In spite of the rumor, I do not think the volcano eruption in Iceland was meant as a retaliation against the money changers that bankrupted the country two years ago.

Governments can create and print trillions in a hurry to keep your bank open, declare martial law to restore order or outlaw bad weather when a collective frenzy of arrogance seizes them; we saw that in Copenhagen. But can Human power structures do anything to save the day against a distant volcano? Should you start thinking about your self protection, awareness and self reliance?

You have all viewed the reports in the press; I also had no clue… The good news is that we start to hear tales of human generosity, but karatekas the world over were either unable to reach competition places across Europe; or worse, were stranded in foreign lands.

My fellow karateka & blogger Sue C. at My Journey To Black Belt (aka known as “Kick A$$ Sue”), is presently stranded in Cyprus, unable to return to the UK.

At first, her flights were delayed until the next day, but as the situation in Iceland unfolded, and flights were canceled across Europe, the delays got longer. Sue is okay and taken care of by her travel tour organization, but it is not the case of everyone around her… some of her fellow travelers are out of resources and out of luck; they can only hope that the reputed Mediterranean hospitality is not a legend and rely on the kindness of the locals to make it through their ordeal.

What often separates life from death in a crisis is your state of preparedness; imagining even only once what you would do should a situation arise, may make the difference. I noticed that we always tend to think of self protection too narrowly. I am not suggesting to always imagine the worst, after all life needs to be lived; I wanted to raise your awareness and trigger your thinking…

Could this happen to you? Could you be stranded somewhere without the proper resources available? What other cases can you imagine? What if the banks were closed for two weeks? What would you do? What can you do now that would help in such a case?