In the animated film “The Nut Job,” which, by the way, is not a must-see, the animals living in the park gather food under the leadership of a raccoon to survive the winter. There’s a food shortage, and the animals are in a panic as the cold approaches. The raccoon is full of drama. However, when the hero discovers a huge stash of nuts, the raccoon starts to interfere and sabotages him. For one simple reason: if the little animals have plenty of nuts, then what need do they have for him? He controls the food and, in turn, controls the animals.
I won’t talk about certain countries whose leaders decide to crush ham and apples with tractors. This analogy is too obvious, and it’s clear to everyone anyway.
I’ll just say that the farce of closing schools in Ukraine, supposedly due to a gas shortage, is nothing more than the result of the same cynical thinking of another local raccoon.
Now, point by point:
1. From an energy perspective, for example in Kyiv, the heat that enters homes is waste heat. This heat comes from combined heat and power plants (CHP), which primarily generate electricity and secondarily produce heat as a byproduct, which is conveniently used for heating spaces. In fact, the entire heating network of Kyiv and many other cities acts as a large cooling circuit. A simple analogy would be the radiator in a car and the heater in the cabin. The “excess” heat from the engine doesn’t go into the atmosphere but instead warms the car’s interior. Any thermal machine (whether a power plant or a car) needs to dissipate heat, and the better this heat is dissipated, the higher the efficiency of the thermal machine. This is precisely why Kyivenergo is in no hurry and often even sabotages the installation of individual meters. If people start saving energy and turn down the heat on their radiators instead of just opening windows, the CHP will generate less electricity. Consequently, the energy company will lose out on revenue, both from the heat that is billed based on group meters (meaning there’s no incentive for the end consumer to save) and from electricity. Kyivenergo benefits from open windows—this allows the heat carrier at the power plant to cool more efficiently.
2. The gas used for household needs is just a drop in the ocean. The gas extracted in Ukraine is enough for heating. Ukraine needs imported gas for production, specifically for the factories owned by oligarchs. These oligarchs are quite the bandits, scrapping anything that isn’t profitable right here and now, which is why Ukraine hasn’t purchased gas from Russia in the last couple of years. The economy is plummeting, and production no longer requires gas. Households, schools, and hospitals have always had enough gas and will continue to do so. It is extracted in Ukraine. But if the gas is needed by the oligarchs, then yes, we will close schools instead of factories.
3. The bandit in power has schools and kindergartens stuck in his throat. Money is being spent. And people are becoming more educated. But there seems to be no reason to shut down the education system. Or is there?
4. A multi-step plan: We close schools and save money for ourselves while blaming it on the scary “Eternal Northern Neighbor” (ENN). Especially since we have a reason right in front of us. In summary: creating an enemy, hysteria, distracting attention from existing problems, saving money, and dulling the population—it’s just a bingo.
I’m not saying that the VSS is all good and innocent. I’m saying that the bandits, whether here or there, are equally deserving of each other. As always, they are cynical and vile scum, ready to shove the population under the foundation of Maslow’s pyramid, so that people wouldn’t dare think about anything other than the crumbs of bread, and would see “external hostile forces” as the cause of it all. After all, if there are plenty of nuts, then why would we need the Raccoon?