Street roots
5
June 8, 2012
WEE, from page 4
only one toilet. Whereas an economic
empowerment model lasts very, very long.
So, if people want to support this they can
donate to the World Toilet Organization, and
a very small amount of money can go a long
way.
J.T.: How does your approach differ from
country to countrOy trying to raise the issue of
good public toilets? You mentioned that it’s
bad for business to have bad toilets in
Singapore. How would your approach differ
elsewhere?
J.S.: I think in developed countries it’s
easier to understand. We talk to tourism
boards who understand that you can get a
lot of income if your tourism toilets are
good. And tourism toilets include a lot of
toilets and it could include tourism sites, it
could be the shopping toilets, the hotel. It
could be all kinds of places. And if you have
good toilets, then you have more tourists.
So people just didn’t know all these things
that are actually quite obvious because they
felt that toilets were unspeakable. They
thought this was a taboo subject and very
rude to engage in this subject, and what you
don’t discuss you can’t improve. So what the
World Toilet Organization did was effectively
make people confront the subject by making
it first humorous, calling ourselves the
WTO, and then giving them the permission
to talk about it. Once they felt it was OK,
they don’t stop talking about it. The
conversation continues.
J.T.: I t was a deliberate decision to call
yourselves the “W TO ”?
J.S.: Absolutely. And the logo was also
.heart-shaped seat cover saying, love your
toilet.
J.T.: How does your approach differ in the
developing world?
J.S.: The approach is the same in the
developing world because we saw that
people go to the shopping malls to buy
things to impress other people. So in the
poverty sector it’s the same. We saw that
QUIZ, from page 3
Choosing the doll earns the crew another
wrong answer, but again, many more
questions were to follow as Baseden led the
crew up NW Davis and then west on NW
11th Avenue.
Born and raised in Portland, Baseden
graduated from Jefferson High School and
has a background that is as varied as the
questions he throws at his work crews. He
holds degrees in education and
communication from Oregon State and
Portland State universities, and went on to
instruct broadcast media classes at OSU.
He has worked at a local television station,
a company specializing in diversity training,
and as a student advisor at Portland
Community College.
He has even competed and trained
athletes in the sport of powerlifting.
“I’m always using all of those skills,” he
said. “I kind of draw from all those different
genres of my experience.”
Even the time Baseden spent serving in
the Army is evident in the quick bursts of
inflection in his voice. “Here we go. Follow
me,” he tells his crew, sounding as if he
could just as easily be encouraging troops
on the march.
Baseden’s sternness, however, is
complimented by his compassion, which
comes to light when a young man links up
with the work crew about five blocks into
the shift. Baseden initially dismisses him
with the instruction to avoid being late next
time. But after the two have an aside for a
few moments, Baseden assigns him to push
the trash can cart.
Baseden says that his role as community
they are buying cellphones but not toilets.
So if we price the toilet the same prices as
the cellphone, we could sell a lot of toilets,
provided that toilets are seen as a status
symbol. If toilets are seen like Prada or
Louis Vuitton handbags, people will buy
toilets. So we are using what we learned
from the shopping mall to use all the same
emotional aspirational triggers to do
marketing in the poverty sector, and it
works really well. Jealousy, one-upmanship,
acceptance by community, ego, pride,
dignity — these are all top sellers.
The Japanese, when they visit your house
they actually go to your toilet, and they will
judge your entire family based on how clean
the toilet is. If it’s bad, they have a terrible
impression and will talk about you behind
your back.
J.T.: As you’ve worked on this issue, how
much has homelessness been linked to it?
J.S.: The homeless need to have access
to toilets as well, and, of course, many cities
do not have facilities, so typically a lot of
countries are cutting back on budget and are
closing down public toilets. I heard that the
Portland Loo (Portland’s public toilet
initiative) is open 24 hours and are doing a
good job here. So there might be something
we can all learn.
J.T.: Would you say that the issue o f having
good clean public toilets is a sanitation issue,
but also a civil rights issue to some degree?
J.S.: I think that they just declared
sanitation as a human right in the United
Nations. I mean, you can’t live without it.
Whatever you need for human survival is a
necessary human right. Toilets extend
human longevity by 20 years. The flush
toilet extended our lives. According to some
scientists, the flush toilet is the biggest
medical advancement of the last century.
They could have said vaccination; they could
have said a lot of other medical advances,
but they said the flush toilet. It is the
cheapest preventative medicine. The
problem with health care is that it’s driven
by vested interests to cure people when
they are sick, not to prevent them from
court crew leader puts him in a unique
position to help people, but that it also
requires him to wear several different hats.
