Dutch Firm Apologises Over Buddha Toilets

[Lancelot]

Under Taliban rule in Afghanistan some ancient Buddha figures in a mountaine side were destroyed.

Can you imagine the (Muslim) uproar if Buddhist disfigured something sacred to Muslims?

Any way, a mistake was made and the Dutch corrected it. Thats how civilized people resolve their differences...

[SouthernMan3]

The Royal Netherlands Embassy in Bangkok announced yesterday on its Facebook page that Boels rental, the company that put pictures of the Lord Buddha on the doors of portable public toilets in Brunssum City, has apologised to the Thai and Buddhist communities.

AS well they should.

Some uneducated person thought up this one.

[DocN]

The Royal Netherlands Embassy in Bangkok announced yesterday on its Facebook page that Boels rental, the company that put pictures of the Lord Buddha on the doors of portable public toilets in Brunssum City, has apologised to the Thai and Buddhist communities.

AS well they should.

Some uneducated person thought up this one.

Some people in THE NETHERLANDS made PICTURES of STATUES...and had to apologize for that?

Brave new world!

[Steely Dan]

The image of Lord Buddha on a toilet door is obviously going to cause offense, but gladly Buddhists tend to avoid hair trigger sensitivity. Imagine if Lego made Jabba the Hutt's gaffe look like Wat Arun, or the Potala Palace, I doubt a word would have been said, whereas...

http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/worldnews/europe/austria/9820517/Lego-accused-of-racism-with-Star-Wars-set.html

[SouthernMan3]

The Royal Netherlands Embassy in Bangkok announced yesterday on its Facebook page that Boels rental, the company that put pictures of the Lord Buddha on the doors of portable public toilets in Brunssum City, has apologised to the Thai and Buddhist communities.

AS well they should.

Some uneducated person thought up this one.

Some people in THE NETHERLANDS made PICTURES of STATUES...and had to apologize for that?

Brave new world!

Yes as well they should.

Do you know nothing about Buddhism and respect for the image of the Buddha ?

[SouthernMan3]

The image of Lord Buddha on a toilet door is obviously going to cause offense, but gladly Buddhists tend to avoid hair trigger sensitivity. Imagine if Lego made Jabba the Hutt's gaffe look like Wat Arun, or the Potala Palace, I doubt a word would have been said, whereas...

http://www.telegraph...r-Wars-set.html

I didn't click on your link but................

Imagine if they painted the toilet lids in England with an image of the Queen wit her mouth that KEE hole

Go over great, eh ?

Same thing kap

[biplanebluey]

This one is one of a secular sick brain who has no feeling about religion ....

Buddhism cannot strictly be called a religion because it is not a system of faith and worship nor the outward act or form by which men indicate their recognition of the existence of a God or gods having power over their own destiny to whom obedience, service, and honor are due.

Sounds like you have never been to a Thai temple...

Exactly what I was thinking----------------Dougal the Kiwi

[BigSkip]

I think its not proper or polite, I wouldn't want a picture of Jesus on a toilet.......................

[tw25rw]

I'm all for denigrating religion and the religious, but this seems rather bizarre and gutless. They wouldn't put a picture of the 'prophet' Muhammed on their toilet, so why choose Buddha except in the knowledge that they are less likely to be murdered?

And why not just sell the space on the exterior to advertisers.

[bigbamboo]

I think its not proper or polite, I wouldn't want a picture of Jesus on a toilet.......................

Holy crap!

[Kitbaikitmah]

Associating Buddha with a dirty place. I am sure he used the common person's throne. Expelling waste is glorious heavenly and utterly healthy...eg after a spicey meal. Even the POTUS and QoE has to take a crap.

It's an essential place...just like your head (so wear a crash helmet!)...just like your feet (care for them, respect them).

Different peoples ideas about expressions of respect hence dogma rather than darma.

Does anybody remember, 4-5 years ago the TV article about the monk who was ran-out of town for putting his foot on a Buddaha statue...he claimed it was just stone paint and goldleaf...but people thought otherwise...seesaw hai kwai fang?

