Preparedness for when

RAS

I am not pushing the theory not least as I am not too keen on theories. Nothing got me more mad as a student that two people who lived elsewhere in the world arguing about whether their society was feudal, capitalist or what. They were busy applying a theory developed in 19 century Europe to their own society which may or may not have been subject to the same economic and political forces. I would rather they looked critically at their own society and developed their own ideas than adopted something wholesale from someone else. Humans have this habit of trying to fit facts and experience into already known patterns and it does not always work or enable us to deal most effectively with the current situation.

As a student of "developing economies" I found the theory interesting. As a backpacker in the Western Isles, the Orkneys, very new democracies in Iberia and Eastern Europe I found it interesting. I never had time to really look closely at those societies and it would have taken some time to get under their skins enough to understand the drivers.

Raising knackered cattle makes no sense in one way; they are not going to provide a decent meal and the cows provide little milk. BUT if you are a landless peasant in a completely insecure work situation (think NE Brazil or the bottom end of the Indian caste system):

1. Your livestock will convert waste and roadside forage into bone, sinew and a small amount of milk. If you are lucky it will stray onto other people's land.
2. If you lose your job, it will walk to the new location. And it will keep turning waste and forage into bone, sinew and a little milk along the way.
3. If you are not paid in money, it becomes your savings bank.
4. If push comes to shove you can sell it.

jk0

This tickled me:

mardatha

Re the Western Isles RAS, I should imagine that would be the most alien & remote part of the whole UK to be marooned in if TSHTF and I know for sure that I wouldn't cope up there.

ivyleaf

jk0 wrote: »

This tickled me:

Quite a few of those being driven like that round here! And Mercs, likewise. We often comment what a shame it is that such expensive vehicles don't appear to have working indicators....

moneyistooshorttomention

You did have a lucky escape I would say fuddle.

I disagree (as you know) on being forced to learn a language. If someone wants to learn one - then that's a totally different matter. Two of my friends are still struggling with learning Welsh. One of whom was telling me the other day that they had a local in from a village holding conversation practice with them and they could barely understand a word (as it was a local dialect).

That had me doing further googling and I think, as far as I can make out, that there seems to be North Welsh, south Welsh, west welsh, some sort of "High" welsh, Wenglish and those 15 dialects = total count of 20 types of Welsh as far as I can manage to work out between the 1 in 6 Welsh people that speak Welsh from what I can make out. I think I'll stick to the fact that 99.9% can speak English anyway (well it must come in handy as a universal language to be able to hold conversations in another part of the same area). Now I see how many variants there are, then I can understand what the reason was for making English the universal language. It could have been Esperanto - but I guess English was "more to hand".

NB; This is where I think it relevant to mention that if everyone spoke their "own" "language" - I would speak Cornish (as well as English). I wouldn't recognise a single Cornish word if I saw it.

nuatha

mardatha wrote: »

Re the Western Isles RAS, I should imagine that would be the most alien & remote part of the whole UK to be marooned in if TSHTF and I know for sure that I wouldn't cope up there.

Its certainly cope able with, I have family up there who thrive. Though some moved to the Falklands quite a while back (apparently the Islands were getting a bit crowded).

RAS

mardatha wrote: »

Re the Western Isles RAS, I should imagine that would be the most alien & remote part of the whole UK to be marooned in if TSHTF and I know for sure that I wouldn't cope up there.

I think they are wonderful, particularly the beaches on the west side, although that tells you all you need to know about the storms in winter. Even some of the small inland lochs have beaches.

Tree DO grow there; this http://www.hamanavay.com/thehouse.aspx is built on the site of an old keeper's lodge near where I camped many moons ago. If you go inland from there to Ceann Loch Resort, the north side of the loch is covered with trees anywhere steep enough to evade the sheep and the deer.

But you pay for the long summer days with the long winter nights, and the weather comes in barrelling across the Atlantic. Tends to keep the midges down though. They also have a very short growing season.

I suspect they could grow a lot more than currently but with most stuff going through a few supermarkets, it would have to be transported all the way to Glasgow (or where ever the distribution centre is) to be transported back north. In much the same way as Wales is good for milk but there is no bottling plant in the whole country. So all their milk is "imported".

jk0

ivyleaf wrote: »

Quite a few of those being driven like that round here! And Mercs, likewise. We often comment what a shame it is that such expensive vehicles don't appear to have working indicators....

Ah, yes, have you heard the saying: 'Where there's a Merc, there's a berk'?

What particularly annoys me about certain drivers is when you are approaching a roundabout on a dual carriageway. Rather than slow down, they go in the fast lane to overtake you in the last few yards before the roundabout. Not only have they now blocked your view of traffic on the roundabout, also due to their speed, they frequently drift over into your lane, as they are unable to do such a tight turn at 30+ MPH.

This is so predictable, I always check for impatient drivers in my mirror when approaching a roundabout, and try to avoid hitting the roundabout at the same time as them.

Last week a white van did this to me, causing me to brake fiercely to avoid hitting him. Blowing my horn at him, simply resulted in a lot of rude gestures and further aggressiveness further down the road.

fuddle

Apologies, I've deleted my post above by mistake. I was just saying about moving up to The Outer Hebrides and securing a job but it was expected that I should learn Gaelic. Personally, as an incomer who was there to deliver services to the local people - 50% of whom speak Gealic, I felt it right and proper that I should learn the language and have no issue with the requirement that I should really. When in Rome and all that.

I know there's certain areas where tress do grow but the areas on the whole do struggle. Stornoway in particular is known for it's greenery and have Monkey Puzzle, a tree I had never seen till I went Southwards. But there are many many areas where naturally growing trees do stuggle to thrive.

On the whole I feel I wouldn't have been able to cope because of the harshness of it all. Romantically I would love to make it, even try it, but I think I'm not made of strong enough stuff. Likewise I am in awe of the crofting lifestyle - but I know I couldn't sustain it. Too molly coddled and wracked with anxiety even in that molly coddling :cool:

RAS

fuddle wrote: »

On the whole I feel I wouldn't have been able to cope because of the harshness of it all. Romantically I would love to make it, even try it, but I think I'm not made of strong enough stuff. Likewise I am in awe of the crofting lifestyle - but I know I couldn't sustain it. Too molly coddled and wracked with anxiety even in that molly coddling :cool:

I would have loved it 20 years ago and an ex nearly got a job up there which might have meant a move, But now I would not have the energy, I think. And family have moved in the opposite direct as well.

It fine whilst you are fine but if things go pear-shaped then accessing stuff is hard. One of my mates had a daily trek cross country to Inverness when his wife needed chemo, and I know another family who had to abandon their croft when she became ill.