Bloggers and Tweeters, not often do I ask for help. Last time it was when the earth quake stroke.

This is a personal website which I wanted to be about Chile but sometimes there are more important things. My father needs all my help, support and attention that I can give and I am involving you or no, I am asking for your help.

An Austrian bank took 23 K out of my fathers pensions account without his permission (here is the full story in English) by Volksbank Tirol Innsbruck Schwaz AG (link leads to my Austrian activist site) To sue their pants off would mean an investment of EUR 30.000,—which the pensioner who is my father does not have.

Instead we decided to bring the attention to the Austrian Community of Facebookers, Twitterati and we built a Website (Blog?) called Volksbank Tirol Hoelle

I am not asking for money But you can get involved by simply writing about it even if only in a byline to a post and link to the support site http://volksbankhoelle.com

I was overwhelmed with the amazing feedback I already got from Austria. Here is a quick overview of how often the story has already been shared on Facebook.

Please help me. I will be asking you guys also by email and Twitter. Please don’t say no. It’s not for me it’s for my father who is a pensioner and would really need the money he saved to have a nicer and better pension.

!!!Thank you!!!!

Please help me fight the Corporate Bully and tweet this and facebook it – thanks

*updated facebok shares*

Well the case got more and more bizarre after I wrote about it. The bank went to court and called, me, my father and my brother for fraud. The reason? Well difficult to explain since my father had no debts. But he transferred 28000 EUR to my wife as a loan towards our new house. Or he wanted to. The bank did not allow this transfer and the rest of the story you know – or you can find here: Volksbank-Tirol Theft, Breach of Secrecy You can imagine me going through a rough time even if I knew that neither me nor my family did something wrong. Needless to say the courts decided it was too bizarre and did not even take up the case. Mind you the police did investigate and you can imagine that even though we knew that we did nothing wrong it did cause us some nights without much sleep.

Now the good news The awesome people from National Austrian TV (ORF 2) decided that this case was so bizarre and wrong that they reported on it in a Documentation where they bring cases where David has to fight Goliath and where something goes so wrong that you can say the case stinks. The case will be a warning to others so they know what the bank is capable of doing. An entire 14 Minutes on National TV (ORF 2) with the entire story. Can you imagine what this is worth? Should you speak German, the show is online until Friday:

Here are my father an his lawyer in the Television Studio. Volksbank-Tirol was also invited to send a representative but declined.

My father is still hoping that the bank will come to senses and offer to undo the damage. I don’t think this will happen. A lawsuit started by my father to get the money back can cost anything from 30000 EUR if it goes to high court. My family’s lawyer thinks there is a high probability that it would to high court

What is the alternative? Noise, noise noise. No we don’t want to damage the bank. Hell we could not do that. But what we want to do is tell the story to everybody – exactly what happened – so we would not want to defame the bank would we. We also want to tell the stories of others who had the same trouble with this bank, believe me we already heard some scary cases from people who called after my father was on National TV. Of course if nothing helps they will have to start court action. Sad that it is not like in the States where you could probably take a million dollar for emotional damages.

The concept of the idea I got from Tiffany over at TalkTalkhell She did an awesome job a few years back when half of Britain had problems with their broad band connection and did not rest as the corporate lawyers threaten to sue her out of existence.

PS: a little disclaimer so that the trigger happy bank does not try to sue me again. The Title is opinion. In my eyes the bank robbed my father. Courts may see this differently

PPS: No it is not the bank that is bad. There are people who operate there. The senior Management of Volksbank-Tirol are the ones who make the decisions and made the call to stop the report of the regional Magazine that was being prepared.

Critical Qualifications are:
*Customer Orientation Strong Results Orientation to deliver our target and beyond
*Sales Experience and Negotiation Skills
*Excellent written and Verbal Communication Skills (English)

If you feel that you can add value to our Team please send me your CV. My Contact Details can be found here.

update: some context
I had quickly shot this with my mobile and sent it to my site without much explanation. I took it in Miami Airport in one of the wash rooms…..

Saturday my wife browsed the stands a little while I sat in the grass & sun trying different types of wine. That’s life.

Yesterday (Sunday) we were lazy, went out to eat Peruvian food at Museo Peruano in Vitacura which I like a lot. The prices are very reasonable, food is great and on top of that you get 20 – 25 % (depending on how you pay) discount if you are with El Mercurio.

Friday we had a nice evening with our friends welcoming back Victor.

Now is Monday and I am back to work Oh and the rain…? I always said from beginning of November to End of April it never rains in Santiago. That’s because this is only my third November. It started pouring down on Sunday Morning and it has not stopped since. Not even for 1 Minute…. Hope nothing happens with land slides or floodings in Santiago.

Here are the photos from Paula Gourmet. All taken from my mobile.

