Three Letters Re: Don’t Stockpile, Get Global — Conversations with a Rhodesian Expat and Being Financially Global

Good Morning James,
I couldn’t disagree more with Peter’s preparedness methodology. By the very definition of “refugee” that is just what he will will be and we would be if the USA goes down. I would rather be here trying to survive and rebuild as opposed to trying to live in some other country trying to get my money from a Chinese bank after a currency and societal collapse. Put your extra cash into silver. Regards, – Jim A.

 

Sir:
I was surprised at Peter’s suggestion that people (or more specifically Americans) would be ‘safer’ living abroad than in the USA. The poster of the article cited the crisis in Zimbabwe’s mob attacks on white farmers / land owners for his support of living abroad in an apartment. The poster mentions opening a bank account in China but then states that is ‘difficult to get one’s money out unless one knows someone in China’ that certainly doesn’t sound a well thought out plan on financial safety. I don’t know anyone in China and even if I knew one person in China what if that contact disappears? He suggested placing funds in several other nations but didn’t mention that many countries now do not want to open a US citizen bank account because of the onerous financial laws based in the USA and imposed upon other nations.

Obtaining ‘dual citizenship’ was suggested but it takes a minimum of four years plus he failed to mention the long arm statutes of the US government to claw back the former US citizen’s assets for several years after achieving an alternative citizenship. Nothing was mentioned that in some other nations, it is not legal to purchase supplies of one’s well being. Some of the other nations require that the American produce evidence of being adequate funds to enter their country and to sustain themselves. I call this as a major ‘mark’ for an American living abroad — whether one becomes a citizen of the new country or not, an American will be seen as wealthy and thus a target for kidnappings. I was reading some place of an American woman who was stuck in her Central American safe zone when the businesses refused to accept her US dollars for payments of goods and services. In
Brazil, one of the nations suggested as an alternative nation for a dual citizenship, that nation has been urging its business owners to force all American dollar holders to take them to a bank to be exchanged into the local currency. Great! What a mess if one’s source of income is based in US dollars and suddenly the host nation refuses transactions/ exchanges of US Dollars?

I would personally hate to be an American living abroad when that nation and its people turns hostile to all foreigners. I would hate to be stuck in some awful high rise apartment surrounded by a sea of humanity that riots in the streets if their currency collapses (think: Argentina). Many of these other nations have roving gangs of bandits and, as troubling as the US gangster groups are, they are nothing compared to being a foreigner living abroad who encounters the highway bandits.

Take a look at the discussions taking place throughout Europe. They are talking about panic plans to shut down border crossings for as long as two years and to prevent currency movement. Image living in southeast Asia and trying to get access to one’s bank account in France if this shut down were to take place.

Then there is the cultural problems and the possible language problems. My parents spoke numerous languages and when they lived abroad in Europe, they were met with significant rudeness by Europeans who disliked Americans. My parents’ language accents were such that they would have sounded like natives, unlike my speaking abilities it would clear to everyone that I was speaking the foreign language with an American accent.

A friend’s son is currently living in Brazil and he is horrified by the abject poverty of the people. Where he is living in Brazil, they are having a severe drought which is so bad that he is only capable of hauling water in a bucket and taking a sponge bath. Living like the locals? – “Just Me”

JWR:
That was an interesting article by Peter H. so I will send it out to friends. Being mobile makes sense.  Stockpiling many things will just tie you down if you have to relocate if things get crazy (riots, looting, mayhem etc).  There is little protection from mobs descending on a farm/retreat with only a small number of people to protect it. – L.A.M.

JWR Replies: I disagree with you, L.A.M.. If you carefully you pick a retreat that is truly remote and off the beaten track, then it won’t be in the path of urban refugees or looters. And if your retreat is well-defended, then looters with common sense will move on to easier pickings, rather than take casualties.

Also, we need to consider that the farm confiscation mobs in Zimbabwe that Peter mentioned were state-sponsored, so the police and army were no help to the landowners. (In fact, in many cases they helped transport the ZANU-PF thugs to the farms!) Unless our own government gets grabby, then we will have at least limited recourse to the law–and local law enforcement–to help back us up.

Economics and Investing:

Steve C. chalked up this one: Social Explosion Concerns in Greece Following Election

Pierre M. sent: Debt crisis: Greek government will be forced to seek third bail-out

B.B. suggested this: Thanks Obamacare: 83% of Doctors Surveyed Say They May Quit

Spanish short-term debt costs reach alarm levels. (Thanks to Sue C. for the link.)

Items from The Economatrix:

Europe on the Brink as Greek Crisis Comes to a Climax

City By City, Here’s Your Guide To The Painfully Slow Economic Recovery

Signs Of US Weakness Mount As Confidence, Output Fall

Payrolls Climb In 27 US States, Jobless Rate Rises In 18

Odds ‘n Sods:

Another Self-Reliance Expo will be held in Dallas, Texas, July 27-28, 2012. Their most recent event (in Colorado Springs, Colorado), was a huge success. OBTW, wear your SurvivalBlog T-shirt or hat and see who you meet.

