Grandma, Math Teacher, Badass

If 68 year old Kateryna Bilyk can train and shoot the way she does, so can you. This tough old lady is a role model for all of us.
“Maybe such a time will come that I will be able to stand with the gun. What if I’m given a gun and not know how to fire? If everyone among us appreciates the homeland, then we will have victory,”

Ukrainian grandmother trains to kill pro-Russian separatists

Fernando “FerFAL” Aguirre is the author of “The Modern Survival Manual: Surviving the Economic Collapse” and “Bugging Out and Relocating: When Staying is not an Option”.

Argentine Prosecutor Found Dead Hours Before Testifying Against President Fernandez

Hi Fernando,
Happy New Year! You probably won't remember me but we had some email correspondence last year (I am in Canada) about your first book, which I loved. By the way, I bought your second book and loved that too.
So... what do you think about the "mysterious" suicide of Mr Alberto Nisman in Argentina?!
I am sure this will be your next topic on your website!
Best
Paul
/Your Friend in Canada :)
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Hello Paul,
It’s an absolute disgrace. That the prosecutor that was supposed to testify in front of the National Congress was assassinated the night before in his house just goes to show the level of corruption in the country.
Prosecutor in 1994 Buenos Aires Jewish center bombing found dead (cnn)
Argentine Prosecutor Found Dead Hours Before Testimony Against President Fernandez(ZeroHedge)
I mean, I had been following the developments for the last few weeks. Mr. Nisman had been very outspoken in the last few weeks about the evidence he had against the president, probably in an attempt to gain public recognition and therefore be safer in case of an “accident”.
Well, it did him no good. They still killed him before presenting the evidence.
It seems that he had managed to tap the phones of the presidential palace itself, and had hundreds of hours of phonecall recording showing the link between President Kirchner’s associates and Iranian terrorists, even evidence linking President Cristina Kirchner herself.

Something that isnt being mentioned but is very important: Cristina Kirchner’s husband, former president Nestor Kirchner had appointed Alberto Nisman himself to investigate the AMIA terrorist attack of 1994. Nestor Kirchner had created a new commission to investigate the link between the Iranian government and the attack to the Jewish center. Soon after that Nestor Kirchner dies unexpectedly, supposedly due to a heart attack. It was always rumored that he had been assassinated, maybe by drug cartels. The funeral was public but with a closed coffin. This is extremely unusual given that politicians in South America (and most of all Peronist ones!) turn funerals into political statements, so that the face of the deceased is remember. Not in this case. The funeral was televised live with hundreds of thousands attending but with a suspiciously closed coffin.
Immediately after his death and with his wife assuming the presidency, Cristina Kirchner has a complete change of heart and changes her policy towards Iran 180º, protecting the suspects and providing political support to Iran in the region. But Alberto Nisman was already assigned and had started to investigate…

Make no mistake. The terrorists guilty for the attack are long gone and the only thing left was proof of the president’s cover up and associating with terrorists. This is why Cristina Kirchner has Alberto Nisman killed the day before he testifies in front of the National Congress.
As Cristina Kirchner said herself not long ago."One should only fear God... and me"
FerFAL
Fernando “FerFAL” Aguirre is the author of “The Modern Survival Manual: Surviving the Economic Collapse” and “Bugging Out and Relocating: When Staying is not an Option”.

Hundreds of Virtual Kidnappings in New York

Fernando

1) In your 2009 book you described a type of crime that arose in Argentina after the 2001 collapse--virtual kidnapping. In the past, this crime was unknown in the USA but the news here is now reporting that hundreds of such crimes have occurred recently in New York.

http://www.reuters.com/article/2015/01/14/us-usa-newyork-kidnapping-idUSKBN0KN2FB20150114

An excerpt:

[ Reuters) - In a new wrinkle to an old crime, hundreds of New Yorkers have been tricked into paying ransoms by wire transfer to callers who falsely claim to have kidnapped their family members, according to the FBI.

In these "virtual kidnappings," scammers make random calls to find their victims, saying a loved one has been snatched and demanding the immediate transfer of small sums of money to have them released, the FBI said.

Some calls feature screaming in the background to convince a victim of the authenticity of an abduction, the FBI said.

"There have been hundreds of the hoax kidnappings just in New York over the last

18 months," FBI spokesman Peter Donald said on Wednesday. "This is hundreds of people

who have actually wired money to them." ]

Don

                                   ...

 

Thanks Don.

 This is very concerning and it’s a serious indicator as of where things are heading.