< Rant >
You know, comments like these remind me of a story, about a Father and his Son, taking their donkey to the market. When the Father rode the donkey, the people chastised him for making his ‘little kid’ walk. When the Son rode, they criticized him for making his ‘old man’ walk. When neither rode, people call them ‘idiots’ for not using the donkey. When both used it, people called them out for burdening the ‘poor beast’ too much. Finally they both carried the donkey on their shoulders, but when they were crossing the bridge, the donkey panicked and slipped, and fell to the river below.

Moral of the story: Some people just like to yap, they don’t actually have genuine advice to give, nor do they actually know of your situation. They just perceive things from their POV and give judgment, as if that will fit all.
< /Rant >

source

The answer was what I had expected and what had been exactly my observations which got me thinking more.

Now the Expat blogs I read are mostly from Norte Americanos or Brits and yes in those countries strangers are constantly asking how you are doing even if the people are not at all interested in hearing the answer and often don’t even wait for the response. In the States a lot worse than in Britain but I remember too well when I was going through a rough time living in Cambridge and every day when I walked in to a shop at before 7 in the morning being asked “how are you” in a very bright happy and positive voice. There are moments I don’t want to hear that. I just want to buy my sandwich and be done with it. Often I thought if she really cared…… – anyway… Different cultures… – so I stuck to  a fine thanks…

Also the Brits invented the queues and my friends and me where often joking that Brits only come to places where there is a long queue and that without the queue there would be no experience Night Clubs made artificial queues even if completely empty inside… The missing queues often a complaint about Chile…

So the real question is: Are Chileans unfriendly & nasty or only the way Americans and British feel about them?

The following poll is meant only for “non US and non British expats” and I would be interested to see the results… Please please if you are from the US or UK don’t take part in the poll – but feel free to leave a comment.

ps: sorry for generalising I know Brits are very different then US Americans – both cultures generally nice, friendly & helpful – oh and I miss the driving in Britain – OMG – amazing even in rush hour in London…

One thing that was and is hard for me to understand is the HUGE mental barrier between the “upper” and “lower” class in Chile. Even though in Europe me and Liz would probably be middle to lower middle class for sure we are considered upper class here in Chile.

I grew up in Austria in a little & beautiful village with 2000 inhabitants. For me it was normal that when someone comes to do work in the house that they would be offered lunch and we would usually all sit around the table with the workers and have a great conversation. My parents  (who had a small business) even invited the tax inspector to have lunch with us as they were going over the tax records to check if they are able to find some irregularities.

When Liz and me moved in to our new house here in Chile there was a carpenter we relied heavily on. He put in the wooden floor in the entire house and broke one wall to make a big living room out of a previously tiny room which was parted from the hallway by a wall. On their last day Liz and me were already living in the house and we served them lunch at our table. We had an awesome conversation and got to understand part of their lives. Franzisco, the main guy is very young but has been a self employed carpenter since the age of 14 (!?) and his coworkers were his dad and his younger brother who is about to join the army. I did not feel any awkwardness but remember my Nana asking me if they are going to sit at our table. She was surprised. She was also invited to join us but politely declined.

Since it never rains in Santiago and Liz and I travel a lot for work and also for leisure we need an automatic watering system else the garden will never be green. In summer you need to water daily else the grass will burn. So we had the automatic system put in by workers. They worked here almost a week. The first day I invited them for lunch and they refused. They were very happy to accept the lunch but said they do not want to eat with us. They said it was much better to have it outside so they can get back to work faster. It was really cold outside. Liz had warned me that the workers will not feel comfortable with me inviting them to our table. That is the norm in Chile. I discovered it multiple times and also discussed it with friends. Workers will not want to sit at your table. They don’t feel comfortable.

My Nanny (the housekeeper).

We have here 2 times per week and pay her significantly more then the average Nannies are paid here in Santiago. This is probably because I am foreign and not used to the concept of being served and wanting to be a good “employer”. In the UK I was living in shared accommodation and we sometimes hired a cleaner but she would take per 2 hours what my Nanny here in Chile gains in 7 hours of work. Needless to say that the housekeepers in the UK are more efficient with their time than the Nannies in Chile

I love cooking and hate cleaning… Nannies here in Chile often cook for their “bosses” but I never asked mine to cook for me since I prefer she uses her time to wash and iron and clean the house. I actually cook for my Nanny which I believe she must find hilarious and probably is part of her evening conversation with friends and family. Despite the fact that I cook for her and I knew she ate I never knew where she was eating until on Friday I discovered it. I was shocked. She was eating in the laundry room. See the picture for details:

Not only is it not very comfortable there but being winter it is also very cold in this room so I asked her to please eat at the lunch table. Since I was leaving she did and she thanked me (?!.) Again I spoke to Chilean friends and they told me her behavior is very normal. That is how it is in Chile. Before posting I asked my wife to quickly check what I am writing… She doesn’t think it is because they believe they are not worth it… I do. What is your opinion? Does your Nanny eat with you? At your table or after you – I would be happy to hear your thoughts…..