Today is the first day of the month. As I do each month, I am drawing your attention to the Daily Photo Blogs' theme day. This month's topic is "No." That is, participants are supposed to post a photo of a sign forbidding something. Here's a sample, from Sharon, CT. After you look at that photo you can find links to all the others. Or go here to see thumbnails.
This theme makes me think of my brother, who, when we were children, liked to collect ways to say "Do Not Enter" in various languages and then post them on his bedroom door. I think he had over a hundred versions of this friendly greeting. I wish I had a photo of his door to post, but sadly, I do not. If you have one, bro, send it to me, OK?
Where I live, not all that much is forbidden. In fact, when I talk to my students about what they like about their country, that's often one of the first things mentioned. You can do what you want - there aren't rules about everything the way there are in the US. Of course, there are major caveats to this. If you have money, you can buy your way out of trouble. If you don't, you may find yourself in trouble through no fault of your own. Plus, "whatever you want" is rather a limited set of choices. And there are a few signs forbidding things - "Don't throw trash here," (usually overlooking a large trash pile), "Don't pee here, please," the occasional "No smoking" sign. Recently, traffic lights have started appearing here and there in my city, and at first people weren't quite sure how to react to this development. Traffic chaos increased instead of decreasing.
When my husband and I visited Japan, on the other hand, we were amused to see a sign in the airport: "Welcome to Japan. Please follow the rules."
Enjoy your trip around the world exploring what everyone forbids!
3 hours ago
5 comments:
Such a cool idea. I am tempted to being my own daily photo blog...I love the idea, and I love photography. Maybe...
It startles me that your city only got its first traffic light! Isn't it a big city? On the other hand, I have seen some arguments that removing traffic signs improves traffic flow and safety, because people start paying more attention to other cars, their surroundings, etc. But maybe that only applies in societies who like following rules!
I'm so glad they've added that thumbnail preview of all the sites - I would click around based on city names and end up getting frustrated and give up.
In the last few months I've noticed that we have quite a variety of "dump no waste - drains to river" signs around here (usually in or near a gutter). I just assumed there would only be one, but I've seen at least 3. I should post the photos...
No, the new ones weren't the first - but we only had one or two before. They are gradually adding more and more. They are solar powered so very appropriate technology.
I agree that the thumbnails are much easier to navigate.
I saw those new solar powered traffic lights recently when I visited your country last month. I was pretty impressed! I even had to take a photo of one of them! :-)
In the past five years that I have been visiting your country I have never seen as many traffic lights in all of those trips combined as I did in this one trip.
Are you the Ruth who showed Sharon where to pick up her visitors on June 13? Or was that another Ruth?
Hi Cheryl,
I think that was a different Ruth. Nice to "meet" you, though, and glad you were impressed by the traffic lights! They are pretty impressive.
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