Be Prepared or Be Scared

One acronym is quite common across the world, particularly in the United States. And that is SHTF. It stands for Shit Hits The Fan or for those a little more subtle, Stuff Hits The Fan. In India the more common term is Up Shit Creek Without a Paddle. People refer to getting into YOYO (You’re On Your Own) situations during TEOTWAWKI (The End Of The World As We Know It) when cities live WROL (Without Rule Of Law).

These are the preppers. The people waiting for Armageddon to strike. People who build nuclear shelters in their basements. Frankly, to many, preppers are crazy people. Nothing is going to happen. People have been predicting apocalypse for centuries and we are still here, aren’t we? Get a life people.

Yeah, sometimes preppers can go a little overboard. What started as a hobby turns into an obsession and instead of going for a holiday, the spare money is used up in stockpiling food and water and other gear. Prepping is a multimillion dollar industry worldwide ... and growing.

Most of these people, these preppers, live from paycheck to paycheck and usually there is a whole lot of month left at the end of the money, but hey, “I’m ready for the time when shit hits the fan. I do not want to become a zombie.” I personally do not agree with them though, at least not to the level they take their predictions to. Yes, they can be a little crazy and they do tend to be a little over the top with their doomsday predictions.

Then there is the other end of the spectrum. A way more crowded place. Those who refuse to take any precautions whatsoever. We will cross that bridge when we come to it. Many of these guys in the United States are Jews and Christians and obviously they have forgotten about the famous Ark that saved the world from extinction. Noah did not build the Ark when he felt the raindrops on his cheek becoming more frequent and closer together. Ok, Noah had his personal Met Department telling him that a storm was coming and he got right on the job and built his Ark and called his favourite couples on board, without too much favour or prejudice.

Yes, we have forgotten about Noah and his Ark.

But then we do have Noah and his team sitting in Government House, don’t we? What is it we elect them for if not to look after us when shit hits the fan. They better look after us when the storm knocks on my door. Ok, let us look at some facts.

Hurricane Katrina was a rude awakening to most US citizens – and Govt – regarding disaster preparedness. When citizens were refuged in the stadium it took the authorities of a first world country (some say the most powerful country in the world) FIVE DAYS to get water to those who were sheltered there. The 1999 Super Cyclone in Odisha killed almost 10,000 people officially. During Cyclone Phailin not a single person lost his or her life because of the precautions taken. Some say Phailin was potentially more devastating than Katrina. Lessons were learnt and action taken.

Odisha has got disaster response down to a fine art. They have the advantage of advance knowledge. They know a storm is building and when it will make landfall and where. They evacuate people, put them in storm shelters, activate all the emergency services, stock up on food and water and medicines and storm it out. Odisha officials are now travelling the world sharing their knowledge on how deal with a potentially catastrophic cyclone. I wonder if they are as prepared if there is a flood further inland in their State due to a storm that is happening in one of their Western neighbours. While eyes are looking out to sea, villages are washed away behind them. I am sure they have a system in place to handle those emergencies too.

But I am here not talking about what the Government can and should do in cases of natural disasters. When something big happens, like it did in Kedarnath or Srinagar or Gangtok or Bhuj or Latur or elsewhere, I am certain the Government will do its best.

I am talking about us, the common citizen, who are called the Mango Men and Women of India. What do we do be able to face, cope, handle, recover from a disaster? And not even a major disaster like the one in Kedarnath, but even one where there is no imminent danger of lives lost. A disaster such as a power outage because some dude sitting somewhere in the lawless boondocks of some country where citizens are non-State, mucks around with the computers and manages to remotely blow out the grid? What if the entire northern belt of the country (or really, even a single State, even a small one like Delhi) suddenly went black and no amount of flicking switches would bring the lights back on? Let us assume this situation lasts about five or six days before the lines get repaired and life starts to limp back to normal. What then? How will this affect our daily lives? Well, let us see. No electricity, right?

