The North American Family

La rentrée has a special meaning for this Franco-American family.  Every year around this time my parents come over from the Pacific Northwest to Europe.  Their trip has two purposes:  business because my father always attends the International Broadcasting Convention in Amsterdam in early September and a family visit to see us in the Paris region.  It will be twice as nice to see them this year since I wasn't able to go to Seattle this summer and I missed my sister's birthday party in Portland, Oregon.  Here is a family portrait from the event (taken by a family friend who is one hell of a photographer) which will give you some idea of the fun I missed.

A few weeks back I posted about Letters of Note and made the comment that email is the lesser medium.  Well, when you living a few thousand miles away from the family, email and social media do make it much easier to keep in touch.  Also, all emails are not equal.  My mother's emails in particular are always welcome in my inbox and not just because she's my mom.   She is an excellent writer (and also a fine photographer) and her missives are always entertaining.   As they have trekked from the U.S. West Coast to Northern Europe via Iceland, my mother has been sending a steady stream of commentary about the trip and these are emails worth keeping.  Here is the latest (posted with her permission):

It's perfect today, canal-side room, perfect fall weather: sunny but just a little crisp, the kind of weather when you wonder if you should put on a sweater when you go out but decide not to and its perfect. B is off to his meetings at the convention and I am getting ready to go out but now just sitting in my room in the sun watching the canal boats go by.
I must say if you are traveling to Europe and probably a few other places, Icelandic Air's flight from Seattle seems to work well - leaves at 4:30pm putting you at the airport at a civilized 2:30. They fly 757's, a perfectly nice airplane. First nice thing is that it left on time with little fuss. They tuck you in with a pillow and blanket and, after turning off the seat-belt sign, they start drinks, warm nuts and a very acceptable little snack, followed by a shrimp salad progressing to a choice of three dinner items - you know: beef, fish, and in this case duck breast. I can speak for two out of the three - quite good...

After dinner the disciplined types who avoid the entertainment can get what passes for a "good" night's sleep. Seven hours later (more or less) you reach the coast of Iceland, and off in the distance, the terminal. It looks like a maintenance building in Alaska but closer up its a lovely modern building -light, airy, not crowded and very clean. Not much for visual clutter, I enjoyed the lack of bad public art. Another good thing, you go thru passport control here rather than the much more crowded Amsterdam airport. And, they appeared to be less than intensely interested in who I was and totally uninterested in where I was going and or for how long. Slipped the passport thru the window, guy looks up, stamps it and off I go. Waiting room was comfortable and those Icelanders don't cater to the dim.  When they are ready to board, someone shows up, we line up and get on the plane. Announcement?  Well no.  Why bother since its a small space and, for the couple who were going to sit until there was a official boarding call, they may still be there.
Two more hours and we are in Amsterdam, landing just after noon, so if you slept you could be somewhat acclimatised. I am not one of those people. 

Decided to try the train rather than a cab. Note here, European train stations don't accept the chipless American credit cards or cash in the ticket machines. So we shlepped upstairs and found the ticket desk, after asking for directions; the nice guy, in English, pointed out that it was behind us and wasn't rude enough to mention that the sign is huge (OK we were jet-lagged) . Train works really well - it's in the airport basement, ramp accommodates rolling luggage and it's very fast, no stops between the airport and the central Amsterdam train station, and it's cheap. Cabs, especially during rush hour, are much slower and amazingly expensive even for those of us from Seattle - land of expensive cabs. 

Additional notes - And Icelandic air is among the cheapest ways to get to Europe. Speaking of historic over-grazing, you know since 1200, nothing in Iceland appears to be more than knee high. Spending a couple of days on the way back and on our way to the airport B asks if I packed my swim suit; huh- Iceland, fall? He packed his but forgot to mention it- you know, thermal pools. Considering it a shopping opportunity, yet another piece of swim-wear to add to my collection of purchases associated with bad packing. My distaste for packing is only matched by my distaste for unpacking - the entire process is a big bore. No excuses for me the child of a master packer. My mother savored the packing experience like a fine wine - she would start weeks before a big trip slowing adding pieces to her suitcases, each piece ironed (yes, including underwear) and wrapped in tissue paper. 

My mother once wanted my father to stop and purchase a new pair of socks for me after I was run over by a truck that avoided everything but my foot. My father, a quick-witted sort of guy, remarked as we were headed to the hospital that the tire print on my sock would be helpful to the xray technician. Of course this devotion to packing perfection almost killed the family cat.  Mother's suitcase was colonized for a sleeping venue by the cat and mother closed the suitcase and walked off only noticing a muffled screaming later. How much later? She was never really owned up to how much later - cat survived, as cats generally do.

