Domestic Customized Razor Wire For Your Barricade

It’s often not enough to have a 10 -15 foot high wall around a domestic home, in the modern South Africa - consider this fairly common feature: scalpel-sharp, flattened customized razor-wire.
Industrially-sharpened on all edges, and toughened so that it’ll cut through anything thrown over it, or gripping it, by people trying to get over the wall.

Homes And Gardens As Sealed Off Areas

‘A home’ in South Africa, means a high-walled area, enclosing a space that isn’t for the viewing of anyone, other than those who can gain access.

Here’s a view down a relatively ‘open’ street. Note the high wall topped with jagged wall spikes.
That’s a 'home'. (And a presumably a house, and a garden inside).
Behind this wall (and the other high walls, stretching down the street alongside the pavement) are more ‘homes’.
As you can see -  ‘home’ has a different meaning here.

When a 10 Foot High Wall Isn’t Enough

Another booming industry in South Africa, are the ‘additional’ features to make homes safer.

Normal life in SA is potentially so violent, that it’s not sufficient to have 15 foot walls around your property, ‘panic buttons’ to call armed guards (installed throughout your home), barred windows, and electric fences..

Here’s another layer of South African domestic home-security:
razor-sharp jagged wall-spikes, bolted into place on top of the wall surrounding the home.

Architecture for Domestic Prisons

When faced with the necessity to make a massive barricade around a domestic home, look as little like a prison as possible - you can see that South African architects faced a major problem. They've clearly just given up on even trying to create aesthetically attractive domestic homes.

This is no top secret Government facility.
This is a section of a wall around a normal home, topped by electric fencing.
As usual, the ‘home’ itself is not visible at all.
The overall effect is presumably exactly as the happy prisoners inside wanted - an impression (to the outside viewer) of total fortress-like security.

Close Detail of an ‘Electric Fence’ Warning Sign

For those who’ve never seen one, this sign and variations on it - are everywhere. Hanging from electrified wires, above walls around the citizens homes.

Arbeit Macht Home

South Africans try very hard to pretend their prison-like existence, is 'normal'.
They've done it so well, most don’t even notice anymore, that there’s not much difference between real prisoners, and their own supposedly ‘free’ reality.

Consider this view of a corner wall of a home, as seen from the street.
And more importantly - imagine living behind this.

The wall is at least 15 feet high.
That's a close-circuit camera, keeping an eye on the street outside, in case of lurking criminals. It's pointed at the vulnerable part of the property - the walled gates where the car comes in and goes out of the yard inside. You can also see the circuitry for the electric fence.
(The view from inside, for the ‘home occupants’ - must be lovely.)

 

Electric David Lynch

Another ‘home’.

All that’s visible though, is a 15 - 20 feet high white wall, the blue African sky.

And the electric fence.

The strange and sad thing is, most of the people who live inside these various barricaded fortresses, will still go to great lengths to try to convince you that South Africa as a country, is 'working'.

They'll even try to convince you that negative talk about South Africa, is bad.

Well...

So is living in denial, delusion, and schizophrenia, watched over by a suspiciously 'incompetent' Government, who are now responsible for causing the highest murder rate (and daily AIDS death rate) on Earth.

Aluta Continua. ('The struggle continues').

 

 

 

“I raise my face in this arid wilderness of steel and stone...”

-Anton LaVey.