This is a LONG one. Submitted in case anyone wanted to use it themselves.

Fair Warning Preparation for the Year 2000 Crisis

Introduction

This brochure has been prepared by a layman based on research. The brochure has been provided to you as fair warning, probably given to you by someone who is concerned about the situation and who hopes the crisis will not harm you. Even if you do not take this warning seriously...or the Year 2000 (or Y2K) Computer Glitch fails to have a devastating impact...please consider yourself esteemed to have been given this information. Someone cares about you to have risked their reputation in sharing with you their concerns.

No professional advice is intended or implied. This brochure is submitted as information upon which you may wish to seek professional help, or to take measures on your own. The producer of this brochure and the person who provided it to you cannot and will not be held liable for consequences of actions taken based on the information and no warranty is offered or implied as to the precision of the data. This brochure is a courtesy only. If you paid for it, you have been conned. The brochure is supposed to be free. People who wish bulk quantities may offer financial gifts to cover costs, but this is not a for-profit effort.

You are strongly encouraged to confirm any or all information or opinions expressed in this brochure. Consider the genuine expertise of your source(s) of confirmation and their motivation for answering. Manufacturers or suppliers of survival products or services may be inclined to exaggerate the seriousness of the problem. Bureaucrats and corporate executives whose livelihoods depend on your dependence on fiat money and electronic credit-juggling may be inclined to minimize the seriousness of the problem. Genuine computer engineers (not clerks at computer retail outlets) are backing up their concerns with action, such as moving out of urban areas, learning low- or no-tech trades and skills and transferring wealth from paper goods (mutual funds, retirement accounts, stocks, etc.) to tangibles (stockpiles of food, water and fuel, gold and silver bullion and currency, etc.).

Whats the Problem?

In the early days of computer design and programming, critical time and space was saved by recognizing two-digit dates, two-digit months and two-digit years. On the year 2000, computers will read 00 as 1900 and not as 2000. The problem is fixable, especially on a small scale. In larger systems the fix will be harder, more expensive, and will take longer to accomplish. The most enormous systems (and the oldest) are banks and governments. When the computer begins to deal with Y2K, it will begin to make errors or will shut down completely. In isolated cases trouble has already occurred.

Individual PCs are likely to survive the situation well, except where they rely heavily or exclusively on networking or linking to larger systems.

There is also an embedded problem with specialized equipment depending on non-programmable chips, such as many automatic security and utility monitoring and switching devices. The embedded trouble may result in interruptions of utilities to business, industry and private customers. Some of these interruptions can last long enough to be, effectively, permanent.

What will Happen?

Many people believe that there is absolutely no cause for alarm, or that there will be some few, inconvenient, perhaps even comical, bloopers and then things will settle down. I like to ask these people on what evidence they base their belief.

The experts who are convinced that there is a problem have opinions of the severity ranging from 9 months of Depression-like hardships to World War III devastation. Almost every one of these people also confess that it is not possible to accurately predict the specific effects of a Y2K Crash...only that such a crash will occur and it will be more than merely inconvenient.

The expections include (but are not limited to)...

...global bank crashes, ...failure of governments to provide economic services such as tax collection, welfare and retirement benefits or payments to government employees or contractors, ...serious interruption of telecommunications (phone, radio, television), ...life-threatening disruption of shipping and transportation (food, medicine, fuel, etc.), ...serious interruptions of utilities, ...permanent loss of automated information (credit ratings, financial records, birth and medical records, school transcripts, etc.).

With any or all of these failures will come secondary turmoil, possibly including (but not limited to)...

...loss of emergency services (911, police, fire, ambulance, etc.), ...massive unemployment, ...loss of demand for frivolous (non-critical) trades, goods or services (entertainment, convenience stores, tourism, etc.), ...loss of civil order leading to violent looting and marauding, ...death by the thousands from medical service/supply disruption, loss of utilities, violent aggressions.

How Should I Prepare?

First, get right with God. The preparer of this brochure, after decades of research, is convinced that the God of the Christian Bible is the God. End of sermon.

Second, find out about the problem and decide if you should be concerned. The best source for this information is the Internet. Search on the key word Y2K which is the most common abbreviation.

Third, become mentally prepared for a drastic change of lifestyle, possibly including changes of residence, occupation and diet. Rent and watch movies made in and about the Depression. Movies such as Mad Max and Bladerunner, while entertaining, are not very useful for the purpose of realistic preparation of the mind.

Practical considerations include (but are not limited to)...

...leaving urban areas (find [or make] friends or relatives living outside of town and arrange ahead of time to move in with or near to them when the crash occurs, or buying vacation property in a defensible area which includes a source of water and room to grow/raise food), ...buying and storing food, water, fuel, medical and health supplies, clothing, tools, building materials, vehicles, gold and silver, etc., ...learning early-twentieth-century skills and trades such as farming, ranching, cooking, first aid, mechanics, carpentry, plumbing, etc.