Innovation Is International

Forbes magazine has published its 2012 list of the 100 most innovative companies in the world.  Check it out because it clearly reveals that there is no one Land of Opportunity these days.

If we just look at the top ten, we see companies from the U.S. but also from China, India and Japan.

For those who argue that European companies are stymied by over-regulation, heavy taxation and the "socialist" tendencies of their governments, please note that a UK company comes in 10th on the list and a French company, Pernod Ricard, is 15th.

In fact, there are quite a few French companies on the list.   Le Point has an article here which talks about "les entreprises tricolores" that made the cut:  Danone (ahead of Apple), Essilor, L'Oreal and others.

I was personally very pleased to see that one of my former employers, Dassault Systèmes, is on the list. They deserve it - it's not only a great company to work for but it's filled with people who are wicked smart and very VERY creative.  I saw things when I worked for them that just blew my mind.

Every so often when people find out that I hail from Seattle, I get asked, "Since you're an IT person, why didn't you stay there and work for Microsoft?"

Well, put yourself in my place.  Sure I could have stayed in Seattle but where was the fun in that?  I was born there and the city holds few mysteries for me.  There was also no guarantee that Microsoft or any of the other companies based there would have hired me.   By leaving I got the chance to work for what Forbes has recognized as a highly innovative international company, to live in two of the world's most beautiful cities (Paris and Tokyo), and to travel all over the world (China, Germany, Korea, India and many other places.)

Honestly, I'd say this was a no-brainer.

The other day I came across this article in The Atlantic, To Make America Great Again, We Need to Leave the Country.  Lot of hard truths there and the author is dead right when he says:

When Americans travel abroad, they are often surprised at how well other countries do the things we used to think America does best. In fact, one reason so many American businesses still lead the world is because they benchmark the competition and emulate best practices. But suggest to an American politician that we should try to learn from other countries, and he will look at you like you are from Mars. It is somehow unpatriotic even to raise such comparisons.

I'd say the situation is even worse than that.  Not only do those of us who abroad get laughed at when we make even the most mild suggestions about how practices learned elsewhere might be quite helpful in an American context, but we also get treated like Benedict Arnold's - tax evaders and potential terrorists until proven otherwise.

Forget "brain drain."  These days it's about "brain circulation."  The U.S. must recognize that not only does it benefit enormously when its people go abroad but, in a globalized world, its got competition as a pole of attraction.  In the 21st century, some effort is required to convince migrants to move there and stay - an effort that is not helped by American tax policy.   It also needs to start seeing its diaspora as an asset, a pool of people who do a lot of quiet good for America wherever they live.   I've yet to meet a single American who has given one thought about ways to get back those Americans who went abroad in the first place.  Other countries recognized long ago  that their expatriates are rich in experience that cannot be taught at a hometown university or learned at corporate HQ in Topeka, Kansas.  They have positive (not punitive) policies to encourage their citizens to go abroad and come back. 

And that is one set of "best practices" that the U.S. should definitely take from the wider world.

Emigrant Dreams

Yesterday morning bright and early I was in a taxi being driven to my hospital in St. Cloud.  My driver is a Frenchman of Algerian origin and over the past month or so we have had many interesting conversations on a wide variety of topics.  This trip was no different and the topic of the day was emigration.  He told me his story and I told him mine.  He came to France when he was two years old and just recently became a French citizen.  As I was explaining what brought me to France he started to  laugh.  He said that he had relatives and friends who dream of moving to New York or California and he thought it was a bit ironic that in his cab he had an American who gave all that up to go elsewhere.    And he conceded that he had never really asked himself,  "À quoi rêvent les américains?" (What do Americans dream of?)

Singapore, I replied with no hesitation.  Also Paris, London, Beijing, Bangalore, Buenos Aires, and hundreds of other places.  Just like Algerians, I said, Americans feel a "pull" to go abroad, see the world and take advantage of all that globalization has to offer.  Right now, I told him, there are Americans in the United States who dream deep dreams of coming to the city he already calls home (Paris).

Eva Hoffman once wrote:

Multivalence is no more than a condition of contemporary awareness, and no more than the contemporary world demands. The weight of the world used to be vertical: it used to come from the past, or from the hierarchy of heaven and earth and hell; now it's horizontal, made up of the endless multiplicity of events going on at once and pressing at each moment on our minds and our living rooms. Dislocation is the norm rather than the aberration in our time, but even in the unlikely event that we spend an entire lifetime in one place, the fabulous diverseness with which we live reminds us constantly that we are no longer the norm or the center, that there is no one geographic center pulling the world together and glowing with the allure of the real thing...

