November 7, 2006
Use Shell or else
Can someone out there translate this for me.
At the moment I can only assume that it says something like - Use Shell or this will happen to your car.
Or could it be anything to so with Ethiopia's scarily high rate of road accidents?
According to the World Health Organisation, Ethiopia has the highest rate of fatalities per vehicle in the world - quite an achievement when you realise that there are only 1.5 vehicles per 1,000 Etihopians.
UPDATE: Thank you brother, abe, Tazabeo and Abebe. Apparently the slogan means something like "A second's patience can save your life and property".
Posted by aheavens at November 7, 2006 8:42 AM
Comments
Hi Andrew, it raffle translates as ... have a patience for a second and you will save your life and property form traffic accident.
Posted by: Abeba at November 7, 2006 9:26 AM
Andrew,
literally, A second “patience” to save life and property from traffic accidents.
It’s a campaign I guess telling people to be patience while driving.
And I guess Shell is sponsoring the campaign.
It is really funny how things can be misinterpreted.
Tazabeo
Posted by: Tazabeo at November 7, 2006 9:27 AM
A second's patience can save your life! That is what it says.
Posted by: abe at November 7, 2006 9:44 AM
“A fraction of a second patience will save life and property from road accidents” ….
Shell is just passing the, “Be patient while driving”, message along
Posted by: brother at November 7, 2006 10:02 AM
"According to the World Health Organisation, Ethiopia has the highest rate of fatalities per vehicle in the world - quite an achievement when you realise that there are only 1.5 vehicles per 1,000 Ethiopians."
Actually that makes it less of an achievement. I think Ethiopia holds this title mainly due to its high proportion of pedestrians to drivers.
Posted by: Jacob at November 7, 2006 3:17 PM
It is inspiring to see such an educative billboard - near the Hilton, I believe - in Amharic.
Posted by: John at November 7, 2006 4:32 PM
I never saw so many roadside accidents in all of my travels as I did in my month in Ethiopia. Many of the Isuzu 'al qaeda' truck drivers have little concern for themselves or others. Even the minibus out of Harar (the 'Hamas' bus) was a rather scary trip. in an effort to be a little safe I hired a car and driver- ironicaly this proved no better as the driver was an ex-trucker convinced he could drive the car as if it were a several ton 'al qaeda' truck.
Posted by: Phil at November 7, 2006 10:25 PM
I, on the other hand, think it is because of the high proportions of minbuses and isuzu pick ups (aka 'al qaeda'), and people thinking driving like a maniac is arad'net. and lack of concept of LANES!!!
Posted by: ShalomShalom at November 7, 2006 10:46 PM
Andrew,
It says if you're a Careless Unstable Driver (CUD), this will happen to you.
Posted by: Yirga at November 8, 2006 1:35 AM