Security Bars

All my neighbors have them. Everyone said we had to have them. So we got them.

Then I had questions as they were being installed which I had not though of before hand. Mainly how do you now clean the glass in the window? Secondly, how do you exit via a window should a critical situation arise?

When I posed these questions to my wife and the men who were erecting these all but immovable cages over my windows I could tell from the looks on their faces as I spoke that they though I was out of my rabbit ass mind. No one had ever asked such questions and only a silly farang would consider such things. Well, excuse me, it was just a passing though.
Anyway as no answer was forthcoming I reasoned things out for myself based on common local logic using my nine years of residency in Thailand.

First you have to realize that there is no middle class in Thailand for the most part, especially in the rural areas. There are only rich people and poor people.

Poor people have no concerns for such things such as the cleaning of window. In fact many rural homes don’t even have glass windows only shutters that board up the windows in the evening or during inclement weather. Heck, the majority of rural homes aren’t even painted.

The rich have their maids clean the window so have little concern as to how difficult it can be or how long it will take. With a daily wage of about $3.80 they must keep the help busy you know.

As far as the safety issued of being locked behind steel bars one only has to look at the number if infants seen daily being held by their parents as they weave in and out of traffic on their motorcycles to see the nations concern for public safety. It only becomes an issue then there is a tragedy and then is soon there after forgotten until the next occurrence. Using the words of a former local columnist “enough said about that”.

Buy the way, I have designed security bars with hinges and an inside-locking device for future use. In the mean time I’ll sleep next to the door and not wash my windows as often as I once did. Or maybe, just maybe, I can pull the Tom Sawyer white washing trick on my sister-in-law and make her think that it’s fun to wash windows.