Some folks think that virtual kidnappings are pranks or almost harmless practical jokes so maybe a little more explanation is in order, so here it goes:

Yes, if you get a call from someone telling you they have your wife while she’s right next to you or your kids and you can verify that they are in school in five minutes its not much a big deal. Not pleasant, but not dangerous. These kind of very rudimentary cons go along the lines of the Nigerian prince email. Some people will fall for it, while lots of folks wont. The problem starts when it’s a bit more advanced than a random phone call and there’s more and better intel involved. The key for a good virtual kidnaping is knowledge and timing. You have to know that the person is cut from communication with the family, you have to know there’s going to be enough time, and its even better if the family was not expecting to be unable to communicate.

A couple examples that have happened before. A guy at the office has a mistress. Someone there knows that while the wife thinks he’s working, he’s really at the hotel, and he turns his phone off. Or maybe the mistress(or maybe it’s a prostitute) knows this, shares the information with accomplices. Lets say they have an hour to work with. They call, tell the wife they know who his husband is, maybe send a picture, and that she has one hour to give them $100.000. She calls his husband and is unable to communicate. She gets a call again demanding the money. She says she hasn’t got that kind of money, that she only has X amount available. This has happened with sudden, unexpected trips, even with new jobsites where there’s poor signal. It has happen with people that lost their phone or got their phone stolen (and the wrong person happened to catch that bit of information, or stole the phone themselves). Basically any moment when you’re a) unable to be reached b) some scumbag knows about it, it can be used against you.

Express Kidnappings

This is where it gets scary. While virtual kidnapping are still pretty bad in terms of getting money taken away from you, an express kidnapping is very much a real one. Basically the criminals just drive around and randomly pick up a victim based on looks, the car he/she drives, the clothes worn or even just the neighborhood the person is in. In Argentina they specifically targeted private school kids based on their uniform. When they so a private school uniform they knew that person at least had 500 bucks or so for school, so logically he was likely to have money. It got so bad that for some times many schools allowed pupils not to wear uniforms any more. So the victim is snatched, the family is contacted and money is requested for the vicitms safe release.

There’s several reasons why express kidnappings are so common, in many ways so successful and hard to stop.

1)Time. Its fast, a couple hours, maybe a few minutes even. In general smaller amounts of money are requested, maybe what’s available at home or what can be accessed with a quick trip to the bank. With so little time there’s a chance the police wont even be contacted, and if they are, there’s not much they can do, organize and formulate a plan.

2)Mobility. Many times the victim isn’t even located in a specific spot. Victims are usually kept mobile in the same vehicle they were taken. Maybe they take him driving around ATMs before making the call for ransom. Criminals drive the person around town while making the call and arranging the delivery of money. Many times the victims cell phone is used, but by driving around its practically impossible to track them to the exact location once the phone is disabled. Combined with the fast nature of the crime, it’s unlikely that it will be even reported, let alone tracked.

3)Lack of connection between kidnapper and victim. In traditional kidnappings there’s a leak of some kind, or someone that knew about the victim and his financial situation. Usually a business partner, acquaintance or even family members are involved in the conspiracy. There’s no such thing in an express kidnap. The victim and kidnappers don’t know one another at all. This make it extra difficult for the police to investigate and find a suspect.

Express kidnappings are still a daily problem in Argentina. I know of people that have been kidnapped and held captive for days. I even know one guy that was kidnapped on two occasions and escaped both! But express kidnaps are far more common and the advice given to the victims that bothered going to the police was always the same: just pay and get it over with.

FerFAL

 Fernando “FerFAL” Aguirre is the author of “The Modern Survival Manual: Surviving the Economic Collapse” and “Bugging Out and Relocating: When Staying is not an Option”.

ThruNite MCC-4 Universal Battery Charger: A Pleasant Surprise!

I have several chargers for my batteries but I’ve been looking for a nice one for some time now.
I wanted a charger that could handle multiple batteries, Nimh and Li-ion batteries and I wanted it to be capable of handling them individually in each port. Most of the chargers I own are designed to charge batteries in pairs. This complicates things given that most of the flashlights I own run on a single battery cell. Ideally, I would have loved the charger to have a display showing the voltage and battery charge stage.

Thrunite MCC-4 $39.95

You can imagine my surprise when the Thrunite MCC-4 got delivered to me this Friday, completely unexpected. The Thrunite representative was sending me a new flashlight for testing, which I knew was on its way, but she decided to also send me a charger and batteries to try out as well.
So far I’ve charged 18650 and a6340 Li-ions, which are charged up to 4.2V and AA NI-MH which charged up to 1.5 V. So far so good!

