{"id":84,"date":"2003-11-04T12:11:58","date_gmt":"2003-11-04T12:11:58","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.dimsumdolly.com\/?p=84"},"modified":"2003-11-04T12:11:58","modified_gmt":"2003-11-04T12:11:58","slug":"aint_no_business_like_loo_busi","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.dimsumdolly.net\/?p=84","title":{"rendered":"Ain’t No Business Like Loo Business"},"content":{"rendered":"

I knew I had to write about it after reading the article on the website of Singapore’s national newspaper, The Straits Times. The article was about how a public toilet in a wet market in Hougang Ave 1 has a four-star rating from the Restroom Association of Singapore<\/a> (RAS). For my readers in Sydney, public toilets in Singapore are quite gross, but a public toilet in a wet market ups the gross factor 10 times.
\nI did a double-take when I read that. Like, excuse me, you mean there’s such an association??? And what’s with this rating system?? Singapore’s a nation obsessed with ratings. That’s just one more rating to add to the many we already have for schools, cleanliness of hawker stalls and others which I can’t think of at the moment.
\nAnyway, I surfed by the website and came across some interesting information. The RAS was founded in 1998 and its mission is to “create a ‘clean toilet’ culture throughout Singapore and to promote the development and functionality in the design of toilets.”
\nAnd who but the RAS to be the founding member of the WTO. No, not World Trade Organisation. Guess again. It’s the World Toilet Organisation<\/a>. And of course, what better place to base the WTO in but Singapore?? Hahaha. The WTO has 17 members, which includes countries like Australia, USA, Britain, Japan, Korea etc.
\nSo apparently, this rating system is part of the “Happy Toilet” Programme which awards public toilets a three, four or five star rating for their standards and excellence. The very best public toilets, which meet all of the design, quality and maintenance criteria set out by the RAS, will receive a five-star rating. All public toilets with three stars and above will be allowed to carry the “Happy Toilet” logo. But get this – the certification of quality only has 12 months’ validity. Participation in this grading system is entirely voluntary.
\nThe RAS also does things like conducting an annual public toilet survey
\nto assess how well Singaporeans use public toilets and the perception of Singaporeans on the toilet issue. And get this – a toilet documentary with National Geographic or Discovery is in the pipeline (no pun intended) !
\nOh, the things we come up with! :p<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

I knew I had to write about it after reading the article on the website of Singapore’s national newspaper, The Straits Times. The article was about how a public toilet in a wet market in Hougang Ave 1 has a … Continue reading →<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[8],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-84","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-musings-mullings"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.dimsumdolly.net\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/84","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.dimsumdolly.net\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.dimsumdolly.net\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.dimsumdolly.net\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.dimsumdolly.net\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=84"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.dimsumdolly.net\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/84\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.dimsumdolly.net\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=84"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.dimsumdolly.net\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=84"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.dimsumdolly.net\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=84"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}