Sydney urged to pack for attack

[Bad_Omen]

I came across this story on the BBC and thought it may be of interest.


Sydney urged to pack for attack
By Phil Mercer
BBC News, Sydney *

Link to article (http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/asia-pacific/6902143.stm)


Residents of Australia's biggest city, Sydney, have been urged to pack a survival kit to prepare for a terrorist attack or a natural disaster.
The local authority wants people to put together an emergency "Go-Bag", including maps, food and a radio.

Officials have denied the campaign is a government attempt to create fear and enhance national security credentials ahead of elections due later this year.

Senior ministers said planning for the initiative began two years ago.

Emergency buddy

Sydney's city council said residents need to think about what they would do in the event of a terrorist attack, a natural disaster or an outbreak of a contagious disease.

Officials have suggested they pack a special bag with items such as a first aid kit, running shoes and a baseball cap.

The list also includes toilet paper and sticky tape.

It is all part of a new advertising campaign called "Let's Get Ready Sydney".

Posters, leaflets and a website will advise people what to do if the worst happens.

They would be encouraged to team up with an emergency buddy and head to one of three designated safe sites in the city centre.

There is also a helpful suggestion for cat owners, who have been told that if disaster does strike they can carry their pet in a cotton pillowcase.

Scheme lampooned

Critics are not impressed.

A member of the Greens in Sydney said the campaign was a conspiracy by the federal government to whip up fear ahead of national elections due in the next few months.

That accusation is denied by the government of Prime Minister John Howard, who is seen by many Australian voters as a leader with strong national security credentials.

The scheme has drawn scorn from some Australian newspapers.

One cartoonist depicted a frantic woman worrying which of her designer bags to pack.

Sydney's Lord Mayor, Clover Moore, has brushed aside the criticism.

She said that cities had to be aware of the threats posed by militant groups and climate change.

The mayor has admitted, however, that she is yet to pack her own emergency survival kit.

[wax]

Bad- Critics are not impressed.

Wax- They never are... I suspect that critics in Pompeii sneered at warnings from harbor personel concerning evacuation. And I also suspect that those critics died right there at the harbor since most victims did.

Sydney has a problem and a few engineers and emergency planners have recognized it.

It became very clear a few years ago when bush fires reached the hills outside Sidney.
The smoke didn't have anywhere to go.
Because it sits in a bowl and the winds coming in from the coast will not allow dissapation, the smoke just settled, choking the city for days.

Of course the readers here know what that means, but "critics" can't think out of the box.

It means that just a few semi tankers filled with something simple like chloride placed in those hills and then cracked open will kill many, many people.

It is always interesting to me when critics claim that leadership is trying to produce fear whenever emergency plans are discussed.
Of course they are... fear insures investigation (or at least it should) and investigation should lead to a negation of fear.
People should be afraid of what they don't know.
But for some reason, a large portion of society would rather not know.
And that is very dangerous.

Katrina was not a surprise to any of us who think about emergency planning. Everyone in the field knew for a fact that New Orleans would eventually be completely flooded and they put that information out there for everyone to see.
Yet the critics still acted shocked when the inevitable occured.

Someday, Galveston Texas will be wiped into the sea.
It is a known fact.
Someday Seattle will be completely destroyed... in fact it is geologically so dangerous that it has passed its expected safety margin by a great deal.

Critics like to pretend that facts are not facts, and that not knowing is better than knowing.

[wax]

There is a valid issue concerning emergency preparedness and fear.

Our own homeland security should be informing the people rather than jumping out and going "Boo!" every once in a while.
The fact is that terrorists can not materially threaten the United States of America.
The threat to us concerning terrorism comes from within.

Every American life taken has value and must be answered for, but we are not Israel confined to a small place and surrounded by enemies.
An American is far more likely to die in a car accident than in a terrorist attack.

But security planners are hampered by the sheep.
If a chemical attack occurs and you can not go outside you can protect yourself to some extent by moving into a bathroom or closet and duct taping the gaps in the door.
Chemicals dissipate quickly, so an emergency plan like this has a short term worth.

Of course, as soon as the information was given the sheep went crazy. Morons got themselves on TV by covering houses with plastic and duct taping the whole thing.
Funny... but very sad concerning what will happen in a real emergency.

Americans have always scoffed at emergency planning. The "duck and cover" campaigns of the fifties and sixties were lampooned.
But common sense dictates that it was required.
The problem of course is that critics are the ones that use fear, not planners.

The critics declare something like, "nuclear war will kill everyone, hiding under a desk won't help" and the sheep believe them even though such a claim is stupidity at best... fatalism at worst.
If a modern nuke goes off over your head... well... survival has a luck componant. But if one goes off twenty to forty miles away it is a good idea to duck and cover.
It is also a good idea to understand what your options are after that... to have a plan.

Never allow others to convince you that a plan is not important to have.
History and common sense proves that it is.

[JAK]

Well I think they are both right.

It does make sense to be prepared. Better yet, we should be more self sufficient and self reliant as a way of life, but that's not really what the government wants. Individuals should be more self-reliant within their communities. Communities should be more self-reliant within their regions. Regions should be more self-reliant within their countries.

We shouldn't be preparing to live. We should be living.

But of course the government and large corporate interests only want this to a very limited degree. They want globalization and inter-dependance and upward dependance for more leverage opportunities and profit potential. So it really is more of a duck and cover PR campaign. We need to be prepared and self-reliant, but it should be on our own terms. Citizens should be telling their governments what needs to be done. Not the other way around. Citizens should be educating and informing themselves, but also reaching out to guide others.

The government shouldn't be doing our job for us.
They should be doing the tasks we give them. Are they?

The government is either with us, or they are with the terrorists.

[kawalekm]

I've witnessed this mentality myself. Once while getting a haircut I casually mentioned to the stylist that she should make some kinds of preparations for an earthquake event. Things like storing water, canned food, kits, ect. She became immediately very hostile! She expected that the "government" would come to take care of the people, and that there was actually something wrong with preparedness.

I think this mentality goes beyond just being sheeple. I think this strikes at a fundemental physcological need for security. If people have a fundemental need for security, either real or imagined, then admitting we need to be prepared destroys that false sense of security. People rebel against that.

I myself turn this mentality around and look at it from the opposite direction. My preparations give me a sense of security, because I know that no matter what happens, I have the resources to take care of myself and my family. It's sad to think that there are people in positions of authority in Austrailia that want to take advantage of whole thing and reduce it to the level of election hoodwinks.

[torenghout]

"Katrina was not a surprise to any of us who think about emergency planning. "

we just watched a nova dvd from the library,made in 2003 it predicted katrina in supprising detail.

[idris]

I remember this. Clover Moore, Independant, the Mayoress, is a 'Chardonnay Socialist', so has a limited following outside of her area. Most people already have one, and a better one than the recommended, but it did bring it to mind for those who would cotten onto it. *As boys in the School Cadet Corps, Pioneer Platoon [1966], we figured out that to take out Sydney, one only had to take out the bridges on the outer rim; because of the way the two big river systems wrap round the Greater Metropolitan Area, the only way to walk out is through some very rugged country, or take a boat [to more rugged country], or fly out. The big bridges in the centre are of no strategic importance. *This is just as true today, tho there are now more bridges. Much safer, well away. The State Emergency Services [SES] are great, after storm damage and general stuff, but there are some people whom even they could not help, because of their own headspace.