AMERICA IS NOT A PARADIZE ANY MORE, -25022016 .................................................................................................51

America is no longer a dream destination of the world 

"LIFE BEGINS HERE AGAIN " 
 MONDAY, JUNE 30, 2014

A year after the USA Return It has been a year in India since I returned from the USA, This blog post is to share the experience about how it feels to be back to your place after getting used to the US way of living or rather its a post on how I see India after returning.

Every Indian living abroad must have come across these lines 'You can go out of India, but you cannot take India out of you'. very true lines indeed. All the times I was in the US there was never a day something or the other did not remind me of my place and my people back home.

Well to be honest the same is the thing when you come back from the US to India. One just cannot take the US out of the mind; the reason is not being emotional. 

The reason is more of the difference in the way things are managed in India and the US. There is never a day I don't compare the way things were in the US after looking at the conditions in India, be it traffic management, garbage, food, anything, and everything, and I think I will never be able to stop these comparisons in my mind, as now I have seen that world. Intentionally or unintentionally I followed and observed many details of the US way of life that are now imprinted in my mind.

There are many positive points of India that make it a great country to live in (on the condition you are earning well). Towns and cities are alive till 11 PM at night, and local food joints, restaurants, grocery stores, and medical stores all are easily accessible till midnight as opposed to the US where it gets too gloomy after 8PM unless you are standing at some exceptional places like Times Square.

Health Service is very cheap and easily accessible, you don't have to make an appointment just for some minor cough or cold. The US is terrible in terms of general healthcare, you got to have a primary physician, book an appointment beforehand and sometimes they give a date after a week or even a month. 

Of course, there are urgent care and Emergency facility available but they charge way too much. There are many other things that are positive about India, be it many people to talk to, cheap food, cheap services, and others.

India is following the US in many terms, be it Shopping malls, Food Joints like (McDonald's, Subway, Pizza Hut, and Domino), Four lane Highways, Retail Shopping chains, Multiplexes, and many such things. India is doing great in adapting to the US culture in terms of development. There is hardly any day when I don't say "Oh, this is the same they do it there and now they are trying to replicate the same here".

But there is something about us Indians that will never stop us from being a developed nation like the US. Yes, I know that we have our cultural values and that every Indian attitude makes us different. But there are some basic things that really really need to change. Spitting on roads, breaking signals, not following rules, and giving bribes are the things that are very

common for us and knowingly or unknowingly these are now a way of life for us, People now are proudly able to accept that these basic flaws only make us true Indians. and as everyone says "India me to sab chalta hai".

It sometimes hurt to see the way things are going here, but we have to accept reality. It's a long road ahead in terms of changing the nation, changing the government alone will not help. 

I believe that the mentality of people needs to change, there is no benefit of the government creating four lanes when all people do is drive recklessly in the middle of the lane honking all the time and spitting tobacco all the way. There is no point in pointing the finger at the government all the time when the problem is deep within us.

Sometimes it's frustrating to see things around, and I clearly don't know and see how things will change, But I have not lost hope of seeing India taking the positives from the Americans and I will try to do my part in doing that.

I was born and brought up, grew up in India, and went to the US at 44. Spent 2 or so years there (including one-year working). Moved back to New Delhi India, India in 1994, and have been coming and going here ever since.)

(Clarification: This post is intended to just be context-fact findings and expectation-setting for someone who is already planning on returning to India. If you're happy in the US and are not interested in returning, I am happy for you - this post is not an attempt to change your mind (as some people see
m to have misinterpreted))

A lot of how you feel depends upon your attitude. Some things are going to be as bad as you remember them when you left them here, some things are going to be worse than you remember, and some things are going to be surprisingly better. The right attitude is to focus on what is good and try to ignore the bad. Some people fail miserably at this and move back to the US after about a year. Others succeed in this, and love being here.

Here are the things you might notice, conveniently categorized: AND compared

General life: IN INDIA as usual:_Yes, it is dirty and dusty. People litter and spit and urinate in public. It was always like this, so you shouldn't let it bother you. If this is going to irritate you, or your perceived standard towards cleanliness has changed dramatically then better don't come back. Yes, there is a hell of corruption in every public government dealing. 

But if you're going to be doing a job (as opposed to doing your own business), you will not be exposed to much of it. Most vendors and service providers are unreliable or some even fly by night operators unmindful of any law of the land, thanks to poor governance in every sphere of Indian life. They won't come on time. 

They will not deliver on time. Quality will be lacking. Some will disappear without warning you. This continues to bother me, even after 10 years here. However, note that consumer-oriented business works far more efficiently now than it used to 10-15 years ago. When I first landed in New Delhi India in 1992, 

I had nothing other than a passport. No friends, no family, no address proof, no ration card. No place to stay, no vehicle. I managed to get a rental apartment, a ration card, a landline phone, a mobile phone, 2 "gas" cylinders, a computer, 2 internet connections, a car, and all household appliances, and start a full-time home office in 2 weeks. 

I would not have thought that it was possible to get this done in India so fast. See footnoteGetting domestic help is ridiculously cheap, so expect to have a person to do the dishes, someone else to do the cleaning and the laundry, and a cook, and a driver. In the last ten years, I've probably done dishes, or the laundry less than 5 times. 

