Captivated by Colombia's magical (sur)realism

@wwaycorrigan

[For an audio/vlog version of this story, click here.]

'So, what do you do?'

It is one of the most popular break-the-ice questions adults get asked. We tend to be, after all, defined by our careers. And for many people, replying to such an enquiry is fairly straightforward. Others, myself included, find it more difficult, nay uncomfortable, to answer.

Colombia: Is this the real life? Is this just fantasy?

I do, of course, do various things, but the often unstated ending part to the what-do-you-do question is 'to make a living'. In other words, what is it you do that provides you with an income, allowing you to socialise and travel and whatnot? These days, the most accurate, succinct retort I can give is, somewhat shamefully, 'practically nothing'. Or, somewhat more positively, if misleading, 'I'm in early retirement.'

All an act

This is not to say that I haven't earned money from services rendered of late, yet the truth is that the amount in question, specifically over the last two years, is barely worth mentioning. The bulk of the paid work during that period came from acting projects, but I certainly can't call myself an actor.

Well, I can call myself an actor — I have acted, for payment, in multiple productions, after all — but to say that acting is what I do, that it's my career, would be a bit disingenuous.

Calling myself an actor would be like a guy who plays five-a-side football with his mates a few times a year calling himself a footballer.

Now, I may have thespian talent — I guess the audience, viewers and, more importantly, casting directors, production companies, and critics would be the judge of that — but I'm not exactly going out of my way to look for the leading role.

'I calculate that I may, with some luck along the way, reach the Google AdSense payment threshold of 70 euros by the year 2036.'

My acting career, if you allow me to call it thus for the moment, has been less active and more passive. I've been very much following the don't-call-us-we'll-call-you approach. I'm not too sure who I should call, in any case, in a bid to advance. Hollywood, you know where to find me.

Blogging, writing if you will, is another one of my pursuits that technically has been earning me money, and on a more regular basis than acting. However, I calculate that I may, with some luck along the way, reach the Google AdSense payment threshold of 70 euros by the year 2036. That's if the payment threshold doesn't increase. Exciting, if nervous, times ahead.

Much ado about doing nothing

So, effectively, I haven't really done much to earn money throughout these past two years. What I have been doing is keeping my costs down, largely thanks to house-sitting for a good portion of 2025 and a small part of 2024; rent, after all, is usually my biggest monthly expense. I've also been practising fairly minimalist living, something that I've become pretty adept at during my time in Colombia.

I do have savings, too, steadily decreasing as they are, yet enough, in a Colombian-peso context, where I don't have to go smashing that glass that should only be broken during an emergency. I haven't yet been forced to accept any old type of gainful employment merely to make ends meet. I still have some wriggle room.

It's this avoidance of the rat race, of being compelled to march full-time to somebody else's beat, that's one of the main reasons keeping me in Colombia.

I've been able to live a more independent life here compared to what I most likely would have to live in a high-income nation. Indeed, at times it feels a little surreal, although this isn't always in a positive sense. Nonetheless, as much as I am concerned about my future, I can't say it unduly stresses me out. But maybe I'm being a bit too sanguine about my current lot.

After all, this independence, my minimalist version of it anyway, does come at a price, as I explained on these pages back in 2021.

And to state what should be obvious, my present approach is unsustainable. I can't continue to spend more than I earn, unless I die inside a couple of years or so. Or win the lottery that I never play.

So, what do I do? I'll have to conjure up something soon to justify my continued presence in Colombia's magical (sur)realism.
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Listen to The Corrigan Cast podcast here.

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The Great Resignation

@wwaycorrigan

[Listen to an audio version of this blog entry here.]

Much has been written about various "new normals" in our lives in the wake of the covid-19 pandemic. The enforced pause on people's modus operandi has led many to re-evaluate their situation.

An honest day's work. It's nice to do it every now and again.

Getting "Brexit" done

In high-income nations and those in the comfortable classes elsewhere — in a Colombian context, I'm probably still classified as comfortable, the low bar that it is — this moment of reflection has been particularly felt in the employment sphere, resulting in what has been termed the Great Resignation.

Those with any sort of financial wriggle room and who were heretofore merely going through the motions at their less-than-fulfilling jobs decided to take action as they dealt with stay-at-home orders and other radical restrictions.

'If I can't implement change during a large-scale disruptor event such as this, then I never will.' That, no doubt, has been the thinking.

Now,  it would be stretching it to call me a trailblazer, but I did take that leap of faith — leaving behind a relatively well-paid but unfulfilling job — before the coronavirus catalyst got to work on the rest of the restless.

In advance of finally deciding on the nuclear option, I had been trying to plot a more financially secure exit strategy, keeping in mind the adage 'It's easier to find a job when you're in a job.' But the few alternative full-time positions that presented themselves didn't set the heart racing.

'One may have no other choice but to rejoin the dreaded rat race, sooner rather than later.'

Nonetheless, rather than hold tight, I simply said I had to get my own "Brexit" done, that being Brendan's leaving of the marketing agency DDB.

Perhaps akin to the UK's Brexit, my thinking was — and remains (no, not that "remain") — that things will work out. 'Our fundamentals are solid, we'll find a way.'

However, as the former United States Secretary of State, Dean Acheson, once said of Great Britain, that it 'has lost an empire and not yet found a role', this could apply in my case here. Not, I hasten to add, that my professional career can in any way be equated to the power of the British Empire at its height.

There is no shortage of jobs. They're just not the right ones ...

Resigned to the rat race

The idea, however, of the world being my oyster as one might think it should be for a Western-born, single, childless individual, is certainly weaker today than it was ten years ago.

There are reasons somewhat outside of my control for that, chief amongst them these new normals, particularly the illogical, punitive measures against unvaccinated folk.

Then there's the fact that after a decade of having Colombia as my base and earning the weakening local currency, my global purchasing power is less today than it was in 2011.

Yet, putting a more positive spin on it, the post-pandemic world should present as many opportunities as it does challenges.

That's the hope in any case. (I can't say, though, and shocking as this may be to regular readers, that I'm entirely optimistic about the short- to medium-term future).

In line with the spirit of the Great Resignation — or at least my interpretation of it, sticking to the reasons why I resigned ahead of the pack, so to put it — my ideal is to work with people, not for them.

The "fiscal space", however, in which the Republic of Wrong Way has to realise those ambitions is disappearing rather rapidly. One may have no other choice but to rejoin the dreaded rat race, sooner rather than later. 'Back into line, you rascal of a rodent.'

That may actually be the true essence of the Great Resignation: resigned to one's insipid fate.
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Listen to Wrong Way's Colombia Cast podcast here.

Facebook: Wrong Way Corrigan — The Blog & IQuiz "The Bogotá Pub Quiz".