November 17, 2004
DEMOCRACY IS ALL WELL AND GOOD, BUT FIRST...
World Toilet Summit opens in Beijing (Audra Ang Associated Press, November 17th, 2004)
Laugh all you want, say public hygiene experts at the World Toilet Summit, but the importance of having loos you can use is no joke.The three-day event, which began Wednesday in Beijing, is an international commode conference with a mission: the globalization of presentable latrines.
"People are saying 'We want good toilets!' because toilets are a basic human right and that basic human right has been neglected," said Jack Sim, founder of the World Toilet Organization, a co-sponsor of the summit. "The world deserves better toilets."
We have to admit this is the first new idea the human rights crowd has thrown up in fifty years that conservatives can embrace wholeheartedly.
If we just got rid of the UN we could use the money to buy toilets for the world and
Posted by: David Cohen at November 17, 2004 7:38 AMNow this is an area where the French really could use some international help.
Titter all you want, but being confronted with one of those 'hole-in-the-floor' jobs after a good meal is no laughing matter.
Posted by: Brit at November 17, 2004 7:53 AMBeen there, haven't done that.
In my comment, I lost the last bit by putting it in carats. It should read:
If we just got rid of the UN we could use the money to buy toilets for the world and [BRAIN EXPLODES FROM CORNUCOPIA OF SNARKY REMARKS]
Posted by: David Cohen at November 17, 2004 7:59 AMWill urinals be banned because they are not inclusive? I say this laughingly, but I inagine that someone on that WTO is probably studying this issue.
Posted by: Dave W at November 17, 2004 8:30 AMSurely there's got to be some sort of U.N. resolution coming to mandate a Third World toilet paper transfer subsidy (and not to subsidize those generic brands or that cheap by-the-leaf toilet paper like they used to have in your public school bathrooms either, but the good stuff with aloe and Vitamin E, which the industralized nations like the United States have been using in disproportionate amounts compared to the rest of the world).
Posted by: John at November 17, 2004 8:55 AMSurely there's got to be some sort of U.N. resolution coming to mandate a Third World toilet paper transfer subsidy (and not to subsidize those generic brands or that cheap by-the-leaf toilet paper like they used to have in your public school bathrooms either, but the good stuff with aloe and Vitamin E, which the industralized nations like the United States have been using in disproportionate amounts compared to the rest of the world).
Posted by: John at November 17, 2004 8:56 AMJohn:
Again, an area where our French cousins are crying out for help.
As Billy Wilder famously put it:
"France is the only country where the money falls apart and you can't tear the toilet paper."
Posted by: Brit at November 17, 2004 8:59 AMJohn:
Bad idea. Give a man toilet paper and he will be clean for a day. Teach him to make his own and...oh, never mind.
Posted by: Peter B at November 17, 2004 9:09 AMOf course toilets didn't catch on in the west
until societies were sufficiently organized
to find ways to dispose of the waste. The
same is obviously true in the backward parts
of the world. The entire modern
sanitation process is what counts.
Still waiting for our much-vaunted Western Civilization to come up with a better solution than the "smear until relatively clean" solution of toilet paper. Then we flush and are enveloped in a cloud of aerosolized fecal matter. Ummm, there's a way to go yet.
Posted by: JimGooding at November 17, 2004 9:14 AM"Embracing the toilet" usually has a negative connotation.
Posted by: jim hamlen at November 17, 2004 9:24 AMJim - The Japanese invented a behind-washing-machine to solve your toilet paper problem. It takes a bit of getting used to.
Posted by: pj at November 17, 2004 10:28 AMFrom the little ditty "In France" by Frank Zappa—
They've got some coffee
That'll eat right through your cup
And when you go ca-ca
They make you stand up
Down in France,
And if you're not careful,
It'll stick to your cheeks
And you'll smell like a native
For a couple of weeks
Down in France
Way down in France.