Wednesday 7 February 2007

This is a test...


bomb shelter, originally uploaded by _Merlyn.

Okay, so who among us here remembers those TV commercials that came on the CBC alerting us to the fact that the alarm that had just sounded was only a test of the emergency broadcast system...

Well I have not seen one of those things in years...do they even still exist???

The answer is in Switzerland a resounding loud YES!
Today is the day when all the emergency sirens that every town / city / village has will go off. It's quite peculiar. Of course this is the land that by law requires all homes, apartment buildings and cities / towns to have a functional bomb shelter. I kid you not. In our beautiful basement there is a room with reinforced walls, and submarine like door and window. It's a little scary.

I am not entirely sure what a country like Switzerland wants all these bomb shelters for, after all does anyone actually want to survive a nuclear war?- not really. It seems odd to me that this very small country in the middle of Europe, not actually being a part of the EU, wants its citizens to have bomb shelters. Also allows it's members of the army (those who do their mandatory army duty to take their weapons home.)

So Switzerland is a scary little place, in amongst the cows and the chalets and the ski resorts are bunkers, hidden military posts and a whole lot of closet paranoia.

I don't need any more paranoia, fear or angst thank-you very much. I can create enough of that in my head all on my own.

Still I sit here, after having a bit of a rough morning, listening to the sirens of doom wailing away, the CBC news talk about the non war in Afghanistan wondering what a world where bomb shelters and blowing people up did not exist would be like.

Fear will keep the locals in line. Well fear has us all wrapped up like idiots ( just look at Boston and the lite-brite scare) .

I think it is time for a nice hot cup of tea.

Until then be excellent to each other!

4 comments:

  1. fr. the flatlandquilter--so are you allowed to use that room for anything, or is just left empty, in case...? L.

    ReplyDelete
  2. all will be revealed when you get here....and see for yourself.

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  3. So every single house and apartment in the country has a little super-insulated room? Wow, can you say "jam space"? Perfect for musicians!

    ReplyDelete
  4. cool or what?
    It would make a great dark room as well, it's very dark...

    ReplyDelete

tales from the dark side...