The Romans weren't big on privacy.If I asked you what the three most important rights are in your life, which would you choose?
Would it be the Right To Free Speech?
What about the Right To Vote and elect your government?
Or the Right To A Fair Trial?
If you live in the Excited States, would you choose the Right To Bare Arms, or perhaps even the Right To Pursue Happiness?
Is the Right To Free Worship important to you?
Maybe you'd even choose The Right To Life, or the Right To Food.
Would you have even thought about the Right To A Proper Toilet? It's one of those thing we just take for granted, and the wost we have to endure is the occasional queue at some over crowded outdoor event somewhere.
But for two and a half billion people in the world... roughly half the world's population... such facilities are an unattainable dream. This is the #1 topic, or perhaps that should that be "#2 topic" (oh... sorry) at the World Toilet Summit to be held later this month in New Dehli.
Founded in 2001 as a non-profit organisation, the World Toilet Organisation aims to make sanitation a key global issue and says it has 55 member groups from 42 countries. These people are on a mission, and at the 2002 Toilet Summit in South Africa, they set a clear target to cut the toilet waiting list in half by 2015, and to provide toilets for all by 2025.
Puts our overfed and overprivileged lives in a little perspective, doesn't it?
2 comments:
Right to privacy aside...
Sitting on the throne is one of the most relaxing parts of my day.
That aside, wouldn't the world be a better place if world leaders could sit down together for a good relaxing stint on the loo and discuss the World's problems? A few grunt and groan, and each leader would realize the others are all human, and the relaxed atmosphere would invite constructive discussion. Of course meetings would have to be short to avoid the inevitable pins-and-needles in the legs.
Of course that would raise other problems too, like how do you get reporters who would be willing to cover the talks? And if Hillary were to be elected, would she be kept out of multi-national talks, or would she just start up her own coalition of women leaders?
Hmmmmmm... I know just the place to contemplate these questions.
Back in a flush!
UK - very nice! I love it.
Chester, you make a very important point. My understanding is that the the single most important contributing factor to humans' life expectancy increasing dramatically this century is hygiene. You would think penicillin, but no.
All the rights you mention are crucial to a free world, but none of them make much difference until survival is handled. Sanitation is a matter of survival, as is food and clean water. That takes precedence. We can afford to deal with free speech etc because we have survival well handled.
We are fortunate.
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