So I was browsing the internet reading some old news when I came upon this the strange case of a decomposing body of a drowned man inside a tank supplying water to over a thousand residents in Sabah.
According to the report, residents of Taman Sri Titingan, a government housing project, are demanding compensation for the “trauma” of knowing that they had been consuming befouled water and they also want all the pipes supplying water to their homes and water tanks replaced. The story goes that the dead guy went into the tank to swim in the middle of the night when the grim reaper decided that he shall die there.
Hilarious, but looking at the picture, something else came to my mind.
How big is the water tank?
Can I afford to buy one?
Unlike a shipping contenna, plastic water tank is fairly easy to get from nearby hardware store. Any person can buy large water tank priced under a thousand or two ringgit. Below are some images I found in the internet of large water tanks affordable by any middle income preppers.
Forget about buying shipping contenna. There's not much time left and definitely not enough money in the savings account for me. I need something cheap and fast.
Burying a metal shipping contenna underground would be great for any preppers. Having an underground bunker is like a wet dream come true for most. But shipping contenna is so damn expensive and attract too many unwanted attention. Just imagine paying the truck driver to haul your recently bought contenna to a middle of nowhere and then told him to put it down into a huge hole so you can bury it.. in Malaysia that will definitely get people talking.
Being pathetic and poor, I don't need a bunker capable of withstanding a nuclear explosion. I just need a foxhole large enough for me to hide during civil unrest until members of society come to their senses.
So my question is, will the illustration below work in real life?
There are special reason why city preppers might want to consider to learn how to camouflage.
In reality, I think you can only bug-out back to Kampung at the very early stage of the riot when the police were still able to control the situation. But most families will prefer to wait-and-see and hope for a false alarm. I would like to advice for all daddy's out there not to adopt this dangerous mindset. If you cannot leave your job yet then at least send your wife (if she's a housewife) and kids back to kampung. That way even if your decision to stay in the city turn out to be a mistake, at least the one who'll pay for your mistake will just be you (and your wife is she also wanted to stick to her career).
Make no assumption that you can leave at will anytime you want. As city dwellers you probably won't be able to leave town once rioters start burning tires or establishing their own road blocks. Once the government declared a state of emergency and impose curfew, your only hope is to survive in the city until the violence die out.
When urban riots occurs, the police and the military will have their hands full and will focused only on major riots happening in major venues (Statistically there is only 1 police for every 250 people in Malaysia). Therefore Criminals will take advantage of the lawlessness with robbers, rapists and murderers start roaming the street looking for houses with 'potential'. Robbers will look for money and jeweleries, rapists will look for young woman and murderers simply want to kill people.
(eg: People who rape woman and kill people during the 1998 Indonesian riots were not genuine reformists. These were just plain criminals thinking that God is not watching.)
That is why if you are city dwellers, you might want to prep yourself with tent and other camping gadgets. In worst case scenario, you should head first to the nearest police / military headquarters and beg them to let you camp inside the compound. Most compound with barracks even has football field and they may let you camp there provided that you don't nuisance them with lodging and foods.
(Note: Having an UMNO or BN membership card may helps at this point because by this time almost all former Pakatan supporters and voters will deny they have ever voted for Pakatan).
no bunker? paint your tent to match the forest or thick bushes near your house
Other than the primary plan of camping inside the police headquarters, you might want to consider a backup plan of hiding in a reachable designated hiding place. This may well be a nearby bushes, forest, abandoned places or even at your own back yard. This is when camouflage become important. The goal of camouflage is all the same that is to cheat others to think that you're not there.
Foxhole is easy to make.Not as good as an underground bunker but it may save life.
In the 60's during the height of Communist era, villagers Indonesia used to dig a hole under their houses (old houses were built on stilts) and hide in it. Then these homeowners intentionally leave the front door open, creating an illusion that the house was abandoned. My mother in law can recalls her childhood when her entire family can hear marauders ransacking their house, not aware that the homeowners were hiding under the floor. According to her, the communists didn't even bother to break into houses with doors locked. The communists simply assumed there's families hiding inside and burnt it to the ground.
If you have backyard then you can prepare by digging a fox hole that can fit your family. A fox hole is U.S. military parlance for a camouflaged hole, used for observation. Typically a fox hole is more than a shoulder-deep, protective, round hole, and covered by a camouflaged lid for concealment.
If you can't have one, then try to identify nearby forest or thick bushes of which your family can hide in camouflage. Having a camouflage tent and ghillie suit would be great at this time. Marauders would be driving by not knowing that in the roadside bushes there're people hiding in plain view.
a sniper in a ghilli suit hiding in the grass.. it didn't even have to be a thick bushes.
no bunker? paint your tent to match the forest or thick bushes near your house
In case you live places surrounded by concretes and there's no forest whatsoever, then try to come up with some sort of urban camouflage. The picture below might give you some ideas.
a good example of urban camouflage.
a sniper's ghilli suit to match urban environment
hilarious, but it work.. and cheap too
he couldn't afford underground bunker, so he build this.
