Mandela Day 2014 - 67mins of Self Defence Empowerment

"Umuntu ngumuntu ngabantu – it means you must serve your fellow man. You see? You must respect and serve your fellow man faithfully. That’s what, because without their support you can never progress. That’s what it means." ~ Nelson Mandela from a conversation with Richard Stengel, 29 April or 3 May 1993 #Time2Serve #MandelaDay 

It was a cold winter's evening at the Rivonia Sports Club in Johannesburg, that the 67mins Self- Defence Empowerment Class in honour of Mandela Day took place on Wednesday, 16 July 2014. The purpose of the free class was a means for me to contribute to what our late great leader, Nelson Mandela, subscribed to, namely, "Umuntu ngumuntu ngabantu”, which is to serve my fellow man (and woman).

For the 67mins, the participants were treated to an initial AWARENESS discussion on self-defence empowerment and how the mind can harness happiness or fear by ones’ positive or negative attitude towards crime. A negative attitude results in fear or frustrations, and can create an internal nightmare for oneself. Although there are genuine threats out there in the "external world" that can be fearful, a lot of the time the fear is made even worse by what happens in our minds (or the internal world). For instance, a person who is afraid of getting hijacked and constantly worries and thinks about being hijacked, will eventually get hijacked! This is the one extreme of the spectrum which is fear-based and is that of being paranoid. On the other extreme, the person may want to lead a more confident and happy life, so he/she takes the necessary precautions to prevent being hijacked by becoming educated and empowered through anti-hijacking training and practice.

It is easy to be let the external world of physical reality, circumstances and situations to dictate your inner would of thoughts, feelings, attitudes and beliefs. However, there lies to key to living an empowered life - by being able to control your inner world first, your experience of the external world will be so much more positive!

The session continued with AVOIDANCE and ACTION techniques from the "Tri-Infinity System of Defence", which included a brief introduction on how to identify potential threats and thereafter, create a verbal and physical barrier to prevent these treats from harming you or your family. Lastly, physical ACTION techniques were demonstrated and practiced. It was stressed that sometime, the best ACTION in a situation is to just turn and run away - Not all self-defence situations need a physical response of kicking and punching. In actual fact, as a personal opinion, the best self-defence technique is one that will allow one to walk away unscathed both physically and mentally.

The evening concluded with a brief discussion on some tools that can be used for self-defence, and specifically how some of these tools can give one a false sense of security. The audience was made aware that some tools simply aren't worth using in a self-defence situation as it would cause them more harm than good!

Special mention must also be made to the Rivonia Sports Club who kindly donated the use of their venue for this event, and to Frans for arranging the hall for us. Thank you! 

The next FREE Self Defence Empowerment session will be in honour of South Africa's Women's Month (August), and will be on Wednesday, 20 August 2014.

The “Tri-Infinity System of Defence”, is a revolutionary way of thinking and doing self-defence that can be applied to all areas of life, not just personal safety! The crux of the system is based on principles, rather than techniques. However, practical techniques to handle self-defence situations, based on these principles, are incorporated into the Tri-Infinity System of Defence, making it one of the easiest and most effective systems of personal safety to learn! The “Tri-Infinity System of Defence” will make its debut soon!

Get EDUCATED. Become EMPOWERED. ENGAGE Positively. 

http://www.defence-unlimited.com/mandela-day

A treatise of Defence Unlimited's Vision of Education, Empowerment and Engagement

"I started Defence Unlimited in 2008 as a means to not only teach the martial arts and self defence skills, but to also empower the people of South Africa with potential crime-prevention solutions. I have made it my mission to educate and empower people and to unlock their potential by overcoming crime-related fears and frustrations, thereby allowing them to live a happier, fulfilled and engaged life!"

This is the brief biography that I have published on my various social media profiles. In this statement I had tried to put a large emphasis on the "happier, fulfilled and engaged" portion. 

In order to explain this further, I need to refer to "Maslow's Hierarchy of Needs", a model proposed by psychologist, Abraham Maslow, in his 1943 paper, "A Theory of Human Motivation", which attempted to explain the needs of people and how those needs would motivate them to take some action in order to obtain them.

