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For whatever reason I can’t find anything exiting enough to write about. All the news is concentrated on the subprime loans crisis and politics, with an occasional speckle of fashion trends, art heists or health discovery. It’s almost a middle of February and the columns on income tax alerts and IRA plans are not making the headlines either.
Considering all of the above I decided to write about a short segment I saw on the TV a few months ago.
Do you ever take a walk in the evening? Do you jog or walk the dog? Do you see other people walking or running? How about children? Do you pay attention what they are wearing?
Have you noticed most of the bicyclists and joggers are wearing clothing with the light reflecting features? The light from the passing cars would pick up a bright flicker and this alone may prevent an accident.
Some time last year, President of Belarus Alexander Lukashenko decreed: at the twilight and later, everybody must wear flickers: bright, light-reflecting stripes on the clothes.
Ministry of the Interior Affairs of Belarus requested all manufacturers to implement the flickers into the outer clothing, which is not only coats, but blouses, jackets, pants. Government proclaims, that all these measures are for the safety of the pedestrians.
Flickers come in different colors and shapes. Manufactures are already making all of the children clothing with flickers. In some cities local police drives around in the evening, stops people and gives out bright, flexible, magnetized stripes, which are easily coiled around the sleeve and stick to the clothing. Apparently, the increasing amount of accidents at the evening time, prompted Belarus’s president to take this extraordinary steps.
Already some rural clubs won’t let young people attend the disco, because they would have to go home, when it’s dark outside. Police also fines people for not wearing flickers.
While there are some complaints that not only clothes will be more expensive, but everybody will look very much like the policemen (who already wear stripes on their clothes), many residents, especially in the rural places, are approving the measure.
Some of the Source: Belarus/flikers
