Thursday, October 18, 2012

GRAVE OF THE FIREFLIES

The first spark that led me to become a prepper is not the 'doomsday prepper' documentaries by the Discovery Channel. Yes of course the documentary itself is a huge influence that make me feel normal being a prepper (it turned out there's many 'freaks' like me out there) but the first time I began to think about it is when I watched this depressing movie by Isao Takahata. At first I thought this movie is like the rest of Ghibli Studio's happy ending stuff. Boy, was I wrong.. in a good way.

I strongly suggest you to watch this movie. The story is not about a bunch of preppers storing foods for doomsday so it might not struck a chord with everybody. But if you're a parent with small children to care for.. you'll experience the depressing sadness that only a parent could ever understand.



The most memorable statement I've ever heard from a friend a decade ago was when he said "if my baby girl is standing in the middle of the road with a 7 tonnes truck coming toward her and the only way is to save her is to push her aside and let myself be flatten till my brains spilled all over the road - i'll take it smiling ear to ear".

It's touching to hear statement like that especially when it also reminded me the story I read somewhere about what happened during Einsatzgruppen when the Nazi promised the men that their families would be spared if the men let themselves be killed and the men - hoping that would save their wives and children - were all willingly dug the hole before jumping into it and be shot.

It also reminded me to the true story of how the Columbian Drug Lord Pablo Escobar - while on the run in the jungle - didn't even blink when he throw two millions dollars of cash money into the fire in order to save her daughter from hypothermia.

The love parents has for their children is the only consistent feature that God had given too all human beings (which means that those who abused or tortured their children is worse than Pablo Escobar and ought to be impaled to death). It's stronger than love to spouses and for the weak in faith could even be stronger than love to God. This is particularly true for the vast of marjority of people because whenever their children passed away they always have this tendency to blame God for the death of their children.

In situation like this faith and knowledge is crucial to understand that everything happens for a reason. God would never 'punish' the children as some parent would usually think. If God decides its time for the child to return to Him then it must meant that He was rescuing the child from a very terrible thing that would have happened should the child stay on earth.

I will write about this in later article "Tiada Musibah Dalam Islam".

In the meantime, please consider this after you've watched the movie - the only thing you might suffer as a prepper is being considered a 'freak'. Other than that you won't suffer any other loss because like I said in my previous articles, preparing for the rainy day won't lead to any financial loss whatsoever.

If you as a parent are willing to be flatten by a 7 tonnes truck for the sake of your child.. then why is it so difficult to spend a bit to store food for your children? With a proper technique the food won't go bad for a long time and that means there's no element of waste.

If there's no waste then it's not a sin.. okay!

P/S: This is the perfect movie to 'convert' your wife into supporting your 'prepper' idea. Let her watch the movie until all the tissues in the house were soaked wet before you begin to suggest the prepping idea (for example start with a question "could you imagine our child goes hungry like Setsuko in that movie?". It works for me!! (hopefully my wife wouldn't read this)

6 comments:

  1. Bro,

    I still have this anime since years ago! Although I look at it as an art, rather than trying to experience the feeling portrait in the anime. To think about it, yeah, this anime, quite an old one actually, is one of the great reference to actually see how disaster can do to parents especially.

    Now I'm seeing the anime in different perspective.

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    1. in your blog you said that you're having difficulties trying to convince your relatives into prepping. Well, you can try this subtle method:

      DAY 1 (influencing the wives)

      1. invite your relatives to your house, serve them food and make sure they're comfy.

      2. then play the anime "grave of the fireflies".

      3. Just let the ladies cried their eyes out and talk to each other on how sad the movie are.

      4. Don't discuss the movie with the husbands. Talk about something else.

      DAY 2 (influencing the husbands)

      5. Invite them again to your house, serve them food and make sure they're comfy again.

      6. then play the documentary "doomsday prepper" preferably episode 1 (but you can also play any other episode but preferably the episode with many kids in it)

      7. After the episode has ended, just tell them that you've decided to become a prepper for the sake of your children.

      See if they're still skeptic :)

      p/s: you can also try to sell them the Sinbo DZ-280 vacuum sealer for profit and who knows.. they might want to buy it.

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  2. thanks after dark. i like to watch anime from studio ghibli from mononoke to howl. but this 1 might just slip out of my attention. thank u 4 bringing it up. surely enjoy i will.

    azre

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  3. Salam AD,

    I cried my eyes out watching that movie, sheesh! Saddest movie I've seen.

    I've been prepping too, got bags or rice, beans etc. I've seen the DZ 280 and am interested to buy. I've been quoted RM 450.00 for a similar unit (not sure if its the same model) from a distributor. No shipping too, had to collect it myself. So I didn't buy. That was 1/2 years ago. Then I read you entry on the DZ 280 model stating that its available in lelong. Checked it out and they definitely have a more attractive offer. Might get one myself.

    The only trouble left is with water. I do not own any well or live close to any natural water source. If electricity runs out, so will tap water. I bought some water storage container but of course it wont be enough for long term. Any ideas?

    Don't forget to also prep the basic medical supplies, aspirins, dehydration salts, carbon tablets (useful when clean water unavailable) etc..

    One of my dream stuff to have is a power generator or solar powered energy supply...that would be great. Happy prepping!

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    1. Congratulation for your efforts, prepping and praying are the right way to prepare against the bad things that is certain to occur in our lifetime.

      While most preppers opted to bug out during doomsday, you seems to prefer to barricade yourself in your house (bugging in). If that's the case you better find a solution on your water storage issue so that you can last for at least a year.

      It sounded like you're staying in a surrounding mostly concrete built. An apartment perhaps? Anyway, if your indoor storage cannot last you that long, then at least find a way to make sure that you can last for 3 months and are be able to replenish your water supply when it rain outside.

      My family opted to bug out to kampung during crisis. However, I'm also trying to figure out on how to store more water indoor in case we have to bug in while waiting for things to be calm enough to bug out. Currently I have 2 x 1000 liters tanks at my backyard but I'm also planning to buy smaller tank or a drum for indoor storage.

      Medical supplies is important to my family. Paracetamol and anti histamine are top on my list but so does other drugs. I just learn from my mother in law that a crushed panadol can be used to dress a wound. I'm still researching if the aloe vera gel has any other medicinal properties other than making my face look handsome (I wonder if it's edible)

      Power generator is loud (attract too much unwanted attention) and need gas so that's a short term solution during bugging in. Solar panel and rechargeable batteries is my dream but it's damn expensive, large and require a little bit of extra knowledge to install. Luckily nowadays we can buy the one made in China in Lelong.com and hope it's quality won't be that bad.

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