A
little bit of knowledge can be dangerous.A
little bit of knowledge can be dangerous.
It is true that throughout Asia--most people in the world, actually--use squat
toilets rather than sitting toilets. Westerners quickly acclimate to them and
appreciate not having their cheeks pressed against a seat that thousands of
other people’s cheeks have warmed before them.
Then there is the revolting urban legend about South Asian toilet habits. Like all good lies, this one has an element of selective truth. Here’s how it goes: “People over there eat with their right hand because they don’t use toilet paper, cleaning themselves instead with their left hand.” Yuck.
Here’s the real story. Instead of toilet paper, there is a source of water and a water container with a spout. After you have finished a bowel movement, you pick up the water container with your right hand and pour water out of it. You use your left hand to guide the water to your butt and do what everybody should do in the shower anyhow, only before it has become difficult to remove. If you wash your hands after—as everyone should in any case—it is a formula for hygiene that is not equal to the Western practice of using toilet paper, but superior.
Do you think their way is gross? Try this for
gross: You can’t possibly clean yourself with dry toilet paper. That’s
why everybody in America who does laundry tries not to see the brown spot on
underwear. That’s why our swimming pools have enough chlorine to pickle
our eyes. A few minutes in a pool will clean your butt just fine, only what
washed off floats around in the pool until the filters get it. I won’t
even talk about bathtubs. So the question isn’t why haven’t they
adopted our superior system of hygiene, but why haven’t we adopted theirs?
P.S. There is a middle way. If the toilet is
right next to a sink, you can wet the TP a little and do a much better job.
This is confirmed by Dr. Tahera Islam from Bangladesh, but living in Saudi Arabia.
"About the toilet, it is actually part of Muslim culture which is practiced
in all other Muslim countries of the world including Pakistan and Middle East.
Even in sitting toilets we have water source sometimes like shower or the same
as you saw. My relatives who go to western countries soak toilet papers in the
sink then enter the toilet. "
P.P.S. I consider myself vindicated! Check out this link about the rearadmiral.
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