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WHAT IS SAFETY?

 

Sometimes we think or assume we know only to find out we don't.

For example, can you honestly answer the question: What is safety? Is it the absence of danger? Or a state of no accident, injury or damage? Or just some abstract thing that doesn't really exist outside your mind? Have you really given it a thought? It is a bit like asking BB King what is jazz music, isn't it?.

Would you say it has to do with something that started somewhere in Africa, forcibly brought to America via slave ships or that jazz is simply good music or something else? Either way you won't be making much sense to quite a number of folks but in the end, it is generally accepted that jazz is good music by followers of that genre of music.

Safety though is simpler and much more complex at the same time. Now safety is why you're careful about the water you drink, the food you eat, how you travel, where you sleep and when, the company you keep, etc. etc. That's why folks say to you to drive safely but in reality they might not be able to explain it in one word or two what it is they actually mean.

Safety is a million things in thousands of ways. But in the end it simply is playing by the rules, doing what is right first time, each time, and no more. Safety is why we're here today. Our behaviours, attitudes, traditions, cultures, etc.

Safety is all that and more. What is safety? Think about it. Your guess maybe as good as mine, if not better. Stay tuned to what you're doing.


Image: culled from www.

 

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