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How Bangladesh vanquished diarrhoea

economist.com

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Re: How Bangladesh vanquished diarrhoea

#31

Post by badocr »

forinti wrote: post #16
goldenkey wrote: post #12

Earlier quoted context omitted.

What does WC stand for?

Is English your mother tongue? In South America, people use WC, Patent (because it was written on the loo), or just Water (in Uruguay, at least) a lot. So it would be funny if (at least WC) was not as known in the English-speaking world. Patente (used in Brazil) is obviously just derived from the Patent label.

Never heard of a loo being called "Patente" in Brazil. Guessing it is a very specific regional thing? Also, "WC" as synonim for a bathroom as read in signs is not as common as once was. Word is "Sanitário" pretty much everywhere now.

Re: How Bangladesh vanquished diarrhoea

#33

Post by chimeracoder »

zaroth wrote: post #2

“In Matlab, a part of Bangladesh with good data, deaths from diarrhoea and dysentery have dropped by about 90% since the early 1990s (see chart).” I just kept reparsing and trying to error correct that sentence over and over until it finally sunk in that yes, they are saying Matlab is actually the name of a place in Bangladesh.

> I just kept reparsing and trying to error correct that sentence over and over until it finally sunk in that yes, they are saying Matlab is actually the name of a place in Bangladesh.

I'm Bengali, and I looked up the spelling of the name. It looks like it's spelled মতলব, which means it's pronounced more like "Motlobe" (the second "o" is halfway between "lob" and "lobe"). It means "plan" or "project", which I'm guessing refers to some attempt at creating a township at some point (or being named after a place that was).

For reasons, Bengali words are often transliterated in the Sanskrit form, which means that the spelling doesn't really always represent their actual pronunciation. (This is why people often have a harder time pronouncing my name when they see it spelled out in English, because the final syllable is transliterated according to Sanskrit, but pronounced differently. It's sort of like -ough as a suffix in English.)

Re: How Bangladesh vanquished diarrhoea

#34

Post by cjbenedikt »

Interesting that the article doesn't mention Nobel Peace Laureate Muhammad Yunus. In order to be eligible for his micro loans people had to commit to building a toilet/WC/loo amongst other things. Given that approx. 140 mio people in Bangladesh borrowed micro loans from him he must have had some influence on it.

Re: How Bangladesh vanquished diarrhoea

#36

Post by NPMaxwell »

chimeracoder wrote: post #33
zaroth wrote: post #2

“In Matlab, a part of Bangladesh with good data, deaths from diarrhoea and dysentery have dropped by about 90% since the early 1990s (see chart).” I just kept reparsing and trying to error correct that sentence over and over until it finally sunk in that yes, they are saying Matlab is actually the name of a place in Bangladesh.

> I just kept reparsing and trying to error correct that sentence over and over until it finally sunk in that yes, they are saying Matlab is actually the name of a place in Bangladesh. I'm Bengali, and I looked up the spelling of the name. It looks like it's spelled মতলব, which means it's pronounced more like "Motlobe" (the second "o" is halfway between "lob" and "lobe"). It means "plan" or "project", which I'm guess…

And I can imagine a small techie tourism trade for people who want to say, "Yeah. I've been to Matlab. For two weeks, I breathed it, ate in it, and slept in it."

Re: How Bangladesh vanquished diarrhoea

#37

Post by NPMaxwell »

FractalLP wrote: post #27

Can someone summarize? I could only read the 1st paragraph before ads froze up my browser.

Misc: Bangladesh is a leader in health technology. There is a place in Bangladesh called "Matlab" (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Matlab_(Bangladesh) ). Bacteria from a pit toilet travel less than 10 feet through dirt. An organization called "BRAC" (http://www.brac.net/) deserves a Nobel prize. More about BRAC: https://www.smu.edu.sg/perspectives/2012/06/26/tale-two-ngos...

Re: How Bangladesh vanquished diarrhoea

#39

Post by graeme »

forinti wrote: post #16
goldenkey wrote: post #12

Earlier quoted context omitted.

What does WC stand for?

Is English your mother tongue? In South America, people use WC, Patent (because it was written on the loo), or just Water (in Uruguay, at least) a lot. So it would be funny if (at least WC) was not as known in the English-speaking world. Patente (used in Brazil) is obviously just derived from the Patent label.

It's faded out of use. My grandmother even had a joke about someone asking about a WC and getting a description of the local wesleyan chapel.

Here's a version, but I don't think my grandmother's relied on foreign language as a device: http://www.brinkmanonline.com/humor/church/wc.html

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