“You have to be a little of an entertainer.
You have to be the psychologist. You have to
be the counselor. You have to know when
people need help.
“Today was a situation where I could see
that somebody really needed some help, so
I bent a little,” Baseden said. “But they
know they have to earn what they get. They
don’t get anything for free - they have to
earn it. But the key element is that the job
or task at hand gets done at the same time.”
As Baseden continues to lead the crew
through downtown and back to Old Town,
the slew of questions never stops. Which
grocery store was the first grocery store
chain in the U.S.? Which television station
was the first in Portland? How many hearts
does an octopus have? Which came first,
Nordstrom or the paperclip?
“I didn’t expect it to be like this,”
Alexandria said. “It’s entertaining, and you
really get to know the other people you are
picking up trash with. You get to see
everyone’s personality.”
Keith, a 57-year old from California, said
he too was cited for failing to pay MAX fare,
but didn’t expect to walk away from a shift
of community service with a smile on his
face.
“As we’re walking, we’re talking,” Keith
said. “We’re communicating. It freshens the
mind and it keeps your mind going. Instead
of just picking up garbage, he (Baseden)
adds a little punch to it.”
being sick. Investment in the toilets has to
be viewed as the cheapest health care and
hygiene tool.
J.T.: In the developing world there’s a litany
o f issues that need to be addressed. How do you
make sure the issue of clean toilets is included
along with issues like education and these
others?
J.S.: In the beginning, they refused to
talk about it because water and sanitation
were lumped together. They taught that
sanitation is a water issue. It is not. Water is
a supply issue. If you can supply clean water
everybody knows how to use water.
Sanitation is a behavioral change issue,
which requires a lot of effort. If you lump
water and sanitation together, it’s like
putting your grandmother next to Miss
Universe, where the glamorous part of it
takes all the attention. The money goes to
water. In fact, water and sanitation
engineers know very little about poverty and
rural sanitation. So what we need is for us
to decouple sanitation from water, which is
what the WTO seeks to do.
J.T.: In the U.S., it seems that we’ve largely
privatized toilets, is that the right approach?
Should this be treated more as a public good?
J.S.: I think that as long as people have
access. Like they say, it doesn’t matter if the
cat is black or white, as long as it catches
mice. A lot of cities actually have laws that
the private retailers have to open up their
toilets for public use regardless if it’s their
customers, and surprisingly there’s a law in
America that says that too. I think that’s
good because then the market actually will
supply the toilets. Of course, after closing
hours you need to government to come in
and help. I think that’s where the Portland
Loo is important.
J.T.: Are there any cities or countries that
are really serving as a model fo r addressing
this issue?
J.S.: I think in Singapore, we have 60,000
public toilets. Almost all of them are at
commercial shopping centers. It’s a very
dense city and we have no shortage of public
toilets. So it’s a good model. The other
advantage is that a lot of businesses are
open 24 hours so you can actually have
access to them. So you might want to have
some outlets that are open 24 hours.
J.T.: In the developing world, are there any
countries doing good work?
J.S.: In the developing world, there are
good models. And we find that market-based
solutions are very important. Because giving
people toilets is not the solution. It’s not
scalable. Once you stop giving, then that’s
the end. And how about maintenance?
People have to take ownership of their
toilet, and that’s when they buy it with their
money.
The myth that the poor have no money is
only pertaining to the poorest of the poor,
very destitute people. Most people have
some money, otherwise they would never
have survived. They would not even have
bought food. But if you go to a slum, every
child and adult has a cellphone, so that
proves that a large majority, other than the
destitute, actually have money. There are
people who are just about to die from
starvation, and that’s not possible to solve
by a market-based approach. But almost all
of them can buy an $8 toilet, or a $35 toilet,
and if you design it according to the
affordability, all you have to do is give them
access.
Right now, about 290 SaniShop factories
have been set up, in Asia and Africa.
J.T.: The Gates foundation has shown some
interest in this. What has been their
involvement so far?
J.S.: They’ve funded us for our advocacy
effort. In the past I was doing it without any
public relations and not in a structured
manner, and it’s already gone very well.
They thought, if we give you some money
and some consultants it might be better.
Last year we reached one billion people
thanks to their help.
Street Roots is a proud partner
with the Jesuit Volunteer Corps
Northwest and Americorps.