FLUSHED WITH SHAME AT BRITAIN

Flushed with shame at Britain

Somewhere, some time, the United Kingdom lost its pride in
itself. Let's start at the toilets at Gatwick
airport...

By Alice Miles
The Times, UK
Wednesday, January 2, 2008

It's the small things that take you by surprise on
returning to Britain after a long break, as I did over
Christmas. Not the weather or the headlines or Labour's
plunging fortunes, but things like the speed of cars, the
cost of a train ticket, the convenience of cash machines
(do we know how much they encourage profligacy?), and the
number of newspapers on offer.

For me it was the smallest thing of all that gave me the
greatest shock. It was the toilets at Gatwick. I was
tipped, mid-morning, off a plane from Houston after 24
hours' travelling from Central America: three flights,
three countries, endless hours of waiting around and a lot
of toilet visits. We traipsed, blearily, through what
appeared to be a temporary construction and down those
long, long walks in which certain far-flung corners of
Gatwick seem to specialise.

And into the loos. Or at least, into a queue outside the
loos. A line of American visitors spilt out into the
corridor. It quickly became apparent why. One of the three
cubicles had been locked shut, presumably blocked. Another
I was told not even to show my daughter into in case it
frightened her. I glanced, saw blood, retreated. The sole
final cubicle, for which everyone was queueing, wouldn't
flush without a repeated pumping of the button and most
people were coming out embarrassed and apologetic that they
had not managed it.

Thence to wash their hands in a row of basins spattered
with dried-on, encrusted vomit. It was extraordinarily
embarrassing. I found myself apologising to these American
visitors, saying that Britain wasn't usually like this --
and the words dried up in my throat. Because it so often
is. Somewhere, some time, the soul of the United Kingdom
lost its pride in itself. Public spaces are dirty, people
from ticket salesmen to immigration officials are rude,
life operates on some invisible financial level that
entirely passes by the needs and desires of ordinary
people.

And so it was that I read Gordon Brown's new year messages
with a sinking heart. One was all about riding out global
economic forces, lots of long-term legislation and social
reform, great challenges and firm convictions; the other, a
sort of paean of praise to the Government dressed up as
congratulations to NHS staff, with a pledge to give
patients greater control over their healthcare and a
proposal for a new constitution for the health service.

There was quite a lot about cleaning up hospitals in it as
well. Mr Brown knows that, just as those American visitors'
view of the UK will be for ever coloured by their first
experience of it, the Gatwick toilets, most people's
experience of hospital care ends at A&E and can be fixed
for ever by the state of the toilets they find there. And
they are quite right, too: public services experts will
tell you that you can tell the state of a hospital by
looking at the state of the loos in A&E, just as you can
tell a good school by standing in the main corridor for
five minutes.

Or, I suppose, the state of a country by the state of its
airport toilets. Go to Houston, Texas; you could eat off
those loo seats. Go, even, to Belize. You wouldn't want to
eat off them, and you might pay 25c for a bit of loo roll,
but then you can at least use them, and flush too, and
someone will even wipe the sink after you.

I have no doubt at all that the loos at Gatwick are
attended to (or not) by badly paid foreign workers who
couldn't give a damn what an American tourist might think
of the UK on first arrival. I know that the airport itself
is run by a Spanish company that probably couldn't give a
damn etc. I expect the cleaning of the loos is contracted
out to some ghastly low-paying employment agency. And I
have no doubt that if I was in charge of cleaning them,
even as a British citizen (is this what Mr Brown meant when
he said British jobs should be held for British workers?),
I would find it hard to take much pride in my work.

But find the reason why the public loos in North and
Central America work -- a 25 cent financial incentive for
someone, or a decent contract, or simply some pride -- and
why those in Britain are often squalid, and you will find
the reason for the dissatisfaction that British people feel
in public services and the State today. The complicated mix
of public and private, foreign and domestic ownership of so
many things that we still consider public services, the
jumble of foreign workers, the temporary contracts and the
corner-cutting in the drive for productivity, productivity,
productivity: these have so muddled the lines of
responsibility and removed the traditional British pride
and courtesy that no one seems to care who should clean a
loo at Gatwick any more.

That, and not the fear of global economic forces or concern
about carbon emissions in China, is what accounts for the
sense of cynicism and powerlessness about government in
Britain today; yes, whether it is really government's
responsibility or not. (You can see it, too, in the
disrespect for poorer rail users, people without private
transport, implicit in Network Rail's last-minute decision
to disrupt train services on New Year's Eve, just as it
does every Sunday for ordinary families trying to enjoy a
weekend out.)