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Michael R. suggested this scholarly piece in Science magazine: Generic Indicators for Loss of Resilience Before a Tipping Point Leading to Population Collapse

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David Nash of the excellent Shepherd School web site wrote to mention that their extensive free reference library (thousands of military and firearm manuals) has just been revamped to make it better organized.

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The staff of Radio Free Redoubt has announced TEOTWAWKI Readiness EXercise (TREX) 2012 for August 10-11-12, 2012. (Friday through Sunday.) Get involved!

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Charming news, by way of Reader J. McC.: Flame virus can hijack PCs by spoofing Windows Update

Note from JWR:

Today we present another two entries for Round 41 of the SurvivalBlog non-fiction writing contest. The prizes for this round include:

First Prize: A.) A gift certificate worth $1,000, courtesy of Spec Ops Brand, B.) A course certificate from onPoint Tactical. This certificate will be for the prize winner’s choice of three-day civilian courses. (Excluding those restricted for military or government teams.) Three day onPoint courses normally cost $795, and C.) Two cases of Mountain House freeze dried assorted entrees in #10 cans, courtesy of Ready Made Resources. (A $350 value.) D.) a $300 gift certificate from CJL Enterprize, for any of their military surplus gear, E.) A 9-Tray Excalibur Food Dehydrator from Safecastle.com (a $300 value), and F.) A $250 gift certificate from Sunflower Ammo.

Second Prize: A.) A Glock form factor SIRT laser training pistol and a SIRT AR-15/M4 Laser Training Bolt, courtesy of Next Level Training. Together, these have a retail value of $589. B.) A FloJak FP-50 stainless steel hand well pump (a $600 value), courtesy of FloJak.com. C.) A “grab bag” of preparedness gear and books from Jim’s Amazing Secret Bunker of Redundant Redundancy (JASBORR) with a retail value of at least $300, D.) A $250 gift card from Emergency Essentials, and E.) two cases of Meals, Ready to Eat (MREs), courtesy of CampingSurvival.com (a $180 value) and F.) A Tactical Trauma Bag #3 from JRH Enterprises (a $200 value).

Third Prize: A.) A Royal Berkey water filter, courtesy of Directive 21. (This filter system is a $275 value.), B.) A large handmade clothes drying rack, a washboard and a Homesteading for Beginners DVD, all courtesy of The Homestead Store, with a combined value of $206, C.) Expanded sets of both washable feminine pads and liners, donated by Naturally Cozy. This is a $185 retail value, D.) A Commence Fire! emergency stove with three tinder refill kits. (A $160 value.), and E.) Two Super Survival Pack seed collections, a $150 value, courtesy of Seed for Security.

Round 41 ends on July 31st, so get busy writing and e-mail us your entry. Remember that there is a 1,500-word minimum, and articles that relate practical “how to” skills for survival have an advantage in the judging.

Don’t Stockpile, Get Global — Conversations with a Rhodesian Expat and Being Financially Global, by Peter H.

Some friends recently bought a self sustaining bit of farmland in the American Redoubt. Part of it was a desire to get back to the land, part of it was for safety and security in a future TEOTWAWKI situation. I wished them well and was impressed with the desire to get back to the land. But deep down I don’t believe that a remote farm is necessarily safe, defensible, or a better bet than being mobile. It comes down to a conversation I had with a Rhodesian (Zimbabwean by passport, but he called himself Rhodesian) expat in Thailand about a decade ago.

This was a man who owned a family farm and knew others who owned farms. He decided to leave Zimbabwe before the height of the farmland grabs, just after a mob came for some friends of his. These friends had plenty of stockpiled weapons and ammunition; they had water, food, and ham radio contact with nearby farms. But what they didn’t have was the hundreds (note this is what I was told, so I am unsure if this number is an exaggeration) of people that the mob that came for their farm had. Their guns were useless against this large mob. They couldn’t just shoot indiscriminately into the crowd without drawing the ire of the military [which was tacitly supporting the farm invasions]. Shots fired to try to disperse the crowd led them to charge. The sons at the farm were seriously beaten up trying to stand their ground. The family made it out in a pickup truck, leaving behind their stockpile of guns and ammunition, which with their farm went to the Mugabe regime.

Seeing this writing on the wall, the man sold his farm at a huge discount to the workers who worked on the farm. His hope was they could maintain the farm intact. At least he could have a legacy for his family farm if he could not keep it financially. Unfortunately even these workers ultimately lost the farm to the “war veterans” of the ZANU-PF. The irrigation system got stripped, the farm got parceled up into unproductive one acre lots. The man left for Thailand, ran a tour company, and as of that point in time never returned to his country. I met him in 200. The land grabs continued throughout the next decade.

Some people did try to stay and fight for their land in Zimbabwe. Most notably Mike Campbell and Richard Etheredge took the Zimbabwean government to court in a tribunal of judges of the South African Development Community (SADC) regional trade bloc. For opposing the government the Etheredges were threatened with their lives and had their belongings ransacked. The New York Times reported:

“The gang had looted the three family homes on the farm of all but the large mounted heads of an eland and a kudu, according to photos taken before and after the invasion. They used a jackhammer to break through the foot-thick wall of the walk-in safe. The haul from the homes and the farm included 1,760 pounds of ivory, 14 handmade guns, 14 refrigerators and freezers, 5 stoves, 3 tractors, a pickup truck and 400 tons of oranges, the family said.”

