And then you'll be assigned a number. Your solipsist mindset will be a neccesary rather than a sufficient prerequisite for retention. Your liquidation may not be desirable but unavoidable unless other exploitable attributes can be interrogated.Originally Posted by Almanac
"The individual is handicapped by coming face to face with a conspiracy so monstrous he cannot believe it exists.'' ~ J. Edgar Hoover
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Great post by MuchtoDo in another thread on how the general upheaval would affect ourselves:
The worst that it would likely come to here in Ireland is "The Emergency"++. We'd still have electricity, but maybe 30 mins every second day, the rest for a couple hours only for essential food production (we'd have one or two hydro/peat/gas plants providing power levels of maybe 1930s or worse, and most of the country would be switched off at any given time). We'd have gas, but you'd be cold in winter as it would be used to provide that minimal power and again, for some basic food industry. I'm not at all sure how water purification would work - I guess maybe the taps all switched off, and the occasional power used for topping up reservoirs - water would then be rationed out manually rather than piped.
We have about a week of emergency power for telecoms systems (broadcast, fixed line, some mobile telephony, some wireless ISPs). This would offer the window for initiating "Emergency Mode" where long-term measures for bare-bones running of the country are taken. Our broadcast system switches to an emergency mode if required (same output on all channels - override of existing programming/feeds).
We will have food, but only the most basic native staples (and any goods still on the island), and even that will be severely restricted in the first year until centrally co-ordinated reprioritisation of our farm production is acheived.
Any troublemakers would be interned fairly shortly into any such Emergency, and any "economy" we would have would be pretty much state-run. Most people would probably pitch in for the good of having food to eat, and indeed we'd be back to cutting turf to stay warm too (indeed manual labour would presumably be used for the large-scale turf cutting too). Urban Ireland will probably be harder hit than rural areas in some ways, but will be easier to service with food supplies etc.
It may seem an appalling vista, but we would likely be far far better off than folks in say parts of rural USA, where it most likely would indeed be Mad Max territory. Not that the US wouldn't have plans for emergency measures by the authorities - but they would struggle to acheive complete control across the whole Union, and indeed would probably precipitate regional breakaways in trying to do so. Ireland benefits from being a reasonable size to try to administer, and as such, it would take rather a lot for state control to completely break down.
Last edited by Almanac; 6th March 2009 at 02:41 AM.
"The perfect liberty they seek is the liberty of making slaves of other people." -- Abraham Lincoln
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[COLOR=black][FONT=Verdana]A widely reported [COLOR=#006600]story[/COLOR] shows the US are itching hard to lauch an invasion: "Admiral Mike Mullen said a nuclear-armed Iran would be a “very, very bad outcome”, apparently confirming a report by the UN’s nuclear watchdog that its uranium enrichment was more advanced than previously thought.[/FONT]
[FONT=Verdana]What about Israel and its hundreds of fully developed nuclear weapons?[/FONT]
[FONT=Verdana]Even Robert Gates, US defence secretary, said with regard to Iran on the same day as the report, "They're not close to a weapon at this point." [/FONT][/COLOR]
[COLOR=black][FONT=Verdana]Events though appear to be moving in the direction predicted at the start of this thread. Politically a US-led invasion of Iran is a non-runner, no matter how it is marketed. So Plan B is invasion by proxy though Israel. Of course, it is in the interest of Israel as well but it will be the syndicate that will give the green light.[/FONT][/COLOR]
[COLOR=black][FONT=Verdana][COLOR=black][FONT=Verdana][COLOR=#006600]Source[/COLOR][/FONT][/COLOR]Top US politicians have reportedly said that Israel is seriously considering taking unilateral military action against Iran. [/FONT][/COLOR][COLOR=black][FONT=Verdana]As the dispute over Iran's nuclear program heats up, top US advisors and experts on Middle East affairs, released a report on Wednesday, saying "Israel's time frame for action (against Iran) is growing shorter." [/FONT][/COLOR]
[COLOR=black][FONT=Verdana]The experts at the Washington Institute for Near East Policy (WINEP) said Israel feels an urgent need to take action against what it called "Iran's advancement in acquiring nuclear weapons." [/FONT][/COLOR]
Last edited by Almanac; 6th March 2009 at 02:44 AM.
"The perfect liberty they seek is the liberty of making slaves of other people." -- Abraham Lincoln
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Hello all.
