I hate to say I told you so

Nobody likes a know it all. I don’t know it all. But I do know some things. And when I know them, I want to spread the knowledge with the rest of the world.

Whatever information I’ve picked up is based on my own study and observations from bouncing around planet earth since I was 19.

I managed to make this far on nothing my my own intuition. I don’t work for anybody else. I serve no masters. Unless of course you count my relentless boner. Anyway…

You might think I am a nobody from nowhere. And hell, you might even be right. But my track record is pretty damn good considering.

What is this guy talking about?

More than six years ago I asked if Europe was a third world country. It was a subject that was in my head and I wanted to flesh it out. So I typed out some things and posted it here.

Obviously it was a rhetorical question. The point was driven by my discovery that several countries in Europe had lower incomes and even standards of living than some of the “third world” countries in places like Southeast Asia.

One of the aspects of life in Europe that made me start examining all this to begin with was the distinct lack of air conditioning. Even in expensive hotels.

Of course I got the standard retort in the comments: “Btw in most of europe we don’t historically feel the need to have air conditioning blasting on us all the time, especially in the northern countries where it’s cooler. They don’t fit it because nobody would use it except weird americans”.

I might be a weird American, but I am right

As I pointed out at the time, it wasn’t only a weird American who found this odd. A popular Cambodian influencer made a post years ago warning her compatriots that most of Europe lacked air conditioning. The comments were full of shock. Everyone expected Europe to be a developed place with modern technology.

I have to admit that I was shocked the first time I checked into a five star hotel in Germany only to sweat my ass off. When I went down to ask the front desk why there was no air conditioner they gave me a smarmy reply similar to the comment above: “we don’t need air conditioning in Germany, it’s not America!”

I thought this was funny at time, since the fat bitch telling me was literally sweating through her makeup and staining her suit jacket with perspiration. It was hot as a mother fucker that day in Germany. And that was like 20 years ago!

Now it’s even worse. It’s so much worse that people are dropping dead by the thousands in Europe. It’s extremely bad. People are actually brawling with each other over air conditioners and fans.

I’m sorry for your loss

I am certainly not trying to gloat in the face of all that loss and mayhem. It’s incredibly sad that thousands of people died due to lack of a technology that has been around for many years. If people in Malaysia and American housing projects can have AC, certainly people in Europe can too. Especially if it will save their lives.

More than anything I want to point at this as a lesson for life. You don’t have to stick with the same shit over and over. You don’t have to follow the popular line just because other people repeat it. And people suggesting you improve things aren’t necessarily your enemies.

I wasn’t attacking the hotel worker in Germany when I asked why there was no air conditioning. I was hot! My room was sweltering. And I spent a lot of money to stay there. I was honestly just puzzled as to why an expensive room in the first world lacked amenities that would be considering basic even in an extremely poor country like Myanmar.

But she took it as an attack. Or she just used as an excuse to unload on me based on her preconceived notion of what an America is or is supposed to be.

I am what I am, but that’s not all that I am

Here’s the funny thing: I’ve lived outside of America more than I’ve lived in it. And I’ve spent a Signiant chunk of my life in the third world. Though I always had air conditioning even in countries like Vietnam and Laos.

I fled my country of birth when I realized I didn’t want to engage in the bullshit that was going on. The rat race, the patronizing jingoism, the popular myths that “we’re number one” and “all you need to do to get ahead is work hard.” I saw right through and went off in search of greener pastures.

So when I do go “home” to visit, I am now viewed as an outsider. People from back home just can’t relate with a guy who travels the world and fucks chicks. They’re too busy working to feed their fat wives or struggling to move out from their parent’s houses. I sympathize, but still they view me as “the other.”

Yet when I’m abroad, some people can’t help but see me as “the ugly American.” Even if I haven’t said anything! And I usually don’t. I learned long ago that I have a much better life by avoiding the western expats and tourists and hanging out with the locals instead.

Wouldn’t it be cool if we could just clear our minds and use things like logic to dictate our life choices? We all have something to learn from each other. Europe has legalized prostitution and America has air conditioning. Let’s merge the two and set up international FKK fuck stations with climate control. Hey, it would sure be better than mindless hatred of people just because they’re different.