Uptight about home security?
This write up appeared in my earlier blog. But I am visiting it, as new stories appear on the scene.
The economy of this country has made many people becoming petty criminals (and some big ones but never caught). They blame most of it on Indon immigrants, but in reality many of the locals also commit these crimes, crimes such as being snatch thieves, robbing banks, kidnapping and asking for ransom, housebreaking to name a few of semi-serious crimes. And crimes such as making duplications of VCDs and DVDs and distributing them are also common, and this especially applicable to the locals. Then the crime of importaning women for prostitutions and of course the most srtious being drug (‘dadah’ they call it over in Malaysia) peddlers. Crime has become a big ‘business’ now, it used to be not a ‘business’ but it appears so now. And crime has become so rampant that I was told that someone lost his wire mesh fencing and his house gates, carted away while he was on holidays. Why wire mesh fencing and house gate? These are of iron. Iron is so pricy now that every scrap of iron is being carted away, drain covers and even road signs.
I remember that about 6 months ago I have been busy making a homepage for myself: http://www.geocities.com/liasyusof/index.html.. I felt so walled in when I started the project. This is when I started to relate being ‘walled in’ to real ‘walled in’ when one is scared of the increase of crime situation in Malaysia today. And being scared of crime made most of us ‘walled in’ mentally and phically. We go about with being ‘walled in’ feeling, ready to defend ourselves or take to heels when we are approached or see anyone suspicious around us. Even some ATM machines at Banks has this wartning about what to do when one sees suspicious character/s near you when you key in your password while withdrawing your money, or even someone who may try/attemp to rob you after you have withdrawn your money.
And that is why we walled in our houses, high brick walls sometimes. And I saw this happening to one of my neighbours. He has only an in-between terrace house, about 22' by 70'. Now the back is already enclosed by a high wall as the neighbouring house at the back is at a higher ground than that house and there is no back lane. Now the end neighbour renovated his house with very nice extended front car porch, this mid neighbour also wanted to have the same style extended car porch. The end result? The house entrance is now like an entrance going into a cave, all walled up and all enclosed. I wonder how can one live in that sort of a terrace house. You have walled yourself in. I suppose he either wants his privacy or that he has walled himself in to prevent from unwanted people coming into his house.
When I was a young boy I grew up in a kampong where there is a lot of open spaces. And the houses were far apart. We did not even have a fence around the house, you can even hear at night domesticated buffaloes grazing around the house, and the grass is always seemed trim as if machined where these buffaloes grazed the night before. But of course you have to pay a price for that, you will see buffalo dungs quite close to the house. But buffaloes are quite clean creatures in that respect, they do their business away from the house most of the time, and in a group. (Even though in the afternoon they spend their time wallowing in the mud or muddy water to cool themselves). So you do not get to see many buffalo dungs around the house. But if you have cows instead of buffaloes, and cows are very unsophisticated creatures, they do their business anywhere, especially so around the house. So in those days we never kept cows, we always had domesticated buffaloes. And we have many of them, in a herd.
The only fence I knew then were around the padi fields when we planted padi in the fields, or any fencing near the house was always when we planted vegetables in small vegetable garden near the house. The fence was more or less to keep buffaloes out of the padi field or the vegetable patches. We loved our buffaloes. That was one of the sources of wealth for us.
Walls around the house I only saw when I went to study in UK. I thought those Mat Salleh were really unfriendly lot.. I was new there and I could not understand them. In reality they were quite friendly to their neighbours, they had walls around their houses just to maintain privacy. And in the country side they also had walls around the fields to keep their cows and sheep in and other cows and sheep out. A grand arrangement really. And these walls, as far as I can remember were always made of stone, not bricks (or barbed wire or meshed wiring) like what we have in Malaysia today. And in some housing estates in UK then they had even wooden fences between houses, low enough to talk over the fence with your neighbour. That was good. Such arrangement in Malaysia today would be a heaven for our Malaysian criminals.
Then when I returned to Malaysia, and I began to live in towns, the Malaysians then were not wall crazy. They were still friendly to their neighbours. They have mostly wire mesh "walls" or fences between neighbouring houses. But soon there were many rich people who built single house with high walls. To keep thieves out they say. And also to maintain their family privacy, so they say. I suppose all their reasons are valid, but I suppose they also do not want other people to see their wealth, pry on them, and start asking questions on where they get their wealth from. Most of them were Malays and these Malays were mostly born in the kampong. But their luck made them where they were/are and they do not want other people to "share" their wealth with them. Anyway that is another story. So if you go around the City like KL you will find many rich people's houses with high walls.
