A Man’s House is His Castle

I went out on a “lunch date” a couple of days ago with; let’s call her Siti, because that’s her name, or at least the first part of her name. We ate at a café in a shopping mall near her office. It was a nice outing; we were talking all the way from her office lobby to the café and back to her office lobby. Topics were general, almost everything under the sun, almost.

No, I’m not bragging about my date. There is nothing to brag about and it’s probably not a date. Actually, I was passing some stuff to her and since its lunch time, we decided to have lunch together. Damn, it’s not a date after all!

What I want to talk about is one of the things Siti and me talked about – safety and security.

There has been so many cases of theft and robbery reported in the newspapers lately, from petty thievery like snatching handbags to house break-ins and car thefts, to mention a few. The robbers are getting bolder, my colleague’s girlfriend’s house was broken into in broad daylight in full view of everyone, thank God she was unharmed. There is even this case where two thieving brothers smashed the windscreen of a car at the stoplight to snatch the driver’s handbag. They however didn’t get far because they crashed and died after being chased by the victim and other good Samaritans (actually they got quite far, all the way the meet their Maker). What about the pregnant mom who was killed when thieves snatched her handbag causing her to fall off her bike?

I had a strange experience when I was in Basel recently. I was at a road side café having lunch with a friend and we both decided to go to the men’s room at the same time (no weird ideas please). I wanted to take my jacket with me as my passport was in one of the pockets and the loo was in the main restaurant building. My friend told me not to worry and just leave it there; no–one will take it. So I left it there and it was still there when I came back. That kind of confidence cannot be applied in KL.

Look at our houses, look at the grills and alarms we install just to keep the intruders out. Some even employ guards. Grills in addition to being ugly are also potential traps. We have heard many stories of people dying in a fire trapped by the grills.

Borrowing from Edward Coke (the 17^th century English parliamentarian), Calvin’s dad once said, “a man’s house is his castle but it shouldn't have to be his fortress”.

*this piece was written in August 2009.