The bunker mentality

If you are reading this article it can mean only one thing: the Mayans have let us down once again, it is 2013, and there was no end of the world. This doesn't bother me, as there are still a few things I've been planning to do with my life. But those who had made some special preparations for doomsday might be less sanguine, as well as feeling a bit embarrassed. Some have bought in extensive supplies: bottles of water, canned food and medicines... spending a fortune in the process. Those who have taken the whole thing with the utmost seriousness and decided at all costs (literally) to survive Armageddon have spent even more. In what way? In an underground manner, so to speak. For hundreds of years people have hid under the ground to protect themselves from danger. And bunkers still very much form part of our reality today. However, the latest designs tend not to resemble the complicated underground towns built by Hitler's army in the Góry Sowie mountains in southwest Poland. These days oxygen, drinking water and bunk beds are simply not enough. A bunker is now something of a luxury residence. California Vivos is one of the companies to have designed such a gem. On the company's website you can read that its design is a new Noah's Ark, which will provide you with an underground biosphere allowing you to survive a natural disaster, a space alien invasion, or some other cataclysm. Vivos will not only help our individual selves to survive, but also our DNA and reproductive cells. There are ten luxury bunkers in each project, which could accommodate 200 people. The construction costs? A mere snip at USD 10 mln. The already finished luxury Silohome, which is located in the north-eastern part of the United States, could be bought slightly more cheaply. Apart from the bunker the property includes a log house which was built above the underground tunnels - probably to encourage potential buyers to compare them to the vulnerability of structures made from materials other than solid concrete. The prospect of December 21st also alarmed David Graham, a British multi-millionaire, prompting him to extend his house in London's Knightsbridge district with a four-storey basement, including a swimming-pool and a ballroom. Thanks to its war heritage, Poland has a good number of former military fortifications dotted around (or under) the landscape. Many of these have fallen into ruin, and since they no longer serve as defence installations, are now going under the hammer. One that is waiting for a buyer is a nuclear bunker on ul. Starzyńskiego in Szczecin. Another bunker, owned by the Military Property Agency (AMW), has just found a buyer. Built in 1879 with an area of 496 sqm, it is located in Jadwisin near the Zegrzyńskie reservoir north of Warsaw. As many as four bidders wanted to buy it (something to do with fear of the Mayan prophecy, perhaps?) The winner of the auction, a private individual, paid PLN 660,000 for the bunker and its 0.51 ha plot - twice as much as the starting price. Despite the fact that the site has been earmarked for residential development under the local zoning plan, the buyer has no plans to demolish the bunker. But I was disappointed to learn that it will not be turned into a luxury hobbit-hole. The new owner has decided to convert it into a fitness club and gym. Perhaps this is a good idea, as when the next end of the world comes, some sporty people should be saved rather than just a handful of eccentric millionaires.