Balkan War Observations and Preparing for CW2 Here

Back in 1991, my in-laws had some new neighbors, a small family from Yugoslavia.  The high-school age daughter, Hella, an accomplished pianist, was hired to teach my sister-in-law piano.  With my Russian degree I had planned to pursue a master's at Ohio State University, but this really awesome guy came along and made me an offer I couldn't refuse.  I was still interested in Slavic languages and had planned to learn Serbian and Bulgarian in grad school.  Hella and her family were Croatian; if I wanted to learn Croatian, Hella would be happy to tutor me, but Serbian was out of the question. (Serbian and Croatian were the two primary languages spoken in Yugoslavia.)  I guess the hostilities were there before the shooting began; there are only minor differences between the two languages.  They just happen to use two different alphabets. Serbian uses the Cyrillic alphabet, like Russian, and Croatian uses the Roman alphabet, like English.  Oh, and Serbian is spoken mostly by Muslims; while Croatian is for those with a Christian heritage.  The events of the war were difficult to watch, and seeing the hatred between the two groups killed my desire to learn the language and culture.

The lessons that the survivors learned are lessons that people throughout history have had to learn in times of war.  We can learn from them and prepare ourselves and our loved ones.  Or we can be like most of the rest of the country and believe that "it can't happen here."  One of my favorite sayings is that "You can ignore reality, but you can't ignore the consequences of ignoring reality."

And there will be consequences.  The survivors of the Balkan Wars have observations to share with us.

• In Yugoslavia, money lost value overnight.  All over the world, store owners keep a pretty careful watch on the market.  Historically, at the first whiff of upset, store owners stop selling food and keep it for themselves.  It generally doesn't work out so well for them in the end, but what we all need to understand is that when the collapse begins here, it's already too late to go shopping.
• In the early days of the Balkan Wars, people were able to buy food in exchange for jewelry and gold.  However, that did not last long.  People got scared pretty quickly and felt they needed to keep the food for themselves.
• Vegetable seeds were extremely valuable, as were tools.
• As in other times of war, oil and fat were in very high demand.  F. Enzio Busche also noted that in writing about his life in WWII Germany. 
• Very desirable items were water containers with lids to hold water in case you had to start running.
• The three medical items of greatest value were pain killers, antibiotics, and fever reducers.

The animosity and vitriol between the left/liberals/progressives/socialists/communists and the right/conservatives/libertarians/capitalists or whatever you wish to call the opposing sides is reaching a fever pitch.  There is no compromise.  Relations are already terrible, and we often hear public figures calling for the assassination of other public figures they disagree with.  We're in the midst of a trade war with China, and trade wars often lead to shooting wars.  We've been invaded, and we're forced to feed and house the invaders.  Oh, and the invaders aren't being screened for deadly diseases.  We've got unprecedented flooding and other poor weather conditions resulting in crop failures and we're already seeing empty shelves in grocery stores. Any one of these issues could be serious trouble, but we've got all of them.  Together.  Right now.

If there is anything that history teaches us, it is that history always repeats.  Another thing that history teaches is that leaders always say they have learned and won't repeat the mistakes of the past, and the people are always suckered by these promises.  The vitriol in this country between the two opposing sides leading up to the Civil War is no different from what is going on now.


With all the talk in our country of civil war, there's really little doubt that it will start in the near future.  The only question is, will we have prepared well by the time it begins?

Links to related posts:
Acquiring Antibiotics
OTC Pain Relievers (and how to use them like prescription pain relievers)
Food Storage and Learning From History
Basic Food Storage--Oils  

18 july 2019