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Sunday, July 20, 2025

Self defence & safety tips for Carnival

by

2753 days ago
20180107

CHARLES KONG SOO

For the Christ­mas sea­son, crime was a ma­jor con­cern for busi­ness­men and or­di­nary cit­i­zens alike. Women es­pe­cial­ly fell prey to rob­beries, car­jack­ings and home in­va­sions and un­for­tu­nate­ly, the at­tacks have not abat­ed, vi­o­lent do­mes­tic abuse cas­es are on the rise. As the coun­try en­ters the Car­ni­val sea­son with fetes, con­certs and Car­ni­val Mon­day and Tues­day dom­i­nat­ed by thou­sands of fe­male mas­quer­aders, the Sun­day Guardian asked self de­fence and karate in­struc­tor Sen­sei Bri­an Chin Le­ung to pro­vide some tips for women as well as men to stay safe dur­ing the reign of the Mer­ry Monarch.

Speak­ing at his train­ing stu­dio at Belle Smythe Street, Wood­brook, last week, Chin Le­ung, an eighth-de­gree black belt in Shotokan karate, who al­so teach­es com­bat karate, said “With­out a doubt women in the coun­try are un­der at­tack. You can’t blame some of them for be­ing a bit para­noid, crime has re­strict­ed when and where they can and can’t go."

•The first stage is sit­u­a­tion­al aware­ness, con­scious­ness of your en­vi­ron­ment, self and peo­ple around you. “If you have been at­tacked phys­i­cal­ly, your as­sailant has got­ten to you and starts pulling you in­to a car or hit­ting you, that means you have dropped your guard, been caught off guard; that is the sec­ond stage, the at­tack has start­ed.”

•Women should be re­spon­si­ble for their own se­cu­ri­ty and not de­pend to­tal­ly on their boyfriends or com­pan­ions. Chin Le­ung said many women had a false sense of se­cu­ri­ty in their hus­bands or boyfriends if they are big and strong and look in­tim­i­dat­ing. The irony is, he said, some men might run out in a cri­sis sit­u­a­tion. "Mus­cles are no in­di­ca­tion of brav­ery," he added.

•Fol­low your in­stincts, “vibes” or gut feel­ing about avoid­ing a place or peo­ple that make you un­com­fort­able.

•Even if you are skilled in mar­tial arts and have the abil­i­ty to de­feat ten men, it would be more pru­dent to avoid a con­fronta­tion.

•Keep strangers at arms length, avoid them in­vad­ing your per­son­al space right up in your face.

If “talk” ges­tic­u­lat­ing with your hands that can be used to block and strike.

• When leav­ing your bands, do not do so alone, ask a friend or a few of your friends to ac­com­pa­ny since there may be un­seen eyes on you.

•If you must use the ATM, look for one prefer­ably in a mall, where there is se­cu­ri­ty, traf­fic and well lit. The ide­al sit­u­a­tion would be to with­draw what­ev­er cash you need be­fore ven­tur­ing in­to your par­ty or band and, of course, ear­li­er in the day.

•Avoid tak­ing drinks from strangers and do not even trust some of your friends be­cause if they are in­tox­i­cat­ed some­one can spike their drinks, get the drink for your­self and ob­serve what the bar­tender pours for you.

•Do not sniff or use per­fumes from strangers, they may in re­al­i­ty be drugs that can make you un­con­scious.

•The car­ni­val whis­tle is ide­al for rais­ing an alarm when at­tacked. You may al­so want to car­ry a per­son­al alarm, a noise mak­er or scream­er.

•Some women might want to con­sid­er step­ping down in their fash­ion style in the name of safe­ty. Con­sid­er play­ing mas in sneak­ers rather than high heels shoes or boots.

•Turn every­day items such as car keys, news­pa­pers, aerosol sprays, a rock in a jer­sey, um­brel­las, pens, screw­drivers and bot­tles in­to weapons.

•When re­turn­ing to your ve­hi­cle, hold the ig­ni­tion key in a knife grip to thrust in­to an at­tack­er’s eyes and to trig­ger the car alarm.

•Avoid wear­ing ear­phones or be­ing dis­tract­ed with a cell­phone.

•Gen­er­al­ly women are not as phys­i­cal­ly strong as men, but this should not mat­ter since train­ing in the Shotokan-style of karate of­fers good tech­niques and well placed strikes (banned in tour­na­ments) to vul­ner­a­ble tar­get ar­eas such as the throat, groin, kneecaps and eyes.


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