An Atenean and a La Sallite were once taking a piss in a men’s room.
After finishing their business and zipping up, the La Sallite promptly walked from the urinal to the sink to wash his hands. The Atenean, on the other hand, simply walked out the door.
The La Sallite caught up with him and remarked “Jake, conyo; don’t you know you should always wash your hands after taking a piss?”
The Atenean looked at him and matter of factly said, “Dude, at the Ateneo, they teach us not to piss on our hands”.
Swine Flu Epidemic! One of Rom’s strongest recommendations to readers who may be looking for some tips on how to have their lives spared from this latest of superbugs is this:
First and most important: wash your hands.
Interesting, considering the toilet habits of the Average Pinoy Schmoe.
Many Filipinos have no qualms about pissing in public. Drive along most roads in most Philippine cities and the chances of spotting a Filipino male in a stance of relief against a wall or tree every couple of kilometres is quite good. Even if you don’t spot one in the act, most public walls will have one or two of those recognisable splotch marks against them — that omnipresent trademark evidence of the Filipino male’s dog-like territorial instincts.
The point is, when pissing in public, washing of the hands obviously goes out the window. A grandmother of a friend of mine once warned us against buying from taho street vendors because of this observation.
But then consider also that the average public toilet in the Philippines altogether lacks hand washing facilities to begin with. And even if they were equipped with those, running water is considered to be a luxury in most homes. Public sanitation facilities don’t stand a chance! Oxymoron alert!
And, yes, even if all those facilities were available, guess what: most Filipinos do not wash their hands after relieving themselves anyway.
It seems to be a chicken-and-egg question:
:D Did Filipinos never develop the habit of washing their hands after a piss because most public toilets did not have washing facilities?
- or -
:D Did builders of public toilets neglect placing washing facilities and do most building administrators see running water in public toilets as a low priority because there is a non-existent ethic of hand-washing in Philippine society to begin with?
Filipino society, indeed, is rich — rich in wondrous mysteries to ponder.
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Epilogue:
By no means is hand-washing the only challenge in basic sanitation the Philippines faces as a society.
As the Inquirer.net in today’s Op-Ed observes:
This is the kind of information drive [from the Health Dept in light of the current Swine Flu health threat] that has potentially lasting effects: think of the improvement in public health and sanitation that would arise from more citizens refraining from open mouth coughing, spitting in public, or forgetting to wash their hands.
Indeed, as with most things, the Philippines comes into most crises from such a low baseline that only opportunities can be found.
At least that poignant reality is something positive to consider.
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"And, yes, even if all those facilities were available, guess what: most Filipinos do not wash their hands after relieving themselves anyway."
How do you know this?
I know where you are going with your question, Gabb. You are saying that FlipPinos cannot observe BUT only experience to know. That is totally rediculous. That is why we don't have social scientists to tell the truth about us because of the endemic question: "How do you know this?"
Gabby is saying FlipAzzes do not have the capacity of OBSERVATION … Gabby is right, though. Because science, like math, requires keen observation which we don't have ….
no. thats not what i said. i asked, how do you know filipinos don't wash their hands even if given the option to do so.
Only a true blue tAenean would post that joke.
Woops ;)
not to nitpick, but it isn't lasallite– its LaSallian! :) .
Manileno's I'm afraid don't use toilet paper. They use C2 bottles…???? I'm not sure this is not off-topic, but just have to say it.
Nick did someone make a comment and was deleted?
As a matter of fact, us, well-endowed chaps from UP do not even have to hold anything.
In that case, Phil, you UP chaps need to wash your shoes.
How can you lie like that? Anyone can easily debunk you by watching the APO runners next June.
benignO is nitpicking here. There are more important parts of the human anatomy that need sanitizing other than the hands. And I heard in Australia where binignO lives washing of the arse after the popooh is a crime, heheh.
Lasallians wash their hands before and after they pee…respect for the superb gear, as it were.
Ateneans nowadays don't wash their hands before or after, not since it became a gurlz school, as it were.
[It's true Benigz. I swear! Ask anyone familiar with Katipunan Road nowadays...a gurlz school!]
If you don't believe me, you can count the number of Ladies Rooms that are marked on the Campus Map of the Ateneo de Womanila University. Haleginu!
there are more ladies rooms than mens rooms? interesting. one would think if there's a womens room, there'd be a mens room adjacent…
This is a very shortsighted view that lacks complete analogy. Do remember that part of the Ateneo de Manila System are the grade school, high school and the seminary arms (both Loyola House of Studies and the San Jose Major Seminary). Of course, there couldn’t be more lady teachers than the boys. Even if you add all the female population in the college level and the lady educators, they will always be a small percentage of the Ateneo population. Statistics DJB. This will help you out in facing reality.
OK, so its clear that the main reason we observe unclean habits in pinoys is the lack facilities. in fact, i think pinoys are relatively clean, compared to westerners for example.
Bert, above mentioned the water incident in australia. there was a book recently about bathroom hygeine. it had a clever title, i'm sorry i forget what its called. basically, some cultures like to clean via water (roughly, some asian cultures), while other prefer paper(roughly, westerners).
water is cleaner.
also, the growth of the personal hand sanitizer as a product is proof positive that pinoys like being clean, despite the lack of facilities. notice also, there is a large market for personal tissues in manila.
thus, i have no idea why benign0 wrote this piece; perhaps only to point out the unremarkable fact that pinoys urinate outdoors.