http://toilets.sgforums.com/forums/2100/topics/215894 en-US 60 <p><span class="small"><span style="font-style: italic;">from the electric newpaper</span></span><br /> <br /> <span class="large"><strong>Mr Toilet's sitting pretty</strong></span><br /> <span class="small">He raises stink about dirty loos in S'pore.<br /> Now Harvard wants to study his organisation, and National Geographic wants to feature it in a show.<br /> <br /> By Leong Ching 18 October 2006</span><br /> <br /> FLUSHED with success.<br /> <br /> That's what you can say of Mr Jack Sim's work with toilets.<br /> <br /> Mr Sim is the founder of the World Toilet Organisation (WTO). It is based in Singapore and has 47 members, including Japan, Britain and the US.<br /> <br /> Some people used to laugh when his work with toilets was first written about. Well, he's having the last laugh now because:<br /> National Geographic channel is to show a documentary on the WTO.<br /> Harvard University is writing a case study on it.<br /> And Mr Sim has been named Social Entrepreneur of the Year by the Schwab Foundation of Switzerland, jointly with the Ministry of Community Development, Youth and Sports.<br /> <br /> Armed with a vision and a sense of humour, he works for good sanitation across the world, lobbying for funds to build toilets in developing countries.<br /> <br /> Mr Sim said there are 2.6 billion people in the world who have no toilets.<br /> <br /> 'The story of Singapore's economic progress runs parallel to its toilet development,' he said.<br /> <br /> 'From no toilets to disgusting toilets... to professional restroom specialists. Singapore is the model for the world to follow.'<br /> <br /> And now, Mr Sim's story will be made into a documentary and shown worldwide next year.<br /> <br /> Earlier this year, Mr Sim got a call from local documentary maker Viswa Sadasivan of The Right Angle.<br /> <br /> Mr Sadasivan told him they were pitching the idea of a documentary on the WTO to National Geographic Channel and asked if he was game.<br /> <br /> The veteran journalist and the crusading toilet builder met and took a few months to put together a pitch, which convinced the channel that it was worth funding.<br /> <br /> Said Mr Sadasivan: 'I found Jack to be a man of exceptional foresight with the courage to confront a dirty issue... a global revolutionary in his own right.'<br /> <br /> More recently, Harvard University got in touch with Mr Sim to say it wants to write a case study about the WTO. Mr Sim, who owns a building materials company with a turnover of $10 million a year, laughs along when anyone makes a joke about taking toilets as seriously as he does.<br /> <br /> After all, he knows that a bit of 'toilet humour' is sometimes the best way to get people interested in the subject.<br /> <br /> And for that, he has Thailand's Mr Mechai Viravaidya, - better known as Mr Condom - to thank.<br /> <br /> Mr Mechai, who chairs the Population and Community Development Association of Thailand, is famous for educating the public there about family planning and safe sex.<br /> <br /> 'Toilets, like condoms, are taboo. I reckoned that if he can do it with condoms, I should learn from him,' said Mr Sim. 'He taught me a very important lesson: Don't take yourself too seriously. People will laugh at you. You must laugh with them. And after that, they'll listen to your real messages.'<br /> <br /> They became friends and Mr Mechai is now on the WTO advisory board.<br /> <br /> Mr Sim's interest in toilets began around 1962, when he was growing up in a village in Lorong Ong Lye.<br /> <br /> 'My mother told me I was old enough to use the village common toilet. But I did not rejoice. The sanitation in our village worked on the bucket system,' he said.<br /> <br /> 'The bucket gets real ugly after breakfast and also those giant green houseflies were very annoying for a 5-year-old.'<br /> <br /> He ended up using the chamber pot in the privacy of their house.<br /> <br /> In 1996, then Prime Minister Goh Chok Tong said: 'Let the cleanliness of our public toilets be a measurement of our social graciousness.'<br /> <br /> Mr Sim said: 'I started asking myself many questions: Why do people behave badly in public toilets but not at home?<br /> <br /> 'I've always wanted to do volunteer work and thought, 'Perhaps the toilet is my calling!' Gradually, I decided to do something about it. I finally got the Restroom Association of Singapore officially registered in 1998.'<br /> <br /> In 1999, he read in a Japanese magazine that there was a Japan Toilet Association, so he contacted the officers, who invited him to their Asia-Pacific Toilet Symposium in Kitakyushu.<br /> <br /> 'I asked them where was the world's HQ for discussing the toilet but was told there was none,' said Mr Sim.<br /> <br /> And so he started the WTO, a non-profit organisation that aims to provide clean public toilets without additional stress on the environment.<br /> <br /> It organises conferences, does research and runs disaster relief projects. Members are from restroom associations or like-minded bodies from around the world.<br /> <br /> 'I am so glad to be able to depart from the rat race, and to find peace with myself and the world,' said Mr Sim.<br /> <br /> 'Many people wish to do the same... Well, they should have a long think about it. It's no secret where I do my best thinking.'</p> Thu, 19 Oct 2006 12:12:20 +0800 toilets.sgforums.com:2100:215894:5441137 Gordonator http://toilets.sgforums.com/forums/2100/topics/215894