Now all these rich people lives in walled up houses. So the poorer neighbours, may be immediate neghbours or quite a distance neighbours, also want to live in the same style the rich people. So they also walled up their houses, forgetting that their houses are quite small and have an effect of living in cave. Never mind that as long as its like a rich man's mansion, I suppose. What strange idea. But these small terrace houses when walled-in retain heat and have poor ventilation effect. I realise this when I walled in the back of my small terrace house. When there is a hot weather the back of the house is very hot. And when my wife cooks (how many of us men cook?), the smell of the cooking goes out to the front; it never get dissipated at the back as there is very little air flowing there. This is just my theory though but if you do not believe me just try to wall in the back of your house (if you live in a small terrace house like I do).
Back to "walled-in", being brought up in a 'no wall' society I find it most strange as to why should people like to be walled in.. Why can't people live in a no wall society like what I saw in Western Australia when I went there a few years ago. I find that in Western Australia their houses are not walled up (I stand corrected), except in a few cases where they use certain area for their own family privacy. And their surroundings is so open that I feel that it is a real pleasure to live there. And the flowers they grow around their houses, they are beautiful. But of course us here in Malaysia are not so civilise so we tend to pick other people flowers if they grown in other people's garden not walled in (don't tell me that they do not, they do} and also when they can see your beautiful house they tend to sneak in in the day to steal your slippers or shoes if placed outside and probably to peep on you and at night to break in to steal whatever you have in the house. As I said in my earlier blog "Are we civilised?". Well, we are not, we try to pretend to live in a civilse way, but civilise people can see through us.
We can always say that we need to be "walled-in". For what? Security? We ar not that secured? For privacy? How much privacy do you want? Probably a lot as our people are curious lot (or are they just nosey? Or sneaky?) and they tend to peep at the slightest opportunity. Is there something wrong with our society? Our upbringings? Why do we peep anyway? Or are we sex mad, I mean peeping at others for what, other than to peer at sex?
So we walled ourselves in, walled physically and walled mentally. We somehow accept our life style living in a small cave called Rumah Murah or Low Cost Houses (now they call them Affordable Houses!). These are really cheap houses. But if we are called cheap skate we get angry. But are there not many people living in these cheap houses cheap skate. They are not poor I tell you. I have seen even a Volvo car outside a Rumah Murah. We have accepted the fact that we have sometimes to live in multi-storied caves called Low Cost Flats. Aren't these mere boxes that we "walled " ourselves "in"? Malaysia is so full of unused land and we have to live in a "walled-in" society. Do we have to? And we are happy about it or we just tend to say :"There is noting that I can do about it" So we accept? Cheap skate we are.
Anyway, it must be that I have been all "walled-in' these days that I am bursting with this thoughts and ideas. Let off steam.
Are you walled-in?
To shout back, e-mail: mylias@tm.net.my
The economy of this country has made many people becoming petty criminals (and some big ones but never caught). They blame most of it on Indon immigrants, but in reality many of the locals also commit these crimes, crimes such as being snatch thieves, robbing banks, kidnapping and asking for ransom, housebreaking to name a few of semi-serious crimes. And crimes such as making duplications of VCDs and DVDs and distributing them are also common, and this especially applicable to the locals. Then the crime of importaning women for prostitutions and of course the most srtious being drug (‘dadah’ they call it over in Malaysia) peddlers. Crime has become a big ‘business’ now, it used to be not a ‘business’ but it appears so now. And crime has become so rampant that I was told that someone lost his wire mesh fencing and his house gates, carted away while he was on holidays. Why wire mesh fencing and house gate? These are of iron. Iron is so pricy now that every scrap of iron is being carted away, drain covers and even road signs.
I remember that about 6 months ago I have been busy making a homepage for myself: http://www.geocities.com/liasyusof/index.html.. I felt so walled in when I started the project. This is when I started to relate being ‘walled in’ to real ‘walled in’ when one is scared of the increase of crime situation in Malaysia today. And being scared of crime made most of us ‘walled in’ mentally and phically. We go about with being ‘walled in’ feeling, ready to defend ourselves or take to heels when we are approached or see anyone suspicious around us. Even some ATM machines at Banks has this wartning about what to do when one sees suspicious character/s near you when you key in your password while withdrawing your money, or even someone who may try/attemp to rob you after you have withdrawn your money.
And that is why we walled in our houses, high brick walls sometimes. And I saw this happening to one of my neighbours. He has only an in-between terrace house, about 22' by 70'. Now the back is already enclosed by a high wall as the neighbouring house at the back is at a higher ground than that house and there is no back lane. Now the end neighbour renovated his house with very nice extended front car porch, this mid neighbour also wanted to have the same style extended car porch. The end result? The house entrance is now like an entrance going into a cave, all walled up and all enclosed. I wonder how can one live in that sort of a terrace house. You have walled yourself in. I suppose he either wants his privacy or that he has walled himself in to prevent from unwanted people coming into his house.
