At last! A subject on which I have specialized knowledge!! I know Crimea very well, have stayed in Sevastopol more than once, and have several good friends there who are giving me regular bulletins. No-one here will be surprised to learn that our wonderful media is feeding us undiluted BS on what this is all about, but I don’t want to get into politics here. This is about what we can learn from the current crisis in Crimea.
Firstly in the way the people are coping right now. You’ll have read in the
papers that there are queues at every bank machine and a limit on what can people are allowed to withdraw. It seems that hardly anyone stockpiled cash because of fear that the hrivna would soon be worthless anyway, but the very few Russians with savings who bought
gold are doing very well indeed. The banks themselves are buying it back at a much higher rate than they sold it for in January.
My friends tell me
barter has already started, and interestingly the most valuable commodity is
coffee. This is maybe unsurprising when we remember caffeine is a drug with withdrawal symptoms, and people suddenly deprived of it will give a lot to acquire it, but it’s encouraged me to increase the stock in my own preps. Apparently people are so desperate they’ve started ‘twice brewing’ the coffee grounds – ie making a pot with an ordinary drip-filter, then putting the used grounds into a cafetiere where they soak longer, and making another pot with that.
Other top barter goods are
sugar, beef stock cubes, soap – and our old friend
toilet paper. Not toothpaste, because the older ones have gone back to what they used to do in the immediate post-war years, and simply brush with salt.
However, what’s also interesting is how amiable this all is. No-one’s profiteering (yet), crime is virtually non-existent, and neighbours in apartment blocks are pooling resources to cook communal meals. This mostly springs from the fact they’re ‘all in it together’, and are so happy to be back ‘home’ with Russia that they’ll endure whatever it takes.
There’s a lot of
charity too. There’s one coffee bar in Catherine Square by the Grafskaya which has a lot of regular customers, and when one old woman ordered her morning coffee without her usual bun the barista gave her the bun anyway. Apparently they’ve been doing this a lot – and if things get really bad, that coffee bar is one place pretty well everyone in Sevastopol will be willing to protect.
The biggest threat they face is the prospect of Ukraine cutting off either water,
electricity or both – and there have already been the first power cuts. They seem unworried by this too. Crimea has been desperately poor since Russia left it to Ukraine, and people there use very little electricity anyway, but I’m delighted to hear their great substitute is the one I use most myself –
paraffin. Most have paraffin stoves, and some even have little paraffin cookers, although most cooking there is done by gas.
Water they’re dealing with much as we would. Already they’re in a routine where every day they fill every pot and pan in the house in case the water goes off without notice. My friends have never heard of a ‘water bob’, but they’re using dustbin bags (double bagged) to store water and leave them tied up all day until they know they can refill them with fresh.
I’m pretty impressed with the way they’re all coping, and can’t help wondering if ordinary non-preppers would do as well over here. Some of this may simply be down to the legacy of communism and the concept of working together, but it’s keeping them going – and it’s going to get them what they want.
In a way it already has, but that's a whole new subject and maybe a whole new thread - how to take control and prevent TSHTF by working together.
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