Melaka is about a 2 hour drive south of Kuala Lumpur. It was the place where colonization of the Malay peninsula began (first from Sumatra, then from China, India and the Middle East, and then relatively late to the party was Europe- the Portuguese, the Dutch, then the English). When the English came in, Melaka became part of their Straits settlement with Penang and Singapore. I wanted to visit at some point because I am a sucker for historical stuff, so we took a quick day trip last weekend.
Melaka is easily accessible by bus, so that’s what we did- spending a whopping RM32.80 each way on a Super VIP bus for a more comfortable ride, for a round trip cost of about $20 USD. For both of us. On the cab ride into the historical area, Micah noticed a familiar sign.
For the uninitiated, our adopted home state of Texas launched a very successful anti-litter campaign in the late 1980s. Those signs look like this:
We thought it was hilarious and really cool that Melaka adopted this now-iconic symbol of Texas, of all places. Not only is the campaign slogan the same, but the two signs are practically identical! The color blocking is the same, the font is the same, the iconography is basically the same but of course changed to be culturally relevant. At the bottom, the outline of the state of Texas becomes the outline of the state of Melaka. At the top, Texas’ Lone Star becomes the Crescent Moon and Star from Melaka’s state flag. One would think this would be pretty clear grounds for a copyright infringement case, but it appears that Texas is in favor of the globalization of anti-litter.
I will say, from our single day in Melaka, they did seem to have their litter under much better control than what we’ve seen in KL. Texas goes global for the win!
adventure pengembara 