Travel Safety Ponderings

Let’s face it: there are some very scary places on this planet. Aside from watching violence as entertainment and news, we don’t allow ourselves to think twice about violent crimes ever happening to us. Now that I am faced with planning details of my journey, and am quickly approaching the first leg of travel, the potential risks are becoming evident. Before I step off the plane to my first destination I want to give safety some serious thought. This is my checklist on how to best prepare for the world.

Let’s divide personal safety into two broad categories, passive safety and active safety. Passive safety is by far the more important because it is preventative. If I successfully prevent an attack from ever taking place, I’ll never have to worry about actively defending myself.

Let’s further divide passive safety into sub-components of avoidance and deterrence.

Avoidance is the single most important thing I can do to stay safe. Abstaining from travel altogether is obviously the most conservative way to avoid trouble. Because hiding in my bedroom behind a locked door all day is impractical, here are some more useful techniques:
-Avoid known trouble spots
-Avoid being out late at night
-Avoid interacting with hooligans
-Avoid solicitation
-Avoid places with no escape routes
-Avoid standing out from others
-Avoid putting all money in one place

Next to avoiding compromising situations, deterrence is the next best line of preventative defense. Potential adversaries generally seek the easiest targets. By making myself appear as a difficult target, I should naturally deter many attacks:
-Grow a beard
-Gain muscle
-Walk confidently
-Have a shaved head
-Travel with a companion
-Wear conservative attire
-Dress down
-Keep passport and valuables under clothes
-Never wear jewelry or carry valuables
-Don’t be the easiest target in a group

Adhering to passive safety techniques will prevent the vast majority of attacks. Some unsafe situations, however, are simply impossible to foresee because we can’t accurately predict behaviors of all strangers all the time. Active safety measures might help in these dynamic situations. Responding quickly to time-critical problems creates a large margin for error, possibly making the problem much worse. In many cases, it might be better to avoid any of these techniques and let a low-level crime, such as theft, run its course:
-Have a cellphone with loaded emergency numbers
-Learn fighting skills to fend off attackers
-Carry some cash all the time
-Evade to a place with lots of people
-Make noise
-Cause a commotion
-Use common items such as a key or pen as “self defense devices”

I know there a lots of techniques out there such as having two wallets, one of which is built for thieves, having hidden pockets sewn into pants, using GPS tracking tools, or even hiring a local to keep watch. What rules do you have for traveling and staying safe?

Tags: Risk Management, Safety, Travel