I see that a think-tank is proposing the anniversary of the
creation of the NHS for a "British Day", which the Prime
Minister has long hankered after to remind us of our common
values; I would go for a Thomas Crapper or an Alexander
Cummings Day (Cummings was the real British inventor of the
flush toilet), and have us all out cleaning public loos. I
volunteer for Gatwick. I should think it's particularly
revolting after the new year: anyone with me?

Alice Miles won the What the Papers Say Columnist of the
Year award last month

More at:
http://www.timesonline.co.uk/tol/com...cle3118428.ece

Jai Maharaj
http://tinyurl.com/24fq83
http://www.mantra.com/jai
http://www.mantra.com/jyotish
Om Shanti

Hindu Holocaust Museum
http://www.mantra.com/holocaust

Hindu life, principles, spirituality and philosophy
http://www.hindu.org
http://www.hindunet.org

The truth about Islam and Muslims
http://www.flex.com/~jai/satyamevajayate

o Not for commercial use. Solely to be fairly used for the educational
purposes of research and open discussion. The contents of this post may not
have been authored by, and do not necessarily represent the opinion of the
poster. The contents are protected by copyright law and the exemption for
fair use of copyrighted works.
o If you send private e-mail to me, it will likely not be read,
considered or answered if it does not contain your full legal name, current
e-mail and postal addresses, and live-voice telephone number.
o Posted for information and discussion. Views expressed by others are
not necessarily those of the poster who may or may not have read the article.

FAIR USE NOTICE: This article may contain copyrighted material the use of
which may or may not have been specifically authorized by the copyright
owner. This material is being made available in efforts to advance the
understanding of environmental, political, human rights, economic,
democratic, scientific, social, and cultural, etc., issues. It is believed
that this constitutes a 'fair use' of any such copyrighted material as
provided for in section 107 of the US Copyright Law. In accordance with Title
17 U.S.C. Section 107, the material on this site is distributed without
profit to those who have expressed a prior interest in receiving the included
information for research, comment, discussion and educational purposes by
subscribing to USENET newsgroups or visiting web sites. For more information
go to: http://www.law.cornell.edu/uscode/17/107.shtml
If you wish to use copyrighted material from this article for purposes of
your own that go beyond 'fair use', you must obtain permission from the
copyright owner.

Johnny Judas Jay "the jumpin' jackass jyoti****head"(and now
self-confessed pimp) Maharaj wrote:

Flushed with shame at Britain

Somewhere, some time, the United Kingdom lost its pride in
itself. Let's start at the toilets at Gatwick
airport...

By Alice Miles
The Times, UK
Wednesday, January 2, 2008

[............]

And into the loos. Or at least, into a queue outside the
loos. A line of American visitors spilt out into the
corridor. It quickly became apparent why. One of the three
cubicles had been locked shut, presumably blocked. Another
I was told not even to show my daughter into in case it
frightened her. I glanced, saw blood, retreated. The sole
final cubicle, for which everyone was queueing, wouldn't
flush without a repeated pumping of the button and most
people were coming out embarrassed and apologetic that they
had not managed it.

Have you seen the people in charge of maintaining the toilets at
Gatwick? They look like Jay Maharaj's relatives, which would explain the
horrific condition of the loos.

An article dated May 18, 1997 in The Organizer, the mouthpiece of the
Hindu fundamentalist RSS, says, "It is quite clear from Hindu tradition
that people used to defecate in open." Jay Maharaj has posted many times
that he defecates in a squatting position(did we really need to know
that?). Obviously, people like Jay Maharaj and his relatives have no
idea of how to maintain indoor toilets.

so far only 30pct of brits (most soccer fans) have learned from the hindus
to relieve themselves out in the open nature.


and/or www.mantra.com/jai (Dr. Jai Maharaj) wrote in
message news:20080102XJECOUl2bhJOIM3dEDRAx9F@Oc20Q...
Flushed with shame at Britain

Somewhere, some time, the United Kingdom lost its pride in
itself. Let's start at the toilets at Gatwick
airport...

By Alice Miles
The Times, UK
Wednesday, January 2, 2008

It's the small things that take you by surprise on
returning to Britain after a long break, as I did over
Christmas. Not the weather or the headlines or Labour's
plunging fortunes, but things like the speed of cars, the
cost of a train ticket, the convenience of cash machines
(do we know how much they encourage profligacy?), and the
number of newspapers on offer.

