On the taboo of talking toilets

Of our modern conveniences, "toilets still have one big problem, not everyone has them yet."

And in an episode of the College Humor sketch turned TruTV show, Adam Ruins Everything, host Adam Conover explains:

“While we’re taking our porcelain thrones for granted, worldwide, 2.5 billion people still have to use unsafe pit toilets. And another one billion still have to poop in the great outdoors.”

A big reason for the slow progress fixing this problem is that it's too taboo to talk about, despite the fact that everyone does it.

Not all heroes wear capes. But they do poop.

Enter Jack Sim, aka Mr. Toilet.

This dude made a bunch of money being a businessman in his younger years and then decided in his 40's that he wanted to change direction and give back. Sim became Mr. Toilet when he started to fight against the taboo of talking toilet problems. He began his crusade in Singapore and then collaborated with other world toilet organizations, founding the World Toilet Organization (WTO) in 2001. The WTO is "a global non-profit committed to improving toilet and sanitation conditions worldwide."

But the advice Mr. Toilet gives on Adam Ruins Everything for everyone is that we need to start talking about this problem. If we don't talk about, we don't know about it. And if no one knows something is a problem, no one knows we need to fix it.

You might never go a day without a toilet but if you take a minute to imagine one day without them, you can see how things get dirty real fast. For billions of people on this planet, that's just everyday life.