"There is no center" - what an extraordinary idea.  Just poles of attraction that change from one era to another and, in our time, they are multiplying rapidly.  The lure of the unknown, dreams of distant shores and the desire to pack up and go somewhere, anywhere, other then the world into which one has accidentally been born is universal.  I contend that the "people who move around," regardless of their country of origin, socio-economic status, skills, and talents, are fundamentally very much alike.

And that is why sometimes it is easier for two immigrants, an American and an Algerian, to speak freely, swap stories and come to a common understanding than it is for either of us to talk to our compatriots in the countries we left behind.

12 Misconceptions About Versailles

There is a wonderful post up on the blog MonVersailles, one of my personal favorites and the place I go regularly to get information about what's going on around town.  It's called 12 idées reçues sur Versailles et les Versaillais and it is an eye-opener.

Most people's view of this city is filtered through Le château de Versailles.  Ok, the castle is impressive.  I personally think it's a bit gaudy but I'll admit that my heart leaps just a little when I come to the end of my street and I see it in all its splendor.

But where did people get the idea that the entire population of Versailles lives there?  Sure, the castle is big but I just don't think you could fit 88,500 people in it. Thankfully, there are plenty of houses and apartments here that range from the very modest to the quite grand and expensive.

From the MonVersailles post, here a few things you probably didn't know about the city.  I won't translate the entire post (take a few minutes and give your French a workout),  just a few of the misconceptions with some commentary by me (someone who indeed "est venue d'ailleurs.")

Versailles is an Old City:  "Old" is relative.  For an American like me from the city of Seattle, Versailles's age is impressive.  This city has been around for 350 years.  The city of Seattle is nothing compared to that since Seattle was founded in the middle of the 19th century which makes it a little over 150 years old.  But if you look at other cities in France like Tours which has been around since the 12th century (and it should be noted that the Romans were there even earlier) then, yes, Versailles is relatively young.

Versailles is Far From Paris!  Nonsense.  20 minutes by train.  I do it all the time.  On a good day you can get to Paris even faster by car.

Versailles is a Very Catholic City:  Not any more than the rest of France and, as MonVersailles notes, other religions have a presence here:  a synagogue, a mosque, and several Protestant churches.

With the Castle the City Must be Rich:  Wrong.  The city only gets money from one parking lot adjacent to the castle and certain taxes on local merchants.  The castle doesn't belong to the city and so is not a direct source of revenue.

There Are Only Rich People in Versailles:  Nope, 7% of the population is officially poor and most of the rest are middle-class.  Just walk into any local store or go the Sunday market and you won't see many people wearing Gucci shoes or driving around in fancy cars.  I doubt even the rich would do that - this is not a place where people flaunt their socio-economic status with ostentatious displays of wealth.

There is No Public (Subsidized) Housing in Versailles:  Hah!  16% and you can see some photos here.  Take a tour around the city and, yes, you will see HLM's. 

The Front National Score Must Be Very High in Versailles:  The Front National is the far-right party here in France.  Versailles is pretty conservative and some of the FN ideas are popular here.  It is the only city in France I've lived in where I saw a "Right to Life" (anti-abortion) poster on a main street a few years ago.  

That said, something that is worth mentioning here is that my family in California who are very conservative traditional Roman Catholics, consider Versailles to be something of a mecca for the Latin Mass (the Tridentine Rite).  I don't want to make a direct association here between the Far Right and Roman Catholics who follow this tradition but MonVersailles does mention the "intégristes" in his post under FN.   As a proud owner of a 1962 Latin/English Roman Catholic Daily Missal who is most definitely not a member of this far-right party AND who is an immigrant herself, I'd be very cautious about putting "intégristes catholiques" and the Front National in the same paragraph.  If you did a Venn diagram you would probably see some overlap but perhaps not as much as you might think.  In any case, I've decided to suspend judgement on this until I actually meet some of these people in these congregations.

Because, after all, just as people have some very serious misconceptions about Versailles, it is worth considering that others have their own "idées reçues" about those who prefer to start their Mass with the words:  In nomine Patris, et Filii, et Spiritus Sancti. Amen.

