On Tue, Mar 3, 2009 at 7:51 AM, Kiran K Karthikeyan <[email protected]> wrote: > > Why have guns to defend yourself? What is wrong with running away
The latter was the first thing our sensei taught us. Holding a black/blue/add colour belt in <insert martial artform> AND using it is no protection when you are a lone woman pitted against 3-4 men. His words rang in my ears some years later on a very crowded Mumbai railway station platform (and was the smartest thing I did, in retrospect) which had a lot of spectators gawking away. The latter form of specimens abound in any situation in India. > or begging to be left alone? If that doesn't work, the link below has a > solution. Dialogue, reasoning, talking sense etc with your attacker never works to your advantage. Harassing women drivers is something that is very common in Bangalore and the best bet is "safety in a crowd" so for example the lady on noticing the bikers tailgating her should have taken her car to the middle of the Indiranagar junction on CMH road which is crowded and caused a traffic jam there instead of turning into an inner bylane where there are less people to help her. Its not the perfect solution but such attacks should not occur in the first place. > http://www.thaindian.com/newsportal/india-news/krav-maga-an-israeli-system-of-self-defence-makes-its-way-to-india_100140760.html I echo the "lack of real-life applicability". In practice sessions students wear gi's which are strong cloth which is double stitched and does not tear easily, have tons of space in the dojo to swing an arm/kick and practice all the moves with partners who *dont* get hit (to incapacitate) in reality. In real life, women may wear clothes (like a sari) which is not exactly convenient/flexible if she wants to kick her attacker. When you are standing on the steps of a BEST bus and someone grabs you from behind there is hardly any free space to throw an elbow jab without hurting yourself. Also in a crowded space one has to be careful about not hurting other people, except your attacker (who knows _and_ takes advantage of this). > The government of any country will be unable to defend you when the enemy is > composed of a significant number of its own citizens. It will also be unable ......and iirc, its still the duty of the police/law to protect its *tax-paying citizens*. > to defend you when the attacker has absolutely no qualms about giving up > his/her own life. Nah, these goons are not that brave to give up their life and 4 men attacking a lone woman ???? Not my definition of brave. > Nice allegory :). And I see your point about deterrence. But the issue is > bigger than that. If you up the game by buying firearms, every goon, thug, > thief knows they have to have one too. So pretty soon, everybody is arming point taken. > I personally don't think what is happening now deserves such grave reaction. > I still maintain that it is a passing phenomenon, and as long as it is not > given credence through our reaction to it, it will go away. Being silent/Ignoring/turning a blind eye is not a solution. Btw, how do you know/conclude its a passing phenomenon ?
