I’ve talked about security when it comes to computers and technology but what kind of security do you have when war or a natural disaster hits? When the power is out for weeks or months your probably thinking about survival and not your server.
I was doing some research and some how I ended up finding this post called “A Survival Q & A: Living Through SHTF In the Middle of A War Zone” and it was eye opening. It’s about someone named Selco who spent several years in a city setting during the complete collapse of Bosnia circa 1992.
I know it’s not my normal post theme but hey it’s my site and I found it interesting. 🙂
Being Prepared and Self Sufficient
I always believed in being prepared and as self sufficient as you reasonably can be. That’s why I tend to prefer free and open source products when possible. Why I switched to Linux, and why I host a lot of my own services.
So being prepared and self sufficient outside of technology is kind of a natural extension to my personalty I guess. And maybe that’s why I wanted to share this post I found.
Overview Of The Post.
Here are some interesting survival points Selco made that I took note of.
Lone survivors mostly died or got killed by mobs
The key to survival was strength in numbers. If you were alone in a house you were probably robbed and killed no mater how well armed you were.
Pick your friends wisely
Selco stuck with his family. “Most of the time you are not able to determine who is enemy or friend, expect my family and few real friend, everybody else is potential enemy. When your friend must choose between his child s death and your death guess who is going to choose.”
Money was worthless
In a survival situation no one cares about cash. The value of currency crashed. Even gold and silver was not worth much. Having things you can trade and barter with was the only way to get anything.
Some examples from Selco’s story are:
- Food
- Guns and Ammo
- Alcohol (used for drinking and disinfectant
- medical supplies like antibioics
- Batteries
- Matches, Lighters, and Candles
- Different types of fuel and oil
- Hygiene products (He said a lot of people died from poor hygiene.)
Death from what we think are simple things
Things like diarrhea and infection of small wound would be deadly.
Skills can be just as good as having something to trade
If you have a skill you can use that to make things or to help someone in exchange for something you need.
- Medical skills
- Knowing how to refill lighters or to make fuel
- Making or fixing something useful
- Knowing local herbs
- Gardening and farming
Keep a low profile
Don’t stand out or look fancy because someone will shoot you and take your stuff. If people see a good reason to rob you they will probably rob you.
The fancy looking homes were the first ones the mobs robbed.
Selco did what he had to do outside at night with 1-2 other and they were armed. Never walking down the middle of the street or anything or they might get sniped.
Home defense was primitive
They would block windows with sand bags, rocks, or anything they could find only leaving a little space to point a rifle out.
Generators
Generators are good but getting fuel would be a problem. Plus the sound that make would attract a whole army. Selco said he would rather have 1000 Bic lighters. They don’t take up too much space and you can always trade them.
In closing
I thought it was a very interesting story and it makes me think about what me and my family would do if something like that happen. The Bic Lighter things stood out to me the most haha. Maybe I should go buy a bulk pack of Bic Lighters. 🙂
This story is also another reason why I don’t want to move to the city. Even if that means my internet kind of sucks at times.
