Interesting post on being prepared/prepping.

[CrabbyCockwomble]

She doesn't call it prepping, but I thought it was interesting and relevant to this board. Someone on my facebook feed linked to this post about the Paris attacks, and reading it made me think of you guys. In particular, this part...

"Right now I want to ask you a more practical question:
One Friday evening, relieved that the stress of the week is over, you're attending annual catch ups and thinking about Christmas. All of a sudden bombs and bullets start going off in your supposedly safe city in your supposedly safe western country. By morning your Prime Minister or President has declared a nationwide state of emergency, and you're ordered to stay indoors until further notice. All the shops and food outlets are suddenly closed. You normally do the grocery shopping on Saturdays because you work all week. How long could you stay indoors with what you have in your house right now? How long could you feed yourself and your family with what you have in your fridge and your pantry right now?
What if, instead of bombing football games, "they" bombed the power stations (including the backup generators) and there was no electricity? How much electricity do you have in your house that's on the right side of that power point?

"What if the terrorists were thinking huge and were clever enough to poison the water supply, to take out as many "infidels" as possible as quickly as possible? How much water do you have in your house that isn't on the wrong side of those taps?

"What if that Friday night was just the warm up, and the attacks went on for weeks, and you literally couldn't leave your house for that long? How long would you and your kids last without your laptops, iPads, Playstations and smartphones before you all went mad and started killing each other because your resilience and imagination were practically non-existent thanks to immediate gratification and manufactured entertainment? Or because you're dehydrated and starving? Check out the Minnesota Starvation Experiment to see what starvation will do to people both physically and mentally: www.madsciencemuseum.com/…/great_starvation_experime…

"Life can turn on a dime - just ask someone whose husband died of a sudden heart attack yesterday, or whose teenage child was killed in a car accident last night, or whose doctor just told them they have cancer. Your entire country can change dramatically in the time it takes you to get home from work. It was only four weeks between the assassination that ignited WWI and the first two countries going to war. Conscription in England was enacted just two days after Germany invaded Poland.

"Are you prepared for a sudden lock down of your safe city? Will you stand on your own two feet, or will you be like a helpless baby, waiting for the government to feed you and take care of you and make everything okay again? Like the citizens of New Orleans after Hurricane Katrina struck, you might be waiting a long time.
Are you thinking, "It won't happen here"?
I bet the people just like you in Paris thought that too."

[INeedNewShoes]

Personally, I find it a bit distasteful for the blog-writer to have leapt at the chance to write an article like this before the dust has settled.

There will be hundreds of people still trying to establish the whereabouts and safety of their loved ones, people fighting for their lives in hospital.

I don't disagree that we should perhaps give some thoughts to how we would cope with a powercut/lockdown but for me personally today is not the day for that.

[Biscuitsforbribes]

I completely agree with newshoes. What a distasteful and almost smug piece of writing on a day like today.

[mamapants]

I'm not sure I agree newshoes
I kind of think now is the perfect time to bring it up while there is something so tragic in our consciousness. Sadly we all forget so quickly and thoughts of being prepared are forgotten and seen as unnecessary.
Right now there is a very real and relevant example of why we should have some measures in place.

[mamapants]

Although I agree all the twaddle about iPads and gratification are very smug and totally unnecessary

[Stratter5]

I think it's well meant, relevant, but also distasteful. It's a bit like one of us going over and saying 'I told you so' on the main thread running in Chat. :(

[scalliondays]

She does make interesting points in the full post about western lives being perceived as more valuable than middle eastern lives and also about how we've spent the last decades in a mad spending spree like we'd won the lotto.

[CrabbyCockwomble]

Why is it distasteful? I don't see it as distasteful at all - she's discussing her reaction to a world event. Are the thousands of newspaper articles which will be written about this distasteful, then?

There will be hundreds of people still trying to establish the whereabouts and safety of their loved ones, people fighting for their lives in hospital.

Yes, and I doubt that they'll be browsing facebook, reading people's opinions on the situation/ramifications.

Oh well, I thought she made some interesting points. Clearly that view isn't shared here.

[Stratter5]

No I think she does make good points, I agree with you on that. I just think it's a little bit too soon, maybe in a few days, or weeks time.

[BeverlyGoldberg]

It's just not the time for this, in my opinion.

Food for thought it a week or so maybe, when at least the dead have been buried.

[CrabbyCockwomble]

on a day like today.

On a day like what day, Biscuits? On a day where lots of people died in a terrorist attack? According to Wikipedia 412 people were killed by terrorist attacks during the month of October. That climbs to 636 if you include the Russian jet that is thought to have exploded due to terrorism.

