Soko's Primer on Strategic Self-Defense

•If I am not for myself, who will be for me? If I am only for myself, what am I? If not now, when?
 Rabbi Hillel, 2nd Century CE
•All I say is by way of discourse, and nothing by way of advice. I should not speak so boldly if it were my due to be believed.
Montaigne
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Okay, you’re on the mean street of Everywhere town. A wicked dude blocks your way and acts belligerently. You’re at a rally in Museveni’s Fiefdom and attack dogs swarm on you wielding sticks. The difference is the same. What do you do? Everyone, even cats, get into the primordial mode: freeze-fight-flight.

Attack dogs (AD) or street urchins bank on fear and anonymity—your fear and they are not your next-door neighbor. Soko’s strategy presupposes that you have done your mental preparation: you have a firm believe in the sanctity of yourself that I talked about earlier. This means you overcome fear—even death—in the freeze stage in seconds. With fear and death out of the way, you are in the empty, in the void and your mind is spacious for speed sizing of the situation clearly. The situation can range from mild verbal assault to vicious physical confrontation. This requires reactive skills since the initiation comes from a potential adversary. Your sole objective is not to become a victim, and you can escalate your tactics from verbal skills and bodily posture to outright physical damage.

Let us say an attack dog comes at you furiously with a stick (kiboko) and shouting insults at the same time. This is a form of what is called in Game Theory, a Game of Chicken, similar to an armament race (In the Cuban Missile Crisis, the Soviets chickened out—avoiding being fried. Barash, ‘03).

You: Pretend weakness
AD: Reaches close
You: Move away suddenly
AD: Hesitates for a moment because his rhythm is off
You: In the moment of hesitation, attack forcefully and gain the initiative from him
You: If you cannot move away—stay with him and attack forcefully enough to disrupt his timing and cause him to change his approach
AD: Timing is disrupted
You: Sense a change in approach, move quickly to take the initiative and defeat him.

Contacts with AD should be at the Nerve Centers and Pressure Points. That is your homework to find out what these are. Suffice to say: apply proportionate force to the centers and points because they could result in death or permanent crippling just by using bare hands, feet, knees and elbows. The damage Soko did to someone nearly ended in the worst possible outcome. We will leave it at that.

If you don’t have the heart, do yourself a favor. At the sight of an attack dog, just run for your life! While you are at it, pray to the spirit of Akii Bua—it might add some wind to your flight!
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Bonus

 This is an amazing movie: high-level corruption in Europe and Africa. In it all, the dredge of African society are taken advantage. Courage, intrigue, deception and greed play out incredibly. A must see.