Well, we're happy to have you back, and this time we're going to talk about some of the risks that may affect you from the environment that you're in. So this is staying safe from environmental risks. And here we can see some of the kind of accommodations that exist in different parts of the world. And the first one we want to talk about is staying in a hotel. As a general principle it's good to stay not on a ground floor because of the easy access that there might be for criminals, or thieves, or other people. You should probably choose a room on the first or second floor. Something you can get out of in a hurry but that's a little bit out of the way of easy access. You should also try to avoid staying at the end of the hallways because thieves may find out easier to attack either through external fire escapes or the end of the hall people are maybe a little more isolated. And one of the first things you should do is to locate the fire escape. Also it's a good practice to count the number of doors between your room and that fire escape. So if you are in a situation where there's fire in a hotel, there's smoke, there's no electricity, and you have to crawl down the hallway you know how many doors you have to pass before you find the fire escape. Check your room security when you first go in. Are your windows locked? Are they lockable? Is the bathroom window lockable? Is there anything in the closet that might look hazardous, or dangerous? Is there a connecting door to another room that might allow people to have access? Check those things out. If they're not satisfactory, don't unpack your bag, and insist on another room. At night when people knock on your door, even if it's the hotel employees, if you have not asked for room service, don't open the door. There were some accounts not too long ago of tourists in particular country in South Asia, being attacked by the hotel employees, so just be careful. And when you leave in the morning, if you're going some place, tell people where you're going so if you don't show up there is going to be at least somebody aware of where you've gone. If you're not sure about what kind of taxis to take. Should I take the yellow ones, or the green ones, or the white ones. Is it safe to go here? Ask the hotels. They know these things, they can help you out with that. Many hotels will have a safe in the room that you can lock things up at. I would say in my experience, about half these safes actually work. You may have a real crisis when you try to get something out, and it won't open up. All of these have batteries in the locks. And I've been in a couple of situations where the battery went dead while my things were inside, and I was very panicked. But we managed to find a battery, and we could get things going again. Now, all of these will have a master key. So in case you forget your combination or whatever, your social security number or whatever you use. If you forget that, then they can come and open this up with a master key. These master keys have a circulation of their own, and you can have things stolen out of your room safe. So if you have something really valuable that you want to be sure is absolutely going to be safe, and you're going to be away for awhile, ask to lock this up in the hotel safe. And there's usually a safe, or safety deposit boxes for hotels that you can lock things up in and you'd be okay. And then, if you're looking for a house, where to stay. First off, think about where safe and protected areas are. Sometimes these are where diplomats stay or expatriates stay, which of course makes them much more expensive. But they're likely to have guards and they're likely to have security that would be beneficial to you as well. And then think right in the beginning about what kind of evacuation can you do if there is a fire occurring? What kind of protection is there? The next point is the concern of safety of women. If there are a number of female employees and they are at an environment where there is some personal risk to them, it's good to have them housed in adjacent areas or in adjacent apartments, and that increases the security. Another approach is to never answer telephone calls, where you cannot identify the caller on the other cell phone. If you're going to leave a voice message for to encourage people to leave their numbers to respond to you, I have a male do this or one of your servants to do this, and that increases the security. If you have a gardener or if you have a housekeeper in some way in your place have them stay around until you come home and it's safe so you won't find other people who have hidden inside to attack you when you return. If it is a serious situation and you're likely to have difficulty walking or taking public transport, then the office should be asked to provide transportation, and the driver should be with you until you're safely in your house. So a few points there. We also have to think about keeping your house warm, because many people will go to cold climates. And one of the most effective ways to heat your room is with a gas space heater. They work extremely effectively. They also produce carbon monoxide. And there's a real potential risk there because many of them are not ventilated. But if you're going to use those, be sure you have an adequate vent for it or you have a carbon monoxide detector, which are not very expensive, as you should have a smoke detector also. If you use electrical heating, it's very common for things to get grossly overloaded in the circuits, and you see in this picture here, a few plugs lined up to this power strip. Let me tell you this could be photographed in just about any country that I know of. This is every place. And then, finally, there's a little diagram there about carbon monoxide poisoning. And this is a very common situation and during the years I've worked in Afghanistan, I think every winter, there are a number of expatriates that die as a result of carbon monoxide poisoning. So carbon monoxide detectors and smoke detectors are something really important that you should have in your bedroom and certainly in your house. Then think about security concerns for your house. If you have to evacuate in a hurry, can you get out easily? Or are things so fortified and so covered with barbed wire and blocked by other impediments that you cannot really get