The Campbells suffered a far worse fate:
“[A] far more violent farm invasion occurred at the home of Mike and Angela Campbell, also here in Chegutu. Mr. Campbell, 76, was the first farmer to take on Mr. Mugabe before the tribunal.
A gang came that Sunday afternoon, pouring out of a pickup truck and a bus, Mrs. Campbell said. Her son-in-law, Ben Freeth, 38, said that he was bludgeoned with rifle butts and that his skull and ribs were fractured. Mike Campbell was also severely beaten.
Mrs. Campbell, 66, said she was dragged by her hair, after her arm was broken in multiple places, and dumped next to her husband. The doctor who treated them in the capital, Harare, signed affidavits confirming the severity of their injuries.” [JWR Adds: Their story was well documented in the film Mugabe and the White African, which is available via Netflix streaming.]

During Mugabe’s inauguration the Campbells were abducted and tortured until they signed a formal withdrawal of the case from the SADC. The son had his feet beaten, a common form of torture in Zimbabwe which often leaves people crippled for life. The case ultimately went forward and the SADC ruled in favor of the Campbells. The Zimbabwean government withdrew from the SADC August 7th 2009. The farms were burned down August 30th 2009. In April 2011 Mike Campbell died; his family says it was due to complications from having been tortured.

Ultimately these seizures did not turn out to be a wise national policy, leaving economic ruin:
“By contrast at least 90 per cent of formerly white-owned farms – more than 20 million acres – lie fallow since Mr Mugabe began chasing whites off their rural properties, while agricultural exports, which once earned 40 per cent of Zimbabwe’s foreign exchange, have collapsed, and more than half the population needs food aid.”

Zimbabwe used to be a rich food exporter with a dollar that was on parity with the British pound. Money printing combined with the erosion of exports destroyed that. But totalitarian regimes have the interest of control not prosperity as their main focus.

Why am I sharing all of this? Well the man in Thailand’s story has had a big impact on me in strengthening my resolve that I never want to live in a totalitarian country. This has had the effect of making me a lot more global in my thinking. I’ve worked and traveled in enough countries close to the bottom of economic and development indicators to know it is a long way down (US is #4 right now), but I also have seen that even in countries with histories of free speech or democratic process, it is possible to slip into a totalitarian state over a 20-30 year period. Contrary to many survival based forum conceptions, that if the money dries up so will the government involvement in your life, I believe that as the money gets tight governments get more repressive and controlling (look at North Korea, Myanmar, Zimbabwe, Romania in the 1980s). Desperate measures get taken in the name of security of the state, and the population is left to adjust, those who don’t fall in line or leave get crushed. Sadly not just in Zimbabwe, but elsewhere, Congo, Guatemala, Haiti, people in rural areas seem to see some of the worst atrocities by the state (this differs in all out conflicts like Bosnia where urban areas would be battlegrounds).

Totalitarianism is my biggest survival concern. Now I’ve been through enough natural disasters that I have enough food and have backup energy and water systems to make it comfortably through a couple months of grid down. But I live in an east coast city, I rent an apartment, other than the aforementioned food I don’t really have stockpiles. I don’t have much attachment to any of my stuff, my wife and I have been known to just uproot and go live in foreign countries. Normally I’d be the antithesis of a survival type. But being primarily concerned about economic collapse and the loss of freedom, stockpiling for scarcity is not in my strategy.
I feel economic decline will take a while. Not to say that portions of that slide won’t happen quickly creating Russian or Argentine style shortages and bank holidays, but there will be time to see things changing and get out. The important thing is having the hard currency and flexibility to be mobile, even if everybody else in the US has a frozen bank account.

Working largely in the international development industry I don’t have much, but I am more global than most. I am liquid in a basket of currencies with bank accounts around the globe and I’d recommend this to others. There is nothing mysterious about doing this, you have to file extra forms to the IRS annually (FBAR), but it is perfectly legal and relatively easy to maintain offshore accounts especially in this age of online banking.

My hope is that when the SHTF in the US if things look dark for the future of freedoms here I’ll be tied into businesses on a global stage that can guarantee my revenue and I’ll be left living in relative style in some comparatively untouched global city. Even when things go down hill, like during WWII, there are still locations of wealth and safety. It’s a bet that I can find and work my way into those places, but it is a bet I’d take any day over stockpiling ammunition and trying to survive a gunfight in the countryside.

If you want to make a start at international banking I’d suggest the following resources (disclaimer, all banks are subject to health concerns in this climate, laws governing international banking vary from country to country, so do your own research):
Bank of China: minimum $500 for a Yuan account. This, however, is very restricted. This is only a savings account not a checking. It is hard to get your money out of this account if you don’t know people in China.
Isle of Man: £2,500 minimum deposit for British pound, Euro or Dollar accounts. Get an international Visa card.
Multiple Countries in the Caribbean: bank in multiple Caribbean countries. Apply as a non-resident. Hold CHF accounts.
Multiple Countries: Enroll to be a student for a semester and then get a bank account and keep it.
Multiple Countries: Start a local business, get a bank account.
Multiple Countries: Pay a law firm to set you up with a bank account and a holding corporation.
As for managing your affairs in the US, I recommend services such as, online bill pay, Google Voice, Earthclassmail and PostalMethods to virtualize your communications.

