Make toilets cool to fix sanitation woes?

Tue Nov 17, 12:49 PM

By Rina Chandran

MUMBAI (Reuters) - Jack Sim, founder of the World Toilet Organization, has a theory about why governments and people are so reluctant to talk about hygiene: it isn't cool.

"People demand a TV, not a toilet, because it is not aspirational or charismatic," said Sim, who does not hesitate to talk in graphic detail about the dangers of poor sanitation.

"Governments and people are not very receptive to being told they're dirty, that they need more toilets," said Sim on a visit to Mumbai, where more than half its 18 million residents live in slums and where the average ratio of people to toilets is 81:1.

In Mumbai, where teeming slums sit cheek by jowl with gleaming office blocks and luxury apartments, sanitation is not just a poor person's problem, said Sim, a native of Singapore.

"You are in such close proximity to slums, to people defecating and peeing in the open, that basically, you are walking in someone's poo," Sim said.

But the sight of people defecating by railway tracks or even by the roadside is so common that residents turn a blind eye to the problem and do not give it the seriousness it deserves.

"You see it long enough, and there is a basic acceptance that dirt is normal. But being repulsed by dirt, it's smell and sight is a natural defense against disease," Sim said.

With better sanitation in India, where thousands die of diarrhea and gastro-intestinal disease, people will not fall ill so much, can work better and get out of poverty, Sim said.

In India, Sim's outfit, which he calls the WTO, works with several NGOs that build and maintain public toilets. But they need to think beyond just building more toilets that are seldom maintained and get taken over by encroachers, he said.

WTO, along with consumer goods maker Hindustan Unilever, has launched a pilot programme on some premium Rajdhani Express trains to keep the toilets clean in return for advertising space.

"This is an example of market factors solving a big problem," said Carolyn Jones, global hygiene manager at Unilever.

"It is a sensitive issue, but a serious one that has to be a shared responsibility of the government, companies and people."

(Editing by Alistair Scrutton and Miral Fahmy)

Via

The Attitude of the New Puritans

“But wait a minute,” you say to them. “No one ever asked you to stay up all night eight days a week trying to get filthy rich shorting what’s left of the American auto industry or selling $600 billion in toxic, irredeemable mortgages to ex-strippers on work release and Taco Bell clerks. Actually, come to think of it, why are we even giving taxpayer money to you people? Why are we not throwing your ass in jail instead?”

But before you even finish saying that, they’re rolling their eyes, because You Don’t Get It. These people were never about anything except turning money into money, in order to get more money; valueswise they’re on par with crack addicts, or obsessive sexual deviants who burgle homes to steal panties. Yet these are the people in whose hands our entire political future now rests.

Via

I was offered a drink called a Snapple Iced Tea yesterday. There was a sketch of the sun on the label. A note next to this sketch informed me that this picture was not to scale. Another reminder of how completely ignorant and gullible advertisers take us for. I refused this drink, even though I was severely dehydrated at the time. I have also noticed that certain toilet tissues use images of babies on their packaging. This is highly misleading, as babies are the only people who do not use toilet paper.

Thinking about this further, it could be said that certain invalids are also exempt from using toilet paper. I have no doubts that the severely disabled will soon appear on television extolling the virtues of various toilet papers.

- Werner Herzog Via

By Shawn Pogatchnik, The Associated Press

DUBLIN - Is a bathroom an optional extra when you're at 30,000 feet? Ryanair boss Michael O'Leary seems to think so - as his no-frills airline contemplates charging customers to use toilets on its aircraft.

O'Leary whipped up a frenzy of indignation and potty humour Friday as he suggested that future Ryanair passengers might be obliged to insert a British pound coin before they gain access to in-flight relief.

As always, O'Leary suggested a separate toilet fee would lower ticket costs and make flying, somehow, easier for all. Nobody, even his own aides, seemed to be sure if he was serious or pursuing his well-documented penchant for making brazen declarations to win free advertising.

"One thing we have looked at in the past, and are looking at again, is the possibility of maybe putting a coin slot on the toilet door, so that people might have to actually spend a pound to 'spend a penny' in future," O'Leary said, using a local euphemism for relieving one's self.

When asked, during an interview on BBC Television, what would happen if a customer really had to go, but didn't have the correct change, O'Leary dismissed the scenario as implausible. This even though Ireland and most of Europe uses euros, not the British currency, and even on-board attendants often find themselves without the correct change.

"I don't think there's anybody in history gone on board a Ryanair aircraft with less than a pound," he said.

Politicians and analysts agreed that the man who pioneered charging airline customers to check bags, to use a check-in desk, and even to use a credit or debit card to make an on-line booking just might be serious about mile-high toilet extortion, too.

Howard Wheeldon, senior strategist at BGC Partners in London, cautioned consumers that O'Leary might be attempting two for the price of one: Free publicity backed by cut-throat reality.