out very easily. If you're with a group of people, does your organization have an evacuation plan and are there vehicles to move people if they need to? This is a critical, important area. So if 3 o'clock in the morning, there has been some type of conflict or military attack or a bomb gone off, and you want to get out of your houses because this was just adjacent to where you were living, how do you move? You may be at more risk moving than you are actually staying put. So think about this plan, and how you're going to get out. Cash creates an enormous incentive for a tax. A few years ago we looked at the tax on Aide Workers and we found that robbery was one of the major reasons for that. So some way to manage your cash, depositing it directly in bank accounts, or handing it out through checks is a very, very important way to lessen your risks. It's important, further, to coordinate with embassies. If you have a staff of a number of different nationalities, be sure that you've coordinate with the embassies so they know where people are in case of any kind of difficulty. If people are moving through areas that are insecure, or at times insecure, some person in your group should be the security monitor. And they should be checking in with you, or you should be checking with them every hour or two. When you’re moving by cell phone to tell them that you've arrived at this town, that you've now gone over the summit of the mountain, you’re going down the other side, just to keep a picture of where people are. In really insecure areas then it's common to have a staff warden appointed. So a regular rotation during the daytime and in the evening, they are always checking every half an hour or so with people to see where they are and what's happening. And then finally, another point to think about is not necessarily yourself, but perhaps with others as well. And if you're a group of people, the behavior of one or two people in that group may threaten the safety of other people. People may take revenge on them, or there may be tax on this particular person because of the way they've behaved, or what they've done, or what they've said, and that can put everybody at risk. So it's important to monitor in that way the behavior of other people as well. I want to say a bit more about fire because that's probably the major risk that many people experience. So in your house or in your building or in your office is there adequate fire protection? And it's important to review this regularly as staff turns over and, as equipment turns over that people know what to do in case of fire. So what's your practice, what's your fire drill, and so on? Do you have fire extinguishers in the office or in the room, and do you know how to you use them? What is the state of your electrical system? Is it likely that you could have an electrical fire as well? And if there is sudden loss of power, and there's a fire, do you have emergency lighting? Can you find your way out, either with a flash light, or some type of battery operated emergency system that is constantly being connected when the power is on? Where are your passports and other valuables? If you have to get out in a hurry, do you have a grab bag? Can you grab this bag that has everything you need in it and get out in a hurry and your camera, your money, those kinds of things, are they safely attended? And then think about your computer too. One of the things that people often forget is backing up their computer, and you come back to your house at night, somebody's broken in in the afternoon and stolen your laptop. All of your valuable things that you've been working on for your doctoral thesis it's all gone, so make sure that backed up with regularity. And think about the evacuation plan for offices, people know where to go and also what to assemble, where's the martialing areas. So you can see if anybody is missing, or everybody's is there or accounted for. And then think about if you're in a multistory building, how are you going to get down from the fourth floor, if that's where your office is? And what's the evacuation plan for that? Does everybody know what they should be doing in this situation? And then think about your house, it's always nice to feel that your house is protected with all these burglar bars on the windows and the doors, so nobody can get in. But if you have to get out, how are you going to get out through all of this stuff? And this does not necessarily give you 100% protection, because thieves can have sticks, long poles they can stick through with a hook on them. They can pick up your purse from the chair or the desk. They can pick up your laptop or your bag for the handle, and work it out through the window. They can also, if they see a blanket or sheets that they like on your bed, they can also roll it up on the end of the pole and pull it out. That's happened to many people over the years. If you have sliding doors can you lock those sliding doors? That's a real risk factor in many places. And, if you have to get out of the house, and you fortified it with all kinds of locks and latches and alarms and so forth, and it's the middle of the night, there's no electricity, there's a fire, do you know where the key is? How can you open this up in a hurry and get out if you need to? Think about your wiring system, what does this look like? This is something that are you going to feel comfortable with if this is the situation? And then how do you use a fire extinguisher? If the chair catches fire because somebody's been smoking, can you put it out? Do you know how to handle a fire extinguisher? Now, these days, most of the fire extinguishers that we see around are these foam fire extinguishers, and they'll work well for about any kind of fire. So we don't have to worry about what kind of fire. But, in some places in the world you'll still find these water and soda and acid type of extinguishers. And these, of course, should not be used on electrical fires. So just be careful about those. It's all right if there's a brush fire or something that's caught the curtains on fire in your office, but if it's an electrical fire don't use this, this is a great danger to you. Okay, so we'll take a break here and then we'll come back in a few minutes and talk a little bit more about some personal risks that you might have in various situations.