What about citizenship? Well it is possible to move around as a “perpetual traveler” (PT). But dual citizenship is something you can work on depending on what country you are in. Most countries have pathways to citizenship that are less onerous than existing US laws. “For example, you can became a citizen… 

…of Ireland if you have an Irish grandparent.(1)(2) 
…of France if you’ve lived and paid taxes for five consecutive years.(3)(4) 
…of Brazil if you’ve lived and paid taxes for four consecutive years.(5)(6)  “

My advice to others is get global resources in place now that enable you to become an expat and not a refugee. If I have learned anything from people who live in poor and repressive countries now, it is that if you are skilled and educated this strategy can be a good one for your family. Pick a few countries and get to know them (knowing multiple languages opens significantly the options for where you can go on the globe). Globally, historically, diaspora tend to do well in countries with resources, especially in the second generation.

I think you will see a lot more migration when things start to get tough. I believe this is a good thing. Not everybody is meant to be a self sufficient farmer (I know this, I used to be a farmer), and there are worse things than planning now so you can find yourself running a small business in Thailand or Norway or New Zealand talking about how you got out before it all fell apart. Finally, if it doesn’t all fall apart there is nothing unsound about having diversified international revenues even if you are staying put.

A Taste of TEOTWAWKI, by Anne S.

I never realized how dark and eerie our house could be.  Even at night, there were usually two or three nightlights casting their brave glow to prevent midnight mishaps. But on this evening, there was no electricity to power this smallest of luxuries.  Another thing I noticed as I kept vigil over my sleeping loved ones by emergency candle light was the extreme, echoing silence.  There was no fan humming in my son’s room. There was no whir of the compressor cycling on and off in the refrigerator.  There was no air blowing through the central air unit of our home.  Instead there was lingering, creeping silence that accompanied the knowledge that it would be a long time before normal service was restored.

This may sound like the beginning of an apocalyptic horror movie, but in truth, this is what happened in my town after the Super Outbreak of tornadoes on April 27, 2011.  We experienced our own localized TEOTWAWKI when an EF4 tornado ripped through the center of town on its 38 mile long trek of devastation.  The world as we knew it was about to shift dramatically.

The day started off with tornadoes ripping up the town just south of us in the pre-dawn hours.  Everyone was tense as the Weather Channel meteorologists were forecasting a TorCon index of 9/10; the highest numbers they had ever seen.  Yet, we all felt comforted by the fact that storms seem to veer off before hitting our town.  We have weathered many near misses and become a bit complacent.  At 3:00 PM, me, my 15 year old son, my 72 year old Mom and Dad, and my 92 year old grandmother sought refuge in a back basement bedroom of my downstairs apartment as the tornado sirens blared.  The camera located on the tallest building in the center of town provided an excellent view to the local News Channels of the half mile wide tornado as it barreled straight towards us. 

Like most people who are confident that disasters only happen to others, we stood on the driveway after the power went out.  It wasn’t until we realized we were looking up into the center of a side funnel and we could hear the tortured wailing of the winds in the main tornado that we ran like frightened rabbits to the back basement bedroom.  We were lucky that the true devastation started a block away from our house. After the tornado sirens stopped, the police, fire-engine and ambulance sirens began to scream only a few blocks over.  Within the city limits, 910 homes and 98 businesses were damaged.  

As we huddled in the dark, listening to more storms rumble by, we expected things to return to normal within an hour or two.  What no one knew at the time was that the Super Outbreak had destroyed almost all the large high voltage transmission towers that brought electricity into our substation from the north.  We were without grid electricity for six days and without cable television and Internet service for 12 days.  Gasoline was scarce for three days.  Land line phones were inoperable for 21 days.  Cell phone service was sketchy for nearly a month.  Also, schools were closed for 12 days.  Our cushy world as we knew it had suddenly ground to a halt. 

Let me start by stating that I’m not your average “survivalist.”  In fact, I don’t personally own a stitch of camouflaged clothing.  I’m a middle-aged, overweight, desk-driving, city dwelling, mother of one.  I don’t like camping and my idea of roughing it is to pitch a tent on the drive-way so I can come into the house whenever I need something.  I hate baiting hooks for fishing, and the only things I like to shoot are aluminum cans. 

I never made a conscious effort to prepare for the end of the world as we know it.  Sure, the thought that some cataclysmic event could disrupt our cushy every-day lives has always lurked in the back of my mind, but I never acted on it in a big way.  Despite the fact that we did not have an organized response to a disaster, we survived quite well due to several things we had set into motion over the past few decades. 

Our location was selected for a number of factors.  We chose to live in town, to be close to hospitals and utilities.  Our electricity is never out for very long, due to the numerous grids that can be used to reroute power around problems.  We also chose a home with a basement, which is crucial when living in tornado alley. 

