It's the Little Things

A while back we had a couple of traffic accidents that resulted in injuries and deaths among the locals. You may remember a post I wrote a while back of one such incident that sparked a riot which raged on into the evening.

When slowing down or stopping in traffic might enable a suicide bomber to kill you, it's understandable that a lot of the ISAF personnel in Kabul are inclined to drive aggressively. The problem is when it gives the locals the impression that we're driving recklessly. It's hard to convince them that you're on their side if you nearly run them over every time they cross the street or change lanes.

In order to mitigate some of the potential PR damage potential, someone launched an awareness campaign here on the base designed to make people more be more careful behind the wheel. The message was simple, "WE can't win if YOU drive recklessly. Think about it." What could be wrong with that?

The only problem is a simple graphic design flaw that makes it ripe for mockery. The entire message is completely undermined with a couple of simple folds:


The only thing that upsets me about seeing these posters folded up all over the camp is that I didn't think of it myself.