Is it just me or is the term ‘Emergency Preparedness’ an oxymoron of sorts? I mean, if you are, as they wish you to be, prepared for all the various-but-still-anticipated emergencies, is that not enough to cancel the definition of emergency? If you are prepared for whatever happens, can you actually have an emergency? Wouldn’t the incident experienced be downgraded to simply an inconvenience?
Of course, the other way of thinking is also true – if you have an emergency, God forbid an accident, then by definition you were not prepared. Duh.
But, it’s probably just me, picking nits. It’s just that this current preoccupation with safety and planning for every eventuality seems counter productive somehow. The only thing I have observed directly from all the security and safety measures preached ad nauseum is that less gets done.
I am not suggesting living dangerously – no, not at all. What I am suggesting is that some if not all activities pose some risk. That is life, after all. In fact, I likely cut myself at least once every day while building the house. I still sport bruises, aches, pains and the odd laceration from just getting through the day. WorkSafe BC’s declaration that “there is no such thing as an accident!” would mean, in my opinion, they are in denial.
And that can’t be safe, now can it?
Imagine my surprise when the local Emergency Preparedness Committee came for a visit to our neighbourhood the other day and declared for all to hear that we are all ‘living in a state of emergency’! To be honest, I had already partly dozed off before the introductions were complete so, at first, I wasn’t sure I had heard them correctly. Then, realizing the dire warning, I rose to the occasion and began shrieking and crying for help until my wife settled me down again with a well placed elbow to the diaphragm.
“We usually tell communities to have one week of food and water stored along with batteries and flashlights for emergencies. Extra blankets, a radio and a secure box for your valuables is also good. But, you folks can obviously live for a much greater length of time and are pretty independent as far as your systems go. Can you even have a power failure?”
“Uh, Jim’s old genset is pretty unreliable but everyone else has at least two and he kinda lives in the dark a lot anyway.”
“Do you have water?”
“Lived in BC long, have you?”
The people out here can not only live for as long as six months without ever visiting a store they can and do fix everything that breaks, make parts when they need to and some have even set broken bones using tree-branch splints. These people aren’t sissies.
As the woman said, “You people are living in emergency conditions.”
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