My wife and I cook only when we're in the mood for cooking, otherwise, we don't have to. I know that some people are thinking: "I like doing all the chores. There is a satisfaction in being self-sufficient." But the fact is that I have not seen anybody hold on to such a resolve in the face of easily available domestic help. (Note: Driving is an exception.

 People who like to drive often will make do without a driver. I like to drive, so did not use a driver for a longest time. But these days, if I need to go somewhere that's more than 20 minutes away, I take the driver along, so I can get some work done along the way.)

Cost and Standard of Living: In general, you will be comfortably well off in India. Your Indian salary will be much lower than your US salary in dollar terms but will be pretty good in terms of purchasing power parity. 

Some things will seem very expensive relative to your salary, and other things ridiculously cheap expect to be shocked by real estate prices. Houses/Flats (aka "condos") in the better localities (i.e. the kinds of places NRIs like to live in) can be more expensive than houses in the US (of course, if you're not from the Bay Area). 

A major chunk of your salary will go towards the EMI for your home loan.iPads, laptops, and the latest flat-screen TVs will seem a little expensive for you. The prices in India are just a little higher than US prices, (and many people buy in the US), but your salary will be lower. Food, eating out, domestic help, and in general everything else will be much cheaper

Infrastructure: Roads/Traffic/Electricity/Water is an area that I view with a bit of a concern. Depending on where exactly you're living one or more of these might be an irritant already, and the problem is likely to get horsepower cuts are a problem in some cities (mostly during the daytime). 

This is not an issue for employees of large companies, because of generator backups, but it has begun hurting smaller companies. Sometimes, you end up losing a few hours of work on one day of the week because the load-shedding extended farther than your UPS and laptop batteries could last. 

While water is theoretically a problem, most of you are likely to live in apartment complexes that buy water by the tanker to make up for any shortages, so you're unlikely to notice this much. Traffic and commute times are becoming problems for some people in some cities - but then people who've lived in the US would not be strangers to long commutes and rush hour traffic jams. 

Phone coverage and internet bandwidth are not really a problem. While the average "home" broadband network might not be as fast as what you're used to in the US, and there are sporadic reliability issues, quality, and speed are available at a cost if you really want them. And I'm willing to bet that mobile network coverage is better than what AT&T has in the US.

Recreation: As far as shopping is concerned, (almost) everything is available here. Electronic goods are maybe a little more expensive than in the US, but there is nothing that is difficult to get. If you're in a metro or even Pune, there are now lots of international cuisines. Of course, not as much as in the US, but certainly much more than was available 5 or 10 years ago. Italian, Korean, Japanese, Mediterranean, French, and Thai are all available in Pune, for example. McDonald's, Pizza Hut, Subway, and California Pizza Kitchen, are all here too. 

And the Indian food here is far better than the Indian food in the US:-)Multiplexes have mushroomed, and have improved the movie-going experience, but they still remain a little more crowded than I'd like. Many "western" activities are now available here. Bowling, Paintball, Pool, Hard-Rock Cafe, and Microbreweries, are all available. Quality is lower than ideal, and there are only one or two of each per city.

Kids: Schools are getting better. There are now lots of options available. The old-style, regimented convent schools continue to go strong, but in addition, now there are lots of newer schools that are willing to experiment with teaching methods. So there are lots of choices (but be prepared to spend a little).

Lots of options for co-curricular and extracurricular activities. All kinds of classes are available at reasonable rates. If you have teenage kids, remember that social mores and standards of what is acceptable and permissible behavior is changing rapidly. So if you're coming back to India because "my kids will grow up in a more conservative culture", you're in for a surprise. Don't say I did not warn you. Dealing with teenagers doesn't become any easier just because you're in India.

Career: If you are a techie in the IT industry, and if you want to be an individual contributor, then you will certainly not get as good work here as you would in the US. There are some companies doing interesting stuff, but as your seniority increases, your options decrease. Since most of the customers are in the US, there is definitely a glass ceiling. 

If you're a manager, then India is a great place to be. The number of people and projects to manage to keep increasing, and the challenges interesting and varied. This is an exciting place to be. If you are the entrepreneur type, then India is like the Wild West. Very challenging, with a high chance of failure, but very exciting. For non-IT folks, I don't know the answer. Sorry.

Personal life: As with shifting to any new place, expect to find yourself suddenly friendless and lonely for the first few years. It takes time to make good friends."Involvement" of family, and extended family in your life will be higher than you expected. To anyone who has spent 5+ years in the US, this will seem like an intrusion of privacy. This will bother you, (especially the wife, if you're a couple). 

The US is a nice safe distance away from the in-laws. Coming back to India removes that layer of protection. This can be the biggest change in lifestyle. Takes at least 2/3 years to get used to.

Opinion: Overall, I find that life here is more varied and more interesting. I found life in the US to be too cut-n-dried, too regimented - all cities are similar (compared to how different Indian cities are). Most interactions follow set patterns. (Maybe it simply boils down to the fact that I grew up here, and hence I'll be most comfortable with this way of life.) In any case, I'm very happy with the decision of moving here.

If you have any questions about something I did not cover, please leave a comment and I can update my answer.

