,” she explains.
In the months since then, Balzano, who is fluent in Spanish, has found her own place, launched a new business, and started a Facebook group for expats in Medellin, which currently has hundreds of members.
She stresses that the difference in her quality of life has been significant during her time there, noting that she spends a lot of time walking, and feels much healthier as a result.
“The weather is just amazing,” she says. “It truly is the ‘City of Eternal Spring.’”
Shortly after arriving in Medellin, Balzano began reviewing the other visa options available that would allow her to stay longer, and realized that an investment visa, was likely her best option.
However, in order to qualify, applicants must make either a direct foreign investment or a real estate investment, the minimum for the latter being the equivalent of 350 times the official Colombian monthly minimum wage.
‘Coolest neighborhood’ “My window of opportunity was limited,” Balzano explains. “So I just decided to go for it. And I started apartment hunting.”
After spending some time searching for a suitable place, Balzano found a three-bedroom apartment in Laureles, Medellin, which recently topped global publisher Time Out’s list of the “world’s coolest” neighborhoods.
Balzano put in an offer on the “brand new” apartment in October and closed on it in early November. She is currently in the process of applying for the investment visa.
While she’s chosen not to disclose how much she paid for her new home, Balzano stresses that she “could never afford this equivalent apartment” in the same location in Miami.
“I’m living in the ‘coolest neighborhood,’” she adds. “And it’s about a third of the cost of living in Miami.”
According to Balzano, her social life is far more active in Colombia, partly due to the climate, but also because she doesn’t have to think about money so much.
“I don’t worry that I’m going to go out to dinner with a group of people and I can’t afford to pay my fair share,” she says.
As Colombia “is a very family-centered culture,” Balzano deliberately aimed her Facebook expat group at over 50s so that she could meet other older, single women, and/or those who are more understanding of “the independence that comes with being single at this age.”
The fact that Balzano, who learned Spanish when she was a volunteer for the Peace Corps, an independent agency of the US government, can communicate with locals easily has been hugely beneficial for her.
“It does make a difference,” she acknowledges. “English is not widely spoken here. There are a lot of expats here who don’t speak Spanish – they’re learning.
“I think those who don’t speak Spanish have a more limited experience. But they’re getting by.”
Indeed. South American countries are generally cheaper and a couple of American folks have even moved to live in places like Brazil.
RepoMan007: Spiro, a startup looking to eliminate fuel-guzzling motorbikes and scooters from the roads by trading them in for electric two-wheelers, is expanding to Kenya.
Ahead of the first Africa Climate Summit, which kicked off in Kenya’s capital Nairobi today, the host government announced on Friday that the e-bike and battery-swapping startup would be entering the East African country with its biggest deployment yet: 1.2 million electric vehicles.
This marks a major milestone for the company founded in the West African country of Benin in 2022, says CEO Jules Samain – vastly increasing its fleet from the 10,000 bikes currently in operation across Benin, Togo and Rwanda. This autumn, the company will also begin its five-year rollout of 140,000 bikes in Uganda.
Crushing polluters Spiro’s goal is not only “to reduce pollution sources, but to eliminate them,” Samain tells CNN. Once an old bike has been traded in, the parts will be recycled and repurposed, he explains, adding that the company has held “crushing events” in both Benin and Togo, where motorized vehicles are publicly flattened before the material is reused.
The process for drivers differs between countries. In Kenya, they will be offered 50,000 Kenyan shillings (about $344) – around a third of the price of a new electric bike – to swap their existing bike for an electric one. They can then pay a daily subscription of around 255 Kenyan shillings (about $2) which repays the outstanding balance and gives drivers access to battery-swap stations, where they can quickly switch out depleted batteries for fully charged ones.
Not only does the scheme reduce the number of petrol and diesel vehicles on the road and associated air pollution, but it also cuts costs for drivers in both fuel and maintenance, according to the company. The startup notes that some of its motorbike taxi drivers have reported profits rising from around $6 to $11 a day since joining the scheme.
A 2022 report from the FIA Foundation, an international transport and road safety charity, found that while the purchase price of electric motorcycles is currently greater than that of petrol-powered motorcycles, the operating costs are cheaper. It says that in many African countries, one liter of petrol will power a bike for about the same distance as one kilowatt-hour of electricity but will cost five to 10 times more.
The report adds that battery-swapping initiatives are key in making electric two-wheelers more affordable, because when an electric motorcycle is sold without the battery, it significantly reduces the initial purchase price.
