Sweden's 'Doomsday Prep for Dummies' guide hits mailboxes today Residents of Sweden are to receive a handy new guide this week that details how to prepare for various types of crisis situations or wartime should geopolitical events threaten the country. The "If crisis or war comes" [PDF] guide received its first update in six years and its distribution to every Swedish household begins …
A one pager as you suggested:
6. ... böj dig och placera ditt huvud stadigt mellan dina ben ... 7.kyssa sedan din rumpa hejdå.
Please don't blame me for the Swedish it's all rather more Greek to me than Greek was to Casca. The kudos are all Google Translate's
"(Finland's) contents are largely identical to Sweden's, however, also noting that cyberattacks, IT outages, and payment systems could all lead to significant challenges"
As could accessing the *online-only* document in the case of an extreme emergency!
Well I was thinking of downloading a copy but......
I'm not sure how useful the guide would be after the emergency has happened since it's mostly a prevention guide. A reaction guide that includes only maps to places you might need to go and ways to get information or supplies could be useful post-disaster. Otherwise, if there was an attack and you were able to download the prevention guide, you'd just find yourself saying things like "oh, so that's what I should have done earlier but can't do now".
There is a thriving trade in the USA for so-called 'bug-out-bags': https://edition.cnn.com/cnn-underscored/reviews/best-bug-out-bag
Although strangely (to my mind) they rarely seem to recommend an axe, one of the most useful tools ever invented. (Mind you, you do need to know how to use one.)
I don't have a bug out bag, but I do I have a bottle of old, single malt, whisky (Jura, since you ask).
They're not really a thing here, and definitely not in official material, since the whole thing ties into the "Total defence" concept which essentially states that, if shit hits the fan, just keep plugging along. Go to work, fulfil your role, continue as best you can. Bugging out means shirking your societal duties to keep everything else going. Also, bugging out means you will not receive any aid from official sources, from the community, or indeed from anyone - you're on your own and that is the best way to get yourself killed even when there was little chance of that before.
> In lots of parts of the Western lands the weather can be sufficiently dramatic that one may need to vacate one's castle at little notice - even without barbarian invaders.
Yeah, Hadrian's wall hasn't been maintained well, I expect the Scots might come marauding again
«Yeah, Hadrian's wall hasn't been maintained well, I expect the Scots might come marauding again»
Not that the Tories have left much to pillage.
I imagine the Scots might reinforce the Wall to prevent Sassanach climate refugees from swamping the high(er) lands of Caledonia. From memory a great deal of England is not much above the current sea level and until relatively recent times much of the country was actually swamp. A couple of continental ice sheets go slash and the French might well be turning back the boats from across the channel.
Minimum bug out bag, is a good keep in the car for multiple issues. I agree with the axe,, well hatchet.
Wool blanket (keeps warm when wet), hatchet, cut wood for fires or more. Add in a plastic tarp for rain. then anything else is a nice to have. Water filter, snacks, weed, needle and thread (wounds and cloths) surface map of the region radio,,,,. Slingshot or similar - guns can attract the wrong attention (that you have ammo). Plans for meeting family if power is out for days.
This is good for storms, stuck on the road away from people. not just war, just good sense.
I would disagree with some of your selection, but we probably live in very different regions and what is sensible where you are doesn't necessarily match what's sensible where I am. I have a selection in my car, that I've had to put to use on a couple of occasions.
Biggest lessons to learn: cars get colder than you think quicker than you think, so wrap up even inside. And check your kit regularly - including making sure you have power in your battery packs.
I once did some consultancy for the RAF. They have these things called 'fly-away packs'. I immediately had the visual image of a large rucksack with wings flying off to the horizon. It seems that the idea of having a pack that holds everything a service person needs in an emergency means that a lot of them do just seem to 'fly away' of their own volition.
I apparently have a place allocated in a Swiss shelter. When Mad Vlad invaded Ukraine people started asking where their places were. Apparently the authorities would walk around putting up signs telling people to go, by which time I'm sure the fallout would have already arrived...
