the jimmymac attack!

It is a real contest to decide what is the most disgusting thing in Taiwan. The cockroaches? The rats? The men whose teeth are falling out from chewing betel nuts? The stinky tofu? The cesspool they call Banqiao night market? They are all surpassed by one thing I discovered my first week here. They ask you everywhere to put your toilet paper in the garbage can - and not in the toilet. Why? Good question. If the toilet is not for excrement and toilet paper then I don't know what it is for. I imagine they had some instances where toilets got clogged up. So in their usual over reaction they decided no one should put toilet paper in the toilets. I find it is really disgusting to put toilet paper, which is of course fouled by smelly, dirty human excrement, in the garbage can. This must be very unhygenic! However they have not thought of that or don't care. Taiwan is planning on buying billions of dollars of more military weaponry from the USA. That is ok for the Taiwanese but to fix the toilets seems to be beyond their ability.
Now this whole thing is very very disgusting and it gets worse. Do you want to know how they dispose of this feces covered paper? Wrap the bags up, double bag them and throw it in a garbage bin? No. They leave the bags in the container and pick the paper out with long tongs that are often used in restaurants. This has got to be unhygenic. Wont the filth get on the tongs sometimes? Of course it must. If you're not completely grossed out now imagine this. Somewhere in Taipei there is a place where they wash the tongs and sometimes they mix up the tongs from the kitchen and the toilet... You see? Those tongs serving your food were previously used to pick up the feces covered toilet paper. aaahhhhhhh!!!!!!!