But for battery-swapping to work, there needs to be “reliable and accessible charging infrastructure,” says Samain. “Before distributing the first bike, we build a network of swapping stations, and they aren’t placed randomly: we carefully study the terrain and position our swapping stations in both urban and rural areas, ensuring extensive coverage.”
Spiro has committed to building 3,000 of these stations across Kenya, meaning that drivers can rid themselves of range anxiety, while also contributing to building up the nation’s electric vehicle infrastructure. The company, which currently manufactures most of its bikes and scooters in China, has also agreed to establish a manufacturing base in Kenya to generate local jobs.
Kenya’s president William Ruto, speaking in the coastal city of Mombasa at the launch of the initiative, said: “It creates jobs and transfers knowledge, technology and skills to our market in a very sustainable way.”
TOPSHOT - Kenya's President William Ruto uses an electric motorcycle during the national launch of an electric motorcycle project dubbed e-bodaboda at Kenyan Coastal city of Mombasa on September 1, 2023. The initiative launched by Kenya's President William Ruto is a collaboration between the Government of Kenya and Spiro, an electric two-wheeler company.This agreement, centred around the delivery of over a million (1.2 million) electric motorcycles and the establishment of more than 3,000 swapping stations in Kenya. (Photo by AFP) (Photo by -/AFP via Getty Images) President William Ruto drives a Spiro electric motorcycle during the national launch of the initiative in Mombasa, Kenya.
According to the FIA Foundation, there were 27 million motorbikes registered in sub-Saharan Africa in 2022, rising from just 5 million in 2010, with around 80% of them used in the motorcycle taxi industry. The demand for two-wheelers is expected to grow even further, with a report from management consulting firm McKinsey estimating that electric and petrol motorbikes will make up over 45% of sub-Saharan Africa’s overall vehicle fleet by 2040.
McKinsey warns that with increased demand, second-hand motorized vehicles that don’t meet emission standards in other countries around the world might end up being sold in Africa, where there is weak regulation. To avoid the continent becoming a “dumping ground” for unwanted polluting vehicles, enabling affordable and reliable electrification will be key, it says.
Spiro, formerly known as M-Auto, is just one of the startups fueling this transition. Swedish-Kenyan startup Roam (formerly Opibus), which converts old vehicles to run off electric motors, opened East Africa’s largest electric motorcycle assembly plant earlier this year, while Ampersand has a fleet of around 1,000 bikes as well as a small network of battery-swap stations across Kenya and Rwanda. Last week, US company Uber also launched an electric motorbike service in Kenya, promising to roll out 3,000 bikes within six months.
But the scale of Spiro’s Kenya expansion dwarfs all existing fleets. “We’re surpassing the symbolic but significant milestone of one million electric bikes signed with a government,” says Samain. The startup has its foot on the accelerator, and by 2030, he wants it to be operating in at least 10 African countries.
That's very innovative. Electric vehicles are way to go if the cost of production can still be lowered. This year alone the demand for electric vehicles or EVs belonging to all the major brands dropped in the U.S. Tesla made more sales than other EV auto makers because they dropped their prices.
So, what do you think people? Can you replace this with rice for the mean time? Would you be willing to give it a try? I sure would.
It looks like the famous couscous eaten in the Northern Nigeria and in the Sahelian region of West Africa. I've tasted couscous but it's nothing close to the different types of rice in taste. Couscous originally came in from North Africa.
Gremaaa9: According to WHO, eating dog meat is linked to a 20-fold increase in the risk of getting cholera.
There is also a danger that bacterial infections like anthrax, brucellosis, hepatitis, and leptospirosis can be spread through the meat to people. The bacteria associated with Cholera is also easily spread and propagated through the process of mass transporting and slaughtering dogs for consumption.
In Islam, Muslims also don't eat dogs because dog meats are considered impure in Islam. Islam has a specific set of dietary laws, known as halal, which outlines what Muslims can and cannot eat.
Indeed. It's ironic though that Islamic scholars view dog meat as haram, while leaving out cow meat from cattle that also spread deadly zoonotic diseases like the dogs.
Zoonotic diseases like tuberculosis can also by spread by cows or cattle that a lot of folks enjoy. A group of veterinary doctors went to a meat market in Nigeria and tested the meat on sale only to find traces of these zoonotic diseases in the cattle because the disease is picked up from eating grass while the cattle move on the long land journey from North to South of Nigeria and from elsewhere in the West African Sahel.
That's why I've always preferred white meat from mainly chicken and turkey.
IamAtikulate: 1. Seretide, N5000 to N70,000 2. Ampiclox, from N1000 to N13,000 3. Ventolin inhaler, N2800 to N8000 4. Augmentin 625mg, N4500 to N25,000
All are GlaxoSmithKline GSK Products.
