Recipe for safety
Most people have no reference for violence or how to make themselves safer, other than reading about violence and crime in the newspaper or on-line and chatting about the latest horror stories.
Well here you go ladies: Safety is like cooking!
Cooks (and safety) can be divided into three main categories: take out cooks, lazy cooks and gourmet cooks.
Take out cooks who do mainly take-out meals and a combination of frozen and canned meals are like people who put up some cheap burglar bars and employ the cheapest local armed response company because they get a reduction on their insurance premiums. They take no responsibility for their safety. They make all types of excuses why they can’t - "I don’t have time, I don’t have money, I don’t know how, etc. It’s funny how the same lame excuses are used for being a take-out cook as well a person who can’t be bothered to try and make things safer for themselves and their family.
Then we get the lazy cooks who tend to make the same old recipes week after week; everyone in the family knows that Thursday night is spaghetti night. These cook are like people who don’t take their security too seriously. They have the most common layers of safety in place. They never think about the fact the criminals are changing and improving their strategies all the time and they are totally shocked when they find themselves out of their comfort zone and in some kind of violent confrontation.
Gourmet cooks on the other hand really go out of their way to make meals special. This takes research, thought and planning. Gourmet cooks are constantly looking for new and better recipes. This is actually a good formula for keeping ourselves safe. As crimes and criminals change, so does technology and safety ideas. Quite often if we really think about the problem, we come up with good ideas to keep ourselves safer.
I'll give you an example: before entering my home, how can I tell whether or not someone has been in or still is in my house? I make a habit of leaving R50 near my entrance and when I open my front door, the first thing I do is check to see if the R50 is still there. No self respecting bad guy is going to walk past the money and not take it. If the money is gone, I leave immediately and call for help.
Safety, like cooking is part of our everyday life. You should be trying to improve YOUR recipe for safety regularly. If you have a burglar alarm, take a walk around and check to see whether your sensors are placed correctly. Are they set up to pick up the movements of a person entering your home, or are the perfectly set up to catch the bad guy when he is leaving?
It's ok to be the take out or even lazy cook when it comes to food but you must be the gourmet safety specialist when it comes to your family’s safety.
By Kelee Arrowsmith of Advanced Conflict Training kelee@advancedconflict.com
083 6262-888