According to my (Swiss) German teacher, the law in Switzerland was that every new home was required to have a 'nuclear bunker' with proper air conditioning. This meant that they were perfect for storing large quantities of wine. So a few months after the nuclear holocaust, there will emerge millions of seriously hung-over expert yodellers*, which I am sure will be wonderful.
*This is a wholly unwarranted slur on a fine nation, whose national hero, William Tell, was noted for being very accurate with a crossbow, rather than an Alpenhorn. I hang my bigoted head in shame. Now, please pass the Suchard Chocolate, and where is my Rolex watch?
Dad was in the TA (UK reserves) and used to bring home Compo Rations from time to time. Other prized items were condensed milk in a tube, and jam in a tube. Best things though were the boiled sweets. Sit and enjoy a blackcurrant one while watching the thermonuclear sunset... Aah the good old days.
Old Civil Defence films, e.g. showing nice, well-spoken, women preparing a lunch menu (including jam roly-poly as 'afters') for displaced survivors, are being dusted-off. 'Protect and survive' cartoons and literature await broadcast or distribution.
However, there is a problem Britain's 'Great and Good' should be aware of before scuttling off to New Zealand. The advent of very accurate, and unstoppable, hypersonic missiles bearing high explosive 'conventional' warheads, has changed the name of the game in a manner the 'political class' and most persons at the top of military hierarchies have yet to grasp.
Targets can be 'taken out' without the need for 'city busting' nuclear weapons or for 'tactical nukes' which inevitably have destructive overspill to surrounding territory. However, the change of circumstance runs far more deeply than that.
No longer must innocent civilians, other than sadly a few in service to culpable civilians, be embroiled in an immediate attack, or suffer from the long-term effects of nuclear detonations. Similarly, it is not necessary for one set of military personnel to attack another; those on each side overwhelmingly are decent people, but they are in thrall (at least in the West) to a despicable 'political class' which in turn answers to shadowy 'sponsors'.
The reasoning is simple. Politicians holding high office (along with their hidden backers) are, as a kind, responsible for all conflicts. Responsibility arises from one or more of arrogance, stupidity, personal avarice, ambition, or acting under threat from blackmailers. In the UK, plenty of names spring forth from those governing during the most recent quarter-century. The point being that they, not ordinary civilians and not the military, are the obvious canker giving rise to conflicts. Long ago, political leaders (e.g. kings) took to the field of battle. Despite being surrounded by stalwart subjects, these figures did put their lives on the line. In the context of modern Britain, there is nobody in a position of political power (or recently so) obviously willing to do other than let 'expendable' people make 'sacrifice'; after all, their supposedly statesmanlike qualities are too precious to place at risk.
Now the tables are easily turned. A power possessing hypersonic 'conventional' weapons easily can target organ grinders instead of monkeys. All that's necessary is to keep track of the whereabouts of 'notable' people and their families. It's necessary to include immediate families (e.g. children and perhaps grandchildren) on the target list because (almost) even the worst among our kakistocracy is under a deep biological imperative to protect offspring. Should any be cowering in private bunkers in New Zealand, their whereabouts would be known and suitable bunker-busters could be selected from the armoury.
Wouldn't instant political decapitation (plus obliteration of key parasitic financial figures) of a nuclear power lead to an immediate response using the power's nuclear deterrent? In the case of the UK, that's exceedingly unlikely. Although, technically, for a while the UK would be a headless chicken, only that element of the military command and the civil service in proximity to targetted figures would die. If the precaution were taken of obliterating Parliament when in session (assembly governments too), the truly skilled element of the former 'establishment' could unopposed assume command. These people would be aware that the strike had been limited, non-nuclear, and not truly ruinous to the nation. At worst, a constrained attempt at tit-for-tat would be attempted. Unleashing nuclear deterrent weapons is only vengeance, empty at that, and the prelude to total destruction.
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