Kosovo, Yugoslavia—this whole stinking mess has been constantly before me in the news as I worked on the manuscript for this book.
We heard it constantly on the news from reporters, government agents, apologists, and casual observers—these people were incapable of saving themselves, these naysayers claim. Fortunately, I was in constant contact with Ziga, a like-minded reader/informant in Slovenia whose considerable wisdom I share with readers. It is sufficient to understand that Slovenia is one of those bread slicesized countries located in the region involved in the tumult.
Ziga makes several interesting points, the first of which may have little to nothing to do with city survival and perhaps little to do with survival in Kosovo.
“These Kosovars are the scariest gangsters!” Ziga writes. “They deal mostly with heroin, prostitution, and illegal, ruthless moneylending,” he continues. “They cause a lot of trouble here.” Like stereotyping any people, all this may be true or it may be that we tend to notice only the really rotten eggs in the basket.
Way back in 1991, very quickly after the Berlin Wall went down, Slobodan Milosevic sent his army to attack Slovenia. The Slovenian army mostly militiamen, repulsed the attack in a matter of days. Slovenia has prospered economically in peace, even since. By European standards, excluding Switzerland, gun ownership in Slovenia is relatively easy, especially including black-market accessibility.
Perhaps as a face-saving technique, Milosevic immediately tried the same stunt in Croatia. These folks weren’t so fortunate. They were forced to contend with both Milosevic’s invading bullies and the NATO nations, through an arms embargo slapped on Croatia. In essence, we told the Croatians they were not allowed to defend themselves. This arms embargo on both the Croatians and the Kosovars ultimately subjected them to Yugoslavia’s armies.
Ziga claims weapons up through Soviet RPGs and AK-47s are commonly available on the black market throughout the entire region. A full-auto AK-47, for instance, costs only 300 German marks (about U.S. $160 at current rates). As in the United States, black-market weapons won’t keep tanks out of the petunia patch, but they will prevent military bullying on an individual basis.
On the other hand, to their utter destruction, residents of Kosovo actually believed that the government was somehow there to help them—that some force would show up to protect them from other government bullies. As history always demonstrates, people are not protected by their government. Historically, bullying is an official function of one’s own government.
This explains the vital need for a solid emphasis on personal firearms within city survival situations. History is firmly on our side on this one. Only citizens, given the right and ability to fight back, will keep an evil man at the head of his evil army from doing more evil! We would have thought the world had learned this lesson from World War II.
But exactly how could residents of Kosovo have kept from becoming victim refugees? It’s like a recap of this entire book.
They could have recognized early on that government can never guarantee safety—that at some point personal responsibility would always enter in.
After looking out at bitter experiences of others in nearby regions, they should have figured out that extensive preparations would be necessary. These preparations should have included provision for alternate shelter, food, water. defense, medical supplies, and whatever else their personal Rule of Threes suggested.
They should not have lived among potentially hostile people as identifiable targets. This would have entailed adopting plain vanilla dress as well as living and personal habits that kept them from standing out. Once hostilities became obvious, these folks would have had to engage in deep hiding.
Warsaw’s Jews quickly discovered that by being forcibly collected together, they became an easy and perhaps popular target. On the other hand, the Nazis found that when Jews in the Warsaw Ghetto coalesced into fighting units, they became some pretty tough nuts! I am reliably informed that Albanians in Kosovo did nothing to help themselves. Their solution to the problem was to band together and run to another government for protection, not to band together to stand and fight.
Reliable accounts surface about the fact that Albanians in Kosovo were completely inflexible in their conduct of life. I asked Ziga whether it was true that “starving” Kosovars refused to eat U.S. Army field rations especially formulated for Islamic people. He said it was true.
These people consented to becoming refugees in spite of great world and regional evidence that refugees are frequently treated poorly.
They miserably failed to modify their religious practices when it became a life-and-death matter, and these practices were revealed to be more cultural than religious. Admittedly this is a touchy, difficult area, but I am assured by Islamic teachers that rape on the part of invading armies is not a religious death sentence for that society’s Muslim women members, unless that society arbitrarily dictates that it is. As additional evidence, I was reminded of the great rape of the Muslim population in India at partition, and of the “de-oathing” of Mau Mau in Kenya to cite another religious example from Christianity. (In the case of Mau Mau, African individuals engaged in homosexual practices as part of their initiation ceremonies. It was supposed that these practices were so heinous that participants could never leave that society. However, a quasi-religious counter ceremony, known as de-oathing, was cobbled together, allowing Mau Maus to reform.)
At any rate, all of this suggests again that there is nothing out there that will keep us from making it through tough times in big cities. True enough, we will be laughed at, scorned, and made official pariahs for our preparedness beliefs and practices. That’s the way it is and that’s the way it is going to be. We will also be the ones who build the next society. In that regard alone, we will have the last laugh.
About the Author
Ragnar Benson is the product of the last of the small 80-acre Midwestern subsistence farms. Currently he lives in the mountainous West but, because of advancing age, he has decreased the number of foreign “assignments” he will take on. He has lived and worked in 63 different countries.
Benson’s current and past way of life reflects the survival philosophy he espouses. He actually lives the frugal, independent life of a survivor.
But Benson has spent a good deal of his life in the big city. Internationally he has had ample opportunity to see cause and effect of collapsed big-city economies. His father before him survived in post-World War I Germany and his mother was a survivor of the first Communist purges in Russia.
Ragnar is uncertain whether those skilled at city survival will have an easier or tougher time than their counterparts out in the country The principles involved, but not the practices, are similar.
Both groups of survivors will have to work harder than they ever have in their lives, Benson speculates. His only concerns are that Americans have become too specialized and that they may lack motivation to actually survive in tough circumstances.
Having studied survival for well over 60 years, Benson is able to reduce the concept down to several easily understood guidelines. As with all of life, the devil is in the details. For varying reasons and for various lengths of time, city survivors are currently operating in different places around the world, Benson has found.
As much as anything, “A Hard-Times Guide to Staying Alive in the City” reflects how Benson currently lives.
Also by Ragnar Benson:
Acquiring New ID