Survival in the City

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I live in a rural area, but if I lived in the city, I would want (among the usual things) an air rifle (aka BB or pellet gun) and a good bicyle.

Squirrels are edible and can be taken with an air rifle -- a point my 10-year-old son proved several times during hunting season -- and seem to be plentiful in parks or areas where the developers haven't mowed down all the trees. Cook 'em into your beans and presto, fresh meat and you didn't have to waste any ammo. I'd avoid opossums or raccoons; they are known to eat garbage. I'm not sure about what other urban fauna eat, you might want to do some research.

Assuming fuel is in short supply, or the roads are choked with wreckage & litter, a hybrid bike (half mountain/half road) would get you to the local market or hunting grounds. This also lets you dodge the hazards of stockpiling fuel, or save it for other purposes.

Consider that after a month or so, most rioters/looters will be dead or too busy dealing with withdrawal symptoms (or starvation) to greatly limit your mobility. At that point, you're almost as safe in town as you are in the country (watch for four-legged scavengers though). Cities will also be the first places to have civil order restored, as well as utilities and food distribution centers.

Whether you live in town or on a farm, get to know your neighbors. Strength in numbers, and all that.

-- Larry Kollar (lekollar@nyx.net), June 11, 1998

Answers

What concerns me are the first few weeks. As used to daily deliveries of fresh meat and milk as most city dwellers are, I question the efficacy of going out to the local maple tree and harvesting a squirrel or two. Ever hear of Tularemia? Can you identify the symptoms? How about Hanta Virus or the Plague? And don't say that these are diseases endemic to the Southwest and I live in NYC-they're everywhere. Besides, how long did you intend to live on a...squirrel? But more to the point, what about the "have nots"? The social services net is stretched pretty thin as it is. A day or two without food and that "thin veneer of civilization" is going to peel right off. Anybody for Long Pig? I'd say that how fast you can run may be a deciding factor in your survival. Hiding and running...welcome to the future.

-- Greg Lawrence (greg@speakeasy.org), June 12, 1998.

Greg, perhaps I wasn't making myself clear. I was suggesting the possibility of squirrel as a supplement, not something to live off of & depend on for your entire food intake. Don't you think that an occasional bit of fresh meat would improve your outlook on your situation, whatever it may be? BTW, my son put some squirrel on the Thanksgiving table last year; several of us (myself included) ate some along with the turkey.

As for diseases, did you mean that these are inevitably in (whatever you might shoot for food), or just all around? If the former, I would point out the presence of E.coli in beef, trichnea in pork, and salmonella in poultry. That's why we cook our meat. If the latter, the country also poses risks of Lyme's disease (deer ticks), spotted fever (normal ticks), and tetanus (watch your step). That's why we have medicines and books.

Shortly after my original post, I stumbled across an article on urban survival -- http://www.y2kchaos.com/s35p113.htm -- it has some pointers on finding a good place to ride out the "first few weeks" and afterwards. It too suggests that after the initial (huge) problems, cities will be much more peaceful than the country since nearly everybody will have left for the country.

But if you decide to bug out along with a million other people, make sure you have some place to go -- *and* can get there.

-- Larry Kollar (lekollar@nyx.net), June 18, 1998.


Hi folks.

My name is Tim; I am a social scientist from Australia. I have just sent a book of to the publishers I called 'The Year 2000 Millennium Bug Report' (another book you say) yes another book! However, this book represents approx. 5 months of 10-14 hours per day research on the Y2K phenomenon. I have been following your forum for a few months but had not the time to say gidday to you all and thank you for keeping me up dated with current affairs on the European and American home front, I have received many leads from this forum that have been beneficial in helping me rite the report.

I have approached the subject from a socio/economic perspective as, that is, I believe the main grass roots issue with Y2K. Even if the Y2K impact on the global economy is less than Ed Yareni's 60%, say around 30-40%, the impact will be, minimal but still painful. However, the wild cards are Japan, and the rest of Asia with Indonesia experiencing major food shortages even now, and reports coming out of Korea of cannibalism, America and Australia will rush to their assistance with monetary and food packages to the expense of their own depletion of surplus reserves. If Japan collapses (which it will) then the Aussie dollar will follow the Yen, Hong Kong follows the Aussie so on and so on.

The other wild card is the Euro dollar, here in Australia the financial sector has not even address the cost of changing over to account for this major IT project. The Gartner Group estimates the worldwide cost of the Euro at 645 billion, 45 billion more than their Y2K estimate. (I have pile of documents here about 1500 - 2000 in all so if you want the link you will have to read the book, or wait a month as I am sick of looking at words at the moment). Therefore, the impact of the Euro is yet to be felt in western circles. The implications are that if Y2K wont get you, Asia or the Euro will.

What I am getting at here is this, modern society is neither prepared spiritually, emotionally or physically to deal with a disruption of the magnitude of a 20's style depression, that I estimate will be the midrange effect of the combined impact of Asia the Euro and Y2K. One of my jobs is working with youth either waiting to go to court, just getting out of detention center, or at risk. Some of these kids would rather steal than work, using violent means just to get an item of clothing they desire, how do you suppose they will handle being hungry longer than 2 days. (Remember youth tend to have a pack animal mentality, put them in a situation with out civil authority and see what happens).

In my research I came upon a very interesting parallel in the ol' Holy Bible in the book of Revelations chapter 18: the chapter talks about the world economic system it calls Babylon the Great, it describes how Babylon will fall in one hour. Then goes on to describer what will no longer be present in her city - no buying or selling, no food production, no music or theater, no light of the lamp, no bride or groom. This description is exactly what some of the more vocal alarmists are predicting. What if they are right?

timkaz@nor.com.au

-- Timothy J Wilbur (timkaz@nor.com.au), July 04, 1998.


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