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How Bangladesh vanquished diarrhoea

economist.com

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Re: How Bangladesh vanquished diarrhoea

#51

Post by forinti »

badocr wrote: post #31
forinti wrote: post #16

Earlier quoted context omitted.

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.

Apparently, this word started in Londrina, as they had toilets imported from England that had PATENTED written on them. But it is used in all the southern states at least.

Re: How Bangladesh vanquished diarrhoea

#52

Post by rubayeet »

cjbenedikt wrote: post #34

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.

> Given that approx. 140 mio people in Bangladesh borrowed micro loans from him he must have had some influence on it.

That's a little far fetched. I am one of the 140 mil and I do not recall borrowing from him (or anyone I know). As novel as the idea of micro financing is, realistically it has little impact on poverty reduction in Bangladesh, the RMG and manpower export sector has more stake in the claim.

The sanitation revolution can be attributed to Sir Fazle Hasan Abed[0], the founder of BRAC[1].

[0] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Fazle_Hasan_Abed [1] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/BRAC_(organization)

Re: How Bangladesh vanquished diarrhoea

#53

Post by pbhjpbhj »

smt88 wrote: post #48
FractalLP wrote: post #27

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

This extension is excellent and works on mobile if you have Android Firefox: https://github.com/gorhill/uBlock If you're on iOS, Brave has an ad blocker built in.

I have uBlock and the paywall still came up; "private" browsing mode worked though.

Re: How Bangladesh vanquished diarrhoea

#54

Post by mattnewton »

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.

Interesting, I’m from the US and I’ve never heard WC (or seen it in a toilet come to think of it)

Re: How Bangladesh vanquished diarrhoea

#56

Post by FractalLP »

smt88 wrote: post #48
FractalLP wrote: post #27

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

This extension is excellent and works on mobile if you have Android Firefox: https://github.com/gorhill/uBlock If you're on iOS, Brave has an ad blocker built in.

Windows Phone. A lot of great things about the platform has kept me using it, but modern (aka bloated) websites aren't too great these days.

Re: How Bangladesh vanquished diarrhoea

#57

Post by jessaustin »

bonniemuffin wrote: post #29
forinti wrote: post #16

Earlier quoted context omitted.

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.

I think it would be pretty easy to go through life in the US without ever hearing a toilet called a WC; I'm familiar with the abbreviation but I'm not even sure how, because I can't remember ever hearing or reading it.

I've seen the abbreviation used on building plans in USA, in the past ten years. It did seem out of place, but all architects have some screwy habit that makes their plans more difficult to read.

According to my grandfather, when he was growing up poor in southern Illinois in the 1930s, "toilet" was a crude word and people said "W.C." to be polite. Outhouses were more common than toilets, to the extent that old-timers then thought it was disgusting to defecate in the same building where one slept. Perhaps "water closet" seemed an appropriately exotic term.

Re: How Bangladesh vanquished diarrhoea

#58

Post by tytytytytytytyt »

goldenkey wrote: post #15
grzm wrote: post #13

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Water closet: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Flush_toilet

Thanks, I can't believe I had never heard that synonym for toilet until now!

The only place I remember seeing it is in The Diary of Anne Frank. I'd guess it's on British tv/radio, too.

Re: How Bangladesh vanquished diarrhoea

#59

Post by samiru »

manmal wrote: post #45
vidarh wrote: post #42

Earlier quoted context omitted.

It's fading out of use in most of Europe, as far as I can tell. My grandmother used to always say WC in Norway. I don't know of anyone in my parents generation (born around 1950) or younger that'd use it. We're mostly all familiar with it still though.

It’s still pretty common in at least Germany and Austria, but is superseded by „Toilette“.

In Finnish WC morphed at some point into a proper Finnish word, ”Vessa”.
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