Wu-shu is an intricate martial arts style, where the opponent's onrush and combat aggressiveness are controlled by determination and by a kind of gentleness.
A wu-shu master, Dan Alistar, in 1990 registered an association of 250 adepts of this style with the Court of law, and they were working thoroughly to acquire the necessary skills in dojos in Bucharest.
The association was the starting point of Dragon Star, a guard and security company which registered 25bn lei in turnover last year. The company is currently employing more than 1,000 people and has 28 county branches.
Before 1989, Dan Alistar used to co-ordinate wu-shu training sessions in five dojos in Bucharest. He helped win several national champion titles, a European champion title and a vice world champion title in various martial arts competitions.
Encouraged by the success of his students and feeling responsible for their future, Dan Alistar in 1990 set up the Dragon Start Sports Club, which currently has wu-shu, kick-boxing and jiu-jitsu sections.
"My principle is that martial arts training does not end at the door of the dojo, therefore I decided to have an active involvement in my students' lives. I have gone to their respective schools more than once and talked about them with their teachers. I remember the case of Marius Trita, wu-shu European champion and vice world champion. He was very weak in chemistry, so that he was about to miss his high school graduation exam. I worked with him and he passed the exams," the master explains.
As most of his students had trouble finding a job and nearly forty of them were already employed by security companies, Dan Alistar set up his own guard and security company, Dragon Star, in the fall of 1991.
Ever since its establishment and until 1998, the company developed slowly and not smoothly. The guard and security of certain objectives in areas controlled by various gangs forced the company's employees to engage in conflicts many times.
The police itself had a lot of trouble with these gangs. It was a pioneering period, when the manner of dealing with these problems helped gaining a foothold for the company on the market.
"I recall numerous conflicts our agents had with gangs in Bucharest, where we had the bulk of our operations. There were times when these conflicts escalated in fights, causing injuries on both sides. In time, we managed to impose peace around the institutions protected by us. I can say that today, we are treated with the same respect as the Police, at least in the areas where we've had most problems," Alistar says.
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