Security Overseas

It’s awhile since anyone has asked me to write on Travel/Overseas Security but I had a request to do so this week. The question was more about what concealed or legal carry weapons should somebody (in this case a female) take, when travelling especially in European countries where OC Spray – which I’m a big fan of – are illegal and/or there is a risk of causing an alert when passing through airport security etc.

Firstly, any weapon carried should be seen as the last line of defense and not the first. Unfortunately, many people become lazy about this and put their complete dependence on the weapon itself, not realizing that if the other previous lines of defense are compromised it may not be possible to gain enough time to deploy any weapon you may be carrying. Any assailant will attempt to deny you time and distance to act and so if you are going to lower your SA (Situational Awareness), simply because you have a weapon that will give you the upper hand, you may not identify the threat earlier enough to act and use it.

I always teach on my women’s self-defense course, where we teach the use of OC Spray, that the fact that you are thinking about drawing the spray is the most useful part about it. When we first recognize a threat we enter a “Denial, Deliberation & Denial” loop, thinking about drawing a weapon can help us move out of the denial stage i.e. if you have your hand on the spray or another weapon you can’t deny the danger you are in. Accepting the presence of a threat and overcoming denial is the first step in being able to deal with any threat of danger.

This post and the next will concentrate on dealing with personal safety when abroad, either when with work or during a holiday/leisure time.

Personal safety (and fighting for that matter) is about controlling your environment. The first thing to understand when you are in a foreign country is that you don’t understand your environment and as a consequence you will be an obvious stranger. However much you may have read about a particular culture etc, you are not part of it. You will probably stand out, simply by the way you dress, or by simple behaviors, such as not smoking (smoking being the norm in certain countries etc). The more you try to “fit in” the more obvious you are likely to become. The goal of personal security is not to draw attention to yourself:  to be low profile. Trying to fit in, in a culture you are unaware of, puts a spotlight immediately on you.

At the same time you must also be able to put the doubt in somebody’s mind that you are unaware of your environment. A seasoned traveler is much less of a target than a newbie. Standing in the airport looking at your “Rough Guide to Thailand” or other guidebook, just after you’ve landed, is going to draw attention to you even before you have left the relative safety of the terminal. Ensuring that you know your transport route from the airport to your hotel  beforehand and moving purposefully towards the necessary bus-stop or taxi pickup will more than likely allow you to pass through the airport under the radar of any would be predator.

Knowing the route that a Taxi is likely to take from the airport to your hotel or destination will a) allow you to give off the image of somebody who has been in the city/country before and b) ensure that you won’t be over-charged. Don’t be afraid to ask generic questions, such as “why are we going this way?” etc, if the route isn’t one that seemed obvious from your previous research. Simple questions like this may be enough to put in a person’s head that you are aware of the surroundings you are in. Be aware that in most countries taxi drivers and those in the leisure industry are normally amongst the low waged and simple criminal activities such as over-charging may be ways to supplement income, up to more heinous acts such as muggings etc. A taxi driver may well be involved in a staged mugging at a traffic light etc, telling you to hand over your wallet and do what his accomplices want, whilst at the same time pretending to be a victim himself. If the route a driver chooses to take is not an obvious one, you need to question his reason for taking it.

In many countries hotel staff will offer to book your transport such as taxis, bus/train tickets etc for you. At first glance this may seem convenient however in countries such as Vietnam and Thailand these services are charged for. Also you have alerted a member of the hotel staff to where you are going and at what time. Having a predictable movement pattern allows would be predators the chance to synchronize their movements to yours. Convenient as some services are, from a personal security perspective they may not be worth it.

Never make the default assumption that the “locals” are friendly and nice because that is in their nature. The dollar in your pocket is what everyone in the tourist trade is after. Some people have more integrity than others however all are trying to make a living in a low paid industry. You shouldn’t be paranoid or suspicious of everyone you meet but you should be aware. Having prior information about your environment is the key to this. There is no need to become over-read and an expert but knowing simple things such as the transport route’s the relative proximity of bus and train stations along with the times when such services do and don’t run is one way to help you get about safely.

In the next post, I will talk about making sure your hotel/hostel room etc is safe and how to increase your security when in it. All of this may seem a touch extreme however I give it as general advice taken from courses I have run for FTSE 100 & NASDAQ companies in the past, who sent their executives into hostile environments. Take from these posts what you will….