For me it was the smallest thing of all that gave me the
greatest shock. It was the toilets at Gatwick. I was
tipped, mid-morning, off a plane from Houston after 24
hours' travelling from Central America: three flights,
three countries, endless hours of waiting around and a lot
of toilet visits. We traipsed, blearily, through what
appeared to be a temporary construction and down those
long, long walks in which certain far-flung corners of
Gatwick seem to specialise.

And into the loos. Or at least, into a queue outside the
loos. A line of American visitors spilt out into the
corridor. It quickly became apparent why. One of the three
cubicles had been locked shut, presumably blocked. Another
I was told not even to show my daughter into in case it
frightened her. I glanced, saw blood, retreated. The sole
final cubicle, for which everyone was queueing, wouldn't
flush without a repeated pumping of the button and most
people were coming out embarrassed and apologetic that they
had not managed it.

Thence to wash their hands in a row of basins spattered
with dried-on, encrusted vomit. It was extraordinarily
embarrassing. I found myself apologising to these American
visitors, saying that Britain wasn't usually like this --
and the words dried up in my throat. Because it so often
is. Somewhere, some time, the soul of the United Kingdom
lost its pride in itself. Public spaces are dirty, people
from ticket salesmen to immigration officials are rude,
life operates on some invisible financial level that
entirely passes by the needs and desires of ordinary
people.

And so it was that I read Gordon Brown's new year messages
with a sinking heart. One was all about riding out global
economic forces, lots of long-term legislation and social
reform, great challenges and firm convictions; the other, a
sort of paean of praise to the Government dressed up as
congratulations to NHS staff, with a pledge to give
patients greater control over their healthcare and a
proposal for a new constitution for the health service.

There was quite a lot about cleaning up hospitals in it as
well. Mr Brown knows that, just as those American visitors'
view of the UK will be for ever coloured by their first
experience of it, the Gatwick toilets, most people's
experience of hospital care ends at A&E and can be fixed
for ever by the state of the toilets they find there. And
they are quite right, too: public services experts will
tell you that you can tell the state of a hospital by
looking at the state of the loos in A&E, just as you can
tell a good school by standing in the main corridor for
five minutes.

Or, I suppose, the state of a country by the state of its
airport toilets. Go to Houston, Texas; you could eat off
those loo seats. Go, even, to Belize. You wouldn't want to
eat off them, and you might pay 25c for a bit of loo roll,
but then you can at least use them, and flush too, and
someone will even wipe the sink after you.

I have no doubt at all that the loos at Gatwick are
attended to (or not) by badly paid foreign workers who
couldn't give a damn what an American tourist might think
of the UK on first arrival. I know that the airport itself
is run by a Spanish company that probably couldn't give a
damn etc. I expect the cleaning of the loos is contracted
out to some ghastly low-paying employment agency. And I
have no doubt that if I was in charge of cleaning them,
even as a British citizen (is this what Mr Brown meant when
he said British jobs should be held for British workers?),
I would find it hard to take much pride in my work.

But find the reason why the public loos in North and
Central America work -- a 25 cent financial incentive for
someone, or a decent contract, or simply some pride -- and
why those in Britain are often squalid, and you will find
the reason for the dissatisfaction that British people feel
in public services and the State today. The complicated mix
of public and private, foreign and domestic ownership of so
many things that we still consider public services, the
jumble of foreign workers, the temporary contracts and the
corner-cutting in the drive for productivity, productivity,
productivity: these have so muddled the lines of
responsibility and removed the traditional British pride
and courtesy that no one seems to care who should clean a
loo at Gatwick any more.

That, and not the fear of global economic forces or concern
about carbon emissions in China, is what accounts for the
sense of cynicism and powerlessness about government in
Britain today; yes, whether it is really government's
responsibility or not. (You can see it, too, in the
disrespect for poorer rail users, people without private
transport, implicit in Network Rail's last-minute decision
to disrupt train services on New Year's Eve, just as it
does every Sunday for ordinary families trying to enjoy a
weekend out.)

I see that a think-tank is proposing the anniversary of the
creation of the NHS for a "British Day", which the Prime
Minister has long hankered after to remind us of our common
values; I would go for a Thomas Crapper or an Alexander
Cummings Day (Cummings was the real British inventor of the
flush toilet), and have us all out cleaning public loos. I
volunteer for Gatwick. I should think it's particularly
revolting after the new year: anyone with me?

