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Korea is becoming a beacon to the rest of the world in an unlikely and more often hidden area -- the toilet. As China looks ahead to the 2008 Olympics in Beijing, it has dispatched officials to Korea to investigate and learn from the lavatories here, and most of the major press outlets -- China Central Television, the People's Daily and Beijing TV among them -- in a nation notorious for the state of its restrooms are urging the world¡¯s most populous country to learn from Korea¡¯s infrastructure for the lower functions.
On the other side of the Pacific, both the Wall Street Journal and the Los Angeles Times recently waxed lyrical about the state of Korean toilets, where people do their business amid ¡°softly lilting violin music and beautiful pictures hanging everywhere.¡±
It was not always thus. Until five or six years ago, the state of Korean toilets was so bad that guide books commonly suggested tourists take care of business ahead of time at a hotel or department store to avoid being forced to use a public convenience. But progress will stop at nothing.
Opportunity came knocking with the 2002 Korea-Japan World Cup. "Korea hosted the World Cup with Japan, a country famous for its pristine cleanliness, and in comparison our restrooms were just so filthy that they could have turned into a national disgrace. It was a crisis,¡± says Uri Party member Sim Jae-duck. ¡°So many civic organizations as well as the press stepped forward and instigated a large-scale campaign that resulted in the restrooms of today.¡±
Thanks to the campaign, Korea has become one of the few countries in the world to have a toilet law. The Public Restrooms Law, passed in the National Assembly last December, even prescribes that the number of toilets in women¡¯s restrooms must be greater than all toilets and urinals in men¡¯s restrooms. That brought human rights into the privy, and the law passed with 180 votes in favor and none against.
The ensuing competition between local governments over whose restrooms are more beautiful, too, is unique to Korea. Local authorities vied to install the most recherché amenities, including perfume dispensers, paintings, flowerpots, bidets and heated toilet seats.
In a country where no subject is too obscure for a passionate civic group to crystallize around it, the Citizens Coalition for Restroom Culture and other groups are making sure that the country does not, as it were, rest on its laurels. Now, they are turning their attention to schools, which they claim still lag behind the rest of the world in this regard. The coalition¡¯s director Pyo Hye-ryeong said, ¡°Next year, we plan to expand this movement to cover school restrooms and bring conditions to the highest level there as well.¡±
(englishnews@chosun.com )
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