Last night over in Sector G of Islamabad, Pakistan, a company had a bitter night. A man dressed in a police uniform led four or five local men right over the compound wall. Pushing their way inside with a rough, aggressive attitude, they immediately demanded cash and equipment. Before slipping away uncaught into the night, they walked off with several hundred thousand rupees in cash and a few computers.
When you break it down, it has all the marks of an inside job. Looking back at recent kidnappings of Chinese nationals in the area, plenty of those cases turned out to be local insiders leaking details. For anyone trying to build a life and business far from home, hiring local staff is where you have to be extra careful. The guards and cleaners coming and going in the yard every day might seem polite and dutiful on the surface, but you never know who is quietly figuring out your daily routines and company assets, only to sell that information to outsiders.
Earning a living abroad is hard enough as it is—paying rent, covering power and water bills, and saving up hard-won money step by step. The streets out there might look full of everyday hustle and life, but security is one string that can never be slacked off. Raise your perimeter fences, install enough CCTV cameras, and ask around thoroughly to check backgrounds before bringing anyone on board. Living away from home, keeping a healthy sense of suspicion is just plain practical. At the end of the day, a safe and steady life is the only real foundation for making a place for ourselves here.
