What will we do about the refugees?
In the aftermath of a Big Bad Event (I'll call it a BBE - maybe it will catch on) there will be lots of hurting people. But we won’t be amongst them! “WE will be squared away because WE have stored food. The SHEEPLE will be hungry. If I give MY food to the SHEEPLE - my daughter may starve to DEATH - so I gotta be hard.” That’s how some of the thinking goes…
Others say, "I will give ‘til it hurts." But they haven't thought through that when they feel the pain it could be death pangs for their own family.
Others have prepared "refugee meals" to hand out to the miserable masses that stream past their retreat - "Here, take this and move on". Some have set MREs aside for this purpose. One cool idea I saw was a family who made up about 100 meals consisting of a 2 liter bottle of water and a small metal paint can full of rice and dried beans. On top of the product but under the lid was a pack of matches. The idea was for folks to take this food kit and move out to a place where they would have to build a fire and cook – so they wouldn’t hang around.
What happens if they DON'T move on? What if they set up camp across the road (or just down the road out of sight) and you become a soup kitchen. What happens when there is no more "soup" and you now have a mass of humanity right across the street? Hungry humanity.
In my travels I have met a few people who believe God laid it on their heart to prepare for others. In every case it was for Christians who never got or never listened to the Preparedness Message (Proverbs 6:6 is a decent place to begin) and were now running from "the Beast government" and needed some respite in the wilderness. They had a LOT of food put aside for others. I’m talking trailers and barns full.
I have recently been coming across others who have started to feel the unction to prepare for others – others who failed to provide for themselves.
There are obvious problems with feeding the hungry.
The first is having the food to feed them.
How can we afford it? Where do we get it? Where do we store it?
Then, how do we prepare it? You will not prepare 100 (or 1,000) helpings of soup in a canteen cup - or even your normal kitchen soup pot. DO we prepare it or do we hand out ready to eat food, or food that they themselves must prepare. Perhaps it would give them some dignity to do something for themselves – something like cook their own food.
An idea I am working on is turning our church into a way point, a food distribution center and perhaps even a shelter to be activated after a BBE. The church has resources to buy food and space to store it and water. This allows us to separate “their food” from “our food”. It lets us maintain a degree of homestead security in that the masses are not at our personal front door.
Security can be a huge issue. Most have probably seen the opening scene in “Blackhawk Down” where the starving masses are gunned down by evil militia who are stealing the food. Food is a weapon – it always has been and there will always be people who know how to wield it as such.
If one sets up a feeding operation one will have to secure the hungry people from bad guys. They will have to secure the aid workers from bad guys and perhaps from hungry people. They will have to secure the FOOD from everyone. Not just the area immediately around the feeding or distributing operation will need to be secured, but also the approach and departure routes.
If you encourage or even allow folks to stay around in hopes of another meal (and many will try) you will now have a refugee camp on your hands. Very quickly you will have more than food and security concerns. You will be confronted with hygiene issues – they eat, they drink – they have to go somewhere. Housing, clothing, medical – disease. It goes on an on.
John Smith hung a sign above the gate to Jamestown – “He who does not work, shall not eat” (that is biblical, by the way). See, they showed up on our shores with a whole bunch of soft handed “gentlemen” and a few servants. Well, folks got sick and died. It was time for everyone to pitch in to grow food and hunt critters but the gentlemen did not want to. They felt entitled to be taken care of.
We have a couple generations of people in this country who feel “entitled”. "Feed me, help me, do for me" – when they are perfectly capable of doing for themselves. It angers me when I see perfectly healthy adult males sitting on the porch or hanging out on the corner day after day while I work to support them. Is there anything wrong with telling the refugees who are able – “you have to work before I feed you”? Maybe make them make the big pot of soup, or fetch firewood for the cooking fires or…. But I fear many will refuse to do so, will get angry and then possibly violent.
I recall the “starving masses” at Katrina plus 4 days. All ANGRY because they were given MREs to eat. “I can’t eat THIS!” Yeah, it’s not chicken nuggets….
And yet, in a real BBE – there WILL be hungry people. There WILL be helpless people. And they likely WILL be in your area.
Where am I going with this?
I want to know what you think.
What you believe.
What you have seen or done.
What ideas you have.
I just started a post over at the forums.
Why don’t you register, log in and tell me what you think?
Then shall he say also unto them on the left hand, Depart from me, ye cursed, into everlasting fire, prepared for the devil and his angels: For I was an hungred, and ye gave me no meat: I was thirsty, and ye gave me no drink: I was a stranger, and ye took me not in: naked, and ye clothed me not: sick, and in prison, and ye visited me not.