The first necessity for survival was food.  My mother and I have always kept an emergency supply of non-perishable food in the basement. She began this practice in the 1970s, during the Cold War.  As children, we thought it was normal to have extra food in the basement.  Of course, raiding the stash to snack on the powered Jello didn’t help her, but we sure enjoyed it.  She stopped for many years, but then started stockpiling peanut butter and jelly again in 1999.  It started out as “Y2K supplies.”  When that didn’t result in grid disruption, those supplies were renamed as “tornado supplies.”  In the winter, we jokingly renamed them “ice storm supplies.”  This wasn’t some organized, labeled food storage.   We just stuck extras of what we normally used in some boxes in the basement.  To prepare food we used the propane barbecue grill and the side burner while we were without electricity.

The second necessity we had prepared in advance was electricity.  Since weathering Hurricane Fran and ice storms in North Carolina in the 1990s, we have never been without a generator.  Years ago, we had an electrician wire a separate breaker box into the house so we could power most of the house, most of the kitchen appliances, and the HVAC unit by plugging in the generator.  Also, I have had a inverter box in my van for road trips for years which allow us to plug in regular appliances to an outlet that is run off car battery when the engine is idling. We used this to recharge our phones, laptops and fluorescent lanterns.

The third necessity we required was information.  Our first line of access was a wind-up radio.  My Dad’s reason for buying this was not disaster related.  He simply got tired of replacing the batteries in his radio that he listened to daily.  With this, we could get information on more storms coming through, as well as the condition of our town, and the availability of limited resources, like gasoline.  We also had cell phones that could generate a Wi-Fi hot spot.  Although we couldn’t use them to make calls, our phones allowed us to reach out and connect with the outside world through the Internet.  Facebook was a Godsend since people were creating pages for the City where vital information was shared.

One resource we did not expect to be scarce was gasoline.  Apparently, very few gas station owners were prepared for an extended period of time with no electricity.  On the first day after the tornado hit, there were only two gas stations that had the foresight to purchase generators for such an emergency.  The lines of cars queued up there were staggering. 

We were lucky, in that we had five full gas cans for the lawnmower.  After a failed attempt at purchasing more gas, we rationed the generator by running it only three times a day to keep the freezer cold and several hours at night.  Next we started siphoning gas out of our vehicles.  We started with the least necessary vehicle. We reasoned that the last to go should be my mini-van, since it can hold the most people, and got the best gas mileage, in the event we decided to evacuate.  So, with this plan, we were set to weather several days without gasoline.

One resource we didn’t have to worry about during this localized TEOTWAWKI was water and waste.  Our water treatment plant was not damaged, and the service was not interrupted thanks to back up generators.  Though since that day, we have had the opportunity to suffer the loss of these luxuries due to non-disaster plumbing disorders.  We have become quite efficient at what I call a Japanese shower, where you wet and soap your body with a washcloth, then only turn on the shower to rinse off.  We did not drain the tub, and used that water for flushing the toilet.  Waste management is something we do not have a solution for yet. 

Our safety was not an issue as we were fortunate to not suffer any criminal activity as a result of this TEOTWAWKI.  At the time, our only defense was a very old, pistol and a shotgun with one box of ammunition.  Luckily, there was no breakdown in civility in our little town as might be expected in an extreme disaster.   

I am proud how our town of 18,000 responded to this disaster.  Several churches set up cook centers for food that was about to spoil, and to provide meals to senior citizens, government employees and workers.  Charging stations were set up at local shelters to charge phones and battery powered tools.  Volunteers and sports teams from the high school mobilized to help clear debris and cut fallen trees.  Government offices were open to help citizens get permits to be able to drive through downtown.  Police and National Guard were mobilized to help with directing traffic and prevent looting.  Tide mobile laundry service came to town to provide clothes washing facilities.  Trucks loaded with bottled/canned water drove through the affected areas handing out water to whoever wanted it.  It was a wonderful affirmation of all that is good in human nature.  

The End of the World as we know it doesn’t have to be an event that impacts the entire world.  Sure, there will always be the looming threat of global catastrophe, but it’s the “as we know it” part that we experienced in our localized disaster.  You never know what you’ve got until it’s gone.  Our outlook on the world changed that month.  People no longer scoff at tornado warnings.  Storms are watched more closely.  Schools close more readily when severe weather threatens.  More families are prepared because they purchased some of the items they needed to survive that month.  Cities are purchasing and installing community storm shelters. 

My family no longer teases us about our TEOTWAWKI supplies.  They simply nod and feel more secure knowing that we are taking steps for the next event. I doubt I will ever have a fully stocked “retreat” outside of town, but are doing what we can.  We are taking baby steps that will add up to a solid plan for coping with a disaster.  If this middle-aged, overweight, desk-driving, city dwelling, mother of one can be prepared, then so can you. 

What we had before the Super Outbreak of 2011:
-Generator
-Second breaker box for generator to run essentials
-Coleman lantern and Emergency long-life hurricane/tornado candles and hurricane lamps and oil.
-Night lights that become flashlights when the power goes off.
-Non-perishable food and paper items in storage.
-Propane grill with a side burner eye and an extra tank
-Power converter for van – used to charge cell phones and laptops.
-Internet access via cell phones
-Internet hotspot via smart phone.
-Blue ice blocks to keep in the freezer or use for emergency coolers.
-Several tanks of gas for the mower/generator.
-Filled up the tubs with water and filled 10 gallon jugs with filtered water.
-Important papers and prescriptions in satchel. 
-Folding chairs for safe room.