The charger can handle AA, AAA and C Nimh and 26650, 18650, 18490, 17670, 17335, 16340, 14500 and 10440 Li-ion batteries. I t also comes with a car charger for charging in vehicle.
I’ll do another review a few more months down the road but I’m honestly very happy with it. It’s exactly what I was looking for given the wide range of batteries I have floating around and the uneven number of cells that need recharging.
FerFAL
Fernando “FerFAL” Aguirre is the author of “The Modern Survival Manual: Surviving the Economic Collapse” and “Bugging Out and Relocating: When Staying is not an Option”.

Life after an Economic Collapse: The same… only Worse Part II

(Folks, in case you haven’t read it, here’s the link to part I)
It is sad to see many of the problems Argentina has been experiencing after its economic collapse becoming more common in developed countries around the world. The world isn’t about to end, we’re not donning our leather jackets and holstering a sawed-off shotgun as we head to the Australian wasteland, but the world has changed, hasn’t it? When people ask me when did Argentina change from what it used to be to what it is now, I tell them that other than certain specific incidents, such as rioting, corruption scandals, resignations and defaults, there really wasn’t a specific date. You just wake up one day or contemplate the reality around you one day and you go “Damn, what the hell happened to us?” You see dollar-tree stores where you used to have bookstores, you see take-away joints of dubious quality where you once had fine restaurants. Malls close down or are left half deserted, with few patrons walking about. You see more people begging, the colors of the clothes worn fading as they get older and aren’t replaced with new ones, you see the stern faces, and then it hits you. You’re no longer living in the same place.
The purpose of this series of posts is to help you understand what may already be happening in your city and what is likely to happen in the future. Argentina’s economy collapsed in 2001. Today, experts mostly agree that the global economic crisis started in 2008, so Argentina has a seven year head start. Granted, hopefully your country won’t fall as hard as Argentina did, but you’ll see the similarities on almost all categories to a greater or lesser degree.

Infrastructure
As the economy suffers, so does the infrastructure. Everything from roads, power lines, sewers, flood prevention, traffic signaling, buildings, parks, bridges, it all requires constant maintenance. This is of course very expensive, and one of the more obvious signs of bad economic times is bad infrastructure all around. Anyone that ever traveled to the 3rd world has probably seen it: There’s not much urban coherence, everything seems to be just thrown together without consultation and a total lack of planning. Power, TV and phone cables hang over your head in all directions. Just like power fails each summer, communications aren’t very reliable either. Public buildings are in particularly poor shape. Ironically enough, this is the University of Buenos Aires, where I studied Architecture.

There’s no central heating or air conditioners, the elevator is famously dangerous when it works and the toilets are in pitiful condition. You have to get there on time to find a bench to sit on and you better keep an eye on your belongings because they will get stolen right in front of you.

Floods and other Disasters
The problem is again, lack of investment and infrastructure. There’s no money to train and keep enough rescue personnel. There’s practically nothing done in terms of prevention and education. Everything from widespread rioting to wildfires and pandemics, it’s all handled poorly to say the last.
Regarding floods, there’s enormous amounts of litter on the streets which clog storm drains. Storm drains are also made of pretty heavy metal so… remember the inflation problems, along with crime and unemployment mentioned in Part I? Storm drain grated inlets are usually made of heavy iron. That iron fetches a nice price when sold, so these are constantly being stolen all over the country. Everything from statues, historic plaques in monuments and even doorknobs have been stolen because of the price of metals.
If flood prevention investment is a problem in developed nations, you can imagine how bad it gets in a place like Argentina. Without hurricanes or even serious storms, just heavy rain is enough to end in tragedy.

In April 2013 a flood in the capital city La Plata claimed over 100 lives. As years go by and the infrastructure is not only not upgraded but keeps deteriorating, floods are yet another problem people in Buenos Aires have to deal with.
This problem is already occurring in USA.

Terrorism Threat
Less money also means less security on the borders. In the case of Argentina the problem was twofold. On one hand there not even an attempt to secure the borders, so anyone walks into the country. On the other hand there’s no political intention to do so either. People from Bolivia, Peru and Paraguay, the poorest northern neighbors, just walk into the country, get a local ID and sign up to collect benefits. They of course vote with this in mind, so the current Kirchner government knows that each immigrant vote is a vote for them. My wife for example, she had to renew her national ID. She waited in line for several hours and was handed a number, told to come back the following day. At the same time and right next to her line was another one for immigrants. Their line moved quicker and they got their ID the same day. Why does it take longer to renew an existing ID for a citizen while an immigrants with nothing to his name gets and entire citizenship registration and ID documents issued immediately? Because it was elections time and they wanted to make sure all the immigrants from Peru, Bolivia and Paraguay had their papers ready to vote. Maybe the Americans reading this can find some similarities here too.
Argentina is no stranger to terrorist attacks.