Footnote [1]:
This is a little anecdote to give an idea of how India works efficiently in some areas. On my second day in Pune, I went to a random shop down the street looking to buy a mobile phone (instrument + service). The shop owner told me that I need of proof-of-residence, which I obviously did not have. He did not want to let go of a customer for such a minor reason, so he started exploring options:

Do you have parents who live here?
No.
Do you have any other relatives, an uncle perhaps?
No, but my mother-in-law's brother does live here.
Ok, will he be willing to give an affidavit to the effect that he knows you and vouches for you?
Yes, he will but neither I nor he has the time or the expertise to get an affidavit.
No, Sir, don't worry. My man will get the affidavit ready, will go to your uncle's home, get his signature and finish the paperwork.


So, I bought the phone instrument right away. I called up the uncle-in-law and told him to expect a guy to show up with an affidavit to sign, and I left. By that evening, all of this had been taken care of, and my mobile phone service had started.s a salaried employee while usually doing interesting work. 

You can expect to earn between 1/3 and 1/2 your US salary as an employee if you're really good at what you do (the Purchasing Power Parity was still 1:5 last I checked, so that's a win). If you start your own business, well, the sky's the limit. We've hit a million-dollar run rate in just over two years - PPP adjusted that's like going from 0 to 5 million in the US. And this without a single paisa of external investment.

That said, capital is scarce and difficult to raise and is largely cornered by businesses that have fixed assets. Software companies especially find it very tough to get a loan - we've been exploring this for a while at C42 Engineering with no luck. Angels are scarce and there are two seed funds, IIRC. Nobody invests in you unless you're already profitable.

Basically, India has both the upsides and down-sides of an immature market. Lots of opportunities are difficult to tap due to problems in the ecosystem like scarce capital, government corruption, awful infrastructure, black money, and so on. 

But this is improving steadily, and businesses that are ready for the Indian market in two to three years stand to do exceedingly well. It's a little like the railroad and newspaper businesses in the late 1800s and early 1900s.

Also, it's worth noting the amount of money coming into India seems to be insane. I'm in Bangalore, where five years ago a BMW or Mercedes was a big deal and you never saw Jags and Porches - we have 110% import duties, so these cars cost more than twice what they would elsewhere (the basic Jaguar X

MY USA WAS NEVER LIKE THAT?

ख़ुशी   इतनी तो  हो  की,  दुनिया  को  दिखा  सको***
ग़म  बस  इतना  हो  की , दुनिया  से  छुपा  सको*****
ज़िन्दगी  में  कम  से  कम  एक  दोस्ती  ऐसी भी  रखना
जिसके  लिए  तुम  हर  हाल  में,  मुस्कुरा तो  सको*****

Tom Williams III · Subscribe · Freeland, Pennsylvania
This pretty much explains it. People would rather watch Jersey shore than worry about losing their freedom..

Elaan Yefchak · Penn State
Why won't fb let me like this post?!
Reply · 4 · Like · Tuesday at 9:09pm

Tom Williams III · Subscribe · Freeland, Pennsylvania
no idea :/
Reply · Like · Yesterday at 3:12am

David Butler · Elephant Island, Antarctica
Elaan Yefchak Cuz Facecrook is in on it :)
Reply · 2 · Like · Yesterday at 11:39am
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Bobby Smith · Richland Community College
The saddest part is that this will be read by most and then washed away by the "worries" of day to day life.... The powers that be long ago set a plan in motion to control the entire world and beyond and so far that plan has worked brilliantly... If being an American today means surrendering all of the liberities and freedoms that were firmly established at the birth of this once Great Nation then then I am ashamed to be called one... I love my people... Those that stand for what's truly right.... Those who still have the courage to hold firmly to their beliefs in the face of all adversity as long as those beliefs still don't violate the rules set down in the Original Constitution... My heart bleeds at the unfortunate truth that a majority of the inhatitants of todays "America" have unwittingly and blindly become slaves to the G...See More
Reply · 34 · Like · Follow Post · Yesterday at 9:21am

Gabriella Bernabei · Subscribe · CEO & Founder at BullshitBusters
...Bobby, you speak brilliantly with ALL the shining light of TRUTH...words of a REAL American...I wish that everyone that calls themselves an American would WAKE THE HELL UP and posess the integrity and fortitude to re-embrace these fundemental values that once made OUR Country great...sure would make the job of re-posessing OUR Country a hell of a lot easier for the rest of US !!!!!!!!!!!!!.....ciao, Bello.....Luuuuuv, Liberty and Peace.............:-)
Reply · 6 · Like · Yesterday at 2:11pm

Cheryl Panthera Tigris Bowlby
LOVE. IT.
Reply · 2 · Like · Yesterday at 6:59pm

Asghar Khan · Works at Student
Bobby, you are right to say for your liberty , but must keep in mind that the rest of the world need liberty of conscience in the sense to say about their own matters , to dream for their own future , to live with dignity and comfort , to plan and decide by their own well , being a human ,we have common needs and wishes , which are instinctive for every living being , but unfortunately IN THE WAKE OF GETTING MORE ' forgetting about the value of mutual co existence , the super power of the world put forwards plans to subdue other states , is some thing people believe to be the downfall of the present supremacy .

love ,respect and liberties are at the loss , depleting from this globe . securities would ensure once safety , b/c one can ensure physical safety , but can't denied the soul liberties , which are exactly seems to ...See More
Reply · Like · 13 hours ago
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Sarah Naimie Rothfeldt · Anything and Everything at Stay at home mom and wife
Those who would give up Essential Liberty to purchase a little Temporary Safety, deserve neither Liberty nor Safety.~Benjamin Franklin.
Reply · 22 · Like · Follow Post · Tuesday at 10:53am

