"You know how to whistle, don't you Steve?" Lauren Bacall famously said to Humphrey Bogart in 1944. "You just put your lips together and blow."

Celluloid has a quirky way of leaking into real life.

The stage is set.

It's a beautiful backdrop as any director could wish for. There are damsels in distress, and there are villains.

But where is the hero?

The Phuket government has decided the heroines can take care of themselves. This is 2008 after all, and the girls have to decide whether to have and have not.

Twenty-seven-year-old Swedish national Hannah Backlund was found dead on a deserted beach in the north of Phuket last month. Media reports said that the body was dressed in a swimsuit and that her throat had multiple stab wounds. There were lacerations to her back, midriff and hands.
The international media furor that followed has forced the Thai government to take off the rose tinted glasses. Almost as if in reflex, measures were announced to assure the public and the all-important tourists that measures are being put into place to make the island a safe haven for women.
Two days after Backlund's body was discovered, while the hunt for her attacker was still on, the tourism ministry announced that female tourists visiting Phuket would be given whistles to sound in case of an emergency.

The whistles are part of a campaign to increase security on Phuket, the ministry says. It is now mid April as we report, and the only whistles we've seen are dangling from the necks of traffic policemen.

Coming soon or not, the whistle-caper needs some careful consideration.

Phuket has long been considered a safe place to visit, and for the most part it remains so. Danger usually lurks when tourists stray off the beaten tracks looking (understandably enough) for quiet and solitude away from the bustling crowds.

Some, like Backlund, pay a heavy price.

The whistles will be suspended from a chain to be worn around the neck and shaped like the symbol commonly used to designate women--a circle above a cross. When a menacing stranger approaches, the ladies may blow the whistle on them.

But who will answer?

If it is a lonely beach, what are the chances that a whistle will attract any attention at all? Certainly, a whistle will be louder than muffled shrieks of fright, assuming that the lady in question has been aware of her presumed attacker before he actually gets too close. That's hardly a foolproof plan.
The real question, perhaps, and one that many are asking, is where are the police who are supposed to protect the tourists in the first place?

Phuket officials have long decried a lack of sufficient personnel to man the island effectively.
Recent additions to the force and more planned later in the year should allow the administration to see that officers are better distributed and that their presence is felt all over the island.

"Why don't the police just do what they are paid to do?" an irate tourist asked the Post.

Tourists may not always be aware of or particularly sympathetic to staffing problems.

From their point of view, they've paid a lot of money to come to an island that was designated as safe and welcoming. They are expecting only what was promised.

Tourists that the Post spoke to felt secure for the most part about their safety on Phuket.
In comparing Phuket with other holiday destinations within an hour's flight-time, the almost universal opinion is that the Thai island has always been a safer option.

Bring on the pepper

The Ministry also plans to distribute travel brochures with safety tips along with the whistles. These will contain guidelines on what to do and what to avoid doing in order to remain safe. But there are other options the officials may consider, options that are used in many parts of the world to significant effect.

Pepper spray has long been considered a useful form of personal safety equipment. It helps to keep an attacker at bay, and it gives the victim time to get away and, hopefully, get help.

Made of a concentrated form of a chemical found in peppers, the spray has a powerful effect. When the attacker is sprayed in the face, it causes them to have pain and tearing in the eyes and a temporary blindness, which effectively averts the intended assault.

The effect lasts between thirty and forty-five minutes, enough time to get away from a threat. In the United States, anyone above 18 years of age can buy pepper spray. However, there is extensive guidance and help provided on how to use the spray effectively and safely.

Whistles are such a zany idea, they might just work. But more can be done: And not just by the government. Safety is, after all, a personal issue as much as a social one.

Some reported attacks can be traced back to socio-cultural-linguistic misunderstandings so Byzantine it's hard for either side to see where the other is coming from. A year ago, a Japanese tourist accepted an offer to be toured around the island on a motorbike. Her new Thai friend led her to his house on the pretext of collecting his mobile and proceeded to try and force himself upon her.
In the court where an attempted molestation charge was being considered, the chastened Romeo insisted he had read "yes" signals all along. He thought she had wanted it, he said simply to the enraged bafflement of the tourist.

These scenes can be avoided by applying the same universal rules of safety you would follow anywhere else. Don't trust strangers, no matter how kind they seem. Stick to safe, populated areas at least until such a time as secluded areas are adequately policed. Take basic precautions like notifying friends or hotel staff of taxi registration numbers, etc., when going on a trip unaccompanied.

Chances are that no matter how much precaution you take, undesirable things may still happen. But that is no reason not to be prudent in the first place.