{"id":51591,"date":"2017-04-24T02:35:05","date_gmt":"2017-04-24T09:35:05","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.todayifoundout.com\/?p=51591"},"modified":"2017-04-24T02:35:05","modified_gmt":"2017-04-24T09:35:05","slug":"mr-toilet","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"http:\/\/www.todayifoundout.com\/index.php\/2017\/04\/mr-toilet\/","title":{"rendered":"Mr. Toilet"},"content":{"rendered":"
The following is an article from Uncle John\u2019s Bathroom Reader<\/a><\/em><\/div>\n

\"toilet<\/a>Sim Jae-duck is probably the only person in history who was born in a toilet, lived in a toilet, and died in one, too. Here’s his fascinating story.<\/em><\/p>\n

HELLO, WORLD<\/strong><\/p>\n

In 1996, FIFA, soccer\u2019s international governing body, awarded the 2002 World Cup to co-hosts South Korea and Japan. It had taken decades for South Korea to rebuild after the Korean War (1950\u201353), and the country had only recently emerged from nearly 40 years of brutal dictatorship. Not many people thought of it as a tourist destination, and hosting the World Cup offered a chance for South Korea to present a new face.<\/p>\n

One man who was determined to make the most of the opportunity was Sim Jae-duck, the mayor of Suwon, a city about 20 miles south of Seoul and home to one of the stadiums where the games would be played. Sim thought one of the best ways for outsiders to get to know South Korea would be to live in the homes of its citizens, so he recruited more than 4,000 local families to offer free room and board to visitors during the games. To manage the large crowds that would descend upon the city, he recruited a force of 3,000 security guards and gave them special training on how to deal with the foreign guests. Most famously, he launched a multimillion-dollar campaign to upgrade the city\u2019s public restrooms, a program that earned him the nickname \u201cMr. Toilet.\u201d<\/p>\n

FIRST CLASS<\/strong><\/p>\n

Suwon had more than 700 public restrooms scattered around the city, some operated by the city and others provided by private businesses. Mr. Toilet upgraded them all, providing fresh coats of paint, installing artwork, replacing old fixtures with new ones, and piping in soothing music and perfume-scented air. (He also switched traditional squat toilets to sit-down toilets that Westerners were more used to.) Sim also built more than 30 brand-new restrooms and spent so much money on their design and construction\u2014the restrooms closest to the stadium, for example, were shaped like soccer balls\u2014that 26 of the facilities were designated as tourist attractions in their own right.<\/p>\n

THE NATURAL<\/strong><\/p>\n

Mr. Toilet may have literally been born for the job. South Korean toilet humor is as bawdy as it is anyplace else in the world (which might explain Korean proverbs like \u201cToilets are like mothers-in-law: the farther away the better\u201d). But tradition also has it that bathrooms are lucky places. Sim\u2019s grandmother was so sure that anyone born in a bathroom was destined to live a long life that she convinced Sim\u2019s mother to give birth in hers. Sim\u2019s mom went through her labor just outside grandma\u2019s bathroom, and when the moment of truth arrived, she stepped inside just long enough for the future Mr. Toilet to pop out.<\/p>\n

REALIZING HIS POT-ENTIAL<\/strong><\/p>\n

Improving Suwon\u2019s restrooms proved so rewarding that Sim decided to expand his efforts. In 1999, he created the Korean Toilet Association to push his modernization drive nationwide. Later, he joined the World Toilet Organization, a group dedicated to improving public access to bathrooms around the globe. Then, when Sim concluded that the WTO wasn\u2019t effective enough, he broke away to form his own World Toilet Association in 2006.<\/p>\n

As Mr. Toilet campaigned for better bathrooms, he came to believe that some of the taboos associated with toilets were barriers to the improvements he was trying to achieve. That\u2019s why, in 2007, he decided to tackle the problem head on (so to speak), by demolishing the house he\u2019d lived in for 30 years and replacing it with one shaped like a giant toilet.
\nSim had made a lot of money in business before going into politics, and had no problem spending more than $1.6 million building his two-story glass and concrete dream house. It\u2019s not an exact replica of a toilet, but it is shaped like a giant toilet bowl and painted white. Just in case anyone misses the point, he named it Haewoojae (\u201ca place of sanctuary where one can solve one\u2019s worries\u201d), a Korean euphemism for the bathroom. For those who were unfamiliar with the expression, Sim put a sign in front of the house that read in English, \u201cMr. Toilet House.\u201d<\/p>\n

ROOM WITH A VIEW<\/strong><\/p>\n

The most prominent feature on the main floor is\u2014you guessed it\u2014a toilet, one of four inside the Mr. Toilet House. This bathroom boasts a floor-to-ceiling clear-glass door that seems to offer no privacy at all. But as soon as a person enters the bathroom, the same electronic sensors that lift the toilet lid and turn on the soothing music also cause the bathroom door to become opaque, giving the user all the privacy he or she needs.
\nThe bathroom opens directly onto the living room, which features a grand staircase that leads to the second floor and the roof balcony, where visitors can peek out over the rim of the Mr. Toilet House.<\/p>\n

INDOOR PLUMBING<\/strong><\/p>\n

Because limited access to power, water, and sewage treatment can be barriers to toilet construction around the world, Sim decided to address these issues in the design of his home:<\/p>\n