Mike Haller · Flemington, New Jersey
so I guess I'm a terrorists for reading this...
Reply · 20 · Like · Follow Post · Tuesday at 9:31pm

Austin Thomas · Subscribe · Clarkston High School
Big brother is here....welcome to 1984.....
Reply · 16 · Like · Follow Post · Tuesday at 8:55pm

Louise Lawson
DO NOT TRUST THE F------G. goverment. keep your guns and food.
Reply · 14 · Like · Follow Post · Yesterday at 12:03am

Eddie Kim · California State University, Northridge
Ron Paul is our only chance to take back America from the banksters and their bought off lackeys in government.
Reply · 13 · Like · Follow Post · Yesterday at 10:49am

Corey Galis · Battery/LP at Weise Planning and Engineering
No, not Ron Paul. or any person in our current political system really. We need a 3 party system, and should clean the floor with teh fuck faces the corporation overlords put into office.
Reply · 7 · Like · Yesterday at 11:36am

Eddie Kim · California State University, Northridge
He's the only candidate not sold out by corporate whores and he wants to shut down the Federal Reserve banking cartel. Why would he not be a good choice?
Reply · 4 · Like · Yesterday at 11:54am

Corey Galis · Battery/LP at Weise Planning and Engineering
Lol, He already sold out. The 'Lesser of two evils' Idea. You are better off voting in Justin Beiber at this point.
Reply · 6 · Like · Yesterday at 12:11pm
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Terry Barnhart · Owner at Eagle, Globe & Anchor LLC.
The United States Gov't is the biggest threat to our security and freedom, not to mention the biggest terrorist state in the known world.
Reply · 13 · Like · Follow Post · Yesterday at 4:08am

Christian King · Western Carolina University
"Remember, remember
The fifth of November.
The gunpowder treason and plot.
I know of no reason.
Why the gunpowder treason.
Should ever be forgot."
Reply · 7 · Like · Follow Post · Yesterday at 1:38pm

Jonathan Powell · Omega Studios' School of Applied Recording Arts and Sciences
I appreciate the sentiment, and V is a great (if only for fun) film. But, as for the message that I think you are trying to express with that... kind of doesn't work. Don't feel bad, I didn't really get it until I read up on Guy Fawkes. He was kind of a dick, along with being a pawn for the Papacy. What Guy Fawkes Day is celebrating today isn't what you'd think... it's actually celebrating the fact that he was caught, tortured, and killed... along with celebrating that the king narrowly avoided assassination. He's a fun movie anti-hero, but other than that, not someone that lovers of freedoms should be extolling. Here's a link, and thanks for reading! en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Guy_Fawkes
Reply · 3 · Like · Yesterday at 9:08pm

Christian King · Western Carolina University
Lol trusting Wikipedia as a source.
Reply · 2 · Like · Yesterday at 11:25pm

Jonathan Powell · Omega Studios' School of Applied Recording Arts and Sciences
Glad you took the time to post that, I appreciate all the well thought out counters to my point. Also, eat shit.
Reply · 3 · Like · Yesterday at 11:32pm
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Thea Sherman · Daisaku Ikeda;
Most important is sharing this information.It is all too easy to get frustrated with so many that don't seem to be paying attention but sharing awareness is everyone's responsibility! So please share this article!
Reply · 7 · Like · Follow Post · Yesterday at 4:15am

Ciaran Palmer · Top Commenter
We are turnign into Soviet/Bolehevik/TALMUDIC Russia. (By the by - the Jewish "american " banker Jacob Schiff paid for the Bolshevik invasion of Russia, lef by fellow boychick Lev Brontstein - you may know him as Trotsky. All the revolutionaires were trained in NYC, oye vey). Look at the names, of those in control, and perpetuating this horror. Get rid of the Federal Reserve (which AIN'T), which is the lifeblood of the Vampire Clan, and round up every-one and everything connected to the subversive Fifth Columnists of AIPAC/CFR (same thing) and then we'll get somewhere.
Reply · 5 · Like · Follow Post · Yesterday at 7:15pm

Wayne Spalding
Just being aware, is now against the law.
Reply · 5 · Like · Follow Post · Yesterday at 9:05pm

Bob Miller · Cleveland, Georgia
wake up America Vote these a--hole out of office its time to take back our country government for the people by the people is no longer ours big brother is here and taking all of our freedoms by saying this I'm sure I'm now a target as because I'm an outspoken American.
Reply · 4 · Like · Follow Post · Yesterday at 3:59am

Andrea Robinson · Works at Retired!!
Oh well, I guess I am to, I totally agree...
Reply · 1 · Like · Yesterday at 4:00am

Jonathan Powell · Omega Studios' School of Applied Recording Arts and Sciences
Sadly, voting the problem away is a total impossibility. The system is utterly corrupt from the top down and the ground up. The only people able to get on a ballot are able to get on it for a reason. I'm not saying I have a better suggestion, I honestly don't have one. Taking up arms against the most technologically advanced military on the planet is suicide. Even trying to use the Constitution and Bill of Rights to win a legal battle is as good as pointless. So what does one do? I've yet to find a remotely realistic answer, and I spend a fair bit of time reading up on this topic. I guess it boils down to: These guys have been planning things for 50+ years, with some of the brightest people on the planet. Things have been planned down the minutia... It will take a LOT to go up against that. Hope is a hard thing to come by these days. Godspeed.
Reply · 12 · Like · Yesterday at 12:08pm

