Boredworkers.com

Signs are probably the least effective methods of educating the public. More often than not, they are ignored. In fact, the opposite of the desired effect happens. When people see no parking signs, they’ll want to park at that location even more. See a speed limit sign and you’re bound to go over. Ever seen a do not litter sign under which there isn’t a huge pile of rubbish? Put up a do not disturb sign on any popular instant messanging (IM) platform and you’re likely to receive buzzes in quick succession. So what do you expect when you see a no smoking sign?

It was bad enough that there was a power outage in 1-Utama yesterday. When I walked out of the cinema to go to the restroom, what do I find but a bunch of faggots puffing away in the toilet. Right smack at the entrance of the restroom was a big no smoking sign, 2 feet across and 2 feet high. A sign that big is kinda hard to miss.

The smoke emanating from the little boy’s room was thick enough to make you think that there was a fire just around the corner. For a moment, I thought we were in danger of being burnt alive. My eyes were tearing up and my throat was threatening to close up on me. I decided to turn 180 and head back to the safety of the theater. At least inside, there wasn’t the risk of contracting lung cancer from second hand smoke or dying of carbon poisoning.

I think that rebellion is in our genes. We’ll try to break the rules at every opportune moment, or bend it at the very least. No heed is paid to authority, especially those that are not present to enforce the rules and guidelines that they have set. Case in point the no smoking sign. Does putting up a sign make any difference whatsoever? Perhaps it does when dealing with self respecting, civic concious citizens. However, when what you have to work with are bottom feeders, its a different story altogether.

Take the following conversation between my sister and said bottom feeders for example:
Sis: Hey, this is a no smoking area, OK?!
Bottom feeder: But everyone else is smoking.
Sis: You don’t have to be one of them.
Bottom feeder: I don’t care.

“I don’t care“? Is that the best they can come up with to justify their actions? I mean no disrespect to smokers out there (yeah right), but surely you can do better than that. Even something along the lines of, “If I don’t smoke now, the world will end”, is a lot better than “I don’t care”. At least you would be showing some indication of brain activity. Lay off the faggs people. Resorting to “I don’t care” is a sure sign that the smokes are getting to your brains and slowly culling what little intelligence you have left.

Well, with everything said and done, I suppose it was lucky that my sister got an “I don’t care” response instead of a mob of smokers coming after her. But I respect her for having ideals and the guts to stand up for them. Since none of these ‘no smoking’ signs are working, perhaps its time to go back to the drawing board and come up with something more effective… Like enforcing the law for example.