25
Nov
2014
Nov
2014
Safety – the dictionary defines safety as- ah there is no way I’m going to start a piece like that. If there’s anything that’s ever been over-done, its speeches that start with “the dictionary defines”. I swear the next time I’m at a wedding where the best man stands at the podium and opens with that line, I’m going to throw cake at him, and then vent my anger by going out to the driving range at Silver Lakes golf course and hitting a few – oh the wedding was at the country club, they do that now.
Anyway
We don’t need a dictionary to define safety for us. In fact, I don’t think it would be very helpful (especially the part where said best man is wiping red velvet off his tuxedo), for each of us have a different idea of what safety is, and how it manifests itself in our own, individual lives. For me, safety is not having the bungee cord snap when I jump – a philosophy that I doubt my mother would be too impressed with. But in making my point, I doubt that idea of safety extends beyond myself. For someone else, being safe might mean living in place where there exists nothing to fear, or to be anxious about. Or perhaps living in an area where there is cause for concern, but putting that concern at ease through the use of deterrents. For most of us, we fall into this latter category. For cities always have been, and always will be volatile places full of the good, the bad (okay I have to say it now) and the ugly. There exists no city in the world, from Rio to Rome, without the ills that cause the kind of anxiety that we so desperately attempt to escape from. However, these problems do have solutions, and in many cases they have indeed been realised. Take Pretoria for example. The capital city in the most developed country on the African Continent. A shining example of said realised solution, for as a city it certainly falls victim to the problems that plague major metropolitan regions, but it also sees the solution to those problems come to light in a magnificent way. Crime is a perfect example of those aspects of modern urban living that causes anxiety to take hold of us, for no one should ever have to experience the scourge that it is first-hand. However, the enclosed neighbourhoods of Pretoria’s eastern suburbs have certainly gone the distance in laying this anxiety to eternal rest through an accentuated security program that sees home owners feeling perfectly safe, strangely enough through a lack of concern for their safety – for they know that the properties for sale in Newmark Estate are amongst the most well-guarded in the capital city of this great nation, ills and all.
One cannot simply say that something is well-guarded and leave it to the imagination of the reader to explain just how said “thing” is well guarded. If somebody told me something was “well-guarded”, I’d immediately picture fire-breathing dragons encircling vault seven-hundred-and-thirteen, goblin to my left, a –half-giant to my right, a philosophers stone behind an enchanted door. I’m perfectly sure that the security personnel at Newmark would absolutely love to add dragons to their array of security measures already in place, but alas I believe it breaks the regulation of the possession of dangerous and magical creatures set out by the Ministry of Magic. But in continuing with a description I should have gotten to ages ago:
Newmark sees security achieved through a vast and varied number ways. Foremost are the most prominent feature of said ways – the walls that surround the estate. Perfectly impenetrable through any kind of brute force, subtlety in circumventing this particular feature would also meet its end, given that at the summit of the great climb to the top, an intruder would find high voltage electrified fencing, running the length of the perimeter without a fault in its lines. In moving into the enclosure itself, motion sensors are to be found about the grounds, meaning that any movement, no matter how slight, will be picked up and relayed to the guards on duty. CCTV cameras placed strategically within the enclosure means that not a blind spot exists, as everything is monitored from the on-sight guard station, and any suspicious activity is radioed to the roving patrols within the estate – the coordinated attack so silent that you would stunned that it ever took place. Finally, entrance to the estate is well monitored, so that no means of trickery or treachery would ever get past the iron black gates and security staff on duty, as all residents need tag in with a personalised key card, and all visitors are held to an “entrance by invitation only” standard, their vehicles inspected and their credentials verified before access is granted. And I haven’t even mentioned the armed response unit that all within Newmark enjoy as part of an enhanced security package, on top of the aforementioned estate-wide safety features. Not to mention the incredible options available through the Amenities at Newmark - a bit of icing on the cake
Yes, cities can be dangerous places. But in removing that aspect of fear, they can also be magical, as the residents of Newmark no doubt have discovered through the Amenities that dot the region. Our ideas of safety may all be different, yet the solution is one and the same, it has certainly been achieved in Newmark Estate.