Note: The best camouflage is not one which has to be bought. What you need is a few cans of spray paint, an access to DIY youtube videos and a little bit of efforts.
HorzePower said: diy things and ingenuity using whatever available resources are the best options especially during the critical time..unwanted/normal daily things during present time maybe key to survival at that point of time!
So, other than food storage, what else you might need in the future?
Because time is running out, then I would like to suggest my readers not to think too lavishly when it come to prepping for doomsday. Don't try to hastily follow the footsteps of the American preppers you've seen in television with their underground nuclear bunkers and station wagon. Remember, the most likely doomsday we might encounter is another civil unrest. So just focus on trying to survive just that.
camper trailer
another example of camper trailer
BUGGING OUT VEHICLE
A friend of mine once told me that he was thinking about purchasing a lorry and converted it into some sort of station wagon. That does sounds impressive but I don't think it's necessary. Rather than spending too much money buying a new vehicle, it would be more economical to just use what you already have. If your car is too small to carry all the foods and luggage you wish to carry while bugging out, then you may hire a blacksmith to make camper trailer that you can attach to your car in case of emergency. Yes, it might not be legal to use this in Malaysian street but during doomsday I don't think being street legal matter anymore.
this is my car.. I just bought myself roof rack for RM295 today :)
For me, I own two cars (a Toyota and a Kancil) and I plan to use the Toyota to carry the luggage while the kancil shall be driven by my wife to carry people.
If you don't have a budget to make yourself a small wagon, then at least purchase a very strong rope and a piece of thick plywood. In case doomsday scenario you can try to tie all your luggage around your car. The picture above is a hilarious yet do'able' even though you shouldn't carry more than a ton of heavy luggages like that. Yes, abusing your car might cause a dent here and there but I don't think having a beautiful car really matter during doomsday.
CHILDREN SWIMMING POOL (RM30)
It would be wise to purchase the cheapest children swimming pool you can afford. At the very beginning of doomsday you can use this to store water inside your house. Make sure to store as much water as you can while the tap is still running. If you have a bathtub that too would be one of the best place to store water. Remember, don't rely too much on the water tank outside your house because people might come and steal your water. Having a reserve inside you house would make better sense.
CANVAS OR LARGE PLASTIC SHEET
A large plastic sheet shall be useful when you need to create your own rain water catchment system.
WET TISSUES
It wouldn't be wise to use your water reserve to bath regularly. Wet tissues might and ethyl alcohol might come handy for hygiene purpose.
Tent (RM60)
Rechargable Emergency Lamp/Fan/Radio (RM99.90)
TENT & CAMPING GADGETS
For some reason I believe buying a cheap RM60 tent would be useful if you don't have a bunker to hide. When things really get shitty in the city with the mobs running amuck from house to house you might want persuade your family to bug out in the middle of the night to unpopulated forest until things calm again. Having a tent would also be extremely useful in case you need to take a refuge in government military or police compound. During civil unrest the military/police might be willing to take in civilian seeking refuge from street violence but might not be able to provide enough shelter and food supply.
CAMPING STOVE (RM50.00)
During civil unrest you won't be able to call the Petronas guy to deliver cooking gas to your house. If you're living in kampung that won't affect you so much because you can find a lot of woods. But if you're bugging in in a city, going out to get wood might be a life threatening situation. Stocking with a lot of butane gas might helps a bit.
LIGHTER
Make you have quite a few of this. You need fire to survive doomsday.
WEAPON
This is someone's idea of a modified version slingshot and darts made from iron nail (can also be used to shot regular arrows). I'm sure this is illegal.
Delivering the Umno presidential briefing on 27th November, Dato Seri Najib adviced the UMNO general assemby to be prepared in the face of the next general
election.
That was a sound advice and I strongly advised my readers to prepare the best they can.
Tonight my wife and I did just that. As part of our plan to be prepare for whatever coming in 2013, we spend half an hour to sort out all the items in our storage.
For those who have yet to my previous articles, they'll be puzzled on what food storage had to do with the coming year or the general election.
For those who know me and shared my idea, I posted these pictures to show them that they're not the only paranoid person in Malaysia.
IKAN KERING and UDANG KERING - my idea of the cheapest and easily preserved delicacy.
CANNED SARDINE - Lots of it.
MEDICATION FOR THE ENTIRE FAMILY
ETHYL ALCOHOL - for cleaning wounds
RICE! RICE! AND MORE RICE!
IKAN BILIS - my daughters favourite thing to eat with rice
SOAP & TOOTH PASTE - this is my wife's idea
BEFORE
AFTER (and more to come)
There's a lot more that I'm not showing here like my weapons of choice and electrical device. I'm simply showing off my food storage here in order to proof that I do take the prepping idea seriously.
