One of the things I really enjoy about having a blog is that it allows me to take a break from TrickiLeaks while still getting to write. I never realized until I moved to Arthuria just how much I like writing, from both a professional and personal standpoint. Maintaining this blog has been relaxing and has helped me stay focused on slow news days, when TrickiLeaks just doesn't have much on the table.
I get a multitude of questions from readers, and one of the most requested that I get concerns culture shock. The brunt of my reader-base have never lived in the UNCA. They're lucky just to meet a Seglander or a Hadinian who have lived in and fled the UNCA in search of freedom and a better life elsewhere. Everyone understands that life inside and outside the UNCA are two drastically different things, but it takes first hand experience to be able to discuss just where the surprises lie.
So, what did culture shock look like for me?
Firstly, people love to ask what the things I miss most about Hadin are. There's plenty of things I don't miss. Church attendance in Hadin was mandatory: I don't miss that for a second. Homophobia and a closeted existence for homosexuals is also standard Hadinian fare, and that's another thing I don't miss. On a much more light-hearted and apolitical note, I can't say I miss what passes for a good cup of coffee in Hadin (a nation which strongly favors tea). I also don't miss the lack of casual dress. Don't get me wrong, I'll dress formally for work or another situation that requires it, and I think Hadinian dress-codes have helped me prepare for looking sharp when the situation demands it.
But there isn't a concept of casual dress in Hadin. Dressing down is the thing that gives me culture shock here in Arthuria. Dressing down in Hadin means you lose your tie, and maybe you unbutton your top button. I'd never even seen a t-shirt before I arrived here.
And I love it. When I'm sitting down in my home or going out for a coffee, I love that I don't have to be dressed to the nines to do it.
Secondly, people ask me what I do miss. Most definitely, I miss pastries. I have a sweet-tooth, and Hadinian pastries are just unbeatable. Even Nui-ta doesn't get pastries right the way Hadin does, and knock-offs here in Hadin just aren't the same.
I miss the casual drug culture as well. I've never been a fan of the harder stuff, but I have no understanding of why some countries illegalize things like marijuana. Coming from a country where mere possession of almost any drug isn't enough for a criminal charge, I don't understand why some governments feel that its necessary to keep these things off the streets. Hell, being able to get high freely was one of the few rights that Hadin actually understood.
I also miss Hadinian alcohol: but alcohol is another thing that Hadin just does way better than many nations. Arthuria is actually quite on-par with Hadin, though, so that's helped.
One more thing I find myself (somewhat) nostalgic for is free healthcare. Don't get me wrong: Arthuria's healthcare system is certainly a respectable one. However, I'm a guy who became very spoiled off of Hadin's Essential Health Services Provision.
What is the Essential Health Services Provision? It's a law that makes it such that every Hadinian citizen, whether young or old, male or female, has access to the most basic levels of healthcare. If you seek a service that maintains a basic standard of health, whether that service is preventative (a flu shot), life-saving (emergency appendix removal) or integral to your basic quality of life (mending a broken leg) --- and if you're a Hadinian citizen, it's free.
There's a lot of things that AREN'T free about this. Someone, somewhere, has to pay the doctors. Obviously, this provision is largely funded by taxpayer money, but surplus money from public transport, religious or secular administrative bodies, or education is also funneled in. It helps that Hadinians aren't a particularly materialistic people: most people don't really care about being rich as long as they can provide for themselves. It also helps that other services in Hadin are kept to a rather basic level: basic education in Hadin is subsidized by taxes, but higher-level education [past grade school for females and high-school for males] is totally privatized as far as where the money comes from.
Furthermore, anything that isn't a "service that maintains a basic standard of health" isn't free. You're entitled to get care from a doctor under the EHSP for free, but choosing which doctor isn't covered by that same law. You're entitled to a hospital visit for an illness or injury, for free --- but getting a private room or treatments outside of what a doctor deems appropriate is massively expensive. You're entitled to nursing care that meets a standard deemed acceptable by the Nursing Board, but hiring a private nurse without a doctor's order is massively expensive. [Oh, I should mention, a lot of nurses in Hadin aren't doing the job for pay --- Hadinian nurses tend to be nuns who do their job for free as part of their ecclesiastical orders and call to service, so that eliminates a ridiculous amount of Dir paying for a "professional" nursing sector in the healthcare field].
You're entitled to a basic prosthetic (mechanical and in some cases myoelectric) if you lose an appendage, but a high-model prosthetic (robotic) won't count towards the EHSP. You're entitled to some fertility treatments if that is a problem in your life, but after a certain point, the healthcare system will oftentimes encourage you to adopt, or otherwise continue treatment outside of the EHSP with private-pay.
Also: non-essential healthcare services don't count towards the EHSP at all. Plastic surgery for anything that isn't directly attributable to a traumatic injury, for example, is not qualified as an EHSP expense (and even when it is attributable to a traumatic injury, it may not always be covered).
I find it really amazing that this system "only" costs Hadin about 4.5 trillion Dir a year (a little over 3.75 trillion Nui-tan Had). In comparison, Nui-ta's partially privatized system costs its government 27.5 trillion Had (!!!). More interestingly, Nui-ta's new government is on the verge of dismantling its current system in favor of a more privatized version, citing cost. Granted, Nui-ta's standard of healthcare might be considered higher overall, and Nui-ta also has an entire fleet of nurses who are expecting paychecks, unlike the Hadinian ones who work in exchange for personal privileges granted by their position.
(Those privileges are, namely, freedom from the societal pressure to settle down and marry, as well as freedom to pursue more of an education than the average woman, and freedom to work in some industries such as nursing, teaching, or some low-level administrative work).