Adam Wells · Gainesville State
Jonathan Powell 50+ years? More like thousands.
Reply · 3 · Like · Yesterday at 12:56pm
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Brandin Scott Manwill · EMT-P at MedicWest
I'm proud to be an AMERICAN! Where my forefathers fought tyranny and died for liberty. You can't call this policies American when they destroy everything America stands for. We have been straying for years from what the forefathers stated. There should not be a right or left wing just America. They preached the dangers of a national bank, high taxes (don't forget that every dime you spend is at least double taxed), federal government with to much power. All these things were taught to us but we never listened. The right to bear arms ment exactly that. People used to own WARSHIPS and Cannons. Yet I can't by a handgun without registering it. Our country is still called America and is s. till filled with Americans. Our government is actually a CAPITALIST government switching to a socialist. It hasn't been a true republic for years. The dollar is backed by nothing but the governments word. Look it up on wikipedia. You can't possible believe gold has skyrocketed in value while the dollar plummets. Americans need to wake up! God bless America, those who fight for it, and all of us fools in it!
Reply · 3 · Like · Follow Post · 17 hours ago

Eugene Larkin
It is obvious a single person can't stop this from happening but a united front can turn this around. Why are we continuing to arrest and beat American kids who are jobless, homeless, penny-less and hopeless in their government. Why can a illegal alien stand in the DMV, SSN office, Welfare office, emergency room or own a business with no consequences? This cost us hundreds of billions of our tax dollars every year but the GOV does nothing? Yet we pay millions to beat peaceful American students and protesters? Why are we paying billions to countries who kill our troops while our citizens are homeless and hungry? why are the banks giving millions in money to Police Departments in America, why are the police working together around the US right now to squash Occupy but can't be used to fight illegal aliens? But its ok to protect their money, power and control while the masses continue to watch? WTF America? like the commercial says invest in precious metals, lead would be my choice :

USA THE GREATEST POWER IN THE WORLD LOOSING IT'S "GREATNESS"

ARE YOU ASPIRING TO GO TO USA FOR ? WATCH YOU ARE NOT THAT WELCOME GUEST NOW .



If you live in the United States of America, you live in a giant prison where liberty and freedom are slowly being strangled to death. In this country, the control freaks that run things are obsessed with watching, tracking, monitoring and recording virtually everything that we do. Nothing is private anymore. 
 Everything that you do on the Internet is being monitored. All of your phone calls are being monitored. In fact, if law enforcement authorities suspect that you have done something wrong, they will use your cell phone microphone to listen to you even when you think your cell phone is turned off. In many areas of the country, when you get into your car automated license plate readers track you wherever you go, and in many major cities when you are walking on the streets a vast network of security cameras and "smart street lights" are constantly watching you and listening to whatever you say. The TSA is setting up "internal checkpoints" all over the nation, Homeland Security is encouraging all of us to report any "suspicious activity" that our neighbors are involved in and the federal government is rapidly developing "pre-crime" technology that will flag us as "potential terrorists" if we display any signs of nervousness. If you are flagged as a "potential terrorist", the U.S. military can arrest you and detain you for the rest of your life without ever having to charge you with anything. Yes, the United States of America is rapidly being turned into a "Big Brother" prison grid, and most Americans are happily going along with it.

The sad thing is that this used to be "the land of the free and the home of the brave".
 So what in the world happened ,A fundamental shift in our culture has taken place. The American people have eagerly given up huge chunks of liberty and freedom in exchange for vague promises of increased security.  Our country is now run by total control freaks and paranoia has become standard operating procedure.

We were told that the terrorists hate our liberties and our freedoms, and that we needed to fight the terrorists so that we could keep our liberties and our freedoms. But instead, the government keeps taking away all of our liberties and our freedoms. How in the world does that make any sense? Have the terrorists won?

As a country, we have moved so far in the direction of communist China, the USSR and Nazi Germany that it is almost impossible to believe ,Yes, turning the United States of America into a giant prison may make us all slightly safer, but what kind of life is this? Do we want to be dead while we are still alive? Is this the price that we want to pay in order to feel slightly safer?
 Where are the millions of Americans that still yearn to breathe free air?

America is supposed to be a land teeming with people thirsting for independence. For example, "Live Free or Die" is supposedly the official motto of the state of New Hampshire.
 But instead, the motto of most Americans seems to be "live scared and die cowering".
 We don't have to live like this. Yes, bad things are always going to happen. No amount of security is ever going to be able to keep us 100% safe. We need to remember that a very high price was paid for our liberty and we should not give it up so easily.

As one very famous American once said, when we give up liberty for security we deserve neither.

The following are 30 signs that the United States of America is being turned into a giant prison....

 ARREST WITHOUT TRIALS


 A new bill that is going through the U.S. Senate would allow the U.S. military to arrest American citizens and hold them indefinitely without trial. This new law was recently discussed in an article posted on the website of the New American....

In what may be a tale too bizarre to be believed by millions of Americans, the U.S. Senate appears ready to pass a bill that will designate the entire earth, including the United States and its territories, one all-encompassing “battlefield” in the global “war on terror” and authorize the detention of Americans suspected of terrorist ties indefinitely and without trial or even charges being filed that would necessitate a trial.