Then shall they also answer him, saying, Lord, when saw we thee an hungred, or athirst, or a stranger, or naked, or sick, or in prison, and did not minister unto thee?
Then shall he answer them, saying, Verily I say unto you, Inasmuch as ye did it not to one of the least of these, ye did it not to me. And these shall go away into everlasting punishment: but the righteous into life eternal. – Matthew 25:41 - 46
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If you have any comments I’d love to hear them.
If they really interest me, I may even post them.
You can reach me at Joe
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Prepared Americans for a Strong America
posted by Joe @ Wednesday, December 30, 2009
6 comments
6 Comments:
This is a topic I've been thinking on as well and have really come to no solid ideas as yet. One thing we know for sure is that "Will work for food" is going to take on a whole new meaning.
You've hi-lited the problems I see with it: namely, the gross amount that will be necessary to maintain a 'going concern' such as the church idea and becoming a refugee center. There really is no way around that- or of the 'refugees' following people to their homes and just begin the slow take-over. Even if only one person were to pick up and deliver the product, someone's going to get the idea they can tag along.
Being our brother's keeper is going to be more costly than many will be able to afford- and no one is going to sacrifice their family to feed someone else and to do so would be foolishness- though God is the God of foolish people.
The scene in Blackhawk is indicative of human folly, IMO, since the troops began shooting yet the horde just folded/ran away rather than charge and overrun the shooters- they all knew some were going to die, and perhaps die of starvation as well, so why not charge the guns?
This is how I envision many instances in this country- and many of those who'll be getting shot at will have weapons to fire back, so an overrun isn't out of the question.
Questions questions questions... life is a question and we're damned if we do and damned if we don't. All I can think is that God is in control and will solve the dilemma when it arises.
Yet I also think that due to the lives we in this country have been leading, especially those who are "called by His name", I wonder just how much help He intends giving, for as He also said, "They will flee to the mountains and beg the caves to fall in on them." We're so degenerate that we must be shown our folly.
Shy III
The choice is like a line in the sand. If you are not a survialist, then give what you have until it is gone, then join the masses you once fed.
If you are a survivalist, dont show it, your survival should be stealth. The masses that travel by your place should never know you have food or water, or help in any way.
Even with your security, because to much shown, shows you have something to protect.
This seperates the prepared from the unprepared. When your stealth becomes breeched, so does your survival.
When the herd or the tree becomes pruned, the weak are removed.You have to choose between survival and marching with the masses.
The best survival preparedness during the BBE can be accomplished by the stealth of staying out of sight and mind of the masses.
The best security should also be stealth when it comes to weapons. weapons will be best used when used and not seen.
As example, you should be asking from the masses food,water, and help for thier rejection. Tell them you need medicine for your families sickly condition, they will stay away.
Look at the line in the sand and choose a side of being prepared or unprepared.
I can't even prep enough to support all of my sheeple relatives, and I would help them before a stranger! Problem is, you'll never know how long the BBE will last and subsequently how much you can "spare" for others.
Pick a third world country for refugee feeding practice. Start a soup line, and then see if you can find the end of that line after you start.
A BBE, is an event. You prepare for the event, at the level of preparedness you can. Is it 72 hours, 1 month, 3 month.
Have you prepared as a lone wolf, a team, unit, or group?
Help those who you can to prepare before the BBE with out exposing your self to much.
After the BBE there will be a time to reorganize, and assist in a rebuilding effort. Most likley you will have bigger problems to deal with beyond refugee's.
History teaches us that it can be a cruel world. After a BBE, most survivors would envy the quick dead.
Prepared or unprepared, true survivalists will seperate thierselves from refugees as an escape.
The survivalist is determined by the will power to do anything it takes to survive.
Caring for refugee's will be very short lived, but a honorable way to die.
This whole charity thing in a post-SHTF scenario is incredibly naive and smacks of self-aggrandizing altruism. You will never have enough food to make any real difference in the long run and could possibly make the situation far worse. You said yourself that that any food distribution location will become a target for armed human cockroaches seeking to control the food and thereby the refugees.
It it would be far better to let the refugees disperse from the area spreading the effect of their lack of planning on a much wider area. Less resources (misplaced charity) would be drawn from the larger area and the dispersion of the refugees would limit the overall risk to the community as well as the refugees themselves.
Anything else would be an invitation to turn your immediate area in to the equivalent of the next "Super Dome" during the next SHTF event. Best to leave the the charity thing at the "Feel Good" (church), the Gods will take care of their own.
You owe it to your family/team to be tough on this matter. Wave the refugees on.
Good post and 5 great comments with solid advice.
Just one comment that struck accord with me, if you live isolated and these people come begging-by,the last thing you want to be handing out is matches....need I say more.
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