First up there's the pretty straightforward matter of limited resources. We live in one of the driest places in the world. I know the estates bang on about using sustainable water, but firstly most of them are lying (many use tap water mixed with a token amount of recycled stuff), and secondly no water, not even recycled urine, should be spent growing putting greens: it is morally outrageous to pipe drinking- and sanitation water away from poor people so that a maximum of 72 people can play the sport they love.
The estates are also pumping gigantic amounts of chemical fertilizer into our country's underground reservoirs, creating an environmental and health disaster that isn't even on our radar yet.
It's an isolated case, but it also rankles me that the Pinnacle Point estate is destroying one of the most important archaeological sites on the planet. There is strong evidence to suggest that modern humans developed at Pinnacle Point. It's basically the birthplace of our species. And yet every day the site is crumbling as irrigation from the greens above endlessly drips down into the caves below. Scientists have tried to protest the site, but the vested interests are too powerful.
That's my enviro-gripe. My second reason for hating them is political or psychological.
Golf estates are profoundly and unashamedly colonial. From their pathetic attempt to emulate either "Scotland", "England" or some fictional African idyll (straight out of Victorian novels) to the unironic "lifestyle" (gals sipping cocktails on the patio while servile blacks keep the edges trimmed), they reject modernity, sustainable architecture, socially responsible use of resources; and they encourage the same colonial attitudes (rich vs poor, righteous vs degenerate, blessed vs forsaken) that got this country and continent into such problems in the first place.
As for the people who move to estates in order to feel "safe" and to give their children a "life", well, that's the most desperate delusion of all. They will never understand that they have checked out of the society and out of reality, surrendering to a fantasy world that is basically a zoo for rich and fearful people. Hell, even the fences are straight out of the tiger enclosure at the average zoo.
That might be life, Jim, but not as we know it.
If we want this country to work, we need to meet our neighbours, and we need to learn to speak their language. Anything else is denial, evasion, and delaying an inevitable collapse. Golf estates are antithetical to everything that we need to be doing in SA.
I must agree though, anon above has really put it well, on all counts, environmental,and social.
Before 1994, golf courses were few and far between,and a golf course was just a golf course - not a home. Only the Chairman of the board and Doctors used them, and we were very happy for them thank you very much.
They payed for,and played golf, and we, went surfing(for free). We all knew our place and there was equilibrium.
Now every last wannabe social climber wants to mix with the Chairman and the Doctors at the golf course AND live on it.
That, and the post 94 breakdown in law and order, and the post 94 Euro flush immigrants, have all contributed to gated golf course communities mushrooming.
These gated communities have created parallel,non confluent societies. Maybe legislation will one day remove those main gates and force us out of Alices' wonderland and into South Africa reality land.
Golf estates in existential scenarios #1 race/civil/class war
Upside: If they can grow grass, they can probably grow food. (if it rains that is – If I was running the siege of a golf estate the first thing I would cut off is that drinking water and power so more can be diverted to my proletarian comrades.)
Downside: They would present irresistible concentrations of fat, defenseless, pale piggies laboring under the hysterical illusion that half a dozen R3000pm (actual starting salary for Armed Response officer) security guards in a Bantam bakkie will catch a taxi to work and risk their lives to protect the bosses. Then there is the fact that golf estate residents are rich. Rich people have nice stuff. Lots of nice stuff.
Long winding perimeters make hard fortification a practical impossibility except for billionaires who would be probably be smart enough to make other arrangements. Gary player designed landscaping and arty winding fairways provide excellent cover for attacking irregular forces. Apart from a few ex-SADF types most fighting age residents (almost certainly a minority) would be utterly worthless retirees or brokers/investors/rentier types, armed at best with golfclubs and pistols. A small gang of hoodlums (eg: one of the smaller CT gangs like the JunkyFunky Kid$- membership under 100) would have no trouble at all turning your average golf estate into a bourgeois graveyard.
If race/civil/class war starts and you are living in a golf estate you are dead meat.
PS: Widespead conflict aside. As a former alarm installer/security contractor specialising in the golf estate market I can assure you burglars/house invaders are not in the least deterred by plastic security booms manned by sleepy mamas and ADT signs. Golf estates are indefensible to any sufficiently determined attacker/intruder.
I have a relative on a golf estate and yup - not only have they been burgled more than once they have had scam artists come and lay glass on their lawn and demand to be paid in cash. The family warned the security about them and not to let them in. When they returned to demand more money - the security happily let them through. security on a golf estate is an illusion and my particular beef is they are sterile and ugly.
Drove past the Orangerie today and noticed nasty concrete/plaster patches around one of the windows. Could they really have started falling about so quickly? I wouldn't be surprised, given the standard of modern building, but wow, it's only been months.
To Bean Counter: Regarding Orangerie - I went to see a friend that had moved in there. The build is very shoddy and feels cheap. The only thing that looked quality was the kitchen counter top and the waterway in the middle between buildings. The doors feel light and cheap, the fittings and piping badly done, the plaster work cheap and poorly done, the tiles are poorly done. All in all I'm shocked at how poorly it has been made. *sigh*
I also forgot to mention that the buildings are facing the wrong way.... You go on balcony and view... THE other flats!
If it had been a V shape with the point at the road and the flats facing the mountain then it might have been great. How do builders and designers miss this? If on the left block you can see the mountain from the passage and if on the other block you get to see the top of the mountain and/or just the flats in-front of you.....
12 comments:
Hideous Somerset West golf monstrosity goes straight to hell where it belongs.
http://www.fin24.com/PersonalFinance/Property/Bankrupt-Cape-golf-estate-on-sale-20100621
Golf estates are the work of Satan. Anyone who lives on one or makes a living by selling them deserves to have a putter shoved up their 19th hole.
