Cluster without Fluster
Good Neighbourliness is good for security

By Roy Zazeraj

"Do not love your neighbour as yourself. If you are on good terms with yourself it is an impertinence; if on bad, an injury" George Bernard Shaw

We live in a world full of paradoxes. In 1900, only one in ten people lived in cities, but by 1994 that had changed to one in every two people. Over 200 cities in the world now have populations of over a million people. Things are getting cosier it seems. But, ironically, the fact that we are living in closer and closer proximity to our neighbours seems to cause people to become increasingly "remote" from each other. We discussed this in a previous column, but the point here is that the phenomenon has implications for our personal security.

Cluster housing, as a prime example of close-quarter living, has the many advantages of a mobile lifestyle, convenience and shared costs. But one advantage often cited is that of increased security, with complexes typically having boundary walls and single, controlled entrances. So we move into contained, secure sectional title complexes, but often miss out on the security that can come from being part of a close-knit community.

For example, small, relatively isolated communities (such as on St Helena) enjoy a good community spirit and very low crime levels. Criminals have little place to hide, as "everybody knows everybody" (and the ubiquitous village gossip knows everybody's business as well). Also, good neighbourliness is normally an accepted part of small community life. This can provide a both a shared sense of "looking out for each other" and agreed mechanisms for physical community security. And, for our families and ourselves, we want to be secure and feel secure. Good neighbourliness can provide both.

With the right initiative there is really no reason why these advantages should not be enjoyed by the owners and tenants in your cluster complex. If you already do - great, but you could be in the minority. If you don't, it's well worth considering.

Human beings still have a deep need to identify with a group, or groups. According to sociologists, this has tended to shift away from locality-based groupings (except maybe for township gangs) to affinity groups. One example is workers are increasingly more loyal to their trade, discipline or profession than they are to their employer. However, a group of tied homeowners, as members of a body corporate or homeowners association, with shared financial and security interests, must surely qualify as an affinity group?

Even homeowners in non-cluster environments form Neighbourhood Watch groups (and in some cases vigilante groups) to look after their joint security interests. So, on the face of it, all the right ingredients are there to foster good neighbourliness in the pursuit of joint security (and other) interests in sectional title complexes.

What then are the barriers to more good neigbourliness in our complexes?

It seems people feel a need to "mind my own business", and often take exception to others showing any interest in their business. Maybe because of the closeness of the living environment, people feel a need to work harder at maintaining their privacy. For some there is also a fine line between showing a genuine interest in others (and being prepared to get involved) and just nosy interfering. Poor levels of perceived security tend to make people suspicious and untrusting - maybe that next-door neighbour is also a perceived security threat? Even professional security staff cannot always be trusted, my own mother having been a victim of theft by internal security. The Marietjie de Klerk case does not help inspire confidence either. We won't go into abusive family relationships either (maybe we can deal with that in a later column). So there are many understandable constraints on the willingness of people to form closer relationships with their neighbours.

It is not our intent to cover the physical aspects of security here, such as access control, security lighting, electrified fencing etc (see the rest of the magazine for that), but to foster the notion that good neighbourliness is a major contributor to both the feelings and experience of security. This can be pursued with varying degrees of formality - from sharing formal lists of personal information (family member names, ages, contact numbers, general movements, who to contact in an emergency etc), to regular social events to get to know each other better.

Whatever you decide to do, as a complex or individually, know that it can make a valuable contribution. It might not always meet your full expectations in the feelings and experiences of personal security, but any improvement would be well worth the effort. In any case, its nice to get on with the neighbours, and many of them might be a whole lot better, and more useful, than you thought!

Stay well (and secure).