Doctor experiences?

There are 2 replies in this Thread which has previously been viewed 171 times. The latest Post () was by Rice.

    I had my quarterly check up with my scary chest doctor yesterday. She was recommended to us a year ago by a heart specialist and long time friend of the missus.

    She's a very good no nonsense doctor who loves to chat to me in English and yesterday as always scolded me for not giving up smoking. After giving me the thumbs up for my COPD not getting any worse over the last year she started chatting away to the missus in Spanish. As she talks very quickly in Spanish I usually just ignore what she's saying. When we came out I asked the missus what they were talking about. She said the doc had asked her if I received my UK pension in Euros to which my wife told her no I got paid in dollars.

    I couldn't believe it and said to my wife a UK doctor would never have asked such a question about a patient as my finances are none of their business. She replied ''I know but this is Argentina''!! :D

    Quote from UK Man

    I couldn't believe it and said to my wife a UK doctor would never have asked such a question about a patient as my finances are none of their business. She replied ''I know but this is Argentina''!! :D

    This kind of personal questions are very hard to dodge. They are very very blunt and you can't get away with it easily. They usually formulated to call for a yes or no answers. Discretion is not an Argentinian trait.


    It seems that people really do want to know if you are on the oppressed or oppressor side. Not to mention that they will have no problem in asking detailed questions such as where you pay taxes, how do you get your money into the country, and in what currency you earn, how do you find work. Also, in my experience, they really want you to say it out loud, like an admission of guilt.

    It is pretty self-evident when you say "my clients abroad..." that you aren't getting paid in pesos, because nobody outside of Argentina accepts pesos, not even in Uruguay. But no, they want you to say that you get paid in USD (or any other currency), and they want to know how you get that money into the country.

    And it is not to learn to do it themselves, but just to frame you as a bad person.


    Personally, I still find it very inconsiderate and annoying, except that in my mind I am no longer feeling guilty if they weren't able to stop the decadence of their country for decades while the world moved forward. With the internet, there is no excuse to be ignorant.

    In fact, in local freelancer groups on the Internet, there are a few smart ones that have found a way to make it work from them from here and realize we are in a global market.

    But you know what? You need initiative and perseverance, and you have to do your homework to get there. Yes, perhaps for those living in an economically stable and unrestricted economy it is easier, but we aren't in rural Africa.


    My impression is that most people here isn't actually interested in changing, but just looking for more reasons to complain about their life.


    Whenever I was asked for tips, and I gave them, I always god a nod and "it's too complicate". Well, if you don't put the work in for yourself, I am not certainly doing it for you.

    Right on point, serafina . Many people decry the welfare society of the past 3-4 generations that translates into generational families for whom work is a foreign concept. But fewer people acknowledge that actual hard work, perseverence, calculated risk taking, and self-reliance are necessary for business success and self-improvement. Many working-age middle class people show up at work and stay all day but accomplish very little.