OK, considering I live in South Africa, that’s a bit of a rhetorical question. Let me explain how much security we have at home at the moment (and this is not OTT for a typical SA home).
Security bars on all opening windows. Security gates on all doors. Walls surrounding the house. Pallisade fencing in the front garden, and part of the walls on the sides. Our one neighbour has electric fencing so we’re covered there too. Alarm system in the house with panic buttons on all opening doors, and a remote panic button (to carry around). And then last year we installed yet another system in the garden with 90 deg infra-red beams which face the garden and beams in the front which sound an alarm as soon as there is someone in the garden.
On top of all this, we pay for armed response (which is linked to the alarms and panic buttons). Also, there is a neighbourhood response team which we belong to as well (because they’re good and they have cell phones in the car which you phone directly instead of going through a control centre). This is all over and above the police in the area.
Now you would think that would be enough! Wouldn’t you?
Remember my post about my friend who was attacked close to where I live? It hit us quite hard, and it’s making us reassess our living conditions. There’s just more and more of this violence going on. It’s in the papers everyday, and it’s not getting any better IMO (despite what the stats are apparently saying). It’s hitting more and more of my friends.
Anyhoo, today I went to have a facial (yip, that was excellent if you’re wondering 
). Nicky was telling me about a mutual friend of ours who was held up for her jewellery in her driveway after being followed from Northgate shopping centre. And it was fake jewellery!! To cut a long story short… Nicky reckons that we also need to do belong to eBlockwatch, just in case I get raped and I can press a speed-dial number on my phone and it will SMS 4 people with my location.
Now, OK, it sounds great. But, I think we have enough. OK, I know there’s a lot more we can do to make our house like Fort Knox (like having bullet-proof glass in our windows), but this is more than just a little ridiculous. It may just cost R10 a month, or whatever, but seriously, to have to think about linking up to yet another security company sounds ludicrous to me. Or am I just being silly?
