King George II of Great Britain died while on his and according to statistics, we each spend an average of three years of our lives sitting on them. And 2.5 billion people worldwide still do not have access to one.
Yes, it is about the TOILETS and access to one of them. Half of Bangladesh's 160 million people have no access to a toilet at home. You can notice that in the streets of Dhaka all the time. To many Bangladeshis, a toilet is just a concrete platform. Going to the toilet is a matter of practicality.
That is such a contrast with another fact: more then half of Bangladeshis own a cell phone and that became a symbol of the betterment of lives. That is puzzling to me; it means somebody out there has a cell phone, but still is urinating somewhere on the streets!
Mahatma Gandhi, India's greatest leader, had a huge preoccupation with sanitation and toilets. Once he inspected toilets in Gujarat. He found them dark, stinking and reeking with filth and worms in the homes of the wealthy and in a Hindu temple. The homes of the untouchables simply had no toilets. "Latrines are for you big people," an untouchable told Gandhi.
Gandhi seemed to recognize the value of the toilet to humanity when he said "Sanitation is more important than independence." One can only hope that these words will once resonate with today Bangladesh and world leaders.
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