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The Logo: An explanation
I have chosen the scorpion as a logo for a number of reasons:
1. As a child, I spent a great amount of time on Signal Hill and Lion’s Head, a kilometer or two from my parent’s house. Like any child, I loved to explore and play. On the arid hillside, one of my favourite pastimes was turning over large rocks to see what was underneath. That was how I first came into contact with scorpions, spending many hours observing them.
Only once did I kill one, when I was teaching a private class on the veranda of a house in Camps Bay, at the foot of Table Mountain.
I was wearing shoes, but my barefooted student was about to step on a scorpion which had wandered onto the veranda. I got there a split second before her foot landed.
Other than that, I have always preferred to just admire these fascinating and dangerous creatures.
2. The “Scorpions” are our equivalent of the F.B.I., i.e. they are our crack crime fighting unit. Our Piper system is intended to be used by “civilised” martial artists to combat crime, i.e. to be better prepared for the original street version. This is perhaps analogous to using hunting dogs to help you with your wolf problem.
3. The whipping action of the scorpion’s tail is similar to some of the Piper ripping and stabbing techniques.
4. The story of the scorpion and the frog. They are both on an island in the middle of a river, and, after heavy rainfall, the river is rising. The frog is about to hop into the river.
The scorpion asks for a ride on his back. The frog says: “You must be joking. You will sting me!” The frog answers: “No, I won’t, that would be silly, we would both die”.
The frog considers the logic of this (always go with your instinct, logic is overrated) and says: “Fair enough, climb on.” After a couple of meters, the scorpion’s tail whips forward. With his dying breath the frog says: “Why did you do that? Now we’ll both die! The scorpion answers: “I can’t help myself. I’m a scorpion. It’s in my nature. That’s what we do.”
To me this exemplifies the deadly nature and intent of Piper and its original practitioners.
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