You have arrived safely at age 74 and are thinking about retiring and moving to a place where you can enjoy your Golden Years. Somewhere in your country a crazy youngster gets his hands on an easy-to-operate missile and one day, in a fit of anger and hatred, he fires it and kills a dozen people. All hell breaks loose and in a matter of days your country is turned upside down.
Day after day I watch the news on the television and see what’s going on in Syria. I sometimes imagine myself in such a situation. You have worked hard all your life and built something, whether it is a property portfolio, a stock portfolio, money in the bank. One day a revolution comes to your country or city. It was an innocent looking demonstration at first, perhaps social activists or students demanding something or other. It spread slowly, all the time gaining strength and members. Soon it became a full-scale revolution. It’s time to take action to save yourself and your family.
You head to the bank to draw out your life savings but the bank has run out of money or is scared to open its doors. You want to leave your stricken country but not without your nest-egg. You wait another day or a week and then they close the port, train station and airport and you are now truly stuck.
All services, including the utility companies and your HMO have come to an end, shells are raining down and you are in a blind panic. Soon you are out on the street, together with thousands of others like you. No money, little food, no job and no prospects of an income. You were not an activist on one side or the other, never a politician, never in the military. Your only claim to fame was that you always had a good name for being an honest businessman.
Now what?