Alice Miles won the What the Papers Say Columnist of the
Year award last month

More at:
http://www.timesonline.co.uk/tol/com...cle3118428.ece

Jai Maharaj
http://tinyurl.com/24fq83
http://www.mantra.com/jai
http://www.mantra.com/jyotish
Om Shanti

Hindu Holocaust Museum
http://www.mantra.com/holocaust

Hindu life, principles, spirituality and philosophy
http://www.hindu.org
http://www.hindunet.org

The truth about Islam and Muslims
http://www.flex.com/~jai/satyamevajayate

o Not for commercial use. Solely to be fairly used for the
educational
purposes of research and open discussion. The contents of this post may
not
have been authored by, and do not necessarily represent the opinion of the
poster. The contents are protected by copyright law and the exemption for
fair use of copyrighted works.
o If you send private e-mail to me, it will likely not be read,
considered or answered if it does not contain your full legal name,
current
e-mail and postal addresses, and live-voice telephone number.
o Posted for information and discussion. Views expressed by others
are
not necessarily those of the poster who may or may not have read the
article.

FAIR USE NOTICE: This article may contain copyrighted material the use of
which may or may not have been specifically authorized by the copyright
owner. This material is being made available in efforts to advance the
understanding of environmental, political, human rights, economic,
democratic, scientific, social, and cultural, etc., issues. It is believed
that this constitutes a 'fair use' of any such copyrighted material as
provided for in section 107 of the US Copyright Law. In accordance with
Title
17 U.S.C. Section 107, the material on this site is distributed without
profit to those who have expressed a prior interest in receiving the
included
information for research, comment, discussion and educational purposes by
subscribing to USENET newsgroups or visiting web sites. For more
information
go to: http://www.law.cornell.edu/uscode/17/107.shtml
If you wish to use copyrighted material from this article for purposes of
your own that go beyond 'fair use', you must obtain permission from the
copyright owner.

You gotta go when you gotta go.

Jai Maharaj
http://tinyurl.com/24fq83
http://www.mantra.com/jai
http://www.mantra.com/jyotish
Om Shanti

In article ,
"harmony" posted:

so far only 30pct of brits (most soccer fans) have learned from the hindus
to relieve themselves out in the open nature.


www.mantra.com/jyotish (Dr. Jai Maharaj) posted:

Flushed with shame at Britain

Somewhere, some time, the United Kingdom lost its pride in
itself. Let's start at the toilets at Gatwick
airport...

By Alice Miles
The Times, UK
Wednesday, January 2, 2008

It's the small things that take you by surprise on
returning to Britain after a long break, as I did over
Christmas. Not the weather or the headlines or Labour's
plunging fortunes, but things like the speed of cars, the
cost of a train ticket, the convenience of cash machines
(do we know how much they encourage profligacy?), and the
number of newspapers on offer.

For me it was the smallest thing of all that gave me the
greatest shock. It was the toilets at Gatwick. I was
tipped, mid-morning, off a plane from Houston after 24
hours' travelling from Central America: three flights,
three countries, endless hours of waiting around and a lot
of toilet visits. We traipsed, blearily, through what
appeared to be a temporary construction and down those
long, long walks in which certain far-flung corners of
Gatwick seem to specialise.

And into the loos. Or at least, into a queue outside the
loos. A line of American visitors spilt out into the
corridor. It quickly became apparent why. One of the three
cubicles had been locked shut, presumably blocked. Another
I was told not even to show my daughter into in case it
frightened her. I glanced, saw blood, retreated. The sole
final cubicle, for which everyone was queueing, wouldn't
flush without a repeated pumping of the button and most
people were coming out embarrassed and apologetic that they
had not managed it.

Thence to wash their hands in a row of basins spattered
with dried-on, encrusted vomit. It was extraordinarily
embarrassing. I found myself apologising to these American
visitors, saying that Britain wasn't usually like this --
and the words dried up in my throat. Because it so often
is. Somewhere, some time, the soul of the United Kingdom
lost its pride in itself. Public spaces are dirty, people
from ticket salesmen to immigration officials are rude,
life operates on some invisible financial level that
entirely passes by the needs and desires of ordinary
people.

And so it was that I read Gordon Brown's new year messages
with a sinking heart. One was all about riding out global
economic forces, lots of long-term legislation and social
reform, great challenges and firm convictions; the other, a
sort of paean of praise to the Government dressed up as
congratulations to NHS staff, with a pledge to give
patients greater control over their healthcare and a
proposal for a new constitution for the health service.