Additional steps taken after tasting TEOTWAWKI:
Researched solar powered water heaters, solar and wind resources for electricity. 
We have purchased a solar charger and plug adapter for small appliances.
We have purchased a camping solar hot water shower bag for emergencies.
Researched pedal powered generators.
Researched storable food stuffs.
We have tried several freeze-dried meals from a camping supply store.
Researched water collection systems.
Designated ICOE (“In Case of Emergency”) contact person.
Came up with our own list of supplies in the event of TEOTWAWKI
Inventoried our battery powered tools.
Researched tents and sleeping bags.
Researched reusable defensive weapons that do not require gun powder or gunsmithing.
Practiced fire starting with flint.

Letter Re: Advice on Canadian Nickels

Mr. Rawles,
This is a response to Patrick S. letter concerning Canadian Nickels.

I previously sent a post to you on the topic of sorting Canadian pennies and there was an excellent response related to Canadian nickels.

Since then there has been a development in that the Canadian government has discontinued issuing new pennies.

To this effect, I no longer bother sorting pennies.  In the spirit of your recent post concerning the possibility of bank holidays in the US (which I believe will could happen in Canada), I keep every penny I find regardless of if they are debased or not.  When my children are a little bit older and the melt value of the non-debased coinage is substantially higher than it is now, I believe I will just have them sort through and use the debased pennies as their allowance money. 

Moreover, in the event of a hyperinflation and currency collapse, I suspect even the fully debased Canadian pennies (and even nickels) will actually be a better hedge on inflation than paper bank notes, as the melt value on those coins are between 1/100 and 1/1000th of their face value.

As for sorting Canadian nickels, I’d like to offer some tips I’ve picked up after recently starting.  Some of these points may well be valid for your American audience when the US nickel under goes debasement.

The first is whenever you receive small change for a transaction, always ask for it in nickels.  When the cashier at a store gives them to you, sort them on the spot, separating the debased nickels from the non-debased ones.  It is good to have a coin purse with three sections specifically for this purpose.

Secondly, are some pointers for if you are going to a bank to pick up rolls coinage.  For nickels don’t bother sorting rolls that appear machine rolled.  These typically contain nickels fresh from the mint that contain nothing but fully debased ones.  You can tell the machine rolled ones, because they either are fully sealed plastic rolls, or paper rolls with crimped ends that obviously could not be rolled by hand.  Hand rolled nickels usually come in paper roles that are folded at the end or rigid plastic roles that have a pocket or buttons to close it.

When dealing with the banks, don’t arouse suspicion as well by rejecting the rolls at the bank.  Take them to a Tim Hortins and buy a coffee and doughnut, or use them as change for other small transactions (garage sales are great for getting large amounts of nickels and pennies), or keep them at home with your cache of currency as the change you will immediately use in an emergency (keeping the non-debased nickels as a generational store of wealth).

Also, try to find out the day of the week that your bank rolls all the coins they have brought in by customers and go on that day to pick up both pennies and nickels.  That is the day they are usually swimming in rolls of mixed bag nickels and pennies.

Lastly on the topic of collecting rolls of nickels (or pennies) from the bank, is do your fellow survivalist a favour if you decide to re-roll and return nickels or pennies to the bank.  Put a discrete, cryptic little note on them indicating something like “2000+” that anyone with a like minded idea would have.  Most bank cashiers I’ve dealt with don’t care and this saves others (and possibly yourself) the trouble of having to go through a roll and come out empty handed.

The last topic, when sorting both Canadian nickels and pennies, don’t bother to sort them by their specific series.  We are fortunate in Canada that any nickel before 1999 is not fully debased, with the 1982 to 1999 nickels still having almost a $0.045 melt value.  For nickels, if you see “19xx” as the mint year – just keep it.  It’s quite easy to identify those nickels as the profile of the Queen on most of those coins is the younger version of her with a certain crown.  Also, all debased coins have the Royal Canadian Mint symbol on it, so that is an easy identifiable mark for you to filter those coins out.  Again, one day I’ll probably have my kids go through and further sort those coins, and for that reason, it is probably a good idea to print out the coinflation.com/canada or wikipedia pages with the specific years for nickels and pennies.

Once you get into a rhythm, it’s actually pretty easy to identify which coins are debased and which ones are not.

Hope these tips help! God Bless, – Nick L.

Economics and Investing:

Ed H. sent this: European press: Hollow victory in Greece.

Meanwhile we read: Euro crisis far from over, stock analysts warn. (In essence, the EU is just forestalling the inevitable.)

Michael H. sent this: Get Ready for the Coming Social Security Fight

The global addiction of central banking stimulus – Contagion spreads to Spain as 10-year edges to 7 percent. Life in a perpetual quantitative easing world.

Mike in Pennsylvania suggested this: Bank: We’re defaulting, but don’t you dare

F.G. sent this: Chaos: Spanish Coal Miners Fire Homemade Rockets at Police to Protest Austerity

File under Caching and OPSEC: Ashland buried treasure stolen?

