Be prepared
be prepared
Safety is daily business, but we are often not consciously aware of it. Many things are routine. Think about putting on your seat belt, you don't plan to crash that day but out of safety you put it on anyway. Smoke detectors in the house because you don't want to be surprised by fire and smoke. Learning to swim because you don't want to drown if you hit the water. Getting insurance against every conceivable shit that can come your way. We all do it, but when it comes to self-defense, we still drop the ball.
Self-defense is a life-skill, just like swimming, and you need a foundation for those unforeseen emergencies that almost everyone faces sooner or later. You can bury your head in the sand and cry "doesn't happen to me" hard enough, but so did those thousands before you and they weren't spared either.
Preparation is necessary in life. This is not fear-mongering, but sound logic.
You prepare for situations or the future more often than you think.
Currently, the government's campaign is going on "Think Ahead."
People today are sleep-deprived, life is good, the consumer market is abundant and provides all your needs.
My parents were war children, survived the famine winter of '44 and were given nothing. From home I don't know other than that you have to prepare. The cold war added to that. The new generations are naive, dependent and a click away from their groceries and pretty goodies. They can't imagine it's not there anymore. During the Corona crisis, we already saw that the resilience of many people and youth was zero to non-existent.
There is a downside to this lifestyle. Everything is digital and even at checkout we grab the mobile. Navigating, reading, communicating, photographing, banking, listening to music, "friendships" everything is through digital. What if something happens to a support network and all this stops? As a resident of an outlying area, I regularly experience power and internet outages. So it's not that it doesn't happen in NL....
When there is a failure or attack on these networks, communication is no longer possible, withdrawing cash, your savings, pumping stations no longer work so transportation stops, your central heating boiler no longer works so no hot water or hot radiators, air conditioning stops, Pumping stations for water control and drinking water supply stops, electric cooking, coffee brewing, and so on. We fall back on ourselves. The government, on whom we always lean heavily, can't "temporarily" do anything for you. "The government has to solve it" is of no use to you, because they have already indicated in advance that you should have your affairs in order and let you boil in your stew. They have other things on their mind than pampering you.
Just like seat belts, insurance, etc., you owe it to yourself and your roommates to guard against the "unforeseen." What if you need to evacuate and you need to do it NOW! Do you have a packing list? Do you have a bug-out bag containing necessary resources for survival. What if you do manage to stay home (bug-in)? Have you already done a risk analysis? What calamities could affect you? What is in your area in terms of industry, storage, hazardous materials routes, what if the water comes, damage from natural disasters, social unrest. What are the hazards in your area and what can and should you do per calamity?
Extra food and drink a child of 3 can think of, but do you have alternative means to cook and heat, to communicate, for your electricity, to recharge batteries and packs, extra fuel for the car, something to heat your house/room without power, water filter without water you won't last a week, cash, barter items like gas lighters, matches, paracetamol, candles, extra medications and other daily use items like tampons and sanitary napkins.
72 hours. That's the advice. What if it takes longer?
Your bottles of water, rice and jars of vegetables run out? Calamities are of all times. Also in our country. The flood disaster hit Zeeland, but South Holland crawled through the eye of the needle and was narrowly saved from complete flooding. The Ooipolder in 1995 with 250,000 people and 1 million animals evacuated, Limburg fairly recently and not forgetting Chernobyl where we could no longer eat vegetables and much food became inedible. The Corona crisis is still fresh in our minds and an epidemic or pandemic is no longer a fictional suspense story but reality.
Disasters happen and people who are not prepared panic, loot or beg and are a nuisance to the government and to those who did heed the call and were prepared.
Take responsibility for you and your loved ones and make sure you don't become dependent if something happens.
Be prepared !