spokesNspin

Warning: Another one of those posts that might make you question my sanity and sense of propriety.

I recently finished reading this:

As crazy as it may seem, this is a very interesting book about something that we  are all familiar with.  And George starts off by talking about the word “shit” and why it is the best word to use to describe it instead of all the euphemisms we have created through the years.

The book is both entertaining and informative.   Just don’t read it while eating lunch.

She covers the history of toilets and the cultural sociological aspects of defecation.  It’s more interesting than you realize.  For example, two hundred years ago relieving one’s self in the presence of others was common while blowing your nose in public was the epitome of bad form.  Look at how far we have come.

I was almost in tears as I read about the life of “night scavengers” in India.  These are the people of the lowest caste who clean dry latrines(Dry latrine sounds better than it is).   The night scavengers are all but slaves.  Some times they go months without getting paid and when they are paid it may be nothing more than bread that is rotten.  It is all illegal but happens anyway.

I read how some people have improved the lives of rural farmers in China by teaching them to build bio-gas latrines.  It made a big difference in the lives of women.   Now they have energy for a stove and light powered by bio-gas.  They no longer cook in smoky kitchens. They have more time to do other things that bring income to the family.

“The 1.8 million child deaths each year related to clean water and sanitation dwarf the casualties associated with violent conflict. No act of terrorism generates economic devastation on the scale of the crisis in water and sanitation. Yet the issue barely registers on the international agenda.”

The need for society to address the management of human waste is a constant in the book.  And it is not just under developed countries.  Cities in the United States are dumping sewage into oceans, lakes and rivers.  The same water you are drinking.

The book is also humorous.   There is a discussion of the Japanese and how much effort they put in to developing toilets.  Who would have thought there is something other than the common flush toilet we use each day? 

The Japanese have toilets with built in bidets that include heated seats, air drying and sound effects to mask other sounds.  The description of the research that goes into these  will have you either rolling on the floor in laughter or getting rather grossed out.

And something that I am sure wives and mothers would appreciate, the promotion of separation toilets that require men to sit.

Just don’t mention this post to my brother. I got this book for him for Christmas but had to read it first.  He is a civil engineer and works in this area.   He is the one who often laments the fact that in the United States we spend so much effort and energy to clean up our water just to turn around and shit in it.   It really doesn’t make sense when you think about it.  This book gives us some other ideas about what to do about that.  

He maintains that what he does is the most important job on the planet.  After reading the book I would have to agree.   The book gives one something to think about.  Maybe more than you want to think about.  But hey, it’s not like yours doesn’t stink.