The Real Deal: Survival Checklist Based on the Argentina Meltdown

Zimbabwe Down To Their Last $217

In a thread posted by Zappa here.

After paying public workers’ salaries last week, the balance in cash-strapped Zimbabwe’s government public account stood at just $217, Finance Minister Tendai Biti said Tuesday.

“Last week when we paid civil servants there was $217 (left) in government coffers,” Biti told journalists in the capital Harare, claiming some of them had healthier bank balances than the state.

“The government finances are in paralysis state at the present moment. We are failing to meet our targets.”

Zimbabwe’s economy went into free-fall at the turn of the millennium, after President Robert Mugabe began seizing white-owned farms.

The move demolished investor confidence in the country, paralysed production, prompted international sanctions and scared off tourists.

After more than a decade — in which the country suffered hyper-inflation of 231 million percent and infrastructure that crumbled as quickly as prices went up — the situation is now more stable.

But public finances remain a mess and local business battles against unstable electricity supplies, lack of liquidity and high labour costs.

Zimbabwe’s government has warned it does not have enough money to fund a constitutional referendum and elections expected this year.

Biti said that left no choice but to ask the donors for cash.

“We will be approaching the international community,” he said.

The economic meltdown started in 2000 and continues today. See wiki here for details.

  • Hyperinflation: 231 million% [shocked]
  • Energy: Crumbling infrastructure. Supply is 940MW; Demand is 2500MW.
  • Telephone: New land lines are impossible to get. Cells still work.
  • Agriculture: White minority farms were nationalized in 2000. Agricultural marketing system collapsed.
  • Mining: Requirement for local ownership implemented. Mining stocks and production falter.
  • Education: Teachers leave country after 2000. Literacy rate falls.
 
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Isn't it always go time in Zimbabwe?

$217 left! That's more than we have--we're in the red! Their problem is no one will lend them more. Pay attention--that can happen to anyone or any country that spends too much.

I started a thread about Newton's budget and their campaign for a Proposition 2-1/2 override for more $$$. They want to raise $11 million in additional property taxes and have a whole sob story about what it's for. Yet, when you read through the budget (very well put together btw) it clearly shows a $10 million increase in INTEREST in the last three years for the $200 million dollar high school. That's what the WE NEED MORE is really all about--INTEREST ON DEBT.
 
Why would you stay in such a place? If you have money for long-term "preps", then you also have the money to get out of there. But have it in bullion gold coins, some camping gear and a pistol. All it would take is moving a few hundred miles, at most a few thousand, and those problems would be gone. In they USA, 150 years ago, people walked from the Mississippi to the W. Coast. The record for bicycling from NYC to San Francisco is just 8 days. At most, and at worst, a couple of weeks, on the back roads and off road, on a mountain bike, and you will be many hundreds of miles "gone".

If it's shtf here, you will have to just forget about 90% of the niceities that people imagine that they just "have to have". Providing just the bare necessities will be plenty burden enough.
 
Why would you stay in such a place? If you have money for long-term "preps", then you also have the money to get out of there. But have it in bullion gold coins, some camping gear and a pistol. All it would take is moving a few hundred miles, at most a few thousand, and those problems would be gone. In they USA, 150 years ago, people walked from the Mississippi to the W. Coast. The record for bicycling from NYC to San Francisco is just 8 days. At most, and at worst, a couple of weeks, on the back roads and off road, on a mountain bike, and you will be many hundreds of miles "gone".

If it's shtf here, you will have to just forget about 90% of the niceities that people imagine that they just "have to have". Providing just the bare necessities will be plenty burden enough.

In Bosnia, they were surrounded by the enemy. Battle lines were drawn in a few days and nobody was allowed in or out of the city. Things broke down really quickly and:

  • Travel stopped
  • Utilities stopped
  • Stores emptied
  • People died

What if your only option was to bug in and repel all boarders? What if you don't have time to pack up and leave? What if the enemy snipers were waiting for you to try and leave? Welcome to Bosnia in the 90s.
 
Men have escaped from prisons, under many times more severe conditions than anyone faced in Bosnia, and no such war kept people in Argentina. What it comes down to is people are lazy, stupid and cowardly. They let themselves be enslaved, and the adult men, at least, DESERVE it, for letting it happen. yeah, yeah, all the Bosnian snipers had night vision goggles and sat up all night, their heads on 360 degree swivels, right. :) The fact is, you can be on a motorcycle, and be 500 miles GONE, in one night, guys. You can be 200 miles gone, even if it's all off road.