How I Really Feel About Citizenship-Based Taxation

U.S. citizens and Green Card holders living abroad are waking up to the fact that their status and connections to the "Land of the Free" brings with it certain obligations.  If you've ever read The Moon is a Harsh Mistress, one of the great science-fiction classics by Robert Heinlein, you'll be familiar with the acronym "TANSTAAFL" which stands for "There ain't no such thing as a free lunch."

Citizenship is never a "free lunch."  All countries require certain things of their citizens and where there are rights, there are also duties and responsibilities.  American citizenship is turning to be a very expensive lunch indeed (a four course meal with wine AND cheese AND dessert) because the United States practices something that is often called "citizenship-based taxation."  That term is a bit misleading and should probably be renamed "worldwide taxation" because its scope includes people who are not citizens of the United States of America:  U.S. residents and immigrants like Green Card holders living in the U.S. or abroad.  Very briefly what the U.S. tax system requires is that all U.S. persons (wherever they live) report their personal financial information to the U.S. government, file tax returns and pay U.S. taxes on income or investments earned outside of the U.S. every single year.   No other country in the world besides Eritrea does this and it brings new meaning to the old term, "American Exceptionalism."

Most homeland Americans are blissfully unaware of these requirements which is probably normal since   they have absolutely no impact on them.  What is more disturbing is that until very recently most U.S. Persons (American citizens abroad, Green Card holders and U.S. residents) were also completely in the dark.  Overseas Exile has an excellent post about "Expat Alice."  This is a very typical story and I know people here in similar situations.  Even with the news reports I am still meeting people in Paris like the two American au pairs I encountered a few months ago who have been here for a couple of years working for French families.  They went sheet white when I explained it to them.  Yes, both should have been filing tax returns and FBAR's since they earned a yearly salary that was over the filing threshold and their parents had set them up with bank accounts here with sufficient money to rent studios and pay their tuition for French classes.  Even I, someone is more or less clued in, made my own filing error.  It had not occurred to me that my daughter who is a U.S. citizen, should have reported her own bank account in Canada.  I had to check but it was indeed over the reporting limit because we set her up (like the parents of the au pairs) with enough money to pay her tuition and living expenses.  I had to search our bank records from last year, convert the amounts from Euros to U.S. dollars, and then send all that information to my daughter so she could fill out her own FBAR thus adding yet one more piece of paper that the U.S. Treasury must process in 2012.

So, as you can see, this matter is of more than academic interest to me and it is a topic that I write about often.  Am I angry about it?  Absolutely.  Here I am working on a tax return with my accountant that is so thick I could use it to line my cat box even though not one dime of my income or my investments came from or was earned in the U.S.  I have an extension to file late but I still had to pay a few thousand dollars to the IRS earlier this year and now I'm paying for someone to help me navigate the bloated U.S. tax code so I can get the paperwork done.  That's pretty expensive cat litter, mes amis.  And just for information I am strictly middle-income and have a career as an IT manager which pays decent money but does not, and never will, put me in the millionaire category.

 A few months ago I sent out my FBAR which has all my private banking information on it:  my U.S. Social Security number, bank account numbers and balances right down to my daughter's savings account with all of a few hundred Euros in it and the checking account that I share with my French husband.

Yes, homelanders, I pay U.S. taxes though I have not lived in the U.S. for years.  But apparently many of you don't.  On top of all of the above, and to really add insult to injury, was some news I had from a family member who lives in the U.S. and has about the same income.  He did his U.S. taxes and was pleasantly surprised to discover that not only is he not paying a dime in Federal income taxes, he gets a refund* of around 4000 USD.  Imagine my surprise to discover that he is not alone.  According to this Huffington Post article around 46% of homeland Americans didn't pay any Federal income taxes in 2011.

How interesting.

So let me see if I have this straight:  someone who lives in the US and has about the same income as me and who benefits from all the government goodies like national parks, Social Security, interstate highways, schools and so on can get away with not paying a dime even for the troops whereas someone like me who lives abroad and uses none of the benefits homeland citizens take for granted ends up with a hefty bill.

I understand that life is not necessarily fair and I am not someone who is against the idea of contributing to the well-being of my country of citizenship.  I am also aware that the reason many of these homeland Americans do not pay is because they are too damned poor to do so.  You have no idea how much I hate that and how ashamed it makes me to have to admit to it.

