I started my prepping journey somewhere around 2007, amidst the backdrop of discontent in Malaysian civil society over its perceived biasness in the Election Committee’s handling of Malaysian elections.

The swell of support for the movement was unprecedented and for a while the nation held its breath as thousands of supporters and riot police faced off on the streets. Images of the racial riots of 1969 flashed in many people’s heads.

It was in this climate that I decided that we as a family should be prepared for eventualities. However after much research, I found a whole new community of like minded people across the world. 

Equally perplexing was the plethora of skills and information that needed to be imbibed and practiced. In short this endeavor to be prepared needed to be a lifestyle. Not just something you plan, implement and lock up in the closet or storeroom somewhere only to be opened in an emergency.

I was fortunate that being in the scouting movement when I was young gave me a head start in the game as Lord Baden-Powell already had the foresight to make “Be Prepared” the motto of the scouting movement. Many of the skills and experiences came back to me and was quickly integrated to my system of preps.

The baseline skills like, bushcrafting, hiking, kayaking, knotting, fire making, first-aid, navigation, all gave me a springboard into the game. However what was not as easy was getting the home and the family up to scratch. Being prepared yourself without getting your family on the same page is as good as not preparing.
What good is an amazing Bug Out Bag if your son and wife aren’t ready. Are you prepared to bug out without them?

What good is your INCH bag (I’m Never Coming Home bag) if when martial law comes into effect and your wife is 30km away at the office and your son is at school. Do they know what to do? What if the cell towers of your mobile phone operator shuts down all their services? Do you have an alternate meeting point for your family?

My objective here is not to scare anyone or to put you off prepping. Now with the Covid-19 pandemic, a new norm has emerged and a new realization of self-reliance has been planted in many people’s heads.

Once everyone do some research as I had done in the early days of my prepping journey, a feeling of an insurmountable mountain of information may weigh heavy on their shoulders.

All I want to say is every journey of a 1000km starts with the first step. Find true knowledgeable people and learn from them to short-cut the learning curve and minimize the expensive mistakes.

………but START