• The lifts (or elevators) will stop working.
• The motor (illegal of course) plugged into the municipal pipeline will not whir to life.
• The motor (legal this time) will not have any water in the storage tank below to pump water to the storage tank on the roof.
• When we twist the taps, no water will flow out.
• When we press the button on the cistern lid, it will not flush out our shit.
• Most establishments will run on generator power ... till the diesel/petrol/kerosene ran out.
• The petrol stations will put up OUT OF STOCK signs.
• With petrol stations out of stock, trucks will stop plying the highways and trains will stop in their tracks.
• When trucks stop, there goes our source of daily vegetables, milk, meat, medicines, provisions (and for many people cigarettes and booze).
• Store shelves will become empty of everything in the first few hours.
• People will loot (and probably kill) for drinking water.
• Large scale rioting will ensue and looters will vandalise shops, godowns, offices for anything they can lay their hands on.
• Hospitals will not run since they will not have electricity ... or medicines.
• People on life support systems will have to advance their Day of Judgement.
• Sewage will pile up in the houses and garbage on the streets.
• People dependent on prescription medicines will start to die ... diabetics for instance.
• There will probably not be any decent funeral for the dead due to lack of electricity in the electric crematoria or lack of burning wood due to lack of freight transport.
• The class difference between the beggars pre and post SHTF will start to disappear.
• Sadly, some parents may start jumping out of windows with their babies because they can no longer bear the desperate cries of hunger.

What about the Government, I hear you ask, desperation and anger in your voice. The Government will become largely ineffective if this conditions lasts for more than a week or so, believe me. Because this ubiquitous entity called the Government comprises people too. Each and every moving element that makes the Government go round comprises people with families who are facing the very same issues that you are. The emergency services will start to disappear as things get more and more desperate, because however altruistic we might be, family will still come first. This goes for the Police, the Fire Services, the Hospitals, and that wonderful and eternal excuse - the administration. The only thing that will remain to be dug up and dusted later will be the other omnipresent entity, to be reviled, derided, cursed – THE SYSTEM.

I ask – What about your system? Sure, you want the Government to be prepared to face a catastrophic calamity and come to your rescue. My questions to you are:

• What did YOU do to prepare for such eventualities?
• Where were YOUR systems?
• Are you happy to abdicate your responsibility as a father, mother, brother, sister, child, friend to an unknown and unreliable stranger, a collective of who form THE SYSTEM?

Delhi for instance has 398 policemen per 100,000 persons or about 250 people per policeman. So if you live in an apartment building with a thousand residents, four policemen will be able to:

(a) get everyone out of trouble,

(b) organise transport,

(c) help escort everyone to a safe place, and

(d) once deposited in a shelter, find food and water for everyone.

And while he is doing all this, he will also be called upon to tackle potential law and order issues, fix the transformer that resulted in this chaos in the first place, and take care of his own family.

Medical is yet another nightmare. There are less than TWO hospital beds for every 1,000 citizens of Delhi.

So, you still expect the Government ot come to your aid and rescue? Get real. Wake up and smell the coffee ... it just ain’t gonna happen. YOU HAVE TO PUT SYSTEMS IN PLACE FOR YOURSELF AND TAKE RESPONSIBILITY FOR YOU AND YOUR FAMILY.

We all like to quote Mahatma Gandhi – “Be the change you want to see in the world.” Why don’t you start with yourself? Take care of yourself. And if every citizen does that, the Government and the System can be left to do their jobs instead of mothering unprepared multitudes of citizens.

Yup, I think preppers are crazy. But I would rather be a little crazy (ok maybe a more than a little) and prepare for possible emergencies. I would not like to be the one walking the streets with a bowl looking for handouts to feed my hungry child. I will stock up with food, water and other basic necessary gear. Believe me, you do not need to spend a fortune to be prepared. It is more in the mind coupled with a little bit of money.

• A 20kg bag of rice will feed a family of four for six months.
• You can store drinking water for more than a year.
• Reduce your dependence on the light bulb and the electricals.
• Get a hand cranked radio so that you can gather information – the tv is out, remember?
• Multitask stuff you find in your house – turn an empty can of beer into a stove, use dryer lint as tinder, a condom as a fire starter, the Sun as a clock, a couple of pencils and a thick book to make a trap to catch mice which you can eat by the way.

Be Prepared or you will be scared when the stuff hits the fan. Close your eyes and think back to the day a few weeks/months ago when the water did not gush through the taps. How desperate did you become? How long did it take for you to ration the available water in the house? Now think into the future and start stocking up. SHTF is happening, you just have your head buried in the sand. You do not learn to swim when the boat is sinking. YOU DO IT BEFORE YOU EVEN GET ON THE BOAT, in anticipation of such a thing occurring.

Be Prepared or Be Scared! Which one do you choose?