Gated Villages Versus Free Standing Houses In South Africa

Jan. 26, 2011 - PRLog -- The world has been a rather unsafe haven for humans from the beginning of time. Centuries ago people flocked together because there was safety in numbers and together they erected castles, small towns with reinforced walls, and even little villages surrounded by thorn bushes and sharpened branches.

(New information on gated villages in South Africa, such as assessing the sale prices of property in security villages can be found on http://www.securityvillages.co.za)

They needed to keep 'the other & the others' out.The other & others were those people different to their own community, strange in their way of being and too often envious of what your community had and what they lacked.

In those early days the envy was easily addressed, one just had to stir some animosity and when human hatred started to become inflamed, the storming of another community was on the cards. This was the law of the jungle; the strongest could take the other's wife, children, slaves, cattle, food and whatever valuable assets they could desired...

The greater your stronghold, the more difficult it was for the "others" to take your stuff and your people. For centuries people fought each other along these primitive lines but then in time as we became more civilized, our clans got bigger to incorporate people that were formally seen as 'the other & others'.

Walls around cities vanished and people were able to come and go as they pleased. It gradually became evident that a more humane world was in the making. One could count on civilized rules in all dealings with the other.  

It seemed to be a brave new world.

Alas, it was not, and is not a new world. Disparity is an evil relic still shadowing the modern world like a ghost. The haves and the have nots are still in a wobbly imbalance. Anger, greed, hunger, lust etc. are still feeding on the fertile fields of the human brain and at times havoc and hell are evoked.

Instinctively people care for their families more than for their neighbour's family. The kind gene connecting I and Thou is still circling the earth waiting for signs of humanity to become a basic nerve connecting all people as the soul of the world.

In the mean time 'kings of castles' want their people to be safe. They create gated villages and live there to lessen the risk of others preying on their loved ones. They do miss out on the turmoil of all others living in free standing houses. The people living in free standing dwellings are on the fermenting front of humanity struggling to open its heart and soul to others that are in the end only humans waiting for the sowing of kindness where cruelty, disparity and fortified minds keep wrecking people's dreams of a better world.

In the end even the nuclear weapons poised somewhere in some country are but a wall to keep the others of another country out of 'our gated village'.

One fine day in the future we might start to break down walls again and prove Darwin and Freud to be antiquated. But not now. Now I close the security gate behind my back, glance out of my window to see who might be lurking behind my walls and google the internet to view gated villages for temporary peace of mind.

More specific information on gated villages in South Africa can be found on http://www.securityvillages.co.za

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Wim van der Walt of http://www.securityvillages.co.za offers lots of information on specific security villages South Africa has on offer.