People have become so habituated to cars, planes and boats that if they can't go to some place on such transport, they consider travel to be "impossible". Well, it's not. Who says that you have to "pack up", anyway? See? your materialism has enslaved you. What do you need, to travel for a week or so? A pistol, a gym bag full of camping gear, that's it.

there's almost always a handgun and a dozen rds available to you, almost anywhere in the world, if you have a knife, courage, and can make a phone call. Once you have that pistol, you can get whatever else you need to get out of Dodge, in a matter of minutes.
 
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Venezuela Economic Catastrophe: Coming soon to a country near you!

Inflation rate for 9/13: 49%

Food rationing: Started June, 2013
In a sign Venezuela's food shortages could be worsening, restrictions on the sale of 20 basic items subject to price controls, including toilet paper and chicken, are set to begin next week in its most populous state, officials said Tuesday.
.....
For one, price controls for more than 100 items imposed more than a decade ago under the late President Hugo Chavez are regularly ignored in all but state-run markets. Merchants say adhering to them would be suicidal for their businesses given inflation that reached a 29.4 percent annual rate in April.
Their black market is alive and well. Welcome to a brave new world.
================================
Argentina update:

Inflation rate: 10.5% in September, 2013

Food rationing via supermarkets: As of June 2013
The price freezes, which are obligatory for large supermarket chains and cover 500 products, replace the old mechanism that has been in effect since 1st February as a means to control rising inflation.
.....
Martínez went on to reiterate: “Technically there are no shortages” but conceded that, “we are having to limit some purchases”. He defended the measures as being key to eliminating “consumer anxiety”. (emphasis mine)

Some of the largest supermarket chains have already limited purchases of sugar to two kilos per person, and oil to a litre and a half per person or the equivalent of two or three bottles.

Other products subject to limitations (max two units per person) include: milk, flour, and yerba.

According to consumer organisations, cheap versions of basic goods such as sugar, flower, oil, rice, pasta, yoghurt, minced meat, and bleach are becoming more and more scarce.

Who doesn't think it's going to happen here? We're on the same track and there's nobody driving the train. [thinking]

===================================
And in the USA:

Is it 1.5% inflation the way .gov calculates it today:
united-states-inflation-cpi.png



Or about 5% the way the .gov calculated it in 1990 here?

alt-cpi-home2.gif
 
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I've never been one to get too excited over the whole "prepper" thing, but I think a lot of that was because most of the domestic prep sites/blogs I read all seem to assume total anarchy, which I always thought was nonsense. These two PDFs really highlight a much more realistic possibility that I guess I hadn't considered.

One thing that really woke me up was the info about antibiotics. In the US, there aren't any over the counter antibiotic options, and in a SHTF-ish type of situation, that seems like a major problem. Fortunately, it looks like there are still options that I need to stock up on.
 
I've never been one to get too excited over the whole "prepper" thing, but I think a lot of that was because most of the domestic prep sites/blogs I read all seem to assume total anarchy, which I always thought was nonsense. These two PDFs really highlight a much more realistic possibility that I guess I hadn't considered.

One thing that really woke me up was the info about antibiotics. In the US, there aren't any over the counter antibiotic options, and in a SHTF-ish type of situation, that seems like a major problem. Fortunately, it looks like there are still options that I need to stock up on.

I'm glad the checklists helped wake you up to a real and continuing problem out there: Greece, Crete, Argentina, Venezuela, etc. Read each article, too, if you haven't had a chance.

The problem with most of us is we think that we can handle what is coming to the USA:

 
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We have become a third-world country. They state in the vid below that the US is in the early stages of the demise of the west. Be prepared for the worst.

This is getting real for the USA. Reptile posted this link in the "Economic Doom" thread which included a link to zerohedge that has a 30 minute video put out by Casey Research of Vermont. The Casey video describes the quick financial collapse in the Balkans in the 80's/90's (e.g, Bosnia), Argentina in 2001, and Zimbabwe.

This is a must see video to give more details on what we have heard about the economic collapses in these countries. This also validates the info we have received from ferfal on Argentina, the "One Year in Hell" text from the Bosnian unknown author, and the basis for the checklists in the OP.

Video is here: [video]http://www.caseyresearch.com/go/v4y2d-2/ZHB[/video]. If the video requires an e-mail, you can use a fake one to pass through to the vid.
 
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We have become a third-world country. They state in the vid below that the US is in the early stages of the demise of the west. Be prepared for the worst.

