permaculture

[John Schinnerer <eco_living@yahoo.com>]

Aloha,

Thanks, Russ, for some glimpses of your country's perspectives on this
and for your thoughtful comments on activities, approaches and so on. 
Just one comment from me on the cultural angle here:

>... sanitation (and not just 
> expensive models of composting toilets - remember that human waste, 
> including the handling of processed human waste after composting - is
> taboo is some places);

...like in the USA, except for some of us loony permies, 'humanure
handbook' fans, etc. etc....;-)

Seriously though, attitudes and behaviors (individual and/or cultural)
regarding human feces have consequences, for better or worse depending
on the particulars.  

What are the consequences of existing attitudes and behaviors
("taboos," etc.) in a particular situation?  Do they lead to unsanitary
domestic conditions, waste valuable nutrients, pollute/waste water,
etc. etc.?  If so, the culture can choose to change them and perhaps
get different consequences, or choose to continue to do the same and
get the same (old) consequences.

I would favor offering to offer options, so that (if they wanted to)
they could make a possibly more informed choice.  The exception would
be if even offering to offer options would likely result in physical
harm to any persons involved.

In other words, I'm happy to let a culture keep its pathologies if they
really want to (and they keep them to themselves), but I'd like to
offer them options for change if they're interested and won't do me in
just for asking.

And of course I'd favor the simplest cheapest methods - forget the
manufactured composting toilets...


=====
John Schinnerer, MA
-------------------------
- Eco-Living -
Cultural & Ecological Designing
Food - Water - Shelter - Community - Technology
john@eco-living.net
http://eco-living.net

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