To briefly describe this hierarchy, it is a pyramid with the largest, most fundamental levels of physiological needs at the bottom and the need self-actualization at the top (see the diagram below).

At the bottom is the 1^st  physiological need such as the need for air, water, food, sex, clothing and shelter. These are the basic needs that must at the very least be met. If this need becomes too great, there are some individual that may choose to obtain these needs by force, or illegally, thereby making that person a criminals.

The 2^nd need thereafter is one of safety, and includes personal safety, health and well-being. Financial safety is also classified under this need. A large portion of my efforts through Defence Unlimited is focused on addressing these personal safety and well-being needs.

The 3^rd level of human needs is interpersonal and involves feelings of love and belonging. A person who has a need to feel love and be loved, can draw on family and friends to fulfill this need. Then, on a deeper intimate level, the person will normally seek out a mate/partner/spouse to meet this intimate need. This is the normal path for most law-abiding people. However, again like the previous need of physiology, this need may become too much for the person and they resort to using less than legitimate ways in obtaining it. It is a fact that this need can override the fundamental physiology and safety need too. An example of this is in the case of children who will still cling onto abusive parents; or in the case of gang member participating in illegal and dangerous activity just to remain/belong to that peer group.

The 4^th need is that of esteem, and refers to an individuals need to have self-esteem and self-respect. Esteem also refers to the typical human desire to gain recognition and/or be accepted and valued by others, or to have a sense of contribution or value. However, again, like the other previous needs, a lack of this need can lead to an individual to perform criminal acts in obtaining this. Examples of this is rape that is motivated by the offenders need to feel dominant and in control.

The 5^th need is at the apex of the pyramid and is the need for self-actualization. This level of need refers to what a person's full potential is and the realization of that potential. Maslow describes this level as the desire to accomplish everything that one can, to become the most that one can be.

As mentioned, previously, my main focus is on addressing these personal safety and well-being needs. However, notice that that this need become under pressure from criminals’ need for all the other needs (barring the self-actualization need) - the physiology, safety, love & belonging and esteem needs. It is my vision to educate people in personal safety, self-defence and personal development. Furthermore, I wish to empower people with realistic personal protection and/or personal development skills. 

Once these fundamental needs are met, we can start striving towards the ultimate need, namely the self-actualization need. My personal opinion is that I could never make a person "self-actualize". It is something that the person will have to do by themselves (hence the "self" in "self-actualization"), however, what I can do is take them to the best level, namely assisting them in addressing the "esteem need". To accomplish this need, I have created a platform in which the person can accomplish this. I do this through getting people to engage in social-uplifting and environmental-awareness activities that actively contribute to building a harmonious global society.

I personally endorse the below initiatives  because they either are very close to my personal values, or are aligned with what I want to accomplish through Defence Unlimited - to educate and empower people to unlock their potential by overcoming crime-related fears and frustrations.

It is these three elements of education, empowerment and engagement that I truly believe will help to unlock a person's potential, allowing him/her to reach that apex of the pyramid!

With that said, the initiatives I endorse and recommend my students and associates to engage in are:

MANDELA DAY - "It is on your hands to create a betterworld for all who live in it." Nelson Mandela, 1983.

SLUTWALK JOHANNESBURG - Help raise awareness around a numberof sexual assault issues such as victim-blaming, corrective rape, genderviolence and questioning the acceptance of a "rape culture".

THE SANWILD RHINO SANCTUARY - "It is God's job to judgerhino poachers, it is our mission to arrange the meeting" - SRS CounterPoaching Units.

ARMING SISTERS DOCUMENTARY FILM - A documentary film following Patty Stonefish's quest to bring empowerment and self-defence training to indigenous women across America.

Please feel free to click on any of these initiatives to see how you can contribute!

Till next time. Get EDUCATED. Feel EMPOWERED. Positively ENGAGE.

Warren Ho

Founder of Defence Unlimited

It's Called A STOP Sign!

