I am old enough to remember the political misleaders who sold our country out to a foreign power centralized from Brussels reassuring us "hey, don't worry about your borders, currency, constitution and language which will all slowly but surely erode over time, because as a unified Europe we will be more prosperous, strong and developed than ever before. Just wait, you'll see".

Well, it only took 20 measly years and the citizens trapped in the EU are about to be plunged back into the 18th century. The term 'cold war' is about to have a whole new meaning for them and I can say based on first hand experience in numerous fields: West-Europeans are not ready for what's about to come. So let's start from the most recent development in this saga and take it from there. Qatar just publicly announced it rejected US/EU requests to supply Europe with gas this year by breaking contracts they have with Asian nations. "Qatar is absolutely committed to sanctity of contracts... When we sign with an Asian buyer or European buyers, we stick to that agreement...So the volume that will go to Europe is what has been assigned, but as far as taking from Asian buyers to take to Europe, that will not happen."

Gosh, how humane and kind of the West-Europeans and North-Americans to try and push the problems they created for themselves onto Asia by trying to deprive them from their gas supplies, this must be that "rules based order" they keep talking about.😁

But to get straight to the second point, I have been in really, reallllly cold places in both Europe and Asia and the difference is staggering. I've never experienced anything like it growing up in Europe and this is what millions of Europeans are about to face the coming winters. "It's cold outside, close the door and come in, shut the curtains as well so the heat stays inside better" is the kind of environment I grew up in, so imagine my surprise as I found millions of people living like "it's so cold, let's open the curtains so the sunshine comes in and heats the place up while we open the door and go sit outside in the yard." During the winter in certain regions of Asia, it's much warmer to sit outside as the sun helps warm you more than if you sit inside your house, which without heating is literally like a giant fridge.

I'm not exaggerating when making that comparison, when I first walked inside someone's house who didn't have heating and was sitting with oil lanterns and a coat on inside, it felt like I was walking from an already cold environment outside right into a fridge. Thanks to the already mild winter sun, it was literally warmer outside than it was in his home. He of course did have electricity, it wasn't that bad, but you have any idea how much it would cost him to heat his house that way? He estimated it would take about half of his monthly wages. Well, regardless this is where I was set to live for the next few days. At night it was like living in a igloo.🍙 I don't know why, but the oil lanterns gave me a headache after a few hours so I couldn't even collect a few of those and place in my room all night to at least try and stay warm that way. I've heard btw that these and electric blankets are the most sought after items by Europeans from Chinese online retailers the past months, so I guess some already see the writing on the wall and are preparing themselves as best as they can but regardless, there's going to be some tough times ahead for many people in Europe.

"Well what about old fashioned fire" you ask? Not only are (most) modern built homes not equipped with fireplaces, I used to know people in these 1960's dated houses that all had a built-in fireplace, but was sealed off by the previous owner. After they re-opened it and started using it, mostly for the mood I guess since they had central heating and gas which was at normal prices back then, someone from the regional government came by and gave them a warning to seal it off and never use it again. Those homes had decades ago all been "re-modernized" with gas lines that were exposed to severe risks if the fireplace was being used. So everyone in the entire neighborhood was ordered to seal them off and never use them again, which was fine back then since the newly installed gas connections would render the fireplaces obsolete anyway. I wonder if they will start taking that risk now that it's no longer "just for the mood" but to prevent them from either freezing to death or going bankrupt from the energy prices? Either way, you have to agree the political misleaders in the EU sure know what they are doing huh?🇪🇺🙃

This was me on my way to help the birds out just last winter in Europe, I sincerely hope it's not going to be anything like that again this year.🥶