Someone on Wordcraft posted this link to an article showing various health and safety signs. The thrust of the article is that these signs represent the nanny state cosseting us from imagined dangers. Usually I too am in the first rank when it comes to mocking over-zealous health and safety or "political correctness gone mad" but I looked at it and couldn't really see any great objection to most of the signs.
"Please be aware of wasps nesting in this area" sounds like a reasonable warning to me, wasp stings can be dangerous - especially to children. If you know there are wasps in the area you could set your picnic somewhere else and avoid the problem. If they don't tell you, how will you know?
"Climbing into this bank..." may be a bit over the top but kids do stupid things. A warning might make them stop and think, unlikely I'll grant, but possible.
"Surfaces may become slippery when wet" is just a more polite way of saying "Watch out! This surface is wet."
The only ones that seem totally pointless to me are "This flower bed is covered by CCTV" and "Seats may become wet" and the first of those could just be because they have previously had trouble with vandals.
Maybe I'm just going soft in my old age but there doesn't seem to me to be any intrinsic problem with warning people of potential dangers that they may not have spotted.
And after typing all of that I'm wondering myself who this imposter is and what's happened to the real Bob Hale. Still, is there really anything wrong with a "better safe than sorry" attitude?
"Please be aware of wasps nesting in this area" sounds like a reasonable warning to me, wasp stings can be dangerous - especially to children. If you know there are wasps in the area you could set your picnic somewhere else and avoid the problem. If they don't tell you, how will you know?
"Climbing into this bank..." may be a bit over the top but kids do stupid things. A warning might make them stop and think, unlikely I'll grant, but possible.
"Surfaces may become slippery when wet" is just a more polite way of saying "Watch out! This surface is wet."
The only ones that seem totally pointless to me are "This flower bed is covered by CCTV" and "Seats may become wet" and the first of those could just be because they have previously had trouble with vandals.
Maybe I'm just going soft in my old age but there doesn't seem to me to be any intrinsic problem with warning people of potential dangers that they may not have spotted.
And after typing all of that I'm wondering myself who this imposter is and what's happened to the real Bob Hale. Still, is there really anything wrong with a "better safe than sorry" attitude?
2 comments:
Agree totally with the 'better safe than sorry' motto, probably because I'm a father of a 22 month old son.
Spending many hours at playgrounds made me many times wonder why there are no handrails where they should be, why are there no nets etc.
Additionally have to express my honest impression about your German!
So how was my German? I'm rather out of practice. Feel free to tell me anything I got wrong.
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