Sanofi (the makers of Tavanic 500mg & influenza vaccines ) are also planning to leave Nigeria. WHO IS NEXT IN LINE?
Nigeria moved from one relic to another. Bad misfortune; from frying pan to fire.
Nigerians are yet to fully appreciate the implications of GlaxoSmithKline GSK exiting Nigeria. When I say this, I don’t mean no Agbado (they can’t afford it). I speak of those hardworking Nigerians whose incomes & livelihoods have diminished.
Credit: Nefertiti
It's not just about GlaxoSmithKline leaving Nigeria as a result of global cost-cutting measures. From well-known facts on the ground, the very high spike in the cost of those pharmaceutical products majorly has to do with the massive greed and the criminal act of hoarding the old stock of these pharmaceutical drugs by the dealers and retailers. These are the criminals who would blame the politicians but they themselves are an epitome of massive greed and corruption.
The government too has to put in place price control mechanisms so that these creeps do not continue to exploit the innocent folks who need the medications. Price control is needed in not just the pharmaceutical sector, the food chain sector, but every other sector. Yes, price increments are a norm worldwide but price control is what keeps them from being too high. Offenders have to be punished subsequently for going above a specific price ceiling.
marvelck: I find this posture by ladies inappropriate... Ladies ain't suppose to do this in public.
Instead of bending down (first pic) to pick something and displaying the whole view, it's better to do it respectfully by squatting (like the lady in the 2nd pic)... Squatting to pick up your bag or lace your shoes is more ladylike
The VPL... Thongs or GStrings would have been a better alternative on them though to eliminate or reduce the visible pant lines. Alternatively they could have worn non-white skirts.
Goodvibes007: Memory recall: That election period when Anthony Chinansa was given a Yoruba name by his opponents so that he could lose his election in Abia State. He explains this in the video below: "my opponents think they wanna strike me with a yoruba name"
Value addition and total quality management are the keys for ultimately maximizing profits in the export and import sector... Not the wholesale exports of raw commodities.
haybhi1: Most likely an Omoluabi. We don't joke with knowledge in this side of the country. We can take many things but the stigma of being tagged illiterate? We deride that. A pepper seller ensures her child schools. Agbero sends his child to school.
Although
He is an Omoluabi (of Yoruba descent). Yoruba families use double N when using Sanni as a surname. On the other hand, the Hausas or far Northerners use a single letter N (Sani), e.g. Senator Shehu Sani.
Okay, so, the dude is Jaan Roose an Estonian Guinness Book of World Records holder... That was very daring tbh. I Initially thought it was a Nigerian Houdini wannabe that was in that blurry video I earlier saw today.
1. ZuckNet Mark’s father – Edward Zuckerberg was a dental practitioner, who ran his clinic from the first floor of their home. This made communication between the family members a hassle, because everyone was always running up and down the stairs. To combat with this problem, 11 year old Zuckerberg came up with the idea of an intranet that allowed anyone to login from any computer in the house and send a message. This served as an instant chat system, that was exclusive just to the Zuckerberg family....... Randi Zukerberg, Mark’s elder sister, later told People.com how his this was “the first example of when he started building things-and he never stopped.” Another interesting fact about ZuckNet is that it was quite similar to the very popular AOL instant that into existence, later the same year. To quote Randi again, Mark was ‘10 levels ahead’ even at 11.
2. Synapse Media Player In high school, Zuckerberg wrote a computer program that used machine learning to determine a user’s music listening habits and recommended more music based on the genre, artist, taste, which was pretty much like what Last.fm does today. This app was built in 2000, and was featured by SlashDot and PC magazine back then with an amazing review + a rating of 3 on 5. Both Microsoft and AOL approached Zuckerberg for buying Synapse + a job offer, but he turned them down and posted the app online for free. He also turned down a full-time employment opportunity at the two corporate giants and went on to enroll at Harvard.
An excerpt from the review: “This is by far the most innovative media player I have see to date the only function I find it lacking is a more advanced tag editor and the ability to group by Album.”...
3. CourseMatch By the time Zuckerberg started classes at Harvard, he was already known as the, ‘Programming prodigy’. As an early project in his sophomore year, he started CourseMatch, which helped the students at Harvard in picking the courses they want, at the start of every semester. Through CourseMatch, you could see the number of students enrolled in a particular course and a list of all the people who signed up for the same course, allowing you to find out all the courses your class-mates were taking, before making a choice.