Items from The Economatrix:

Foreclosure Activity Jumps in Troubling Sign for Housing Recovery

Those Who See Will Survive The Coming Monetary System Collapse

The Euro’s Collapse Is Not Just About The Euro

Lloyd’s Preparing for Euro Collapse

Data Points To Soft US Economy, Possible Fed Action

Odds ‘n Sods:

Hold your horses, folks! I just noticed that my upcoming novel “Founders” has jumped from #100,000 to around #3,400 in the Amazon Best Sellers ranks. Please wait until the release date (September 25, 2012) to order your copy. By using the “Book Bomb Day” method (concentrating thousands of orders on one day), I hope to maximize the “splash” of the book, and drive its rankings to the Top 20 on Amazon.com, and to the Top 100 of the New York Times bestsellers list. Many thanks for your patience!

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Cheryl (The Economatrix) found this: It’s Almost Time To Panic:  Five Disasters That Could Push Humanity Off The Cliff

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M.E.W. sent this bit of Walter Mitty daydreaming fodder: Rheinmetall Defense outfits Volkswagen Amarok for world conquest. (Of course that pintle-mounted M2 .50 Browning makes a great “Pocketa-pocketa-pocketa” sound.)

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Fahrenheit Error Code 451: ‘Web Page Censored’ Code Proposed

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Scooby say “Ruh-ro”: What if Stuxnet rebounds on us? U.S. power grid vulnerable to attack

Jim’s Quote of the Day:

“I can feel the weather changing,
I can see it all around.
Can’t you feel that new wind blowing?
Don’t you recognize that sound, that sound?
And the Earth is slowly spinning,
Spinning slowly, slowly changing.”
– Neil Young: Rumblin’, 2010

Note from JWR:

Today we present the first in a series of articles by our Medical Editor, Dr. Cynthia Koelker, as well another product review by our Field Gear Editor, Pat Cascio.

Essential Medical Skills to Acquire – Part 1: Introduction, by Cynthia J. Koelker, MD

If society collapses and you’re on your own, what medical skills seem the most essential?  The answer likely depends on your age, health status, and stage in life.  For those of child-bearing years, midwifery skills may be paramount.  For those advanced in age, diagnosis and treatment of chronic disease becomes primary.  For the otherwise young and healthy, treatment of injuries and infection tops the list.
Our current compartmentalized society has deemed that doctors should perform these tasks, though turf wars abound over what nurses, physician assistants, pharmacist, paramedics, and others should legally be permitted to do.  Recent decades have also seen the trend toward home care for I.V. therapy, nebulizer treatments, dialysis, and much more.  The take home lesson is this:  the layman can acquire many skills once considered the purview of health professionals alone.  Thus, the first step in acquiring these skills is believing that you can do so.

The next question is to identify what skills you’d like to acquire.  Though an unknown future presents unknown threats, common injuries and diseases will no doubt persist.  Patients suffering lacerations, infections, sprains, and broken bones fill the ERs.  Infections, diabetes, asthma, pneumonia, chest pain, arthritis, GI disturbances, urinary problems, STDs, and assorted rashes comprise the majority of medical problems.  Learning how to diagnose and treat these problems is a good place to start.

To be more specific, needed skills include the ability to suture, to apply a splint or a cast, to administer an aerosol or needed fluids, to check urine for infection, to identify common rashes, to have a working knowledge of antibiotic usage, and much more.  Such a list is daunting and may dissuade a person from attempting anything – but remember:  doctors take a lifetime learning the practice of medicine.

So pick your favorite topic and start somewhere.  Medical apprenticeships have been the time-honored mode of learning for thousands of years.  Even now a great deal of medical training is accomplished in this fashion, from medical school through specialty fellowships.  “See one, do one, teach one” is the tongue-in-cheek but very real motto among physicians.  An apprenticeship need not be formal.  Find someone who knows more than you do and ask them to teach you.

For those who learn well from books, nearly every resource available to doctors is available to you.  The Internet provides a medical education in itself – just be careful to visit legitimate sites.  YouTube videos are effective tools for learning the basics of many medical procedures.

The Internet is also an excellent starting point to find live training/workshops to expand your medical skills.  I have personally attended Chuck Fenwick’s and Dave Turner’s Operational Medicine Course, and would recommend it to both the layman and allied health professional.  Also, in response to requests from my readers, I offer several live workshops throughout the year as well (see ArmageddonMedicine.net for current learning opportunities), where we cover suturing, splinting, casting, and basic labs, as well as treatment of infection and disease.  For those interested in all aspects of survival training, the July Total Survival Weekend at Stone Garden Farm and Village offers another option, and features one full day of hands-on medical teaching (primarily splinting and casting), one day of outdoor survival skills training with Tom Laskowski of SurvivalSchool.com, and one day of homesteading skills learning with farm owners Jim and Laura Fry.

In future articles in this series I will cover essential skills in detail one at a time, beginning with suturing.

