Personal safety education, an increasingly topical issue.

Personal safety education, an increasingly topical issue.

Numerous national research institutes reveal in their surveys a growing feeling of insecurity and concern in public opinion: people are often afraid.

Research findings say Italians feel less confident in the face of the threat of crime,especially those who live in the rich north, while perceived security grows, little, among those who live in the center and, more decisively, in the South (with the exception of the major cities) and in the islands, where sometimes concerns about the environment and unemployment.

This is also observed by the growing demand for permits for the possession of a weapon that disguises the sports shooting actually hides the perception that the current rules no longer meet current requirements and that therefore the security measures provided by the relevant apparatuses (law enforcement and security) are no longer adequate and sufficient to ensure safety from certain types of crime.

Although it may be true in part, this theme opens up a very controversial debate with diametrically opposed ideas that until they find themselves with a divergence they will not develop something concrete.

Now in recent years the attention of the media and newspapers to strong immigration, the presence of eastern European gangs, Islamic terrorism, the Roma, etc. has increased the perception of insecurity in citizens even if the statistics do not speak of a real increase in crimes.

So how much is justified in the growth of social alarm?

Going to read some statistics (and I stress some) there would not seem to be a direct correlation between these fears with the actual increase, in recent years, in crime levels.

Citizens’ security demands

Yet the demand for security is very much felt, albeit with differences, by all social groups, thus representing a real problem.

In order to deal with the presence, real or presumed, of crime, people often adopt a series of preventive behaviors in the form of renunciation and attitudes of continuous suspicion and prevention led to excess that can lead to affect the quality of life and limit social participation.

On the other hand, the offer of security, by institutional entities, is most often classified in a disappointing way, with negative judgments especially with regard to politics and justice (see also the recent pardons and the scarcity of penalties often very obvious and that make fun of subjects accustomed to crime and committing crimes).

There is a virtually unanimous demand for social prevention programmes, in the face of the substantial non-existence of a policy on this ground.

Just look at a few examples of abusive employment to private individuals of houses where you are practically left alone with the bureaucratic process of justice where they spend years before you can reappropriaate your home.

A citizen who pays taxes if he protests is turned away and if he has a real problem of this kind no one moves, we are at a total lack of civility on this issue as well as a bad example for the whole of society.

Repressive guidelines

On the other hand, the Italian model, for historical reasons, has almost always focused everything on repressive orientations.

Over the years, perhaps the tactics of repression have changed, there has been modernization, improvement of the efficiency of certain sectors (but only in some).

But in essence, the response to crime has always been post-facto, undermined by the usual and well-known waste, dispersion and overlap of roles, means and resources.

Despite this, there has been no lack of success, especially against organised crime, and a relative stabilisation in the number of crimes.

However, especially with regard to widespread crime (or micro-crime), the repressive model has failed to create a credible levee, thus failing to reassure citizens by blocking social alarm.

A renewed model of security provision must aim at an enhancement of individual empowerment, encouraging the acquisition of behaviours that act, in fact, as crime prevention, developing forms of security “calibrated and balanced” on their specific needs.

What personal safety education means

Personal safety education is like any form of education aimed at improving the quality of life and harmony with what surrounds me.

There is civic education, road education, education towards our fellow citizens: education is not education.

The latter is about teaching notions and techniques, while education is about guiding, training and harmonizing.

It is a process of awareness that lasts as long as life itself.

What I want to emphasize strongly is that safety education is everything but an attempt to inculcate a paranoid view of the world, indeed safety education is about knowing how to do the right things at the right time and in the right place.

Ps. It is important to be aware of what is happening around us without therefore running the risk of being surprised and overwhelmed. It hits you what you don’t expect.

Security education therefore consists of creating awareness, in getting used to recognizing danger before it becomes such, to knowing what is happening and why it happens, in the belief that knowing and knowing how to be is the best response to chaos.

Like any other educational project, safety education rests on a number of fundamental pillars:

• Your and others’ lives and well-being come before any other consideration.
• Always be courteous, never question the other, without humiliating yourself in front of anyone.
• Learn to be “automatically” attentive to the environment around you. Remember where you are and learn to use all your senses.
• Develop and cultivate your ability to observe and understand who you are facing.
• Whatever your age, your work, whether you are a man or a woman, take care of your body and your fitness.
• Always develop and improve your ability to improvise.
• Look inside you: your character, your habits, your emotional reactions and find out where you can improve yourself.
• Learn the manual and mental skills you need if you have to defend yourself, study martial arts, combat sports, self-defense.
  

Leave nothing to chance when it comes to personal safety!

Self Defence is not a game!

Stay Tuned!

Street Fight Mentality & Fight Sport!

Andrea