looking like a cage

I love my little balconies here. I have flowers and plants on them. I can't really eat outside or put a large chair on any of them, but I still like every morning to just step on the balcony, check my flower, take a pick outside and then start my day.

Here, I saw again something that I saw for the first time in Caracas, and then in Cape Town. House windows with bars. It surprised me when I was in Caracas, but then after spending there quite some time, I also realized than better safe than sorry. Same goes, I guess, for Cape Town. But here......it seems that there are a lot of thieves. And this is why so many windows have bars. All the apartment located at what they call here "rez de chausse", so the bottom floor, have them.

I found them sad. Especially in the summer. It makes me feel like inside a jail cell. In punishment. Even when you open the window, there is always something that stops the view. It would make me feel less free (and in these days I am even more for freedom and independence than I was before). I couldn't stand to live in an apartment with bars at the windows. I had a tough time when I stayed for a few days in a place like that in Caracas.

Are these windows with bars so common around the world?