U.S. Senator Lindsey Graham is a big supporter of the bill, and he says that it would "basically say in law for the first time that the homeland is part of the battlefield".

According to the PPJ Gazette, the following are three things that this new law would do....

1) Explicitly authorize the federal government to indefinitely imprison without charge or trial American citizens and others picked up inside and outside the United States;

(2) Mandate military detention of some civilians who would otherwise be outside of military control, including civilians picked up within the United States itself; and

(3) Transfer to the Department of Defense core prosecutorial, investigative, law enforcement, penal, and custodial authority and responsibility now held by the Department of Justice.
TERRORIST ALERT BUTTON ON GOOGLE:-
 U.S. Senator Joe Lieberman is asking Google to install a "terrorist button" on all Blogger.com blogs so that readers can easily flag "terrorist content" for authorities.
AUTOMATED CAR PLATE TRACKER:-
 Most Americans have no idea how sophisticated the "Big Brother" prison grid has become. For example, in Washington D.C. the movements of every single car are tracked using automated license plate readers (ALPRs). The following comes from a recent Washington Post article....

More than 250 cameras in the District and its suburbs scan license plates in real time, helping police pinpoint stolen cars and fleeing killers. But the program quietly has expanded beyond what anyone had imagined even a few years ago.

With virtually no public debate, police agencies have begun storing the information from the cameras, building databases that document the travels of millions of vehicles.

Nowhere is that more prevalent than in the District, which has more than one plate-reader per square mile, the highest concentration in the nation. Police in the Washington suburbs have dozens of them as well, and local agencies plan to add many more in coming months, creating a comprehensive dragnet that will include all the approaches into the District.

RFID CHIPS ON STUDENTS:-
 In some American schools, RFID chips are now being used to monitor the attendance and movements of children while they are at school. The following is how one article recently described a program that has just been instituted at a preschool in California....

Upon arriving in the morning, according to the Associated Press, each student at the CCC-George Miller preschool will don a jersey with a stitched in RFID chip. As the kids go about the business of learning, sensors in the school will record their movements, collecting attendance for both classes and meals. Officials from the school have claimed they're only recording information they're required to provide while receiving federal funds for their Headstart program.
BRANDING CRIMES:--
Increasingly, incidents of misbehavior at many U.S. schools are being treated as very serious crimes. For example, when a little girl kissed a little boy at one Florida elementary school recently, it was considered to be a "possible sex crime" and the police were called out.
HAND CUFFED WITH ZIP TIES:----
 But what happened to one very young student in Stockton, California earlier this year was even worse.... Earlier this year, a Stockton student was handcuffed with zip ties on his hands and feet, forced to go to the hospital for a psychiatric evaluation and was charged with battery on a police officer. That student was 5 years old.
EXTREME BRUTAL FORCE BEING USED:-----
 In the United States today, police are trained to respond to even the smallest crimes with extreme physical force. For example, one grandfather in Arizona was recently filmed laying unconscious in a pool of his own blood after police rammed his head into the flood inside a Wal-Mart on Black Friday night. It was thought that he was shoplifting, but it turns out that he says that he was just trying to tuck a video game away so other crazed shoppers would not grab it out of his hands.
FAKE CELL PHONE TOWERS:----
Did you know that the government actually sets up fake cell phone towers that can intercept your cell phone calls? The following is how a recent Wired article described these "stingrays"....

You make a call on your cellphone thinking the only thing standing between you and the recipient of your call is your carrier’s cellphone tower. In fact, that tower your phone is connecting to just might be a boobytrap set up by law enforcement to ensnare your phone signals and maybe even the content of your calls.

So-called stingrays are one of the new high-tech tools that authorities are using to track and identify you. The devices, about the size of a suitcase, spoof a legitimate cellphone tower in order to trick nearby cellphones and other wireless communication devices into connecting to the tower, as they would to a real cellphone tower.

The government maintains that the stingrays don’t violate Fourth Amendment rights, since Americans don’t have a legitimate expectation of privacy for data sent from their mobile phones and other wireless devices to a cell tower.
SCANNING ALL LAP TOPS BEING BROUGHT IN TO USA:----
 U.S. border agents are allowed by law to search any laptop being brought into the United States without even needing any reason to do so.
US TREATS EVERY VISITOR AS POTENTIAL TERRORIST:----
 In the United States of America, everyone is a "potential terrorist". According to FBI Director Robert Mueller, "homegrown terrorists" represent as big a threat to American national security as al-Qaeda does.

SECRET PATRIOTIC ACT:---
 Most Americans are not that concerned about the Patriot Act, but that might change if they understood that the federal government has a "secret interpretation" of what the Patriot Act really means. U.S. Senator Ron Wyden says that the U.S. government interprets the Patriot Act much more "broadly" than the general public does....

"We’re getting to a gap between what the public thinks the law says and what the American government secretly thinks the law says."

INTERNET RADIO TALK PROGR:----
AMMESThe FBI is now admittedly recording Internet talk radio programs all over the United States. The following comes from a recent article by Mark Weaver of WMAL.com....
 If you call a radio talk show and get on the air, you might be recorded by the FBI.
 The FBI has awarded a $524,927 contract to a Virginia company to record as much radio news and talk programming as it can find on the Internet.

