Signs

When we were first in Glasgow, we were confronted with signs telling us that “fly tipping” was a bad thing. We were quite confused, because … well, the words didn’t make any sort of sense to us. Upon close examination of the sign, though, were were given to understand that “littering” was the activity under discussion.

I wonder whether the Glaswegians would be equally confused by the concept of not dumping things into the storm drains, in order to protect the fish. Everything in Scotland, after all, eventually ends up under enough water to carry it to the sea. Would the sign tell them anything?

The Scottish sign tries to appeal to people on the level of “making the city better.” The Californian sign plays on people’s care for nature, or at least tries to make the person dumping something feel guilty about causing harm to the fish. When you think about it, the Glasgow sign works on hope, the Californian sign on guilt. The Glasgow sign mentions penalties, the Californian one just has a picture of the fish you’ll be poisoning.

Coming back to California, we’re confronted by so many of these little differences. They’re not things you’d notice unless you’d lived in both places, or were particularly observant, but they are not insignificant. How does a city function? On what basis? How does it create order? Who and what are important?

In Glasgow, I find myself criticizing things because they don’t make sense to me (for example, the locked recycle bins which can only be filled one can or bottle at a time). Here, I find myself realizing things like that pedestrians ought to have a few more rights (and sidewalks), and that it’d be nice if there were a Data Protection Act here in the US.

In going away, we see things more clearly. Distance brings objectivity.