The number one cause of death for young males in the UAE is car accidents. Nearly every single student I teach has lost a relative or friend to the road mania here. Couple a general aversion to safety belts to way too much testosterone in very big cars, and you have a recipe for disaster. This sign reads:
Talking on the phone while driving can deprive your children of their mother's love. Funny that this targets women chatting on the phone, when we are but a small fraction of drivers on the road AND stastitically less likely to be the ones causing accidents.
8 comments:
The oil boom has given people access to cars that they would NEVER be able to afford anywhere else at such young ages. Unfortunately, a large number of them drive like maniacs. As for targeting women, that is stupid.
I agree - this is a stupid campaign. Here in Saudi Arabia, where only men drive, the traffic is horrifying. There are no rules and no trafic control at all. I have seen drivers doing things here that I have never seen anywhere else. No one is considerate of other drivers and everyone seems to think that they are more important and in more of a hurry than everyone else. Drivers talk on the phone all the time. I have never seen children buckled in, much less babies in car seats, and have even seen babies being held by the driver! I dare say that if women were permitted to drive here, the situation could only improve as it can't possibly get any worse!
Statistics aside yes in the U.A.E. most of the drivers are men and they are on the blame side if we want to take this issue by gendre, for me I think it makes sences but yes I agree there would have been more innovative ways to present the campagin in a better illustration.
One can choose and interpret the message as per one's convenience....
For every one of these messages, there must be 10 out there that are targeted at men. Nowhere in the message is there any attempt to make comparisons. Nor am I convinced that women do not need advice. Lets not trivialize the message itself by bringing in a him v/s her perspective. :-)
"Talking on the phone while driving can deprive your children of their mother's love"
There is absolutely no interpretation of convenience there. This public service announcement is aimed at women driving and talking, nor am I trivializing the message. It is, for lack of a better word, odd. Odd to make a point of singling out women. What would make an interested blog post is looking at the other PSAs from the same campaign and noting how many specifically refer to men, fathers, sons, etc.
Geez, let's don't get into a war of the sexes here. It's the kid's safety that is in question. Moms talk on mobiles too and probably have more propensity to have offspring in the car when they do.
I know it's that way in the States. Dad's at work and Mom is taking the kids to soccer practice and can't help but multi-tasking with a mobile phone, a Big Mac and mascara. I see it all the time.
You ladies quit being insulted and take some responsibility. You know you love the phone. Both genders bear responsibilty. Take yours and quit blaming the men for everything!
Ace, it really comes down to the number of women actually on the road and the number of car. accidents caused by women in the UAE. True: EVERYONE needs to get off the phone when they drive. This campaign targets women (and locally, women, despite statistics, are considered to be the worst drivers by both men and women). As an aside, this PSA doesn't actually suggest that children would be killed-just left as orphans. As for eating and applying make-up, I ask you to do your own informal survey today. First count the number of women you see, and then count the numbers actually multi-tasking with things like talking, eating, and applying makeup.
Maybe they are appealing to the most rational gender for help?
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