A well ordered universe

[The_Traveler]

The western world has so many regulations and rules and specific ways to do things that it is easy to assume we live, as much as we can, in the middle or a well-ordered universe, at least in US and Europe.

When I go to the developing world, I expect things to be different and not so orderly.

This was taken in Sa Pa in the mountains in the north of Vietnam and that's my daughter talking to two Hmong women.
Their English was pretty good tourist English and infinitely better than my Vietnamese or Hmong.
They were curious to know if she was married, and had children and did she work.
(Hmong women are the workers, morning till night, every day. They walk lots of miles to markets carrying goods to and fro. My daughter is a NY lawyer who job is to wreak havoc.)

I was back in the room taking a shower and noticed that the electric switch and outlet were virtually inside of the shower. That made me nervous, you know water, electricity, etc.
I was curious enough to look inside the small wooden door above the outlets and there was the 220 line with bare fuse wire, essentially, almost, nearly sitting in the stream of water.

What made me remember this was an incident this morning.
We are renovating our house (it might have been cheaper and easier to burn it down and start from scratch) and several guys are sanding floors.
They asked me where the drier connection was to plug in the heavy duty sander that runs on 220 so I showed them.

Later I went down to get something from the laundry room and I saw this.
Clearly, little stuff like plug configuration won't stop these guys and I realized that we live in an ordered world here, only if everyone lets it be that way.

 

[tirediron]

...

Wow... ummm... yeah. I wouldn't let them get away with that Lew... VERY, VERY dangerous!!

 

[runnah]

Wow... ummm... yeah. I wouldn't let them get away with that Lew... VERY, VERY dangerous!!

Holy ****! I'd have OSHA down there in a second to write those guys up. That is insanely unsafe.

 

[Msteelio91]

I used to work in construction and lost count of how many times we rigged plugs and connections for machinery. Floor sanders definitely being one of the more common since it's hard to find 220, and when you do it is often wired in odd ways.

I always find it interesting to compare coding in different places. What one group considers "safe" would have another rubbing their eyes in disbelief!

 

[limr30 3]

Safety is a relative term.

I remember watching a man in the process of fixing a ferry dock in Istanbul. He was standing on a rickety platform hanging from some ropes, hammering in new wood onto the side of the dock. He was wearing just shorts, no shoes. Then I realized why he wasn't wearing shoes: he was using his toes to hold the spikes in place as he hammered them in.

 

[The_Traveler]

Sanding all done, no fires, dead or wounded.

Rural Laos (which may be redundant)
Pouring hand-mixed concrete for abutments for small bridge. The rebar is the tamper.
They do have small vibrator that is run from concatenated regular household extensions, about 10 of them, about 100 feet from a generator

 

[480sparky40 39]

......I went down to get something from the laundry room and I saw this.
Clearly, little stuff like plug configuration won't stop these guys and I realized that we live in an ordered world here, only if everyone lets it be that way.

I see stuff like that EVERY DAY right here in the good ol' US of A.

 

[mmaria]

interesting...

As always, I enjoyed in your words


But, my opinion is that no matter what and how regulations are, there are always someone who won't follow them, no matter where in this world they live.
Except in Japan of course

 

[DarkShadow]

I seen this kinda stuff to.I did low voltage wiring my trade is Residential,small business and commercial CCTV,Burglar Alarms & Fire Protection and Phone with a touch of Audio. I worked along with a lot of contractors but not for any of them and seen some pretty unsafe crap. I seen a few swiging beers down in between on there breaks. These people are building and running high voltage stuff and every other thing that goes in remodeling or new builds. Some of the workers look stoned @ 700 am in the morning. That does not make me feel safe about the quality of work that goes in. I won't even get into the ones don't pull permits for the work.

 

[runnah]

interesting... As always, I enjoyed in your words But, my opinion is that no matter what and how regulations are, there are always someone who won't follow them, no matter where in this world they live. Except in Japan of course

Those people get fired! I work in the construction industry and it's amazing how much of a difference taking little precautions makes. Simple things like wearing safety glasses and gloves cuts down on injuries dramatically. You look at some of the guys in their 50-60s who work in the industry and many of them have scars, missing fingers & limbs. Some lose eyes, teeth and their lives. If you get caught not wearing safety equipment you get sent home, get caught again you get fired. It sounds harsh but our company alone goes YEARS and millions of work hours without serious injuries. The work hasn't changed but the culture around it has.

Sorry, safety is a big deal in my world.

 

[mmaria]

Safety is a big deal in the world.

fixed it for you

 

[runnah]

Safety is a big deal in the world.

fixed it for you

You'd think! Its so hard to get people to work safe.

 

[sashbar]

This well ordered universe is very young. Not long ago a construction worker in Manhattan risked more than any rural Laos guy.

The picture that proves why iconic photograph of workers eating their lunch on Rockefeller beam was all a publicity stunt | Mail Online

 

[table1349]

Just out of curiosity Lew, where those workman from the Local Running with Scissors Union #666?

 

[SCraig]

I see stuff like that EVERY DAY right here in the good ol' US of A.

Yup. Only thing I see wrong with it is that it appears that they have a phase conductor plugged into the neutral position. Other than that, nothing really unsafe about it as long as it stays put.