This is getting real for the USA. Reptile posted this link in the "Economic Doom" thread which included a link to zerohedge that has a 30 minute video put out by Casey Research of Vermont. The Casey video describes the quick financial collapse in the Balkans in the 80's/90's (e.g, Bosnia), Argentina in 2001, and Zimbabwe.

This is a must see video to give more details on what we have heard about the economic collapses in these countries. This also validates the info we have received from ferfal on Argentina, the "One Year in Hell" text from the Bosnian unknown author, and the basis for the checklists in the OP.

Video is here: [video]http://www.caseyresearch.com/go/v4y2d-2/ZHB[/video]. If the video requires an e-mail, you can use a fake one to pass through to the vid.

The US is not on a path towards third world. We are a developed capatilistic nation heading towards socialism. The liberal left holds Europe as their economic model where the government is the controler and provider making everyone happy--until the money runs out. Then you have constant strikes, riots and protests against the provider. Corruption becomes rampant. It's class warfare as people fight for entitlements rather than private sector jobs.
 
One thing that really woke me up was the info about antibiotics. In the US, there aren't any over the counter antibiotic options, and in a SHTF-ish type of situation, that seems like a major problem. Fortunately, it looks like there are still options that I need to stock up on.

Pet supply websites and stores are your friend.

Fish Mox is Amoxicillin, a broad spectrum bacterial antibiotic.

Fish Flex is Cephalexin, also known as Keflex which is a broad-spectrum antibiotic used in the treatment of a wide range of bacterial infections.

Both are easily available without prescription over the internet. I have personally used both of these products with good results.

BE ADVISED TO HAVE A PHYSICIANS DESK REFERENCE ON HAND AND USE IT TO CHECK FOR DOSAGE AND INTERECTIONS BEFORE TAKING ANY MEDICATIONS !

The PDR I mention is available in hard copy, on-line and app versions.
Posessing one can mean literally, the difference between life and death.
 
The US is not on a path towards third world. We are a developed capatilistic nation heading towards socialism. The liberal left holds Europe as their economic model where the government is the controler and provider making everyone happy--until the money runs out. Then you have constant strikes, riots and protests against the provider. Corruption becomes rampant. It's class warfare as people fight for entitlements rather than private sector jobs.

David: I don't want to fight with you over semantics. The US is bankrupt, those governing us are corrupt, and the laws are implemented unequally for their convenience. The rule of law is not working. That sounds like a trip towards a third-world banana republic to me.
 
Pet supply websites and stores are your friend.

Fish Mox is Amoxicillin, a broad spectrum bacterial antibiotic.

Fish Flex is Cephalexin, also known as Keflex which is a broad-spectrum antibiotic used in the treatment of a wide range of bacterial infections.

Both are easily available without prescription over the internet. I have personally used both of these products with good results.

BE ADVISED TO HAVE A PHYSICIANS DESK REFERENCE ON HAND AND USE IT TO CHECK FOR DOSAGE AND INTERECTIONS BEFORE TAKING ANY MEDICATIONS !

The PDR I mention is available in hard copy, on-line and app versions.
Posessing one can mean literally, the difference between life and death.

What is the shelf life on those?
 
Expiration date is two years from production date. This may be in the normal month/day/year format we are used to seeing or it might be expressed as a Julian date

Let me paraphrase:
This code is used by manufacturers to convey information to retailers and consumers.In most cases, the Julian date code is a series of four numbers. These numbers tell the day and the year. Julian codes start with the number of days that have passed since January 1st. For example, July 12, 2000 would be read as 0193, whereas 0 is the year, and 193 is the Julian date for July 12th, as it is the 193rd day of the year.

It would not be uncommon to have a string of more than four numbers as this would also indicate other information as to which factory the product was manufactured in and the lot or batch code. It's been my experience the date code is usually the last four digits.

The "shelf life" usually indicates the point at which the manufacturer says the product begins to lose potency but the product can still be viable for anywhere from several months to several years depending on the method of storage.

Some folks like to store things in the original package. I like to vacuume seal the contents along with the product label, a dessicant pouch and an O2 absorber.

Store your antibiotics and rotate stocj in the manner you are most comfortable with.

One final note: Drug companies change formula's ocasionally and PDR books can be expensive so update the hard copy of your reference materials from time to time.
 
Twigg: If they are sealed, store them in the freezer to slow the loss of potency. They will last a lot longer than the "expiration" date.

Sent from the Warlock Command Center (in my basement).
 
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