forgotten rights

Well, toilets are not the most favorite topics: we all use them, but we usually do not talk about them.

Did I say we all use them? Actually I received the other day a mail, linking me to a website with the heading

An amazing and alarming figure. Much has been done, but a lot remains to be done, indeed.

But looking at what is actually done is not less alarming: the use of “public” toilets is increasingly also absorbed in the stream of privatisation, i.e. you have to pay in train stations etc.; last year I used such facilities in a coffeeshop (one if not the one of the most widespread places not only in Germany) and read something like:

Yes, I remember the word donation had been used and that the lady had not been paid by the owner.

All this, by the way, gets an additional slant if we think that more and more people in the so-called developed countries are homeless – for them this kind of privatisation is another obstacle in their life.

And there is another additional remark that may usefully be made: the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation are supporting the UN-initative: the 19th November now being World Toilet Day. Do something good and talk about it … – why not: don’t do any harm initially, then there is not so much reason for doing good to repair the damage.