In Japan. The greatest gift that Japan has given to the world, according to my host, is the toilet with instructions. When I first peeped into the loo, I could not understand why there would be a notice with instructions on "How to use this toilet", and there on the side of the seat like a helicopter cockpit were blinking lights!
Until I sat on the seat. It was warm (surely a good sign). And then it almost idles ready to start the business of ablutions. Once you are finished, it flushes itself. Or in the event that you want your under-carriage to the cleaned, it has three setting of jet flow. So I tried it, just to be adventurous, and the water was warm and one felt really clean afterwards.
So of all the Japanese inventions and innovations from National and Panasonic TV, gameboy to Pokemon, the self-flushing toilet (not so well-known in my world) comes tops. It shows you in a sense just how far Maslow's hierarchy of needs this society has gone to have thought about re-inventing this particular wheel.
It got me thinking about inventions and who has given what to the world. There is a racial view of the inventing nations, and the non-inventing nations which is skewed. And I found myself saddened that the only invention that my country is known for (even here in Japan) is of hyper-inflation (more a case study for political, history and economics scholars than an invention, really); and perhaps lately, inventing 8 ways of firing your deputy (more like Paul Simon trying to leave his lover). But really, we have not invented anything despite being so-called "educated". Zimbabwe is just a society which calcified as bones in a gerontocracy. We need younger leaders (which by the way is the reason I am with Alliance for People's Agenda and a worldly wise Nkosana Moyo)
Japan on the other hand has a long list of useful and not so useful inventions, and more lately of being complacent and thus ceding advantage to the South Koreans and the copy-cat Chinese. Today Samsung is now the dominant figure in house-hold appliances, technology, mobile phones and is deeping itself into pharmaceuticals.
That is a part of my visit; to see how the Japanese can claim ground in the frontier markets of Africa. While the self-flushing toilet would never make it in Africa (needs reliable electricity supply and piped water, both of which are little known), Japan has a lot of offer the world in cosmetics, pharmaceuticals and a rich tradition of food innovation. It is also one of the largest consumer markets in the world. If only we had something we could sell to them.
Until I sat on the seat. It was warm (surely a good sign). And then it almost idles ready to start the business of ablutions. Once you are finished, it flushes itself. Or in the event that you want your under-carriage to the cleaned, it has three setting of jet flow. So I tried it, just to be adventurous, and the water was warm and one felt really clean afterwards.
So of all the Japanese inventions and innovations from National and Panasonic TV, gameboy to Pokemon, the self-flushing toilet (not so well-known in my world) comes tops. It shows you in a sense just how far Maslow's hierarchy of needs this society has gone to have thought about re-inventing this particular wheel.
It got me thinking about inventions and who has given what to the world. There is a racial view of the inventing nations, and the non-inventing nations which is skewed. And I found myself saddened that the only invention that my country is known for (even here in Japan) is of hyper-inflation (more a case study for political, history and economics scholars than an invention, really); and perhaps lately, inventing 8 ways of firing your deputy (more like Paul Simon trying to leave his lover). But really, we have not invented anything despite being so-called "educated". Zimbabwe is just a society which calcified as bones in a gerontocracy. We need younger leaders (which by the way is the reason I am with Alliance for People's Agenda and a worldly wise Nkosana Moyo)
Japan on the other hand has a long list of useful and not so useful inventions, and more lately of being complacent and thus ceding advantage to the South Koreans and the copy-cat Chinese. Today Samsung is now the dominant figure in house-hold appliances, technology, mobile phones and is deeping itself into pharmaceuticals.
That is a part of my visit; to see how the Japanese can claim ground in the frontier markets of Africa. While the self-flushing toilet would never make it in Africa (needs reliable electricity supply and piped water, both of which are little known), Japan has a lot of offer the world in cosmetics, pharmaceuticals and a rich tradition of food innovation. It is also one of the largest consumer markets in the world. If only we had something we could sell to them.