At this stage It might be useful now to offer practical tips in terms for the times ahead, whether one takes the more benign scenario of a serious economic depression with massive unemployment and inflation (due to the bail outs being financed by printing money), or a break down in the distribution of goods and services, the collapse of utility provision, social chaos, and international war. God willing, it will not be the worst case scenario, either way we need to get real, and take out our ostrich heads from the sand if we cannot see how frightningly rapid is the economic deterioriaton and apce of events, whatever doubts or wishful thinking we might have about the elites
My thanks again to Almanac, Rhonda 15, LTHSE, and others.
For the medium term in re domestic finances act now as follows:
1) In present conditions, debt is good because inflation will eat away at the value of it and yet interest rates will be at an all time low. With quantitative easing (printing of money as pursued by Obama, Brown, the ECB and co to finance bail outs, infation has to go up).
My advice, restructure your mortgages to get the lowest possible fixed rate you can, lock into it for 5-10 years, because as inflation rises you will benefit from low rates and the value of your debt falls.
I am already starting this process myself. My job is likely to go, or at best I will be on less hours, and I have to batton down the hatches.
2) If you save doing the above, and have other savings, you should seriously look at owning a plot of arable land for tillage crops. Food will become the new currency, everything else will be surperfluous. Agricultural land is dropping in value. Buy land if no-one in your extended family has land. If they have, become a farm labourer when you lose your job, and ask for payment in kind, a share of the corps in addtion to whatever wage can be give, if money is still holding some value.
Other tips.
1) Get to know where there are local spring wells
2) Learn how to be able to build up your own fertiliser silo. Ireland is not self sufficient in the manufacturing of our own fertiliser since Net Nitrogen Eireann was let go in the 90s and we imported on the cheap.
3) Talk to local farmers, or growers in local farmers markets aobut planting,sowing reaping, the best time and conditions, what you need to do, etc.
4) Store up on Dithane 145, a spray against potato blight. Or store up alternatives such as bluestone.
Remember this nation can feed itself, if it wants to. In a worst case scenario we have to be ready to do that. Every little plot will contribute to sustaining us. Be ready to offer some of your supplies to food and soup kitchens to feed others as well as your own loved ones.
Last edited by west'sawake; 6th March 2009 at 09:32 AM.
West is right: it's important to try to have enough to be able to help others as well.
Get an allotment a.s.a.p. Everyone is entitled to one. Learn about them here:
Irish Allotments
and here:
Food Security From The Ground Up | Dublin Food Growing
Some advice from Colonel Kurtz: "If you want to buy in bulk just go to an Asian market. They are set up to sell in bulk - much cheaper for the basics like rice. You can buy a 20kg bad of basmati rice for about 45 euro. That's more than 200 servings of rice per bag.
If you are growing your own it might be worthwhile investigating making your own earthbox. I am building my own at the moment - it will be fun to grow my own tomatoes for my vindaloos."
Lthse posted, "I did a lot of research about soil remineralisation a few years ago and would highly recommend remineralising your soil using rockdust or seaweed dust. Most soils are seriously depleted in minerals and only 3 are added by farmers and growers NPK. A lot of health problems are caused by mineral defficiency because of soil depletion, if it's not in the soil then it won't be in the food. Even organic growers don't add enough to the soil or understand the health benefits. The minerals help restore bone density, repair blood vessels, restore tissue elasticity, organ functions etc there are literally hundreds of health benefits. It's not quackery either it's based on science and studies done by researchers and medical expert."
And for food storage: "There are a lot of bargains if you look closely, for example I bought tins of beans, peas, lentils, large packets of porridge, Tesco cereals, razors (49c for 10), canned fruit (30c), creamed rice (25c) soup, pasta, Tesco salmon, Tesco sardines, Tesco tea-bags, large packets of toilet rolls, canned stew, meat (limited by freezing space), rice, coffee, pasta sauce, Tesco beer, Tesco vodka, chocolate, large bottles of Tesco shampoo, toothpaste.
You can buy large bags of rice in the Asian stores for about 20 Euros.
Large boxes of washing powder for 20 Euros (Bold, 90 washes) can be found in some stores (I don't know the stores but I got a friend to buy them as she knows where to get them).
If you know anyone holidaying in Spain/Canaries you can get 200 cigarettes for 5 Euros.
