Hi Nikie,
I sent you a copy of Kozac
That is the basic playbook, but it is old.
The soviet clients moved stuff on a bit from the time it was written.
The essential message in Kozak is, this is nothing to do with political ideals or race. It's about power. Power for the leaders to take wealth, and power for them to hurt people. The chapter of george orwell's 1984, where Winston Smith is arrested, describes the mindset of totalitarians, to control every thought, a boot stamping on a human face, for ever.
Don't think in terms of left wing or right wing. even if there was a seperate left wing and right wing with totally seperate policies, once they start to control over half of the scope of life, then that left and right have to start to overlap.
The intro to kozak also gives a bit of insight to the ever changing code that these people speak. They're ideas are hidden in plain sight, "protestors" are their political thugs...
The history of Kristalnacht in national socialist Germany, is also very useful. Hitler's storm troops smashed windows and looted jewish people's homes and businesses, and burned synagogues. This was portrayed as a grass roots action when it was nothing of the sort. The next day, all jewish men were taken into "protective custody, for their own protection" where they were then beaten and abused.
The intention was to persuade jews to leave Germany, and their property and any valuables that they were carrying would be taken from them.
Hitler was unable to use inflation of the money supply to invisibly steal any savings, as, following the German hyperinflation, such a move would have been political suicide.
The ANC has already been using money printing to dilute the value of any savings. In 2006, the Rand lost 30% of its value against the Euro, going from 7 Rand to the Euro to 10 Rand to the Euro. so by Christmas 2006, it was no longer worthwhile for me to work in South Africa.
Don't think that the Euro was a stationary marker, it wasn't; Philip Bagus' book "The tragedy of the Euro" (after Garret Hardin's "The tragedy of the commons") describes the mechanism of diluting the purchasing power of the Euro.
The supply of Rands was being inflated even faster.
I know guys who were in Zim when the hyper inflation took off: R said he only really realised that things had gone nuts when one single hens egg in the farm shop cost $24,000,000 Zim.
You need money or some other good that is easily portable, that people recognise and want, and which keeps its value.
at the moment, that is very difficult. In the short term, US dollars might fit the need, but I'm very pessimistic about the future of any of the paper monies.
Gold and silver coins might be a bit too valuable in a country where black guys get killed over a good pair of shoes.
Lead and brass will always get you gold and silver, even when gold and silver can't get you lead and brass.
The drinking water and food are very important. In apartheid days and in Mozambique and Angola civil wars, poisoning water holes and wells was standard practice. During Mugabe's genocide of the N'dabili, corpses were thrown into the wells to contaminate them.
Baboons are your friends in this- they need a lot of water and if you follow them, they'll show you a source. Ok it might have baboon piss and billharzia in it, but you won't die of thirst. Puff adder is supposed to be very tasty on the brai too.
"food rationing" is a way to control who gets food and how much. ration cards are a way to stop people using money to buy food. Both are incredibly dangerous. use either as a very final warning. (Stalin murdered approx 6 million in the Ukraine in the winter of 1933, by sending in the army to take their food supplies, seed corn and agricultural tools, in the name of agricultural reform - Hitler was very impressed).
have your route out planned
Swaziland and Mozambique might be a bit too popular and the roads well guarded, back roads up to the bergs might be quicker closer and safer, and you know some Sotho - these are just thoughts, you need to make and keep updating your own plans
Even in the remotest parts of Africa, you will find Irish Catholic Priests. They are well respected by their locals. IIRC one of the anglican/episcopalian church diosces (the area a bishop covers) around here had big links with Lesotho.
I'll send more later
@