It was Tuesday night after work in Midrand, a northern suburb in Johannesburg, South Aftrica. I was driving to my regular Blade Fighting Class approximately 15 mins away. I stopped at a 4-way stop street and waited for my turn to turn into the right lane. When it was my turn, I pulled off, but luckily noticed a white BMW that just jumped the stop street, swerved far right, allowing him to narrowly miss me! We eventually both ended up at a red traffic light (or more commonly known as a “robot” in South Africa”). I rolled my window down and signalled to him to do the same. When he did, I politely told him that he had just jumped a stop street and he should be more careful in future.  He looked at me with a disinterested look, looked forward again and rolled his window back up. I again gestured him to open his window, and with a sterner tone of voice, said, “Did you notice the stop sign? It’s that big red sign that has the word “STOP” on it? It’s a few meters up the road that you just jumped and nearly hit me!”  Again he looked at me, but this time, said a very audible, “F*** you!” and drove off, jumping now the red traffic light! WTF!? Ok, so in my younger, hot-headed days, I would have perhaps given chase, get him to stop his car, and proceed to verbally evoke my version of an exorcism on him, filled with many Latin-sounding verbs and elaborate finger and hand gestures.  But times have changed. Besides getting older and (hopefully) wiser, I’ve realised there are more reckless drivers out there on the road. They seem to be fuelled by frustration, anger or just plain stupidity. There has been an increasing number of cases of reckless driving incidents that have resulted in deaths and injuries for not only the parties concerned, but also for any unfortunate pass-byers that may have gotten caught in these moments of recklessness.

In my Self Defence classes, I stress the importance of knowing what it is that you are willing to fight, die and kill for, and why (refer to the blog post, http://defence-unlimited.blogspot.com/2014/06/in-self-defence-only-question-you.html). 

In the case of Mr White Beemer, I had the very human reaction of feeling extremely angry when he initially jumped the stop sign, and I wanted justice to be done. Being a BMW driver (a relatively expensive car in South Africa and around the world), I assumed he was a reasonably sophisticated person who would listen to some polite reasoning – perhaps he genuinely did not see that stop street. However, the subsequent verbal faeces that came from his mouth and the jumping of the red traffic light convinced me otherwise. At that very moment, the emotions of anger and rage flooded my body!  My body responded by getting into a flight of fight situation – the adrenaline kicked in, my vision narrowed, my body gave a sudden flash of heat, and my palms went sweaty. I am human after all, and if I feel offended, these are very real and natural emotions and bodily reactions! However, thank goodness my training kicked in, and that question I kept drilling into my students popped into my head, “is this something I am willing to fight, die and kill for”? Thankfully, the answer was no, and I turned in the opposite direction and continued on my journey.  Don’t get me wrong, I was still very much pissed off, and I kept running different scenarios in my head – What if I just flashed him with my 200-lumen bright tactical flashlight? What if I had my pepper spray with me?  What if I just followed him and scared him off a bit? What if...What if...What if…??  Eventually, at training and after a few sparring rounds, I was able to rid myself of these self-defeating questions and pent up frustrations and rage.  I was then able to return home in a calm and serene state, with the evening’s earlier event reduced to nothing more than a distant memory. 

The point I am making is, it is easy to say, “Just forget it! He is not worth it”, but this is extremely hard to put it into practise. We are all, after all, just like any other animal in the wild that that uses its emotional responses to navigate around their environment. However, the one thing that sets us humans apart from all the other species is our unique ability to rationalise and make logical choices.  I am glad in this instance I let my rational side dominate. I can only hope is that my words got into Mr White Beemer driver’s head somewhere that elicited his verbal-barf.  Barfs I can handle. Road-kill I cannot.

To conclude, the lessons I learnt from this experience are as follows:

1. Remember always what it is that I am willing to fight, die and kill for, and why. 
2. I can try and change the world, but don’t expect the world to respond favourably to me.
3. My emotions are real and natural, but use my rational and logical mind to make the choice that will keep me safe.
4. Use my various outlets (e.g. physical training and sparring) to release my rage and frustrations effectively and healthily.
5. There are reckless drivers out there, so I have to be vigilant at all times. This is part of my self-defence!
6. Don’t be a reckless driver myself!

If you want some further convincing for point 6, take a look at this video link below – It will make you think twice about driving recklessly. It certainly did for me: http://youtu.be/a8QxZJZfU5Q.

Till next time, get educated, feel empowered, and ultimately, live a positive and engaged life!

Warren Ho

Founder of Defence Unlimited 

www.defence-unlimited.com