There was quite a lot about cleaning up hospitals in it as
well. Mr Brown knows that, just as those American visitors'
view of the UK will be for ever coloured by their first
experience of it, the Gatwick toilets, most people's
experience of hospital care ends at A&E and can be fixed
for ever by the state of the toilets they find there. And
they are quite right, too: public services experts will
tell you that you can tell the state of a hospital by
looking at the state of the loos in A&E, just as you can
tell a good school by standing in the main corridor for
five minutes.

Or, I suppose, the state of a country by the state of its
airport toilets. Go to Houston, Texas; you could eat off
those loo seats. Go, even, to Belize. You wouldn't want to
eat off them, and you might pay 25c for a bit of loo roll,
but then you can at least use them, and flush too, and
someone will even wipe the sink after you.

I have no doubt at all that the loos at Gatwick are
attended to (or not) by badly paid foreign workers who
couldn't give a damn what an American tourist might think
of the UK on first arrival. I know that the airport itself
is run by a Spanish company that probably couldn't give a
damn etc. I expect the cleaning of the loos is contracted
out to some ghastly low-paying employment agency. And I
have no doubt that if I was in charge of cleaning them,
even as a British citizen (is this what Mr Brown meant when
he said British jobs should be held for British workers?),
I would find it hard to take much pride in my work.

But find the reason why the public loos in North and
Central America work -- a 25 cent financial incentive for
someone, or a decent contract, or simply some pride -- and
why those in Britain are often squalid, and you will find
the reason for the dissatisfaction that British people feel
in public services and the State today. The complicated mix
of public and private, foreign and domestic ownership of so
many things that we still consider public services, the
jumble of foreign workers, the temporary contracts and the
corner-cutting in the drive for productivity, productivity,
productivity: these have so muddled the lines of
responsibility and removed the traditional British pride
and courtesy that no one seems to care who should clean a
loo at Gatwick any more.

That, and not the fear of global economic forces or concern
about carbon emissions in China, is what accounts for the
sense of cynicism and powerlessness about government in
Britain today; yes, whether it is really government's
responsibility or not. (You can see it, too, in the
disrespect for poorer rail users, people without private
transport, implicit in Network Rail's last-minute decision
to disrupt train services on New Year's Eve, just as it
does every Sunday for ordinary families trying to enjoy a
weekend out.)

I see that a think-tank is proposing the anniversary of the
creation of the NHS for a "British Day", which the Prime
Minister has long hankered after to remind us of our common
values; I would go for a Thomas Crapper or an Alexander
Cummings Day (Cummings was the real British inventor of the
flush toilet), and have us all out cleaning public loos. I
volunteer for Gatwick. I should think it's particularly
revolting after the new year: anyone with me?

Alice Miles won the What the Papers Say Columnist of the
Year award last month

More at:

http://www.timesonline.co.uk/tol/com.../article311842
8.ece

Jai Maharaj
http://tinyurl.com/24fq83
http://www.mantra.com/jai
http://www.mantra.com/jyotish
Om Shanti

Hindu Holocaust Museum
http://www.mantra.com/holocaust

Hindu life, principles, spirituality and philosophy
http://www.hindu.org
http://www.hindunet.org

The truth about Islam and Muslims
http://www.flex.com/~jai/satyamevajayate

o Not for commercial use. Solely to be fairly used for the
educational
purposes of research and open discussion. The contents of this post may
not
have been authored by, and do not necessarily represent the opinion of the
poster. The contents are protected by copyright law and the exemption for
fair use of copyrighted works.
o If you send private e-mail to me, it will likely not be read,
considered or answered if it does not contain your full legal name,
current
e-mail and postal addresses, and live-voice telephone number.
o Posted for information and discussion. Views expressed by others
are
not necessarily those of the poster who may or may not have read the
article.

FAIR USE NOTICE: This article may contain copyrighted material the use of
which may or may not have been specifically authorized by the copyright
owner. This material is being made available in efforts to advance the
understanding of environmental, political, human rights, economic,
democratic, scientific, social, and cultural, etc., issues. It is believed
that this constitutes a 'fair use' of any such copyrighted material as
provided for in section 107 of the US Copyright Law. In accordance with
Title
17 U.S.C. Section 107, the material on this site is distributed without
profit to those who have expressed a prior interest in receiving the
included
information for research, comment, discussion and educational purposes by
subscribing to USENET newsgroups or visiting web sites. For more
information
go to: http://www.law.cornell.edu/uscode/17/107.shtml
If you wish to use copyrighted material from this article for purposes of
your own that go beyond 'fair use', you must obtain permission from the
copyright owner.