There are some instructors here who would give you a blackbelt if you have the money. It's a real bull****! I'm proud that the JKA has strict promotion standards. I mean, taking your first dan blackbelt here(Philippines) is like taking a second dan blackbelt in Japan. Here, you have to go over rigorous exam on the basics which will take most of the time of the exam period, then you perform a ****tei Kata, and your Tukoi Kata, and just when you're in the top of physical exhaustion, you have to go against four blackbelts in kumite. They really test your spirit, and if it's easy to break, you fail. That's one reason why I remained a 1st kyu holder untill now. Not that I'm not going to take the exam, I just need to be on my prime condition if I were to pass it.
Its just a peice of material which is useless on the streets tho just a shame people will mistake them for a higher level.
Actually a good cloth belt would be quite useful on the street, Aikido has an assortment of rather unpleasant techniques using the belt, and I'm sure other arts have similar things.