"This begs a simple question retort of: Is there absolutely nothing that this airline won't do? Not really, so if you are thinking about flying cattle-class Ryanair in future, beware," he said.

O'Leary's own chief spokesman, Stephen McNamara, said his boss often spoke tongue in cheek - but then defended the idea of charging for a toilet as part of a logical trend.

"Michael makes a lot of this stuff up as he goes along and, while this has been discussed internally, there are no immediate plans to introduce it," McNamara said, adding, "Passengers using train and bus stations are already accustomed to paying to use the toilet, so why not on airplanes? Not everyone uses the toilet on board one of our flights, but those that do could help to reduce airfares for all passengers."

Rochelle Turner, head of research at British consumer rights magazine Which? Holiday, said Ryanair had a well-documented practice of "putting profit before the comfort of its customers" - but this one could backfire.

"Charging people to go to the toilet might result in fewer people buying overpriced drinks on board. That would serve Ryanair right," she said.

Tommy Broughan, transport spokesman for Ireland's Labour Party, said the toilet-charge idea had to be taken seriously.

He noted that Ryanair last month began threatening customers with 30-euro fines if they tried to carry on board a second bag regardless of size - even one filled with a just-purchased item from the airport's duty-free shops.

"When Ryanair introduced this 30-euro extra duty-free charge, many passengers joked that next they would be charged for using the toilet - not realizing that this indeed seems to be the newest extra charge on Ryanair's agenda," Broughan said.

They call it Mellow Yellow?

Thu Feb 12, 9:31 AM

By Matthias Williams

NEW DELHI (Reuters) - A hardline Hindu organization, known for its opposition to "corrupting" Western food imports, is planning to launch a new soft drink made from cow's urine, often seen as sacred in parts of India.

The Rashtriya Swayamsevak Sangh (RSS), or National Volunteer Corps, said the bovine beverage is undergoing laboratory tests for the next 2 to 3 months but did not give a specific date for its commercial release.

The flavor is not yet known, but the RSS said the liquid produced by Hinduism's revered holy cows is being mixed with products such as aloe vera and gooseberry to fight diseases such as diabetes and cancer.

Many Hindus consider cow urine to have medicinal properties and it is often drunk in religious festivals.

The organization, which aims to transform India's secular society and establish the supremacy of a Hindu majority, said it had not decided on a name or a price for the drink.

"Cow urine offers a cure for around 70 to 80 incurable diseases like diabetes. All are curable by cow urine," Om Prakash, the head of the RSS Cow Protection Department, told Reuters by phone.

Prakash, who is based in Hardwar, one of four holy Hindu cities on the river Ganges where the world's largest religious gathering takes place, said the product will be sold nationwide but did not rule out international success.

"It is useful for the whole country and the world as well. It will be done through shops and through corporates," he said.

The Hindu group has campaigned against foreign imports such as Pepsi and Coca Cola in the past, which it sees as a corrupting influence and a tool of Western imperialism.

The RSS was temporarily banned after a Hindu mob tore down a mosque in 1992 which lead to bloody religious riots.

The Shiv Sena, a hardline Hindu political party also known for attacking what it sees as threats to Indian culture such as Valentine's Day, started a similar initiative last year to appeal to its powerbase in Mumbai.

To promote the food of the native Marathi culture, the Shiv Sena said it was "making a chain like McDonalds" to sell a popular local fried snack.

(Additional reporting by Vipul Tripathi)

(Editing by Miral Fahmy)

Sewage yields more gold than top mines

Fri Jan 30, 12:16 PM

TOKYO (Reuters) - Resource-poor Japan just discovered a new source of mineral wealth -- sewage.

A sewage treatment facility in central Japan has recorded a higher gold yield from sludge than can be found at some of the world's best mines. An official in Nagano prefecture, northwest of Tokyo, said the high percentage of gold found at the Suwa facility was probably due to the large number of precision equipment manufacturers in the vicinity that use the yellow metal. The facility recently recorded finding 1,890 grammes of gold per tonne of ash from incinerated sludge.

That is a far higher gold content than Japan's Hishikari Mine, one of the world's top gold mines, owned by Sumitomo Metal Mining Co Ltd, which contains 20-40 grammes of the precious metal per tonne of ore.

The prefecture is so far due to receive 5 million yen ($55,810) for the gold, minus expenses.

It expects to earn about 15 million yen for the fiscal year to the end of March from the gold it has retrieved from the ashes of incinerated sludge.

"How much we actually receive will depend on gold prices at the time," the official said.

Some gold industry officials expect prices this year to top the all-time high above $1,030 per ounce set in 2008, on buying by investors worried about the deepening economic downturn. (Reporting by Miho Yoshikawa; Editing by Hugh Lawson)