Slum wall comes down

The flimsy block wall erected between my condo and the slum next it it is no more, after a group of slum teens knocked it down in the dead of night.

It was up only a matter of hours before it came down again. 'It fell down by itself...the cement hadn’t yet dried,’ resident Tong insisted yesterday, as he told me the tale of the ill-fated wall.

Tong, whom I met a few days ago as drama between the slum community and landowner over the accessway heightened, was joking.

I knew what he meant. The wall needed a little help to come down, as it shouldn’t have gone up in the first place.

The slum wall stops slum residents getting out, and prevents residents from my condo – few as they may be – gaining access to the slum.

A large piece of vacant land lies between the condo and the slum. Previously we could walk across the land to gain access to our closest shops.

A group of investors has now bought the land. They have hired a gang of workers from Esan to clear it. One of their first jobs was to seal off with barbed wire the boundary closest to my condo, but for a small gate.