Our regular columnist on all things Africa, Mr Brian Bilal Mwebaze is back with another topical column on jokes in road safety. Is there a place for comedy in road safety messaging? Does it work? Some organizations believe it does and others believe it doesn’t. Here, Brian lays the argument down for you to think about.

Farting in public is commonly seen to be funny , in many African cultures and Kids will not hold their insatiable quest to burst out laughing at it especially if its made by an adult. Upon talking of the innocence of kids, have you signed the #SaveKidsLives campaign yet?

Speaking of (farting), your job will drop having read that an Indian tribe in South America called the Yanomami fart as a greeting, and in China you can actually get a real job as a professional fart-smeller! It gets more interesting because termites are leading criminals in contributing to climate change as they fart more than any other animal producing a record of methane gas. But again, we don’t wanna be professors of farting. I don’t mean to turn this into an article about passing wind but you get my idea; lots of comedy is often based on this form of toilet humour.  We were saying…Yes, Jokes.

A few days after the International Road Federation Conference, Michael (not real names) and I headed to catch a movie in Addis Ababa’s most gliding Cinema Hall, and as we were coming back, we grabbed a taxi driven by what we would later find out, 23 year old Abyi (not real names). Our driver correctly put on his seatbelt and off we drove. We had hardly been 500m’s distance when his mobile went into an awe of ‘Pick-Up-The-Damn-Phone’ ringtone.

WHO notes that distracted driving is a serious and growing threat to road safety. With more and more people owning (sexy) mobile phones, and the rapid introduction of new “invehicle” communication systems, this problem is likely to escalate globally in the coming years. Studies suggest that drivers using a mobile phone are approximately four times more likely to be involved in a crash than when a driver does not use a phone:-and that weren’t prepared for.

Being safety freaks (read enthusiasts), we held our breath to see if Abyi would pick it up. In an instant, he reached out to the phone and hit the hands-free mode. On the other line was a ‘Hello Sweetie…’ and well, what? Sorry but the next seemingly 6 words were in a Hebrew of the local language and none of us understood a word apart from ‘Shalom’. While we automatically asked him to stop the car, which he did, our temperatures were infinitely increased by his ‘smart response’. 

“See homies, I am a responsible hi-tech geek who uses a hands free hitech”, there smiling wryly, he said it in a trademark English-Ahmaric accent. According to him, this was supposed to be a joke.

A study by Lewis (2013) on a fresh approach for road safety campaigns through humour revealed that, irrespective of age and gender, humour that was clever, incorporated something unexpected and contrasting with the everyday, was a preferred and relevant approach, thus aligning with incongruity-based theories of humour generation and humour types, such as comic wit and satire. 

As a persuasive function, humorous messages were considered likely to be talked about (and relatively more so than traditional fear-based approaches). Participants also felt that humorous messages would need to be used cautiously as humour that was considered inappropriate and/or associated with serious occurrences, such as a crash, would be unlikely to persuade. Lewis notes that humourous campaigns are not jokes.

I am quite sure you have heard about peers, comedians, movie stars and musicians making some road safety messages/programmes a butt of jokes. For a field that is the leading cause of death for young people aged 15-29, contributing 1.3 million deaths annually worldwide, you honestly got the balls to call this a joke? With estimated 50 million injuries documented annually, should we be making fun of something that changes the lives of someone, a family, a community and a country physically, economically, socially and psychologically?

Sometimes jokes and humour can play a role in making sense of what is happening in our world, in a light-hearted fashion and sometimes but sometimes they ridicule the essential elements of road safety. If we get the balance right, maybe jokes do have a role? Or maybe not? I feel that jokes have no place in road safety…but that is my view! What’s yours? 

Tweet your views to Brian and YOURS

The Fourth Global Meeting of Non-Governmental Organizations Advocating for Road Safety and Road Victims was  held on 13 and 14 March 2015 in Marrakech, Morocco with participation of 170 delegates from 52 countries. YOURS was involved with a ‘pre-conference’ workshop on Fundraising alongside FedEx as well as represented the youth voice within the Alliance meeting.

Prior to the workshop on the 12th March, YOURS parterned with FedEx and Safe Kids Worldwide to build the capacity of NGOs interested in gaining new knowledge on Fundraising. “How to “sell” your project and get funded”. Workshop in proposal writing and idea pitching. The workshop offered leads of NGOs the opportunity to learn about the NGO and Corporate Sector approach to partnership and funding explorations.

The training was run by Shane O’Connor; Communication Advisor at FedEx, Priti Gautam; Program Manager, International Pedestrian Safety at Safe Kids Worldwide, Floor Lieshout; Director at YOURS Youth for Road Safety and Manpreet Darroch; Communications Officer at YOURS Youth for Road Safety.

The training took participants through a range of topics including understanding where to access grants, who provides them and what can you do to maximize your chances of being funded. Shane O’Connor of FedEx explained what corporations are looking for in a grantee including the desirable organizations as well as exmaples of good and bad grant writing practise. At the end, participants pitched for a real life project that they decided for in groups and were given feedback.

On the 13th and 14th March 2015, the 4th meeting of the Global Alliance for Road Safety convened and gave NGOs from around the world a great opportunity to share practise and meet one another. A range of topics were focused on during the meeting with objectives:

• Organize the Alliance Second Assembly
• Share knowledge, experiences, and good practices on road safety
• Strengthen the capacity of participating NGOs for project management
• Encourage and mobilize the NGO contribution to the Third UN Road Safety Week
• Mobilize NGO contribution for the Ministerial Conference on Road Safety in Brazil, November 2015
• A full breakdown of the conference agenda can be found here.

Charlie Cracknell’s film titled ‘Safe Driving Saves Lives’ was recently nominated for Best Picture and Best Editing at the THIMUN Qatar Northwestern Film Festival held annually in Doha, Qatar. The THIMUN Qatar Northwestern Film Festival attracts young film makers from around the world. The Festival serves as a platform for young people to create advocacy films on local or global issues.

Through his film, Charlie hopes to make drivers stop and think before picking up their phones to text whilst driving which endangers not only their lives but also the lives of others as every single day many people die as a result.

“After witnessing someone in the car next to us texting and driving, I started researching the dangers and was shocked to discover that not only is ‘Texting and Driving’ now the leading cause of teen deaths but over 83 percent of adults use their phones whilst driving!

My challenge for this short film was to make people think seriously about the danger of texting and driving whilst avoiding anything too graphic or gory so that the film would make a real impact but also could be viewed by adults as well as children.” This year’s festival will be held from April 2-4, 2015.

YOURS wishes Charlie the best of luck in claiming an award for road safety and encourages him to continue to create these engaging and thought provoking messages for the cause!