Politicians in the toilet: this time, for a cause

The UN has declared 2008 to be the International Year of Sanitation [1]. Their intention is to jumpstart lagging efforts to meet the Millennium Development Goals [2] for hygiene, household sanitation, and wastewater -- goals that include reducing by half the 2.6 billion people who don't have access to basic sanitation.

But sanitation isn't like AIDS or malnutrition -- it's an issue that is at once both deadly serious and kinda hilarious. That's not just my opinion -- those confronting the issue know that humor is as much a part of the cause as activism. And far from relying on somber recitations of statistics, sanitation advocates are embracing humor to get their message across.

"We need to make toilets and sanitation sexy," says World Toilet Organization president Jack Sim. [3] "We're planning to ask all politicians to take pictures next to toilets. I think 2008 is our great chance to influence the minds of our politicians and leaders."

That's a great idea. But it's a good thing it's not happening until 2008, because right now isn't quite the right time for politicians to pose in poopers. A headline from today's New York Times: Fateful Bathroom Draws Crowds of the Curious. [4] (login: poopreport pw: poopreport)

[5]

The bathroom in question, of course, is Larry Craig's [6]. "Since Aug. 27," reports The Times, "when the arrest of Mr. Craig became known publicly, the restroom has become a source of amusement for travelers and employees at Minneapolis-St. Paul International Airport. Some pose for pictures before the outer door. Others enter to zoom in on the light-blue stall the senator used, the eighth of nine in a row. The undercover officer who arrested Mr. Craig was in the stall to his right, the seventh stall."

The behavior of these tourists prove that Jack Sim has it exactly right: nothing gets the public's attention like toilets. By the time 2008 rolls around, the toe-tapping associations will have faded from our minds, and pictures of senators with shitters will be useful in calling attention to the serious issues that need addressing.

In the meantime, I'll be in that airport in two weeks. You bet I'll be taking a picture.