Hi Bean Counter
Care to share why you have such a strong dislike for golf estates - just curious as to your reasons.
LS
LS, where do I start?
First up there's the pretty straightforward matter of limited resources. We live in one of the driest places in the world. I know the estates bang on about using sustainable water, but firstly most of them are lying (many use tap water mixed with a token amount of recycled stuff), and secondly no water, not even recycled urine, should be spent growing putting greens: it is morally outrageous to pipe drinking- and sanitation water away from poor people so that a maximum of 72 people can play the sport they love.
The estates are also pumping gigantic amounts of chemical fertilizer into our country's underground reservoirs, creating an environmental and health disaster that isn't even on our radar yet.
It's an isolated case, but it also rankles me that the Pinnacle Point estate is destroying one of the most important archaeological sites on the planet. There is strong evidence to suggest that modern humans developed at Pinnacle Point. It's basically the birthplace of our species. And yet every day the site is crumbling as irrigation from the greens above endlessly drips down into the caves below. Scientists have tried to protest the site, but the vested interests are too powerful.
That's my enviro-gripe. My second reason for hating them is political or psychological.
Golf estates are profoundly and unashamedly colonial. From their pathetic attempt to emulate either "Scotland", "England" or some fictional African idyll (straight out of Victorian novels) to the unironic "lifestyle" (gals sipping cocktails on the patio while servile blacks keep the edges trimmed), they reject modernity, sustainable architecture, socially responsible use of resources; and they encourage the same colonial attitudes (rich vs poor, righteous vs degenerate, blessed vs forsaken) that got this country and continent into such problems in the first place.
As for the people who move to estates in order to feel "safe" and to give their children a "life", well, that's the most desperate delusion of all. They will never understand that they have checked out of the society and out of reality, surrendering to a fantasy world that is basically a zoo for rich and fearful people. Hell, even the fences are straight out of the tiger enclosure at the average zoo.
That might be life, Jim, but not as we know it.
If we want this country to work, we need to meet our neighbours, and we need to learn to speak their language. Anything else is denial, evasion, and delaying an inevitable collapse. Golf estates are antithetical to everything that we need to be doing in SA.
End of lecture.
I must agree though, anon above has really put it well, on all counts, environmental,and social.
Before 1994, golf courses were few and far between,and a golf course was just a golf course - not a home.
Only the Chairman of the board and Doctors used them, and we were very happy for them thank you very much.
They payed for,and played golf, and we, went surfing(for free).
We all knew our place and there was equilibrium.
Now every last wannabe social climber wants to mix with the Chairman and the Doctors at the golf course AND live on it.
That, and the post 94 breakdown in law and order, and the post 94 Euro flush immigrants, have all contributed to gated golf course communities mushrooming.
These gated communities have created parallel,non confluent societies.
Maybe legislation will one day remove those main gates and force us out of Alices' wonderland and into South Africa reality land.
Golf estates in existential scenarios #1 race/civil/class war
Upside: If they can grow grass, they can probably grow food. (if it rains that is – If I was running the siege of a golf estate the first thing I would cut off is that drinking water and power so more can be diverted to my proletarian comrades.)
Downside: They would present irresistible concentrations of fat, defenseless, pale piggies laboring under the hysterical illusion that half a dozen R3000pm (actual starting salary for Armed Response officer) security guards in a Bantam bakkie will catch a taxi to work and risk their lives to protect the bosses. Then there is the fact that golf estate residents are rich. Rich people have nice stuff. Lots of nice stuff.
Long winding perimeters make hard fortification a practical impossibility except for billionaires who would be probably be smart enough to make other arrangements. Gary player designed landscaping and arty winding fairways provide excellent cover for attacking irregular forces. Apart from a few ex-SADF types most fighting age residents (almost certainly a minority) would be utterly worthless retirees or brokers/investors/rentier types, armed at best with golfclubs and pistols. A small gang of hoodlums (eg: one of the smaller CT gangs like the JunkyFunky Kid$- membership under 100) would have no trouble at all turning your average golf estate into a bourgeois graveyard.
If race/civil/class war starts and you are living in a golf estate you are dead meat.
PS: Widespead conflict aside. As a former alarm installer/security contractor specialising in the golf estate market I can assure you burglars/house invaders are not in the least deterred by plastic security booms manned by sleepy mamas and ADT signs. Golf estates are indefensible to any sufficiently determined attacker/intruder.
I have a relative on a golf estate and yup - not only have they been burgled more than once they have had scam artists come and lay glass on their lawn and demand to be paid in cash. The family warned the security about them and not to let them in. When they returned to demand more money - the security happily let them through. security on a golf estate is an illusion and my particular beef is they are sterile and ugly.
Fair enough - bad for the environment and polarising society while providing only illusion of security.
Change of topic then. What / where are good places to live?
LS
Drove past the Orangerie today and noticed nasty concrete/plaster patches around one of the windows. Could they really have started falling about so quickly? I wouldn't be surprised, given the standard of modern building, but wow, it's only been months.
Oh the good old days of clay facebrick cavity walls,facebrick window sills and facebrick lintels ....
To Bean Counter:
Regarding Orangerie - I went to see a friend that had moved in there. The build is very shoddy and feels cheap. The only thing that looked quality was the kitchen counter top and the waterway in the middle between buildings. The doors feel light and cheap, the fittings and piping badly done, the plaster work cheap and poorly done, the tiles are poorly done. All in all I'm shocked at how poorly it has been made. *sigh*
I also forgot to mention that the buildings are facing the wrong way.... You go on balcony and view... THE other flats!
If it had been a V shape with the point at the road and the flats facing the mountain then it might have been great. How do builders and designers miss this? If on the left block you can see the mountain from the passage and if on the other block you get to see the top of the mountain and/or just the flats in-front of you.....
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