This week, we heard that President Putin is mobilizing another 300,000 reservists. We learned that the Chinese president is preparing for war. We heard about Azerbaijan attacking Armenia. The media seems to compete in delivering the bad news. But do people even read it? I’m not sure.
The silent majority remains quiet. Do they realize what’s happening? What could happen? Honestly, I don’t know.
I’m a mother of six children. I’m not ashamed of how I raised them, the knowledge and skills I’ve given them. I have smart, kind, and honorable children. As educated as I could have made them. But nowadays, I’m not certain if it’s enough.
Europe, this beautiful, cultured, and educated continent, is once again teetering on the edge of a war abyss after seventy years. And it unnerves me because none of us are prepared for something like this. We don’t know what to do if the warfront reaches us, if we have to defend ourselves with arms in hand. If we need to hide to avoid the enemy, live off what nature provides. If our survival hinges on quickly finding shelter, knowing how to deal with radioactive fallout, where to find food, where to get help…
My generation was haunted by the spectre of atomic war. We learned to handle gas masks at school. We ran to the school shelter. We learned how to use maps. We threw rubber grenades and shot air rifles… and it all seemed unnecessary to us. And when the year of freedom, 1989, arrived, we thought we’d never, truly never, need any of it. At least not here in Europe.
But today, I’m not entirely sure that’s the case. What if among the things we considered unnecessary back then, like civil defense, there were skills and knowledge that could save the lives of my children?
As a mother, I’ve taught my children many things, good, useful, and moral things… but in the face of nowadays’ geopolitical situation, I wonder if I may have forgotten something.
Shouldn’t we, as women, know survival skills to pass them on to our children? When I see, read, and hear what’s happening to women 500 kilometers from us in the east, in Ukraine, it seems to me that we’ve forgotten skills that exist. We discarded them with a bit of contempt. And we were wrong.
Even worse, there’s no one with us who can teach us again. Our men are great men, but many of them require air-conditioned offices, powerful cars, and high-speed internet access to maintain their greatness. Perhaps… perhaps it’s on us, women, to quickly relearn the skills our children need to remain our children for a long time.
Ivana Tykač,