In 1994 the Argentine Israelite Mutual Association was attacked with a car bomb, 85 people were killed. The Israeli embassy in Buenos Aires had already been bombed in 1992, leaving 29 people dead. These attacks have never been solved, and there’s an ongoing scandal involving the Kirchner government and the Iranian government who apparently plotted together to protect those responsible. Corruption, lack of funding and negligence provide greater opportunities for terrorists. For countries with an interventionist foreign policy, the risk is even greater and this should be considered as a potential risk in years to come, especially in emblematic cities and locations.

Culture and Society

Just like the infrastructure falls apart, so does culture. The changes here aren’t immediate, but they are visible. You notice people being more rude in general, but also less educated and more primitive than they used to be, which is quite sad. With the increased poverty you see a clear deterioration of culture in general. While there are honorable attempts in the field of arts, the lack of funds means artistic education and investment suffers greatly in spite of the good intentions of many. You can see some buzz regarding street arts, informal dance and improvisation, but in general a financial crisis will impact culture greatly. The need to earn a living becomes a top priority for most.
People that used to travel abroad find it harder to do so. Fashion, ideas regarding arts and design, it’s all less available than it used to be. Books for example, they become harder and harder or get. Five years ago when I traveled abroad I ended up bringing back two suitcases to Argentina. One of them was full of books. Thanks to the import restrictions, books have become very expensive in Argentina and the offer available is pretty limited. If you try ordering online you’ll find yourself having to travel to the international airport to pick it up from customs. You’ll also have to pay a 50% extra fee for importation and you’ll have to waste most of your day waiting in line to get it.
Little by little, you see people becoming more ignorant and it shows.
It takes a bit longer, but after 14 years you can see an entire generation that basically grew up knowing only the post collapse Argentina, barely recognizing the shadows of what was once the most sophisticated and culturally rich country in Latin America. Most 20 year old can barely read and write, if lucky, and those that consider themselves intellectuals simply regurgitate the Marxist nonsense they’ve been indoctrinated with thanks to the public education programs.

Media
In many ways the media reflected what was happening to society and culture. Sensationalism became more common in news reports. It didn’t help that the level of violence was already bad. With people getting killed and kidnaped on daily basis it kept getting harder and harder to shock the viewer. Eventually you didn’t pay much attention to the news because it repeated itself so much. The state managed TV channel became completely worthless, just a channel for propaganda that never actually reported anything. As time went by we saw the government adopt a new strategy: Buy or nationalize channels and various media that wasn’t in tune with the government. Eventually they regulated this strategy of theirs with a new media and telecommunications law passed in 2009. Only two media companies of relevance are left in the country that aren’t directly or indirectly controlled by the government. Censorship has drastically increased in Argentina in the last decade. Not only does the government control most printed media, radio and tv channels, those they don’t control are constantly harassed and journalists are threatened or attacked. The fear of speaking against the government is one of the worst tragedies and should be considered an important red flag to look for.

Politics
Nestor Kirchner reached the presidency of Argentina in 2003 exclusively thanks to the endorsement of Eduardo Duhalde, a Peronist politician with great power in Buenos Aires who had stepped up after Fernando de la Rua resigned and four other politicians resigned after taking the job. Just a few months after Kirchner was elected, it was soon clear that a very corrupt and authoritarian person had been placed in power, a typical Peronist populist leader.
The Kirchner government was particularly bad for the country for several reasons, but most of all because of its extreme, in your face corruption. Nestor Kirchner wasn’t the first corrupt president the country had ever seen, but he sure was the worst, the least shameful about it and the one that has robbed the most. Contracts would be handed over to the president’s own business associates. Public money would be shamelessly sent abroad to privately owned accounts “for safe keeping”. Family and friends would be placed in key, high ranking government positions in spite of having no qualifications at all for the job, the most extreme case of this being his own wife Cristina Kirchner taking office after his first period ended.
During hard economic times, during troubled sociopolitical events, extra caution should be taken so as to not place populist politicians in strategic positions, especially the presidency. This type of politician is the opposite of the honest , professional one actually qualified for the job.
If you have any comments of questions, leave them below. Part III will be posted later this week.
FerFAL
Fernando “FerFAL” Aguirre is the author of “The Modern Survival Manual: Surviving the Economic Collapse” and “Bugging Out and Relocating: When Staying is not an Option”.