Monday, January 11, 2010

Safety first!

Taiwan has changed so much since I got here.  Like, a lot of 7-11s now have bathrooms, and chairs where you can sit, and lattes made with actual milk and actual coffee beans, not powder!  Also all of a sudden there seems to be a desire to keep its citizens alive.

safety & flowers 007

First, we’ve got the signs at Betel Nut stands.  It’s not too close-up as I feel kinda skeevy about taking pictures at betel nut stands.  (just google images for Taiwan betel nut stands if you want more info.)   Anyways, it basically shows bloody lungs from smoking and some other kind of death from chewing betel nut.  Fun fact:  the beverage being advertised at the bottom apparently contains alcohol, caffeine, and nicotine.  And we wonder why there are crazy drivers.

safety & flowers 002

Then, we’ve got the wear-your-helmet properly initiative- ie, on your head with the strap tightened.  There used to be a lot of men who would drive around with a helmet on but the strap unbuckled- all the inconvenience, none of the safety.  Even I didn’t totally tighten mine, but I do now.  (There’s a chin cup that your chin’s supposed to be in.)  The great part of this poster is how they exactly capture the kind of guy who doesn’t wear his helmet properly- he’s generally driving fast, leaning back and to one side, and chewing betel nut, and looks like anything else on the road is just, well, inconvenient to him.  I’ve even seen the traffic cops who direct traffic at major intersections during rush hour (although they only blow their whistles and raise their sticks to go with the lights, but I guess it keeps people obeying the lights?) motion to people to tighten their helmet straps.  The first time I saw it I thought he was looking at me and giving me the cut-of-your-head sign, and I shrugged with the what-did-I-do sign, and he shook his head and pointed to the guy next to me and made the tighten-your-helmet-strap sign again.  Who needs fluent Chinese when you can have a conversation like that?

safety & flowers 009

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Last, we’ve got my personal favorite, the don’t die in an earthquake sign.  It’s one of two versions that are posted next to most elevators.  While I can’t read most of characters, I imagine the captions are, from top left:  1.  “Hello, spitting security guard?  What’s happening?!?”  2.  “Stuck in an elevator with my boss… of all the days to forget to wear a skirt!”  3.  “Gah!  My skirtless twin has been crushed!”  4.  Well, it’s self-explanatory, except that the Chinese characters for exit say “Safety door,” and I just want to brag that I can totally read that.

5 comments:

Anonymous said...

I've seen that earthquake sign so many times and now I will laugh every time I see it!

Anonymous said...

What always makes me do a double-take on that first sign is the no smoking sign on the pregnant belly . . .

And the sign in the elevator, is actually not an earthquake sign. It's an "if the elevator is stuck" sign.

#4 says not to take the elevator in case of fire, flood, or earthquake--that's when you should use the "safety door."

and in #3, it's more like "help my twin is falling because she tried to jump from the elevator to the floor and missed."

Anonymous said...
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Christina said...

Huh. I still don't get #3- is the non-crushed twin in an elevator?

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