Following the flow of 21 century radical changes on this planet, we have realized it was high time for us to contribute to the now urgent need of establishing a resilience strategy and a Building Resilience module – for the sake of terrified individuals and unprepared societies alike. Our contribution is the Knowledge Transfer Module "Ahead of Fear" based on Questionnaires as a research instrument based on citizens response to permanent terror and different levels of unrelenting stress which, in case of the Sarajevo siege, lasted incessantly for four years.
The very duration of the blockade of the city developed resilience mechanism and offered an insight into the resilient potential of each individual. In extreme circumstances a parallel reality was developed in which creativity was a basic necessity. The need for adaptation left no place for stagnation and helplessness. There was no other way but to accept the New Normal.
The Knowledge Transfer Module "Ahead of Fear" does not present a theory, but a real-life evidence of a resilience potential to survive in the face of the unknown, the new, the uncertain and the unthinkable. Sarajevo siege Questionnaires presents a hope for mankind facing serious threats and the changes so far unthinkable on this planet of ours.
The siege of Sarajevo has been referred to as a testament to human resilience. Knowledge Transfer Module provides the evidence that mind is human best asset and promise even when the whole system is totally disturbed, and technology is impossible. Sarajevans ‘carried death for four years like a backpack on their shoulders’ in every moment. Being Ahead of Fear provides evidence that both individuals and societies can and must cope with that backpack. Regardless of the intellectual effort, creative skills, movement and communication needed, people realized and satisfied their need for something beautiful, witty, clever and entertaining. During the siege this was a basic necessity of daily life.
Illustration: FAMA Methodology 2013
In the same neighborhood, in the same building, in the same circumstances of a given part of the besieged city, one man managed to provide for his basic needs, while other did not. The first one had accepted the reality of the unexpected (the New Normal), the unknown, the dangerous ... and, together with his family, managed to provide a car battery as a source of electricity, or vegetables from their own garden, or gas heating, or a trolley for carrying water, or to watch television pedaling a bicycle. The other man, the one who refused to accept the reality, who lived remembering the past, went down to the basement and never came out of it, barely having anything – and that he mainly received from others. People were divided into those who said YES and to those who said NO to the new normal.