ZCCZ Tip: Barbarians

Toilets abroad are precisely the places that Czech tourists describe as inspiring in us a feeling of cultural supremacy. Rumor has it that some people have had to return home prematurely from their working stays in countries with Islamic traditions due to the lack of toilet paper in local toilets. When the Turkish sculptor, Kemal Tufan, and I joked around one day, describing mutual cultural differences, I felt obliged to make use of this cheap shot. I mentioned that when staying at a hotel in Istanbul a few years back, I was unable to understand why this small tube was sticking out of the middle of a toilet seat. Not only that, it was clogged with dried up feces. This triggered a discussion on how Turkish children are from an early age trained to have much better hygiene. Turks do not feel completely clean until they have washed their rectums after using the facilities, said Kemal. He went on to explain that this represents one of the biggest problems for Turks working abroad as they rarely find themselves living in an environment equipped with bidets. Not even in Germany, whose toilets are so admired by stuck- up Czech tourists.

01.02.2001