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Sign Language
Sign Language: …..and we’re back!
Came back to Manila today to discover it is a “No Wang Wang” zone. I would be very upset about this if I knew what it was! Later, Google told me it literally means “no sirens”, or more specifically here “no special treatment for self-important people who think they don’t need to line up”. As if….
So… as I stood in line waiting… I glanced over at an interesting sign. If you got very bored standing there, you could always go over to the clean area and avail of their body frisking services which appear to be on offer. Sounds too good to be missed:
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Sign Language: This is not funny!
A quick post on the way out of Manila (Jakarta bound)….. I love this. What happened I wonder? Did bomb jokes at the airport become a national obsession with everyone and their granny announcing they had a bomb in their bag? Or did some clown take his gag too far one day? We’ll never know….but I won’t be “cracking such jokes” any time soon!
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Sign Language: For Decorative Purposes Only?
Some people sarcastically comment that street signs here have no meaning and are only for decorative purposes. I beg to differ. Here’s my take on the functional interpretation of road signs here in Manila:
Sign: Stop Sign
Description: Red hexagon
Possible Meaning: You may stop here if you feel like it, or if you would like to send a text
Sign: Pedestrian Crossing
Description: White stripes across the road.
Possible meaning: Beware of foreign pedestrians shouting and screaming at you for some unknown reason
Sign: Traffic Light
Description: Pole with coloured lights
Possible Interpretation of colours: Green = Go. Yellow = Go faster. Red = Stop (unless your on a motorbike, then you can go anyway.)
Lane Markings
Description: White lines painted down the middle of the road. Inexplicably, comes in two different designs: solid or dashed
Possible meaning: A suggestion on how you might like to form lanes if traffic is not too heavy.
Sign: No Parking
Description: White Circle with a crossed out P
Possible Meaning: Other people may not park here
Am I wrong?!
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Sign Language: Man Overboard!
It always comforting to know that life jackets are available……………! But maybe not this one?!
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Sign Language: Think!
This informational sign was posted at the passenger ferry port in Dumaguete. We were stuck there for over 2 hours and there was pretty little else to look at after a while. Its not the first time I’ve seen a sign like this, especially in public places. I think its a sneak peak into the prep talks that you see going on everywhere around the country at shift changes, and an important glimpse into the Filipino mind set on community responsibility. It also reminded me of this sign I’ve seen around everywhere in Manila:
This sign gives its origin away. Most of the ones I’ve seen don’t include the Rotary logo. I kept seeing it over and over and wondering where it came from, until I finally figured it out thanks to the Google Oracle. He’s a picture of Mr Rotary himself, holding the original 1943 sign. I never noticed it around in the States at all, but its alive and well in Manila.
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Sign Language: Temporary Contraceptives
Sign on the back of a Mobile Health unit parked in Dumaguete. I’m not sure what “temporary contraceptives” are? I can guess at what they really meant but, on a symbolic level, this is an old sign. A new sign would offer permanent contraceptives since the landmark passing of the Reproductive Health Act last month despite heavy opposition from the Church.
Its a very important change for the Philippines, allowing free access to contraceptives, instrumental in decreasing the exponential birth rate here, and an important component of the country’s development in the next few years.
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Sign Language: Bawal Umihi Dito
“Its forbidden to pee here”
The everywhere sign. Plastered on every conceivable vertical surface all over the city.
I choose to translate it as “Don’t stand around here. People use this spot as a toilet so frequently, they put up a sign! Not that the sign makes any difference:
There are signs that forbid everywhere.
Bawal Tumawid Dito. Its forbidden to cross the road here:
Bawal Magtapon ng Basura Dito. Its forbidden to dump garbage here:
Are you spotting a trend?
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Sign Language: Slippery When Wet
I liked this sign for a number of reasons:
Its located at the bottom of a small, man made waterfall next to a restaurant set in a stream. Everything is wet, all the time. Kids were constantly jumping from the very slippery, alga-covered rock ledge. There could never be a moment when everything within a 100 yards would not be soaking wet.
The English is perfect but charmingly quaint. We do indeed “suffer” injuries,but elsewhere we have just forgotten that fact in favour of language crafted by lawyers.
Located in a tourist restaurant, the waterfall location was a lot of fun, but very treacherous in places. It would have been extremely easy to slip and break something, or worse. A warning sign would surely have not been enough for the law suits elsewhere. Here it stands demanding common sense and good parenting skills.
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Sign Language: The Miniature Store
Mini 2oz bleach next to mega bottle
Its a consistent theme here: the missing middle. You see it most starkly in the striking contrast between rich and poor, and the lack of a very little in between. The wealth disparity and missing middle class are reflected in so many experiences here: very low end places to eat or shop, or very expensive alternatives instead. Not so much in the middle. You can buy jumbo-sized or mini-sized versions of just about anything depending on the size of your wallet. Robert dubbed the local 7-11 as “the miniature store” as the only sell mini everything… Occasionally, like here, you see the jumbo and mini side by side and, at least to me, its symbolic of The Philippines itself.
Wright Outta Nowhere 