The Frank Approach

“One ounce of prevention is more than a pound of cure” Benjamin Franklin

(Development Challenges – SWOT/VIN for Situational Analysis and Comprehension – Brief snip-it from Upcoming Book!)

How to Overcome Overseas Development Challenges: 20+ Years of Real Overseas Field Experiences…The universal tool-book based upon real situational experiences and methods designed to keep you safe from harm’s way: travel, business, humanitarian initiatives, studies, etc.

 

The Situation: Around the world, even your own neighborhood, everyone comes across a situation that feels uncomfortable, unusual, out-of-place, etc. Most try to suck up the courage to walk the dark street alone without any situational awareness, communication plan and know-how to confront physical violence that may be subjected upon them by an individual or a small group of people; this isn’t the best of circumstances. It’s not required that you are a “James Bond” or a “Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtle”, etc., to be able handle yourself properly in relation uncertain environments… a little bit of prevention planning can go a long-way in securing your safety and others. However, if you are well trained – as some of us are – never, ever engage unless it’s 100% for self-defense which your life is in danger… some local nationalists love to instigate set-up situations to make the foreigners appear to be the aggressors. Next thing you know a whole bunch of “shit” hits the proverbial fan as we say Stateside; police, locals, Embassy’s RSO, etc. Time and energy used for having fun and doing other stuff is now 100% wasted in police stations, etc., giving interviews, testimonies, and a whole lot more! Trust me – it’s not worth wasting time, money and energy – regardless if the locals deserve it or not.

Personal History (Self-Control): I have a local person who is close to me (friend and business partners for years), she was spat-on and publicly defamed by a local because she was with me, a foreign man (the local was shouting at her and yelling “You are a foreign man’s prostitute, diseased, etc.” countless times) – she yelled and spat back, to which I noticed it was soon becoming a physically violent environment and I kept myself as a defensive wall in-between the two of them. Till this local-drama was finished, I had to demonstrate my high-level skills as a ‘prevention method’ several different times (all my strikes were controlled but indeed ‘finishers’ within a second; no need for hospital) without getting hit by this local once and without physically touching him neither – while stating “it will only take a one second to finish this – if you physically harm either her or me, I WILL INDEED ENGAGE YOU”. This local guy quickly became surrounded by other locals, they all quickly understood that this local-man’s life (the instigator) would quickly end within less than a couple seconds to which everyone grabbed him (extremely shocked with by abilities) and quickly backed-off from their instigated set-up around shop’s cameras and outside “set-up eye-witnesses”; other unethical locals (they assumed I was an easy target, they assumed wrong) … Even if you are well-trained and even if some of the locals DO INDEED deserve a serious ass-beating at times, however, my personal code of honor – I CAN NOT AND SHALL NOT PHYSICALLY ENGAGE unless my life and those that I care for lives are in serious immediate physical danger; if that’s the case… then there is no holding back.

A Suggested Approach: First and foremost, you must have a simple comprehension of your situational environments by conducting easy paper/mapping exercises… I personally prefer SWOT and VIN Diagrams to which I can measure risks percentages (overlaps), etc., to design custom scenario plans. Here is a simple exercise to get you on the right path:

End of snip-it…