January Issue
The War Against the Bath Tub. Never heard of it? Then you may also be unaware of the War Against the Potato and the War Against the Street, writes Kristian Karlsson in the Swedish magazine NEO.
The journalist notes the vast amount of resources allocated to the war against terrorism, despite the fact that to date terrorism has killed an average of only 200 people each year, while between 300 and 400 Americans die each year in their bath tubs, 640 fatally choke on food and 6 000 are run over when they try to cross the street.
Kristian Karlsson does not want to down-play the threat of terrorism, but questions the measures used in, and the cost of, the war against it. Clearly tongue-in cheek, he argues that wars against the bathtub, the potato and the street would be far more cost-effective, while the war on terrorism is a bit of an overkill.
But historically this has been the norm and there are many examples of “overkill” in the face of a threat, whether real or perceived.
During the Cold War people in Sweden were put in alert mode by measures like the brochure entitled If The War Comes that made the monthly test of the air-raid alarm, sound really sinister. Almost 70 000 air-raid shelters were built all over Sweden, 7 000 of them in Stockholm, in preparation for a potential nuclear attack from the “east”. Most of the shelters were incorporated in residential buildings, but there is also a huge one at Slussen, and a gigantic one in Vita Bergen, that was to serve as the command centre for the civilian defence in case of war.
Plans detailing the location of the closest air-raid shelter as well as the exact location in the country that citizens were to be evacuated to, were posted at the entrance of each residential building by the civil defence authority.
The threat of war was taken more seriously by some than by others. My grandfather, who was a retired military man, decided that it was a good idea to have a residence in the small village up north, where the residents in his area were to be evacuated, all ready for himself and his wife. Since a son of his was likely to be conscripted, my grandfather also included a daughter-in-law and her young children in his plans. He proceeded to put in a classified ad in Östersunds Tidning that read "Commander Neumüller with two wives and three children would like to rent three rooms in case of evacuation ...". The ad was an instant success in the satirical paper Grönköpings Veckoblad that noted the two wives. My grandfather never got the funny part.
Anyway, after my coffee-loving grandfather’s death we also found more than a hundred bottles filled with coffee beans stored away in his cellar. Overkill?
As for all those shelters, most of them are today used for parking and storage. No new shelters have been built since the early 1990s, and should the strategic situation change, it is believed that there would be a time period of up to ten years to construct enough additional shelters to protect the bigger population of today.
The journalist notes the vast amount of resources allocated to the war against terrorism, despite the fact that to date terrorism has killed an average of only 200 people each year, while between 300 and 400 Americans die each year in their bath tubs, 640 fatally choke on food and 6 000 are run over when they try to cross the street.
Kristian Karlsson does not want to down-play the threat of terrorism, but questions the measures used in, and the cost of, the war against it. Clearly tongue-in cheek, he argues that wars against the bathtub, the potato and the street would be far more cost-effective, while the war on terrorism is a bit of an overkill.
But historically this has been the norm and there are many examples of “overkill” in the face of a threat, whether real or perceived.
During the Cold War people in Sweden were put in alert mode by measures like the brochure entitled If The War Comes that made the monthly test of the air-raid alarm, sound really sinister. Almost 70 000 air-raid shelters were built all over Sweden, 7 000 of them in Stockholm, in preparation for a potential nuclear attack from the “east”. Most of the shelters were incorporated in residential buildings, but there is also a huge one at Slussen, and a gigantic one in Vita Bergen, that was to serve as the command centre for the civilian defence in case of war.
Plans detailing the location of the closest air-raid shelter as well as the exact location in the country that citizens were to be evacuated to, were posted at the entrance of each residential building by the civil defence authority.
The threat of war was taken more seriously by some than by others. My grandfather, who was a retired military man, decided that it was a good idea to have a residence in the small village up north, where the residents in his area were to be evacuated, all ready for himself and his wife. Since a son of his was likely to be conscripted, my grandfather also included a daughter-in-law and her young children in his plans. He proceeded to put in a classified ad in Östersunds Tidning that read "Commander Neumüller with two wives and three children would like to rent three rooms in case of evacuation ...". The ad was an instant success in the satirical paper Grönköpings Veckoblad that noted the two wives. My grandfather never got the funny part.
Anyway, after my coffee-loving grandfather’s death we also found more than a hundred bottles filled with coffee beans stored away in his cellar. Overkill?
As for all those shelters, most of them are today used for parking and storage. No new shelters have been built since the early 1990s, and should the strategic situation change, it is believed that there would be a time period of up to ten years to construct enough additional shelters to protect the bigger population of today.
posted by Nordicway at 5:57 AM
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