Some people like to buy in bulk but I don't think it's necessary. You can buy a lot of food for about 30 Euro a week if you look at the bargains on offer and you will have much more variety. I would recommend buying a wide variety of foods but that's just my opinion.
I would recommend buying wholewheat rice and pastas because they are very high in energy and fill you up. Porridge is also very good for giving you energy and filling you up.
I haven't looked at Lidl and Aldi yet but will be having a look over the coming weeks."
Rhonda posted the following very useful list, which has been widely circulated on the web:
http://www.thepowerhour.com/news/ite...ppearfirst.htm
Last edited by Almanac; 7th March 2009 at 03:49 PM.
"The perfect liberty they seek is the liberty of making slaves of other people." -- Abraham Lincoln
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This European think tank has 'predicted' each stage of the economic crisis:
LEAP
They have a monthly bulletin for subscribers:
GEAB N°32 is available! 4th quarter 2009 – Beginning of Phase 5 of the global systemic crisis: phase of global geopolitical dislocation
Back in February 2006, LEAP/E2020 estimated that the global systemic crisis would unfold in 4 main structural phases: trigger, acceleration, impact and decanting phases. This process enabled us to properly anticipate events until now. However our team has now come to the conclusion that, due to the global leaders’ incapacity to fully realise the scope of the ongoing crisis (made obvious by their determination to cure the consequences rather than the causes of this crisis), the global systemic crisis will enter a fifth phase in the fourth quarter of 2009, a phase of global geopolitical dislocation.
According to LEAP/E2020, this new stage of the crisis will be shaped by two major processes happening in two parallel sequences:
A. Two major processes:
1. Disappearance of the financial base (Dollar & Debt) all over the world
2. Fragmentation of the interests of the global system’s big players and blocks
B. Two parallel sequences:
1. Quick disintegration of the current international system altogether
2. Strategic dislocation of big global players.
We had hoped that the decanting phase would give the world’s leaders the opportunity to draw the proper conclusions from the collapse of the global system prevailing since WWII.Here's what they said in 2006It is high time for the general population and socio-political players to get ready to face very hard times during which whole segments of our societies will be modified (4), temporarily disappear or even permanently vanish. For instance, the breakdown of the global monetary system we anticipated for summer 2009 will indeed entail the collapse of the US dollar (and all USD-denominated assets), but it will also induce, out of psychological contagion, a general loss of confidence in paper money altogether (these consequences give rise to a number of recommendations in this issue of the GEAB).
GEAB 2 revealed in particular a major fact, unknown from big media and the majority of financial analysts: the US Fed’s decision to stop the publication of a macro-economic indicator, one essential to assess the dollar’s and global economy’s health, the M3 indicator. Leap/E2020 analysed this information as a decision to monetarize the US debt and to hide the triggering of a dollar-collapse process.
As predicted by Leap/E2020, and despite doubts expressed by many professionals and a resounding silence from the part of all big media, on March 23, 2006, the US Federal Reserve stopped M3 publication, the dollar started its descent and the crisis began to expand to various emerging monetary and financial markets (Arab Stock Exchange Markets, Iceland, New-Zealand, Hungary, Brazil…), bringing the dollar down by 4% in just a month, in a context of speculative currency attacks.
I'd actually posted that Lthse but it's good to repeat it. A lot of excellent material here is getting processed quickly.
"The perfect liberty they seek is the liberty of making slaves of other people." -- Abraham Lincoln
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Hilary Clinton appears to be preparing the world for a US-Israeli strike against Iran:
US Secretary of State Hillary Clinton ratcheted up bellicose US rhetoric against Iran Wednesday, accusing the country of funding "terrorism" and interfering in the internal affairs of states throughout the Middle East. Her statements coincided with the release of a report by a Washington think tank with ties to the Obama administration suggesting that the US should establish a "nuclear umbrella" over the region.
Clinton made her remarks to reporters while flying to a NATO foreign ministers meeting in Brussels, having just completed her tour of the Middle East. The rhetorical attack was delivered in the context of growing indications that the Obama administration is continuing the essential policy of the Bush White House--seeking to isolate Iran while preparing for a possible military confrontation.
"The perfect liberty they seek is the liberty of making slaves of other people." -- Abraham Lincoln
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Lidl do big boxes of washing powder for under 7 euro almanc.
Is anyone else building an earthbox? Just wondering where you get the containers from. I use B&Q but they are not that cheap.
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