Forty useful answers for emergency situations

Forty useful answers for emergency situations

The Worst-Case Scenario Survival Handbook; Joshua Piven and
David Borgenicht; Chronicle Books, San Francisco, 1999; 176 pp

JAKARTA (JP): How do you escape from a bear or a mountain
lion, wrestle free from an alligator or deal with a charging
bull?

The answer to all these questions and more can be found in a
little yellow booklet called The Worst-Case Scenario Survival
Handbook, published by Chronicle Books in San Francisco. The book
was written by Joshua Piven and David Borgenicht, with the help
of professionally trained experts in each of the situations at
hand -- stuntmen, doctors, bomb squad officers, bullfighters,
survival experts, demolition derby drivers and others. The book
is available in some of the better bookstores in Jakarta, such as
QB World Books.

True, in a city like Jakarta there hardly seems to be a need
to know how to deal with such emergencies. However, not all of
the information which the book provides is of as little
consequence to big city life. Indeed, some of it can save your
life.

Such as how to identify a bomb, or treat knife and bullet
wounds, or take a punch, or even how to ram a car -- which is
useful, say, when you have millions of rupiah with you in your
car and a robber is trying to block your path.

A letter bomb, for example, can usually be pretty easily
identified -- if you know what to look for. Letter bombs are
usually rather bulky and are unevenly balanced. Be suspicious of
packages wrapped in string. Watch out for excess postage on small
packages, which is an indication that the letter was not weighed
at a post office. Also watch out for leaks, oily stains,
protruding wires or excessive tape. Watch out for articles with
no return address or a nonsensical return address.

The book elaborates at some length about how to search for
bombs with detection devices and other means for locating bombs.

Of course, the best way to escape danger and injury, or even
death, is to run or avoid dangerous situations where and whenever
possible. But emergencies are not always predictable or
avoidable. You just never know.

To treat a bullet or knife wound the first rule is not to pull
out any impaled objects, as this may result in excessive bleeding
that is hard to control. To take a punch to the head, move toward
the blow and not away from it. A straight punch to the face
should be dealt with similarly.

The Survival Handbook contains advice on no less than 40
emergency situations with clear drawings to illustrate the
subject. As the authors say in their preface, it is a good book
to keep on hand at all times. And if no emergencies arise -- and
hopefully they don't -- it is still good entertainment.

-- Hartoyo Pratiknyo