A New Movement
Taking place in Beijing as I write this is the Fourth Annual Summit of the WTO. You may not have known this because the World Toilet Organisation is a relatively small movement and, despite the fact that everyone shits and pisses, few are prepared to talk about it.
As the organisation's founder Jack Sim has said, "A toilet is a basic human right and this has been neglected. In the past, there was women's liberation, leprosy, AIDS and the sexual revolution. All these taboos have been broken. The toilet problem is probably the last one."
Jakartass does not share Sim's view that toilets are "a basic human right". They're a basic human need. I do however agree with his comment that the toilet taboo must be broken. Hence the Jalan-Jalan Jakarta launch of the Jakarta Good Toilet Guide.
In Jakarta, 'public toilets' are provided for the convenience of shoppers in malls, yet they vary in cleanliness according to the effluence of their clientele.
John Aglionby, Jakarta resident and Guardian correspondent, wrote the following in 2001: The local government in Seoul, South Korea, is trying to improve public toilets by awarding cards to the owners. Those that are unsatisfactory are yellow carded and if they fail to improve they are shown an orange card and then, the ultimate humiliation, a red card. They are also shamed in the local press. Owners that do improve their conveniences are shown a blue card and then, after further improvement, the ultimate prize of a green card. They are lauded in the media.
It is time for the City Council to stop going through the motions by spouting crap about residents polluting rivers, time for them to stop pissing around, get off their backsides and to meet the needs of its citizens, .
Tomorrow is World Toilet Day. It would have been nice to celebrate it in style.
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