There was a letter to the editor this weekend to my local newspaper. Rob was incensed about a reorganisation of an intersection which will mean the loss of a right turning lane to make way for a cycle lane that even the cyclists don't want.Rob finished his letter proclaiming his hate for the Council and how this might be the spur for him to leave the country.I hear that a lot these days. Time to leave the countryThere's a lot of very dour news. Inflation at 7.3 percent which means it was really near 8 if you add the Government's tax cuts and public transport subsidies.Crisis after crisis. Staffing, Health services, Housing.Let's go somewhere better.But is elsewhere really better? We hear today rents are out of control in Sydney. They've jumped jump 19 percent since pandemic began. It's a landlord's market and the supply is minimal.And then over the weekend we got a message from Helen's German family.Helen was an exchange student for a year just out of Bonn and we regularly keep in touch.Martin was very low. He told us that masked mandates indoors are about to return to Germany as Covid spikes. Their inflation has been hitting 9 percent. The heatwave is killing old people in his village.But his biggest fear was the Ukraine war.At the end of last week, Russia turned off a gas pipeline that provides Germany with 10 percent of its energy. It's for maintenance and it's for ten days but that hasn't put the minds of Germans at rest. They fear that Putin will not turn it back on in retribution for the European Union's opposition to the Ukraine war.Germany import two thirds of their energy to feed their massive industrial complex, so they're particularly vulnerable. The whole country has never experienced such instability and uncertainty all at onceMartin’s letter drips with fear and he repeats something he's always said. That he'd give anything to move to New Zealand.So to Rob who wants to leave because of a cycle lane and all the other doom merchants who tell us this country is doomed, I'd suggest you get your head out of the sand and realise the whole world is stuffed but we're less stuffed than most.