I see this guy every morning with his broom and black plastic bag.
It's hot, it's dusty and like his colleagues he does the sensible thing and wraps up to keep the sun off and the dust out.
Cap with a large neck flap which he ties across his face, sunglasses, gloves...fully covered.
It's an interesting comparison - people, from hot sunny climates cover up to keep the sun off, people from colder climates wear as little as they can in the sun; shorts, singlets, flipflops being streetwear of choice it seems.
Trivia - these street cleaning guys are, according to the ID across their back, part of 'House Keeping'.
8 comments:
It's an interesting comparison - people, from hot sunny climates cover up to keep the sun off, people from colder climates wear as little as they can in the sun; shorts, singlets, flipflops being streetwear of choice it seems.
It's probably a false comparison: the difference in clothing is based less on where the individual in question comes from and more from the fact that the person is doing a job in the sun for long hours. If someone from colder climates had to work in the outdoors for the same number of hours as the chap in your photo, they would likely cover themselves up in just the same way.
I agree with Anonymous 11:19 - to an extent.
You don't see any people from 'colder climates' working these types of jobs; what these guys wear is more for protection from the intense heat rather than a reflection of the dressing code in their home countries.
However, when you compare those from warmer and colder climates but with similar incomes, you do see more of the 'colder climate' types wearing less than the 'warmer climate' types. This, I think, is due to the culture of the home countries.
I always laugh at our community pool where all the dark skinned people sit in the shade trying to stay light and all the white skinned people sit in the sun trying to go brown!
Humans are weird!
Anon, I have to disagree with you. See what outdoor workers in the UK, for example, wear on a hot sunny day.
Anon, I have to disagree with you. See what outdoor workers in the UK, for example, wear on a hot sunny day.
Are you referring to what outdoor workers wear in the UK during the two to three weeks of (non-consecutive) sunny and cloudless days in a year where the temperature and humidity is usually far below that in the UAE?
What do Australian outdoor workers wear in the summer in Queensland?
Seabee, can you actually compare the climate in the UK with that of Dubai? The average temperature during summer in the UK is about 20 degrees Celsius, whereas in Dubai it's twice as much (40)!
Add to that, the humidity, dust, etc; I doubt it's possible for people from any part of the world to submit themselves to long hours of manual labour without running the risk of sunburn and other similar problems.
I don't want to get into a huge debate about it, I was simply making the observation that (as Susan also noted) there's a difference in the way people deal with the sun.
The Man no of course I'm not comparing the temps in the UK directly with Dubai. But I must say that to a UK resident the temps they've been having of high twenties (and more) are the equivalent to much higher temps to people who live in the Gulf, parts of India etc.
Anon@3.51, in Qld, and Oz in general, the workers will be in shorts and singlet, or possibly a short sleeved shirt. They certainly don't cover up completely like the guy in my pic.
Ask yourself - who's the clever one?
Post a Comment