Pat’s Product Review: Grip Pod and Light Rail

I’ll start this review by mentioning that I’ve never really cared for the vertical fore-grips on my ARs or AKs, and for good reason: Many of them are just plain junk! I’ve tried several fore-grips on rifles over the years, and they all had one thing in common – they would either break or get so loose that they were of no use to me. I had several of the fore-grips completely break off the rail on ARs over the years, and I attempted to repair them with epoxy, all to no avail. While I believe a fore-grip is a good idea on tactical-type rifles, I had all but given up on finding one worth the money.
 
Enter US Tactical Supply and their Mil-Spec Grip Pod System. I’ve written about some of the products that US Tactical Supply offers, and I can assure you, everything that they sell is the best-of-the-best when it comes to quality. They don’t sell junk – plain and simple. About 90% of their customers are government agencies, and they have pretty strict guidelines as to what they are looking to purchase. As an example, the State Of California, their Dept. Of Corrections, has something like a 7 or 8 page list of attributes that certain products must have, if you want to sell anything to them.  And, most state and federal government agencies also have similar guidelines – as does the US military. We can’t afford to have our troops buying inferior products – not when their lives might depend on their gear – we don’t want that gear to fail them when they need it most. So, while it may seem like a real hassle selling anything to government agencies, there is logic to it all.
 
The Grip Pod System is a revolutionary vertical fore-grip, integrated with a very strong and stable bipod that is hidden inside the fore-grip. Now, I’ve tried cheap Chinese knock-offs of the Grip Pod System, and they were junk – I should have known, because they were inexpensive to start with. US Tactical Supply told me that one of the selling points of the Mil-Spec Grip Pod System is that, when they take it to trade shows and gun shows, they deploy the hidden bipod legs from the fore-grip, and proceed to place a full-sized man on the top of the gun – with the gun resting on the ground – and the legs do NOT fail in the least. Well, I honestly didn’t believe this test – until I tried it myself. Now, while I’ve recently lost 40 pounds of unwanted extra weight, let’s just say that I’m still well over 200-lbs. I was sure the bipod legs would fail when I stood on my M&M 762 AK-47, with the Grip Pod System attached to it’s quad-rail. Nope! Nothing happened – the bipod did not fail, nor did the Grip Pod System fore-grip break or come loose – I was impressed, to say the least. I tried the same test with a Chinese knock-off, and it broke the bipod legs as well as the fore-grip breaking right off the quad-rail.
 
I guess what I really liked about the Grip Pod System is that the bipod readily deploys if you need it, when going prone to do some long-range shooting, or if you just want a more stable shooting platform to work from – I like that. And, the bipod also readily slips right back up inside the Grip Pod System fore-grip when you don’t need it.  Honestly, the system doesn’t look to be as stout and well-made as it is – but it’s actually stronger than it appears, which is obvious from my standing on the AK with the bipod legs extended. I can’t think of a better test than this.
 
US Tactical also sent me a Light Rail Module (LRM) for the Grip Pod System fore-grip .bipod. The light rail module adds a single or double rail system (I was sent the single rail model for this article)  to the Grip Pod System and allows the user to have a tactical light or laser at their finger tips – securely attached to the Grip Pod System. It only takes a minute to attach the LRM to the Grip Pod System Grip Pod, too. I like simple – simple doesn’t fail, compared to some more complicated products.
 
Both the Grip Pod and the LRM are made of reinforced polymers – not cheap plastic like the knock-offs are made out of. Both the Grip Pod and LRM are available in black or tan. The GPS02 is the military model, and it sells for $149 and the GPS-LE is the law enforcement model, and it sells for $95. Personally, I’d go with the Mil-Spec model. Yes, it’s a lot of money, but you won’t have to replace it because it won’t break on you. The LRM is $29.95 for the single rail model and $31.95 for the dual rail model – very affordable if you ask me.
 
I’ve mentioned many times in my SurvivalBlog articles, that if you buy junk, you’ll have to buy it again. If you buy top-of-the-line products, you normally only have to buy once. I don’t claim to be any sort of expert. I like to call myself a serious student of lots of things. And, I’ve learned a lot over the years when it comes to buying the best I can afford. In the long run, when I buy the best I can afford, I don’t have to buy a replacement for it, because it didn’t fail me. I hope I’ve been able to save SurvivalBlog readers a few bucks, and some headaches by doing these articles. I’m learning, and  hope you all learn a little something from my articles. I hear from SurvivalBlog readers daily, and if there is one thing I have learned from you all, its that, you are all a very intelligent bunch of readers.
 
I have no vested interest in US Tactical Supply, but I do enjoy doing business with them. They are a small, American-owned company, that sincerely cares about their customers and their customer service is second to none. If their customers aren’t happy, then they aren’t happy. If you’re looking for cheap, poorly-made products, then don’t bother looking at the US Tactical Supply web site, you’re not going to find what you’re looking for there.
 
If you own an M14 or Springfield Armory M1A rifle, then you need to check out some of the newest and high-tech stocks they carry for these rifles – you are going find something you’ll want .I haven’t tested any of their M14 stocks, but I’ve sure checked them out at the US Tactical Supply store – and I was absolutely blown away by what they carry. Give them a call if you have a special need in this area – bet they’ll have exactly what you’re looking for.