The FBI says it is not playing big brother by policing the airwaves, but rather seeking access to what airs as potential evidence.
GLEANING INFORMATION FROM SOCIAL SITES:------
 The federal government has decided that what you and I share with one another on Facebook and on Twitter could be a threat to national security. According to a recent Associated Press article, the Department of Homeland Security will soon be "gleaning information from sites such as Twitter and Facebook for law enforcement purposes".
CELL PHONE TRACKINGS:---
 What you say on your cell phone is never private. The truth is that that the FBI can demand to see your cell phone data whenever it wants. In addition, according to CNET News the FBI can remotely activate the microphone on your cell phone and listen to whatever you are saying....

The FBI appears to have begun using a novel form of electronic surveillance in criminal investigations: remotely activating a mobile phone's microphone and using it to eavesdrop on nearby conversations.

The technique is called a "roving bug," and was approved by top U.S. Department of Justice officials for use against members of a New York organized crime family who were wary of conventional surveillance techniques such as tailing a suspect or wiretapping him.
PULLING DATA FROM CELL PHONE:-----
 In some areas of the country, law enforcement authorities are pulling data out of cell phones for no reason whatsoever. According to the ACLU, state police in Michigan are now using "extraction devices" to download data from the cell phones of motorists that they pull over. This is taking place even if the motorists that are pulled over are not accused of doing anything wrong.

The following is how a recent article on CNET News described the capabilities of these "extraction devices"....

The devices, sold by a company called Cellebrite, can download text messages, photos, video, and even GPS data from most brands of cell phones. The handheld machines have various interfaces to work with different models and can even bypass security passwords and access some information.

GPS TRACKING DEVICES:------
The federal government has become so paranoid that they have been putting GPS tracking devices on the vehicles of thousands of people that have not even been charged with committing any crimes. The following is a short excerpt from a recent Wired magazine article about this issue....

The 25-year-old resident of San Jose, California, says he found the first one about three weeks ago on his Volvo SUV while visiting his mother in Modesto, about 80 miles northeast of San Jose. After contacting Wired and allowing a photographer to snap pictures of the device, it was swapped out and replaced with a second tracking device. A witness also reported seeing a strange man looking beneath the vehicle of the young man’s girlfriend while her car was parked at work, suggesting that a tracking device may have been retrieved from her car.

Then things got really weird when police showed up during a Wired interview with the man.

The young man, who asked to be identified only as Greg, is one among an increasing number of U.S. citizens who are finding themselves tracked with the high-tech devices.

The Justice Department has said that law enforcement agents employ GPS as a crime-fighting tool with “great frequency,” and GPS retailers have told Wired that they’ve sold thousands of the devices to the feds.
HIGH TECH STREET LIGHTS:-----
New high-tech street lights that are being funded by the federal government and that are being installed all over the nation can also be used as surveillance cameras, can be used by the DHS to make "security announcements" and can even be used to record personal conversations. The following is from a recent article by Paul Joseph Watson for Infowars.com....

Federally-funded high-tech street lights now being installed in American cities are not only set to aid the DHS in making “security announcements” and acting as talking surveillance cameras, they are also capable of “recording conversations,” bringing the potential privacy threat posed by ‘Intellistreets’ to a whole new level.
BRUTAL ENFORCEMENT OF LAWS:-----
 If you choose to protest in the streets of America today, there is a good chance that you will be brutalized. All over the United States law enforcement authorities have been spraying pepper spray directly into the faces of unarmed protesters in recent weeks.
STRICT IDENTITY CHECKS:----
 In many areas of the United States today, you will be arrested if you do not produce proper identification for the police. In the old days, "your papers please" was a phrase that was used to use to mock the tyranny of Nazi Germany. But now all of us are being required to be able to produce "our papers" for law enforcement authorities at any time. For example, a 21-year-old college student named Samantha Zucker was recently arrested and put in a New York City jail for 36 hours just because she could not produce any identification for police.

KINDERGARTEN CHILDREN BEING TRAINED ANTI TERRORISM DRILLS:----
 According to blogger Alexander Higgins, students in kindergarten and the 1st grade in the state of New Jersey are now required by law to participate "in monthly anti-terrorism drills". The following is an excerpt from a letter that he recently received from the school where his child attends....

Each month a school must conduct one fire drill and one security drill which may be a lockdown, bomb threat, evacuation, active shooter, or shelter-in place drill. All schools are now required by law to implement this procedure.

So who in the world ever decided that it would be a good idea for 1st grade students to endure "lockdown" and "active shooter" drills? To get an idea of what these kinds of drills are like, just check out this video.

CLOSURE OF LEMONADE STANDS ALL OVER THE STATES:-----
 With all of the other problems that we are having all over the nation, you would think that authorities would not be too concerned about little kids that are trying to sell cups of lemonade. But sadly, over the past year police have been sent in to shut down lemonade stands run by children all over the United States.
TARGET ORGANIC FARMS;-----
 The federal government has decided to invest a significant amount of time, money and energy raiding organic farms. The following example comes from Natural News....

