Today, I reserved and paid for my seat on my flight from Rio to Amsterdam’s Schiphol Airport.

I had already paid for a seat from Schiphol to Birmingham. Stupidly, I thought it covered both flights. Then I discovered that if you want a preferred seat, especially on a long flight, you must pay a reservation fee for that preference.

Of course, twenty-two years ago, this never existed. But nowadays, everyone is looking, fighting, and scraping for money in different ways to make ends meet or to be more profitable. Usually, I wouldn’t care about reserving and paying for a seat on a flight.

However, as I have broad shoulders, especially after working out, the worst situation for me would be sitting in the middle with two passengers on either side.

People avoid sitting next to me on a bus. Imagine ten or eleven hours on an international flight; it would be completely uncomfortable for the people next to me and for me. Therefore, I have reserved seats on both flights. I have my flight ticket, passport, and Brazilian ID; I think that is everything.

However, I don’t have travel insurance. A student of mine, Antonio, is dealing with this. Since I don’t have a specific return date, the quote he gave me for a one-month stay is too expensive. I looked on Google to find out whether travel insurance is obligatory for expatriates entering the UK. Fortunately, it isn’t; that is one less item to pay for the trip.

Another unnecessary requirement is a vaccination card specifically for COVID-19 and Yellow Fever. I will bring my two vaccination cards, just in case, but it shouldn’t be necessary.

So, everything is more or less done. There are a few small things to do, such as having my boots repaired, buying presents for my nephew and niece, and packing my suitcase. I think that’s about it. As for packing my suitcase, I will do it on the day I leave or the day before.

As mentioned, I haven’t been to England in more than 22 years; that is almost a generation. Even buying an international air ticket is different now. In the past, it was a paper ticket; now it’s all about e-mail, apps, QR codes, and other digital means.

Once considered unnecessary, travel insurance has become a significant part of the checklist. Seat reservations and the option to pay for a preferred seat never existed before, but now they do. Simply travelling from A to B requires a few previously unheard-of tasks.

It got me thinking that we will be lost and out of date if we don’t live in a capitalist society, where everything is tied to consumerism, consumption, production, creation, and distribution.

If we want to keep pace with others and the broader evolution in the world, while remaining competitive, or at least maintaining the same level as others, we must live in a capitalist society. Otherwise, we will revert to an archaic and outdated society.

Any ruler, leader, Prime Minister, President, etc., who preaches a socialist agenda is excluding their people from the rest of the world.

A leader must provide the opportunity to compete with others. You choose whether to take it, but the society you live in should offer you that opportunity.

Suppose the country’s leader does not provide you with the conditions to work, learn, improve, and progress. In that case, that leader is incompetent, self-centred, spiteful, evil, and probably corrupt. Their main goal? Power for themselves. Ultimately, this leads to people’s ignorance.

The rest of the day was spent teaching classes. I taught an in-person class in Copacabana with Dona Vera, who had already given me a shirt for Christmas. Today, she brought me a bottle of wine. Bless her.

 In bed by 10 p.m.

Thank you.

Thanks for reading this blog post. Please explore my other posts and share your thoughts in the comments section.

Richard

Photos by Richard George Photography

The post How International Travel Has Become first appeared on The Long Gringo.