When I was a young boy I grew up in a kampong where there is a lot of open spaces. And the houses were far apart. We did not even have a fence around the house, you can even hear at night domesticated buffaloes grazing around the house, and the grass is always seemed trim as if machined where these buffaloes grazed the night before. But of course you have to pay a price for that, you will see buffalo dungs quite close to the house. But buffaloes are quite clean creatures in that respect, they do their business away from the house most of the time, and in a group. (Even though in the afternoon they spend their time wallowing in the mud or muddy water to cool themselves). So you do not get to see many buffalo dungs around the house. But if you have cows instead of buffaloes, and cows are very unsophisticated creatures, they do their business anywhere, especially so around the house. So in those days we never kept cows, we always had domesticated buffaloes. And we have many of them, in a herd.
The only fence I knew then were around the padi fields when we planted padi in the fields, or any fencing near the house was always when we planted vegetables in small vegetable garden near the house. The fence was more or less to keep buffaloes out of the padi field or the vegetable patches. We loved our buffaloes. That was one of the sources of wealth for us.
Walls around the house I only saw when I went to study in UK. I thought those Mat Salleh were really unfriendly lot.. I was new there and I could not understand them. In reality they were quite friendly to their neighbours, they had walls around their houses just to maintain privacy. And in the country side they also had walls around the fields to keep their cows and sheep in and other cows and sheep out. A grand arrangement really. And these walls, as far as I can remember were always made of stone, not bricks (or barbed wire or meshed wiring) like what we have in Malaysia today. And in some housing estates in UK then they had even wooden fences between houses, low enough to talk over the fence with your neighbour. That was good. Such arrangement in Malaysia today would be a heaven for our Malaysian criminals.
Then when I returned to Malaysia, and I began to live in towns, the Malaysians then were not wall crazy. They were still friendly to their neighbours. They have mostly wire mesh "walls" or fences between neighbouring houses. But soon there were many rich people who built single house with high walls. To keep thieves out they say. And also to maintain their family privacy, so they say. I suppose all their reasons are valid, but I suppose they also do not want other people to see their wealth, pry on them, and start asking questions on where they get their wealth from. Most of them were Malays and these Malays were mostly born in the kampong. But their luck made them where they were/are and they do not want other people to "share" their wealth with them. Anyway that is another story. So if you go around the City like KL you will find many rich people's houses with high walls.
Now all these rich people lives in walled up houses. So the poorer neighbours, may be immediate neghbours or quite a distance neighbours, also want to live in the same style the rich people. So they also walled up their houses, forgetting that their houses are quite small and have an effect of living in cave. Never mind that as long as its like a rich man's mansion, I suppose. What strange idea. But these small terrace houses when walled-in retain heat and have poor ventilation effect. I realise this when I walled in the back of my small terrace house. When there is a hot weather the back of the house is very hot. And when my wife cooks (how many of us men cook?), the smell of the cooking goes out to the front; it never get dissipated at the back as there is very little air flowing there. This is just my theory though but if you do not believe me just try to wall in the back of your house (if you live in a small terrace house like I do).
Back to "walled-in", being brought up in a 'no wall' society I find it most strange as to why should people like to be walled in.. Why can't people live in a no wall society like what I saw in Western Australia when I went there a few years ago. I find that in Western Australia their houses are not walled up (I stand corrected), except in a few cases where they use certain area for their own family privacy. And their surroundings is so open that I feel that it is a real pleasure to live there. And the flowers they grow around their houses, they are beautiful. But of course us here in Malaysia are not so civilise so we tend to pick other people flowers if they grown in other people's garden not walled in (don't tell me that they do not, they do} and also when they can see your beautiful house they tend to sneak in in the day to steal your slippers or shoes if placed outside and probably to peep on you and at night to break in to steal whatever you have in the house. As I said in my earlier blog "Are we civilised?". Well, we are not, we try to pretend to live in a civilse way, but civilise people can see through us.
We can always say that we need to be "walled-in". For what? Security? We ar not that secured? For privacy? How much privacy do you want? Probably a lot as our people are curious lot (or are they just nosey? Or sneaky?) and they tend to peep at the slightest opportunity. Is there something wrong with our society? Our upbringings? Why do we peep anyway? Or are we sex mad, I mean peeping at others for what, other than to peer at sex?
So we walled ourselves in, walled physically and walled mentally. We somehow accept our life style living in a small cave called Rumah Murah or Low Cost Houses (now they call them Affordable Houses!). These are really cheap houses. But if we are called cheap skate we get angry. But are there not many people living in these cheap houses cheap skate. They are not poor I tell you. I have seen even a Volvo car outside a Rumah Murah. We have accepted the fact that we have sometimes to live in multi-storied caves called Low Cost Flats. Aren't these mere boxes that we "walled " ourselves "in"? Malaysia is so full of unused land and we have to live in a "walled-in" society. Do we have to? And we are happy about it or we just tend to say :"There is noting that I can do about it" So we accept? Cheap skate we are.
Anyway, it must be that I have been all "walled-in' these days that I am bursting with this thoughts and ideas. Let off steam.
Are you walled-in?
To shout back, e-mail: mylias@tm.net.my
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