IT WAS a poster created to drive home the message of worksite safety, but some construction workers, especially
those from China, have labelled it culturally insensitive and tactless.

That's because the poster shows a line of tortoises with their shells replaced by yellow safety helmets.

Mr Qian Guoliang, 40, a construction worker with an oil company, said in Mandarin: "If I were to be called a tortoise in China, the conversation would end in blows."

Mr Qian and several other workers complained to their supervisor, who wrote in to my paper early this week. In Chinese culture, being called a "tortoise" implies that one is an illegitimate child or a coward.

Mr Gu Xinzhong, 40, a fellow worker who has been working in Singapore since last year, questioned: "Why are all the helmets in the poster yellow" Does that mean only we lower strata workers are tortoises and need to worry about safety"?

To differentiate themselves, engineers, managers and supervisors wear different-coloured helmets at a construction site, such as blue, white or red.

Mr Qian, who has been working here for four years, added: "There are so many other animals to choose from. Why do they have to use the tortoise"?

The poster was one of the winning entries for the poster design category at the Safety@Work Creative Awards 2007.

The competition was jointly organised by the Ministry of Manpower (MOM) and ST Engineering in tandem with the
Workplace Safety and Health Council (WSHC).

When my paper contacted MOM, it declined to comment as the winning poster was decided upon by a panel of judges.

These judges are industry veterans in the creative sector who are not from MOM, it said. Worksite supervisor Sunny Kong, 60, who e-mailed the poster to my paper and is Singaporean, said: "Although the poster was made with good intentions, the Ministry should still take the feelings of these workers into consideration.

"They work so hard and yet they feel like they're despised." The poster is available from MOM and any employer who wants to emphasise safety at the workplace can get a copy of it, said the Ministry.

The creator of the poster, Mr Tan Jun Kiat, who was a student at ITE College West when he took part in the contest, told my paper: "The tortoise symbolises longevity. I've used Aesop's fable of the tortoise and the hare to show that the tortoise, who follows safety guidelines, will eventually beat the arrogant hare."

When contacted, two international advertising agencies here and the Advertising Standards Authority of Singapore declined to comment because the poster was a public service announcement and not an advertisement.

On hindsight, the chief judge of the panel, Mr Ahmad Mashadi, said: "Although the feedback was unanticipated at the time of judging, we should acknowledge differing cultural perceptions."

Mr Ahmad, who is also the head of the NUS Museum, added: "Perhaps Aesop's fables aren't as universally appreciated as we thought."

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