The enigmatic signboard
26 April 2008
Democracy has arrived. The new government is in place and the ministers have assumed their responsibilities. But wait, there seems to be a dictator lurking inside the system. We don’t quite know about the size of the moustache but the mind is certainly dictatorial. There is this almost sinister fixation with uniformity. He would have us all in uniform doing the goose march. We are talking sign boards. Yes here we go again, one more time.
It is almost incredulous that democracy is heralded in with a notification demanding uniform sign boards. The size, the colour et al. If not, pay a fine of Nu.1,000 a day. Now isn’t that scary. What could be more dangerous than a hare brained dictator? Time and again, people have tried to explain the link between business and signboards – the logos, corporate colours and other branding paraphernalia essential to a business.
The much flogged explanation is always aesthetics. Aesthetics -where does that come from? Certainly not from someone who has any notion of beauty. Leave aside business logic. The beauty of a Times Square in New York or the Champs Elysees in Paris does not come from uniformity. It comes from the mind blowing disarray of colours. The same can be said about the colours on our traditional houses. It is an added attraction.
Businesses and organisations have gone out of their way to brand themselves. There have been considerable expenses in doing so. Businesses here have also flourished in delivering such services. To demand uniform signboards is to deplete the resources of one and kill the other altogether. It is also about stifling creativity and artistic freedom. It is about expression, one that is guaranteed in the constitution.
To talk about aesthetics or the absence of it, one just needs to look at the notice boards inside bars. The sheer ugliness of it is testimony to what forced regulation can breed. That is the last face that we want the town to wear. The emphasis should be on the quality of signboards and not uniformity. This draconian decree was dropped earlier because of fierce resistance. Reviving it under a democracy is some brain child.
When the bar notice boards were announced, there were people who already had ready stock. It’s strange that they had such premonition. Could the same be happening here? And what of the threat of charging fines – could somebody explain to this person the meaning of democracy. It is all about responsible choice. Besides, the city corporation has a lot more important things to do. For a change, they could stop making people run after them for weeks just to get a piece of paper.
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Bravo!
I just dont get why the government is so thick skinned about what the people are asking for. Basically it boils down to logic. Nowhere in a metropolis, are there unifrom sign boards. Nowhere are there black and white hoardings? The tagline is-variety is the spice of life!
This editorial should knock some sense into the stubborn heads of policy makers. And especially send a message to the few-week-old government that good start is a journey half completed! This defintely is not a good sign!
A well written article I should say. In reality this this is the work of ignorant policy makers rather than that of dictators. Let me explain. To be a dictator you need brains and certain long term agenda like ruling a county for life or whatever. On the other hand what we have here is a bird brained policy. A policy that just seems to come out of nowhere. I just wonder how they had managed to equate beauty with “every signboard have to be uniform” policy. This really is an insult to human creativity. Pre historic apes developed into modern humans because they had creative abilities. They could create better tools, find better ways to hunt, make better homes and lead better lives. Creativity has lead to innovation which has in turn bettered our lives. This rule is a insult to the millions of years of human development. How ridiculous can it get? We already had “paint all the roof tops of the Thimphu valley red” rule only to be followed by “green valley” policy (they took this in literal sense and started painting all the rooftops green). I guess some people had missed the process of evolution.
I very much appreciate the article, and it is indeed well said, and well timed. There are such policy that really needs to be highlighted and critically analyzed by the media, and given out for public information as this.
To cite some of the earlier instances, where the public were being forced to bear the cost of such, i guess for the benefit of some individual are as follows, with my guess:
1) Change of blue book – nothing much changed, just the colour – benefit the one of the printing press, as it was done on haste and without any proper justification.
2) The dividers in the new swimming pool road, some 6 million Nu/- spent for the benefit of some contractors, and the commission that is being enjoyed by corrupt person somewhere.
3) The uniform Bhutanese flag – to be displayed, and bought from one of the firm only, who is the sole distributor of it, no mass production of such was tendered out, and the cost as they charge.
4) ETC ETC……