last word
Safe As Houses
Nury Vittachi talks about safe places to raise a family
F
ive years ago I lived in a housing
estate that was so safe that I
didn’t even own a front door key.
Our only line of defence against
evil was a deeply confused dog who
barked at family members and gave
strangers a friendly licking.
(My wife tells me to be kind, since
dogs have brains the size of walnuts, but
I argue that a walnut would be cheaper
and more effective, since you can throw
it at people and it never needs its poop
picked up. But whatever.)
Safe places to live were on my mind
after a reader sent in a news report about
what is being called “the safest place in
the world”. Eibenthal is a village with a
little church in the mountains of Romania.
Inhabitants hang money in bags on
lampposts. The baker passes by, takes
the money and leaves food behind.
But there are super-safe places
everywhere, if you know where to look.
India has Shanhi Shingnapur, a famously
low crime town of 3,000 people in
Maharashtra where most houses don’t
even have doors, let alone locks.
This columnist wrote about it a few
years ago when a bank was built there.
Townsfolk ordered executives at UCO
Bank to follow tradition and have no locks
on its doors. (I am not making this up.) The
bankers thought this was a bit unusual
for a bank, but were willing to co-operate.
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www.playtimes.com.hk
You could imagine the discussion.
TOWNSFOLK: “You must follow
our tradition and not lock the doors of
your bank.”
BANKERS: “Well, okay. It’s your money.”
TOWNSFOLK: “Wait. Maybe we
need to talk about this a bit more.”
The only grumble came from local
police, but they could have taken
inspiration from Sark, an island near
England which maintained a tiny
security presence. In 1970s it was
invaded by France. The invasion fleet
consisted of one Frenchman. The
defending army consisted of a part-
time policeman, who arrested the
Frenchman without harming him. As
wars go, it was rather sweet. (You can’t
say that about a lot of wars.)
As for me, I like raising children
in Hong Kong, which is one of the
safest places in the world. One of my
daughters, at the age of 16, got into
the habit of going jogging after midnight
by herself.
I was happy to let her go—which
wouldn’t have been true in most
other cities.
I mentioned this to a friend recently,
and he said: “You mean, she TELLS
you she is going jogging by herself after
midnight.” The world is full of cynics.
Even the United States, which the
media paints as a land of guns, has super-
safe places. Wikipedia says top of the
list is Irvine, California, which had 0.8 of a
murder in the most recent year counted.
How can you have 0.8 of a murder? Did
the guy’s hair survive or something?
Now here’s the thing: You can create
individual safe spots. Over the years,
this column has received dozens of
news reports about armed robbers who
failed because their would-be crimes
didn’t fit the ambience.
Example: In 2012, a masked man
entered a bar in the Netherlands and
leveled a gun at people inside. Lost in
the usual fog of drink and chatter you
find in European bars, they ignored
him. The whole thing is on YouTube,
including the deflated robber’s sad exit.
At a bank in Kowloon, Hong Kong,
staff told a raider than they were far too
busy to be robbed. He nodded and
left the counter. The whole thing was
marvelously civil.
Now I am not saying that our
generation is creating a crime-free
world. Given the propensity of snacks
to disappear in this columnist’s house,
I can’t even create a crime-free
apartment. Who took my walnut?
Probably the dog.
Nury welcomes your comments and
ideas at his Facebook page:
www.facebook.com/nury.vittachi