An often-overlooked source for survival information is literature of the Boy Scouts. Search used bookstores if no family member is authorized to buy Scouting material.

The Up Side

People who survive a devastating initial disorder will fall into three basic categories... hermit-isolationists, aggressive marauders and cooperative neighbors. Pick the last one. If you prepare only to help yourself, you are missing out on the best survival supply of all...like-minded people who can contribute what good or skill you missed, or never had. If you help friends, families and even strangers who did not get or believe the warnings, they can, in turn, provide you with skills you may not have, extra hands for work (and eyes for watching out)...and company in the days and months without so much television, magazines and rented videos.

The more preparation for Y2K that occurs, the smaller the impact and the sooner the restoration of pre-Y2K order  if not of exact Y2K systems. Your readiness adds to the general capacity to cope and recover.

Dont be scared...be prepared!

-- J. C. Hale (jchale@iname.com), July 19, 1998

Answers

Well, except for the religious stuff, it seems good. I've noticed that you get much better response in any type of organizing or outreach if you dont preach at people. (hey, you dont want atheists and Buddhists and Jews and tree worshippers to just throw your leaflet away, do you?:-)

-- Free Life (freedom2k@yahoo.com), July 19, 1998.

In 3-6 months, many, many people will be aware of the dangerous potential of y2k. It might almost be appropriate for panic. I don't see anything that will be in place by then that will be a real contingency for the worst-case scenerio. However, if this list of cheap, simple, funky ways and ideas for self-sustainability both for the indiv. and the neighborhood were developed by then, there would probably be many, many people willing to make the effort to implement them in the short time remaining and panic would be alleviated. I am not a tehnical person, I can't learn all the ways in time, the ideas must come from the handy people, not me. So. . . . . Do you think this plan is worthy to mobilize around? Gentle people, I hope you find these ideas worthy of supporting: First of all, I would like to assume that you are up on y2k. But, if you are like many progressives, you may be asleep at the wheel on this one, I hope not. In any case, please be so kind as to indulge me for a moment, for I have found much on the web which supports the premise that can be found on the state of California y2k web site, that there is the possibility for infrastructure breakdown (i.e. no electricity, etc. for an indefinite period) and hence contingency should be implemented with this in mind. With this possibility in mind I would like to assert that the best, the most comfortable contingency that I can imagine would be self-sustainable, self-reliant, neighborhoods globally and locally before 2000. This is the funky, cheap, simple type of self-sustainability, not the deep ecology or the bio-regionalism, or anything that would take years to implement. This is a comprehensive self sustainability that would be more fitting for contingency for infrastructure rupture such as y2k presents. Something that could be done before 2000. It is a daunting challenge, but who is to say its impossible. The stakes are so high, with the possibility of martial law/chaos on one side, and the other possibility. . . Imagine, if you would, the worst-case scenario does occur and we in our wisdom had the foresight and the diligence and the creativity to implement self-sustainable neighborhoods comprehensively and globally in time. The safety net would be available for everyone and everyone would experience the liberating and healing effect of community based on mutual co-operation and after a month or who knows how long of living this way, without money, the people of the world would see the absurdity of ever returning to the former way of injustice, waste, destruction, exploitation, and corruption that we have all had to endure and which has so degraded and compromised everyone's existence. Thus the world would be transformed in one fell swoop, possibly. Its just a possibility, of course. But is it not worth mobilizing all those who could help in creating an ever-improving list of ideas that are cheap and simple for sustainability? Would your organization be interested in playing an instrumental role in getting this ball rolling? This once in a millennium opportunity is very fleeting, there is only 13 months left. There is a certain urgency, if we are not to miss this and head into y2k with little but an ever deepening sense of panic. If for some reason you don't agree, please let me know why. Yours in hopeful collaboration, Tom 415-824-4214 bagelhole1@aol.com websites: www.y2knet.com www.artrans.com/msg/toc.htm www.co-intelligence.org www.year2000.com www.milesresearch.com/ywk/ywk-links.htm Vertical gardening: Make a column out of chickenwire and tarpaper or cardboard about 3 1/2 feet high, 142diameter. Hold a 42 diameter pipe in center and fill with sand and stones (for watering), fill the rest of the area with good soil. Cut 32 slits around the outside thru the wire and paper in a spiral pattern. Insert seedlings in slits (40-60). Can be used on sidewalks, balconies, roofs. Sizes are arbitrary. 4 or 5 should feed a family plenty of vegetables, plant about 2 weeks apart to keep a steady harvest. Local gov9ts. should be asked to bring grains from the silos across America where they often rot every year and store them in accessible places for neighborhoods in your city. Now the food produce problem is solved.12/21/98

-- Tom Osher (bagelhole1@aol.com), December 28, 1998.