4. FaceMash FaceMash is by far the most talked about things that Zuckerberg created as it is said to have initiated the beginning of Facebook. FaceMash presented the user with two pictures of either male or female students at Harvard and asked them to choose the better looking one... Arie Hasit, Zuckerberg’s room-mate at Harvard explained that he had built the Website ‘just for fun’. The Website soon went viral after its launch over the weekend. The traffic was so overwhelming that it lead to the shutting down of one of the Harvard’s network switches making it impossible for a group of students to access the internet. The site was taken down by Harvard management four hours later, after multiple complaints from students stating that their pictures were used in FaceMash without prior permission. FaceMash also landed Zuckerberg into trouble. He was brought before the administrative board and was charged with violation of internet privacy rules and reach of computer security. He was made to publicly apologize, while the student paper wrote articles about how ‘inappropriate the whole concept of FaceMash was’. Visit www.skadotfiles..com for other stories
sexychocolate1: There are many ways to get a faster internet speed in Microsoft Windows. Today, I am going to show you a simple DNS hack that can speed up your Web Browsing dramatically. First, I need to remind you an obvious thing that happens with most of us when we are using a slow internet connection. The only thing we blame is our Internet Service Provider (ISP) for slow internet connection, but this isn’t the only case all the time. Sometimes, the problem lie with our DNS (Domain Name System). So, first let me explain you something about DNS before telling you the method to get a faster internet speed.
What is DNS?
DNS – Domain Name System (Service/Server) – is something that converts your domain names into IP addresses.
The domain names are usually alphabetic for us to remember easily, but in actuality the Internet works on IP addresses. The DNS converts the domain name into its corresponding IP address, each time it is used as such. The DNS has a network of its own i.e. one DNS server can ask other DNS servers about translating a specific domain name to its corresponding IP address till it gets the correct result.
Take fossBytes domain name for example: www.fossbytes.com would correspond to IP address: 104.131.217.125
Computers and other devices make use of IP address to route the traffic and it is very much similar to dialing a phone number. DNS acts as an intelligent operator that bypasses the infinite address book of IP addresses. Your DNS manages this huge task.
How an Alternative DNS Service Will Speed Up Your Browsing?
As I mentioned earlier, your tortoise internet speed isn’t always your Internet Service Provider’s fault, instead it may be your DNS’s fault. So why not use an alternative DNS service? As the present web pages continue to become more and more complex by inculcating innumerable things, so clients go for multiple DNS lookups for rendering one single web page. With the continuous growth in web, the existing DNS infrastructure is under more load each day.
Now I’ll tell you to use a free public DNS service that will tell your computer to use that service instead of using your ISP prescribed service and will help you to get a faster internet speed
How To Speed Up Web Browsing Using DNS Hack?
To get a faster internet speed, I’ll tell you about free OpenDNS service. You can also use Google DNS for speeding up your internet. OpenDNS is one of the most popular free DNS services that was started to provide an alternative method to those who were discontented with their existing DNS. Ahead I’m mentioning about OpenDNS; find Google DNS after that.
By following these simple steps, you can tell your computer to use OpenDNS’s DNS servers instead of the ones your service provider automatically uses:
Step 1:
To get a faster internet speed using OpenDNS, first open Control panel.
Step 2:
Go to Network and Internet options.network-and-internet
Step 3:
Now click on Network and Sharing Center.
network-and-sharing-center
Step 4:
Click on your Internet Connection and then click on Properties.
internet-connection
Step 5:
Highlight the Internet Protocol Version 4 (TCP/IPv4) and click on Properties.
DNS-hack-faster-browse
Step 6:
Now choose the following DNS server addresses to get a faster internet speed:
Preferred DNS server: 208.67.222.222 Alternate DNS server: 208.67.220.220 ipv4-config-speedup-browsing
You are using OpenDNS’s servers now which helps you to to get a faster internet speed.
To Configure IPv6:
Highlight the Internet Protocol Version 6 (TCP/IPv6) and click on Properties, and choose the following DNS server addresses:
Preferred DNS server: 2620:0:ccc::2 Alternate DNS server: 2620:0:ccd::2DNS-hack-faster-browsing Google DNS:
Replace those addresses with the IP addresses of the Google DNS servers in step 6.
For IPv4: 8.8.8.8 and/or 8.8.4.4.
For IPv6: 2001:4860:4860::8888 and/or 2001:4860:4860::8844
Conclusion:
There are more benefits of OpenDNS and Google DNS other than getting a faster internet speed. Usually if the DNS server of your service provider goes down you become unable to use the internet, but with OpenDNS and Google DNS method, even if the service providers DNS server is down, you can surf the internet normally.