It is the latest case of extreme government food tyranny, and one that is sure to have you reeling in anger and disgust. Health department officials recently conducted a raid of Quail Hollow Farm, an organic community supported agriculture (CSA) farm in southern Nevada, during its special "farm to fork" picnic dinner put on for guests -- and the agent who arrived on the scene ordered that all the fresh, local produce and pasture-based meat that was intended for the meal be destroyed with bleach.
 X- RAY SCANNERS AT ALL ENTRY POINTS:-----
 It is an absolute disgrace that all of us (including grandmothers and young children) must either go through body scanners that reveal the intimate details of our naked bodies or endure "enhanced pat-downs" during which our genitals will be touched before we are allowed to get on an airplane. It is also an absolute disgrace that the American people are putting up with this.
TSA "VIPR " TEAMS:-----
 Invasive TSA security techniques are not just for airports anymore. Now, TSA "VIPR teams" are actively conducting random inspections at bus stations and on interstate highways all over the United States. For example, the following comes from a local news report down in Tennessee....

You're probably used to seeing TSA's signature blue uniforms at the airport, but now agents are hitting the interstates to fight terrorism with Visible Intermodal Prevention and Response (VIPR).

"Where is a terrorist more apt to be found? Not these days on an airplane more likely on the interstate," said Tennessee Department of Safety & Homeland Security Commissioner Bill Gibbons.

Tuesday Tennessee was first to deploy VIPR simultaneously at five weigh stations and two bus stations across the state.

TSA "VIPR teams" now conduct approximately 8,000 "unannounced security screenings" a year at subway stations, bus terminals, ports and highway rest stops.
SPYING INFORMANT SYSTEMS:------
 More than a million hotel television sets all over America are now broadcasting propaganda messages from the Department of Homeland Security promoting the "See Something, Say Something" campaign. In essence, the federal government wants all of us to become "informants" and to start spying on one another constantly. The following comes from an article posted by USA Today....

Starting today, the welcome screens on 1.2 million hotel television sets in Marriott, Hilton, Sheraton, Holiday Inn and other hotels in the USA will show a short public service announcement from DHS. The 15-second spot encourages viewers to be vigilant and call law enforcement if they witness something suspicious during their travels.
CHECKS AGAINST RIGHT WING EXTREMISM:------
 Certain "types" of American citizens are being labeled as potential threats in official U.S. government documents. An unclassified Department of Homeland Security report published a couple years ago entitled "Right-wing Extremism: Current Economic and Political Climate Fueling Resurgence in Radicalization and Recruitment" claims that a belief in Bible prophecy "could motivate extremist individuals and groups to stockpile food, ammunition and weapons." The report goes on to state that such people are potentially dangerous.
MIAC STRATEGIC REPORTS:------- Back on February 20, 2009, the State of Missouri issued a report entitled "MIAC Strategic Report: The Modern Militia Movement". That report warned that the following types of people may be potential terrorists....

*anti-abortion activists

*those that are against illegal immigration

*those that consider "the New World Order" to be a threat

*those that have a negative view of the United Nations
SUSPICIOUS ACTIVITIES:----
 As I have written about previously, a very disturbing document that Oath Keepers has obtained shows that the FBI is now instructing store owners to report many new forms of "suspicious activity" to them. According to the document, "suspicious activity" now includes the following....

*paying with cash

*missing a hand or fingers

*"strange odors"

*making "extreme religious statements"

*"radical theology"

*purchasing weatherproofed ammunition or match containers

*purchasing meals ready to eat

*purchasing night vision devices, night flashlights or gas masks

Do any of those "signs of suspicious activity" apply to you?
PRE-CRIME POTENTIAL TERRORISTS:-----Soon you may get labeled as a "potential terrorist" if you are just feeling a little nervous. A new "pre-crime" technology system that is currently being tested by the U.S. Department of Homeland Security will soon be in use all over the nation. It is called "Future Attribute Screening Technology" (FAST), and it is very frightening. The following description of this new program comes from an article in the London Telegraph....

Using cameras and sensors the "pre-crime" system measures and tracks changes in a person's body movements, the pitch of their voice and the rhythm of their speech.

It also monitors breathing patterns, eye movements, blink rate and alterations in body heat, which are used to assess an individual's likelihood to commit a crime.

The Future Attribute Screening Technology (FAST) programme is already being tested on a group of government employees who volunteered to act as guinea pigs.
MORE PEOPLE IN US PRISONS:-----
 The truth is that nobody puts more people into prison than America does. The United States has the highest incarceration rate in the world and the largest total prison population on the entire globe.

To read about some of the crazy things that the control freaks running things have planned for the future, just check out this article by Natural News: "10 outlandish things the 'scientific' controllers have in mind for you in the near future".

Once again, despite all of this outrageous "security", it is inevitable that a lot of really bad things are going to happen in the United States in the years ahead.

When there are incidents of violence, it is also inevitable that there will be calls for even more "Big Brother" security measures. We are going to be caught in a never ending spiral of tyranny where the "solution" is always even tighter security.

Eventually, we will have lost all of our liberties and freedoms, and we will probably be even less safe than we are today.

Do not be deceived. We could put a soldier on every corner, a video camera in every room of every home and an RFID chip in every citizen but that would not make us "safe".direction of this country around. Every single lawmaker that is backing these laws which strip our liberties and freedoms away deserves to be voted out of office.

If you love the United States of America, please stand up and say something while you still can.

Please use this article and other articles like it as tools. Share them with your friends and your family. If we can get enough people to wake up, perhaps there is still enough time to turn the

Will the final chapters of the history of the United States of America be mentioned in the same breath as communist China, the USSR and Nazi Germany, or will the final chapters of the history of the United States of America be the greatest chapters of all?

YOUR CHOICED DESTINATION OF USA GOING OUT OF BOUNDS????