That's right I was thinking, it was some years back when our back fence was blown down during storms in Perth. While I was surveying the damage, this guy comes up to me, he apparently lived in the house I could now see, in fact he was my neighbour. We discussed the damage, I suggested we work together and put up a stronger fence as it was on the crest of a hill and copped the full wind blast.
Well he agreed to this and suggested that not only he, but his sons would also help. So we, wife and I got to meet our neighbour, his wife, his sons and his dog. They had come from South America, and during the building & construction, we chatted and learnt much about each other. When the last fence panel went in, we congratulated each other on a good job, and we have not seen each other since.
Now we had spent many years in the country, and found the "no eye contact", "don't talk", "stay away from us" attitude we have found in the city quite unsettling, perhaps that's what's wrong, to many high fences.
When we go camping there are no fences.
We need to tear down the fences.
-- Edited by iana on Saturday 15th of October 2016 08:07:59 PM
I agree with what you say, and as I live in a regional large town/small city, I know my neighbours Also as blaze says barriers/fences are only there if you let them be there
In my opinion (so I could be wrong), there is always a percentage of bad people in any community. Therefore there are more bad people walking the streets of the city than the regional town Perhaps the city slicker uses the "no eye contact", "don't talk", "stay away from us" attitude, as protection, to keep the bad people away
I read many years ago an article about someone doing some experimenting with rats The following is what I remember of that article, of around 1970 or earlier, so do not quote me word for word
They made two areas of the same dimensions, with the same number of rats, at the start of the experiment.
area, they culled the rats to more or less the same numbers, they had started with
area, they let them breed, and made sure that they all had enough food and water. I think that they called it rat utopia. Where the rats had no predators, and could eat, drink, and be merry, to their hearts content
After a period of time this is what they found
area, had organised themselves into some sort of social order
area, had reverted to the survival of the fittest, and all of the unsociable stuff, the fittest do to the weakest, etc
The conclusion was that, rats are more sociable, while living in a community of smaller numbers, than when living in a community of larger numbers
The same group of people then pointed out, that humans also follow this trend. They pointed out that in the denser populated areas, there was more antisocial behaviour, than the less denser areas
I think it all depends on the neighbours were lucky as we have a good balance were all friendly and have a chat now and then,I have there phone numbers ,as I need to move a few cars out of the way when we get home.
With the caravan in our situation having a good relationship with neighbours is vital...
So rats in our neighbourhood are my buddies thank god.
That's right I was thinking, it was some years back when our back fence was blown down during storms in Perth. While I was surveying the damage, this guy comes up to me, he apparently lived in the house I could now see, in fact he was my neighbour. We discussed the damage, I suggested we work together and put up a stronger fence as it was on the crest of a hill and copped the full wind blast.
Well he agreed to this and suggested that not only he, but his sons would also help. So we, wife and I got to meet our neighbour, his wife, his sons and his dog. They had come from South America, and during the building & construction, we chatted and learnt much about each other. When the last fence panel went in, we congratulated each other on a good job, and we have not seen each other since.
Now we had spent many years in the country, and found the "no eye contact", "don't talk", "stay away from us" attitude we have found in the city quite unsettling, perhaps that's what's wrong, to many high fences.
When we go camping there are no fences.
We need to tear down the fences.
-- Edited by iana on Saturday 15th of October 2016 08:07:59 PM
Now you must know how the Aboriginal felt, after roaming free around his Country for thousands of years, suddenly coming across fences with strange animals enclosed in them and being shot if he attempted to cross them and get some of that nice 'tucker'.
Yet Aborigine towns like Elliott have high fences .. Lol We had low fences in town we grew up in for a while . Was just a wire fence . Should have fitted a gate between your neighbors?
Never lived in a big city or outside of WA, except for holidays
Boulder/Kalgoorlie,1965 -1967 No one had air conditioners, TV, or expensive household items Doors never locked, and in summer windows always open, a lot of neighbours, had a door between their gardens
Koolyanobbing 1967 - 1978 (Aboriginal word meaning, place of big rocks). A town of about 120 people Never locked the door
Kalgoorlie/Boulder 1978 - 1995 Door locked when leaving the house
Bunbury 1995 to present Moved into new home, and they tried to sell me security alarms, etc I explained that as I was a Fitter, I had a 24 inch shifter spanner, and that as I knew how to use it, the first would be burglar, would tell his mates what happened They said that it was against the law, to assault a burglar. I just laughed and asked for the names of the burglars who had ever dobbed themselves in Door is locked each time we leave the house, and retire to bed
In Bunbury we have neighbourhood watch, it seems to work We collect each others mail, etc
To back up Tony's observations on the results of the experiment on sociability. We lived in Mozambique in 2 different compounds which were gated communities with 5mtr high perimeter walls, security gatehouse and patrols - once inside everyone had their own 3 bedroom house with an open front yard and a fenced backyard. There were amenities such as a clubhouse, swimming pool, tennis courts gym etc. the difference between the 2 was in their size i.(15 houses V 50 houses). Our experience of living in the larger community was that most people kept to themselves or really only mixed with their fellow countrymen, the clubhouse and tennis courts had to be booked and there wasn't much interaction happening. The experience that we had in the smaller compound was the complete opposite everyone knew each other and for the most part got on very well, braiis (BBQs), and social events at our clubhouse and pool nearly every weekend. For me what made the difference was the fact that the 2nd community was small enough to get to know each other and become comfortable in their company. This was particularly important due to the mixture of different nationalities, customs, religions etc.
Living in a city is probably a bit like living in that larger community and living in a country town probably more like the smaller one. I have friends who currently live in suburbs where they get around this self imposed isolation by holding block parties but that needed someone interested enough to get out there and start the ball rolling.