But at some point over the past 10 years homelanders ordered themselves up a four course meal at a fancy restaurant and put the bill on a Chinese credit card.  In retrospect this wasn't such a hot idea but at the time it was politically very popular to order up a filet mignon for some and to order a bottle of wine for those nice folks at the table on the other side of the restaurant who turned out to be non-drinkers and sent it back.  But it's a done deal and arguing over bad past decisions is a fruitless pastime.  In fact the national debate in this issue would be vastly improved if every American just accepted that everyone has some responsibility for how things shook out and that the most important thing now is to do the Next Right Thing.

To that end Americans abroad should be given a seat at the national table.  We may all be reduced to eating at Mickey D's but I'm cool with that.  Representative Carolyn B. Maloney of New York has put forward a very modest proposal for a commission that would start a dialogue between us. It would cost around 3 million dollars a year, a mere drop in the bucket compared to the overall federal budget - though I suppose if we asked a U.S. military contractor to cater it, it might cost quite a bit more than that.  The ACA and AARO are ready with some well researched material about how citizenship-based taxation and other homeland legislation effects us and does no good whatsoever for the homeland.

But don't you dare walk out of that restaurant and stiff us for the bill while mouthing platitudes about duty and responsibility and how we are all in this together.  Clearly that is not the case and one of these days if that doesn't change, we may be the ones walking and leaving you to do the dishes.

*In my original post I called the money my friend got back from the Federal government a "refund" and a reader asked for clarification.  To be precise, it was not a refund of taxes paid but rather a subsidy based on that person's deductions for children and mortgage interest.  It wasn't much of one but it still represented a kind of social assistance -  a bit like an indirect "les allocations familiales" in France.

Breast Cancer and Access to Healthcare

When people in a country without a national healthcare system talk about "access to healthcare" they are usually talking about making sure people have the monetary means to get medical care.  It's a debate about money - affordability, access to medical insurance, and how the care is to be paid for (through private insurance or through a government program).

In a country like France that has a national healthcare system (one of, if not THE, best in the world) "access to healthcare" means something different.  The care is there, the system to pay for it is in place but the problem is more one of how to get the people to the healthcare (or to bring the healthcare to the people).

While I was waiting around in the hospital I was very startled to read in a magazine that around 40% of French women between the ages of 50 and 74 do not get regular mammograms to screen for breast cancer.  This high rate is in spite of campaigns that have been held yearly since 2004 to get the word out and encourage women to come in for testing.  Breast cancer is one of the top causes of female mortality in France and mammograms are essential for women in this age range. And, yet, in 2011 only 52.7% of the women in the target population had one.  This low number may be higher once private consultations are taken into account but that still only brings the number up to an estimated (they don't know for sure) 65% for France as a whole.

Breaking down the participation rates by region the numbers are even more interesting.  The Institut National du Cancer says:

La participation au dépistage organisé reste inégale sur le territoire. Ainsi, certaines régions présentent des taux de participation supérieurs à 60 % sur la période 2010-2011 (Pays de la Loire, Limousin, Bretagne, Centre) tandis que d'autres ont des taux inférieurs à 45 % (Guyane, Corse, Île-de-France). Au niveau départemental, les chiffres de participation indiquent, là encore, des différences notables, avec des taux s’échelonnant entre 27,4 % et 67,2 % sur la période 2010-2011.
Participation in testing remains unequal in the [French] territory.  Some regions had participation rates of over 60% in the period 2010-2011 (Pays de la Loire, Limousin, Bretagne, Centre) while others had rates of under 45% (Guyane, Corse, Île-de-France).  At the departmental level the participation numbers indicate important differences with rates that range between 27.4% and 67.2% in the period 2010-2011.

To be very clear, access to these prevention programs is not a question of money (direct payment).  These "Dépistages organisés du cancer du sein" (breast cancer testing campaigns) led by the healthcare system and partners offer a complete mammogram to be read by two radiologists and a breast exam, all covered 100% by the national healthcare system with no co-payments or money up front.  With a deal like that, one might assume that the participation rates would be much much higher (80-90%).  But they aren't.  Why?

Because "access" means much more than simply having care available and the means to pay the medical fees.  The article I was reading cited several factors for the low breast cancer screening participation rates of which economic inequality was one (and here is where money does come into play).  Like women all around the world, women in France have family and work responsibilities and the lower the socio-economic status the harder it is to manage them and to get an employer to give time off work.  In more rural areas there is also the problem of getting to the nearest clinic or hospital which may mean a long drive or ride on the public transportation.   As this article from late 2011 points out, a troubled economy makes it all so much worse: "À Paris, comme ailleurs, les inégalités sociales face à la maladie sont croissantes : de plus en plus de femmes repoussent les soins pour des raisons financières." (In Paris as elsewhere social inequalities in the face of illness are rising:  more and more women are putting off care due to financial reasons.)