Both Google DNS and OpenDNS work just fine but people prefer Google DNS these days. You can choose to go for any of these and see if your internet speeds up.
Very surreal... I've been teleported back to 1984...
This brings back nostalgic memories... The days of Dr. Onaolapo Soleye and others as Federal Ministers.
Ah! That's the iconic Sola Omole of NTA Network News reading the late night news in January 1984. Sola Omole later left NTA in 1985 and worked for Chevron Nigeria Ltd, the American multinational oil and gas company as a Senior Public Relations executive in the Public Affairs Unit of the company. He's now 72 year of age as of 2023! How time flies.
Jokerman: Now, we can see the Jonathan received the least of the loot...
Now please what did Obasanjo and Buhari do with the loot they received??
Source: Statisense
He and his family stole a whopping 4.4 billion USD! That Sani Abacha guy was a real thief who used the CBN as a conduit for moving stolen Nigerian money into his offshore bank accounts in Europe and the Caribbean. This is why I have always insist that calling for military rule in 2023 by some younger ignorant folks and trolls online and offline as highly asinine.
swaggerjack: Bankrupt Failed State: Time To Have Namibians and Botswanans Administer Country?
Nigeria has seen no single progress since 1960 and has remained the world headquarters of corruption, thuggery and occultism and brought 200 million of it's citizens sorrow, tears and blood.
Is it time to consider a different approach and have Namibians and Botswanans administer the country?
That's an interesting perspective. It's just like saying or pinning for the British to come back and take over the governance of Nigeria when we know full well that India and Pakistan which are former British colonies are now nuclear powers... Especially India which has a strong space program and a large industrial base.
These countries of Namibia and Botswana are relatively small countries in terms of population size and small number of ethnic groups. So, if you bring the leadership of those countries to Nigeria, they would fail because they have to deal with a large population of 250 ethnic groups and with different cultures. Namibia even has an immigrant German population because Namibia was once a German colony like Cameroon, but Germany lost those colonies because the European allies defeated them. South Africa too has ONLY 11 ethnic groups and that is quite easy to manage.
Nigerians would have to self-innovate to effectively govern themselves. It's not gonna come from outside. A decentralized system of government is what will propel Nigeria to economic greatness and reduce ethnic rivalry and inefficiencies in the system that lead to a lot of waste. Buhari's government already started the decentralization by making it possible for the states to now generate electricity and also build railway lines and railway transportation. If President 'Bola Tinubu and his economic team are not able to decentralize Nigeria further so that the states and regions can have more autonomy... Then it's gonna be better to peacefully (or forcibly) create at least 8 new countries from Nigeria because the old order is NOT sustainable for economic development which leads to a militarily strong country.
That wannabe called Gbadebo stood absolutely NO chance of becoming the Lagos State Governor because he didn't understand the socio-cultural etiquette of the indigenous folks of Lagos State and he was uncouth based on his insulting past online posts on X (formerly Twitter).
The young guy wasn't even a certified member of the Nigerian Institute of Architects and had no verifiable private sector experience. Compare that to Babajide Omo Sanwo-Olu who had extensive experience in the private and public sectors as a senior bank treasurer and he was the the pioneer chairman of the very successful Lagos State Security Trust Fund.
[quote author=WriterNig post=126994996][/quote]Those two culprits are either Senegalese or Gambian immigrants. A lot of the Senegalese live in the New York area and right across the border in Quebec. Akon and his Senegalese folks are enterprising people though and they go into trading and owning businesses when they arrive in the U.S. or they drive taxis for some time as well.
WannaHowzit: Cool. I need to chat to more people like u. Not the trolls always fighting me.
Lol... Indeed. You know what? The trolls envy you in a way so they try to cyberbully. I see them doing that and acting all cocky because they are just kids on a mental level!
I like the fact that you, Samantha and other South Africans visit this NL site to give out your perspectives on the true SA experiences. I read comments by those young ignorant trolls saying SA citizens are xenophobic, but I have had to correct them because from interactions with SA folks, many are friendly but just don't want to be taken for granted or cheated in their home country. Period.
Many younger Black SA guys such as Jabulani Ngcobo are buying cars such as Ferraris and luxury houses in gated estates from their investments in the financial markets and more, so the ignorant BS about poor SA men is not a fact.
Recently, I saw a YouTube video [on the Leisba Twins channel] of three Black South Africans eating and reviewing Nigerian foods such as Jollof rice and some other soups. They even added some Nigerian accents into the mix which I believe they learned from the movies and it was all nice banter and fun in the comments section.