Most days, sadly, are days when people have just lost their lives to terrorists. And certainly every day is a day when people have lost their lives to war and being bombed by other countries (or their own governments).

[ProjectPerfect]

Not the time.

It comes across smug and sanctimonious. Totally inappropriate.

[chilledwarmth]

First time poster to the preppers section and just second or third time poster to the entire site. I think it's a useful post to consider. We all like to think it can't happen and we hope it won't happen but what if it does? I could leave my work and it's business as usual and by the time I get home the country could be under attack in the same way France was and people being advised to stay indoors and cities locked down.

[CrabbyCockwomble]

Yes chilled I thought she raised some interesting points about how fragile the structure of our society is, and how reliant we are on systems that could fail, be sabotaged or destroyed... power and water supplies, petrol supplies, food, banking and business technology etc.

I thought that this board was to consider that kind of scenario and discuss the issues around it, but I obviously misjudged and got the wrong end of the stick, as the conversation was immediately closed down because it was 'tasteless'.

[winchester1]

We already understand the need to prep though why do you need to link it.to Paris especially so soon afterwards?

I am now thinking more about what I should take out with me esp when I travel to London soon.

[CrabbyCockwomble]

We already understand the need to prep though

I don't, or didn't until I started reading this board, anyhow. I've found reading this board interesting, but it's clearly better that I read and keep my gob shut than try to engage or contribute in any way.

why do you need to link it.to Paris especially so soon afterwards?
I didn't write the post I linked to, it was shared on my fb feed. I thought it was interesting and particularly relevant at the time - watching how a city very much like London can collapse into chaos in an instant made me consider the issues raised in the post - what happens if there is an attack on the water supply/power stations/the stuff I mentioned above. I thought that this board would be a good place to discuss it, since the purpose of the board is (I thought) to explore stuff to do with dealing with emergency situations.

I was mystified by all the 'bad taste' 'smug' stuff above - surely it is reasonable to discuss world events and their ramifications, even though people have died? People die all over the world, every day. I expect we shouldn't discuss terrorism and hostage situations today, then, because of the situation in Mali?

Anyway, I have Asperger's, so am used to getting the rules wrong. I won't bother to post here any more.

[winchester1]

Like others I may be over sensitive as i have family and friends in Paris.

Keep posting, don't let a bunch of randoms on the internet put you off your hobby

[SideOrderofChips]

I actually think this is a good post. Yes it was close to the paris attacks BUT this is the sort of thing we prep for. It has certainly made me think

[howtorebuild]

Don't stop posting OP.

[CrabbyCockwomble]

Thanks howto. I'll keep reading the board, anyway, as there's some interesting stuff here.

[zombiesarecoming]

Keep posting Crabbycockwomble if you hadn't then I wouldn't have read it and shown it to my DW who is now in a very short space of time a converted prepper, it made her think about things she wouldn't have done otherwise and would have looked at me as if I was a nutter had I mentioned them

A watch of Blackout on YouTube followed by showing her that post did the job and she is now a lot more aware of things and the need to prepare for unlikely eventualities that will leave you well and truly fucked in a SHTF situation

[YesterdayOnceMore]

I was working in London on 7/7. I wish I had done some prepping- I wish I'd had a pair of comfy shoes, a bottle of water, a bar of chocolate and some kind of a back up plan of how to get home that day (and a good book, which thankfully I did have). I think you have to prep for things like this that are apparently inevitable - not necessarily for being directly affected by the attack (ie in the place being bombed) but for the "minor" affects that can be incredibly stressful, like not having the first clue how to get home without the tube.

I think talking about prepping the day after the attack in Paris and not waiting a week is a bit crass though.

[YesterdayOnceMore]

Just to add, I don't mean talking about prepping here is crass, I mean publishing an article about it so soon is.

[CrabbyCockwomble]

Thanks for the nice responses. I feel a bit silly slinking back in after I've done a bit of a flounce, though.

[ThroughThickAndThin01]

OP, you got a hard time! I think it's relevant to post what you did. I haven't read it thoroughly so can't comment on the actual content yet, but will do tomorrow. Sorry you were made to feel you had to flounce.

[chilledwarmth]

YesterdayOnceMore that's a good road to go down. There's not much in the way of prepping you can do to guard against someone next to you setting off a bomb but it's not just the bombing itself, it's as you say the fallout from it that can also be stressful. You're at work and there's a terror attack and every public transport shuts down, how are you getting home tonight? That's a good thing to consider if you do work in cities.