France is a country, however, where social solidarity means something.   The annual campaigns to convince women to come in for screening are well-organized, well-funded and you don't hear anyone quibbling over the price tag.  The French healthcare community is well aware of the low participation rates and is working on creative solutions to fix it:  television, Facebook and even organizing teams to go out to neighborhoods and public places to talk to women directly.  Another problem not much discussed in France is illiteracy which means that printed texts like pamphlets, posters and banners don't necessarily do much good in some places.  (And if this sounds strange you, I can assure you that I have indeed met French women who are functionally illiterate and who would most assuredly NOT be able to pass a basic French reading/writing exam if they had to take one.)

There is also the very ambitious Plan Cancer which was started under President Jacques Chirac and was renewed for the period 2009-2013.   Fascinating reading.  The latest plan is organized around 6 measures "phares":  

1. Renforcer les moyens de la recherche pluridisciplinaire (More funding for multi-discipline research.)
2. Caractériser les risques environnementaux et comportementaux. (Determine the environmental and behavioral risks.)
3. Produire et communiquer des informations sur le cancer et sur la cancérologie. (Produce and communicate information about cancer and oncology - I have a wonderful book the hospital gave me about chemotherapy that was part of this effort.)
4. Lutter contre les inégalités d'accès et de recours aux dépistages. (Fight the inequalities that limit access and participation in screening - see measure 14 here for the actions the state is taking to achieve this)
5. Personnaliser la prise en charge des malades et renforcer le rôle du médecin traitant. (Personalize patient treatment and reinforce the role of GP's.)
6. Développer une prise en charge sociale personnalisée et accompagner l'après cancer. (Develop a social support structure for cancer patients and for the life after cancer.) 

It's a work in progress but you can actually see the results of this work in the hospitals and clinics here. At the end of the plan's period there will be a test - a national report card that rates how well these objectives were achieved and outlines areas for future progress.

I suspect that they will do very well indeed.  The French may work less than people in other countries but, damn, they do know how to get things done and their ability to organize projects at a national level is almost frighteningly efficient.  I could not be in better hands and I am deeply grateful to be here and not elsewhere.

Vive la France!

Andy Sundberg (1941-2012)

We had some very sad news late last week - Andy Sundberg, one of the founders of American Citizens Abroad died in Geneva, Switzerland.

Mr. Sundberg was quite an amazing man and one of the most eloquent and influential voices defending the interests of Americans abroad.  He was born in the U.S. but was also a French citizen and had lived in Europe since 1968.  I did not know him personally but we had an email exchange a few months ago which greatly raised my spirits at a time when I needed some encouragement to remain active in the issues facing America's unloved "domestic abroad."

This article from GenevaLunch gives an excellent synopsis of his life and career:

Sundberg was born in New Jersey in 1941, finished grammar school in Japan, high school in Germany and he graduated from the US Naval Academy in 1962. The following year he was a Rhodes Scholar at Oxford University in England, taking a degree in Politics, philosophy and Economics. From there he went on to serve on combat ships near Cuba during the Cuban Quarantine and in the Gulf of Tonkin during the Vietnam war.
He moved to Geneva in 1968, a time when he began to work as a consultant for major corporations, international organizations and governments, helping them evaluate investments and other key business areas.
He was a life member of the Veterans of Foreign Wars, the American Legion, a member of the board of the Millennium Institute in Washington and the Key Largo, Florida-based Marine Resources Development Foundation...
He became a French citizen thanks to his French wife, keeping dual nationality until his death. He was active in world and European politics, notably as a member of Liberal International since 1984 and as a participant in meetings of the Committee on Migration of the Parliamentary Assembly of the Council of Europe.

The Overseas Vote Foundation has posted this tribute on their site:

Andy's acheivements are so numerous, they take pages to list - but in all his activities there is a common thread, a unifying theme. He was dedicated to serving others, to serving causes that mattered deeply to him. As citizens overseas, we have benefited from the care, concern and dedication of Andy's energy toward the causes that few dared to take on - the causes of our overseas community, so often unrecognized and mischaracterized. He never waivered in his efforts to garner better recognition to what our community does for our American cause as a whole.

And finally the Isaac Brock Society has a post with their own tribute and links in the comments section to some very well-researched articles that Mr. Sundberg wrote over the years.

As Americans abroad face an uncertain future, Mr. Sundberg's voice will be sorely missed.  It's up to us now to continue his work.