[Rod_Cloutier]

Trying to imagine the horrors of World War II and their aftermath to prepare myself for the coming realities of a post peak oil world, I have been watching WWII movies and reading books about the period.

When I was a young child in the 1970's, the war was always being discussed by people my grandparents age. They were in it, they were all involved in some way and many had fought themselves overseas. There was extensive television coverage of war footage, and it had not left the popular mindset. Now with most of the older WWII generation gone, and the passage of time, many of the horrors are fading out of our collective consiouness.

I read the 'Diary of a young girl by Anne Frank' like countless millions before me. Not expecting anything more than the dairy of a repressed teenager the book caught me by surprise. It is, of course, a masterpiece of literature that I will not debate here. The subtle wishes for hope and the end of the war inspired me in ways I had not previously considered. The war did end with the Allied victory as she was hoping for, but unfortunately she was not alive to see it.

In reading, about the cramped living arrangements; two families and a unrelated dentist living in the top two floors of a downtown office building, with only one toilet between them (that they could only flush at certain times to avoid being discovered). Truly hard to imagine the comprimises they had to make to survive. I then watched the 1959 movie 'Anne Frank' and that gave me a better picture than having read her diary.

In terms of the future coming up, I think we should bear in mind lessons learned the hard way from the suffering of WWII given the nature and scale of the calamidies at hand. Peak oil and climate change will effect everyone, no one will be exempt. Families will be torn apart, and this won't be as simple as going to a funeral once a month, this will be dislocation and disenfranchisement from your entire support networks.

The movie 'Anne Frank' dipicted the harsh realities of starvation and deprivation. How can you help others in your family when you yourself are desperate, covered in lice, starving, and cold? I have a large extended family, in a crisis, with my modest means I could not support few if any of them. Anne would watch from the corner of closed drapes as friends and people she knew were torn from their homes, separated from family, and beated by Nazi soldiers, where she could do nothing but watch while fearing her own fate.

There is no way I could give a complete review of this masterpiece, other than to say it is still relevant with the dual crisises of peak oil and climate change on the horizon. The book is a definite worth read by anyone 'planning to survive' thru the crisises, with planning and coping strategies dicussed in detail. As well as a profound undertone of hope from a courageous young woman.

[Cloud9]

Watch Shindlers's list.