I like my bathroom, its clean and important to me..regliously so, what better place for an icon. Same as my bed heardboard but oh no thats 'sinful' maybe I should tell the mia noi to pray at a statue against conception and for the lottery numbers along-side me praying against conception, for the lottery and avoiding HIV.

Would an apology be acceptable if I put a 'durex' and 'use your bloody indicator' icon next to traditional.

[khaowong1]

The Dutch Co are fortunate they didnt choose something from Islam.

Yeah, that would have been a beaut.. The Dutch have got in trouble before printing assumingly pictures of Muhammed.. Pesonally, I don't give a S**t.

[khaowong1]

Whilst I found whistleblower's post funny, I do believe the Dutch were being their usual insensitive selves. Weren't they responsible for many deaths following some stupid cartoons and a 'movie' about The Prophet? To those who would cite 'freedom of speech', get on down to the Bible Belt (or almost anywhere in the USA come to that) and try slapping some pics of The Christ on their 'rest rooms' then come back and tell us all how you got on

I am one of those insensitive Dutch, we just value of speech and if others use violence against it they are wrong not us. Any religion is fair game why not why would religious people have more rights then those who are not.

Anyway, stupid action of putting Buddha images on toilets, but i would not have been offended if they put the queen of Holland on a toilet. Its just an image and a toilet is just a building. But some people take offences of everything.

But the cartoon and the movie.. freedom of speech and if people start bowing to violence then that is gone soon too.

I agree with you. If we start kowtowing to religious fanatics in fear that we may offend them, where does it end?

I agree with you giddyup.. it's just an image. religious fanatics take everything the wrong way.. The Buddha would be happy to know that people came to him for relief.. a little tongue in cheek there.. but you know what I mean.

[endure]

The Dutch Co are fortunate they didnt choose something from Islam.

Yeah, that would have been a beaut.. The Dutch have got in trouble before printing assumingly pictures of Muhammed..

It was actually the Danish who published those cartoons.

[jbrain]

Thais take offence because there are budha images on the outside of some public toulets 10.000 Km away.

Thai transgenders take offence becasue of an Ikea ad.

Thai people take offence because a dutch singer made a song that covered a real story that happened in Krabi.

Thai people should better take offence about things that happen at top level in their own country and affects them directly

Edited January 24, 2013 by jbrain

[Johpa]

So religious figures never took a crap then!

I believe there exists one mainstream monotheistic belief system where not only do they imagine both an invisible man in the sky, a "god", but also an imaginary place, a "heaven", for an afterlife where in that imaginary place people no longer have an anus.

I for one have never have had thoughts of the Buddha, nor of any religious nature, while paying obeisance to the porcelain goddess when nature does come a calling, but I have found that humming the tune to the Thai national anthem is helpful in relieving minor constipation.

[bigbamboo]

Thais take offence because there are budha images on the outside of some public toulets 10.000 Km away.

Thai transgenders take offence becasue of an Ikea ad.

Thai people take offence because a dutch singer made a song that covered a real story that happened in Krabi.

Thai people should better take offence about things that happen at top level in their own country and affects them directly

Not to mention the offence caused by Lady Gaga wanting to buy a fake Rolex in Thailand.

[DocN]

The Royal Netherlands Embassy in Bangkok announced yesterday on its Facebook page that Boels rental, the company that put pictures of the Lord Buddha on the doors of portable public toilets in Brunssum City, has apologised to the Thai and Buddhist communities.

AS well they should.

Some uneducated person thought up this one.

Some people in THE NETHERLANDS made PICTURES of STATUES...and had to apologize for that?

Brave new world!

Yes as well they should.

Do you know nothing about Buddhism and respect for the image of the Buddha ?

Sure!

Someone somewhere in the world is now offended about something, that someone did or said and should appologize for!

Are you for real?

There ios a lot that Thai people can be offended about, like a 65 year old guy with cancer, being thrown into prison about sms, he most probably didn't even send!

About a rich guy, killing a police-man and trying to cover it up and bribing himself out of the case.

A 16 year old girl,who was speeding on a highway, killing 9 people and getting off, almost scott- free!

About teachers being shot in the south over a supposedly religious conflict!

About people, waging war about 4,3 sqkm of land and a stupid temple!

About one part of the population calling the other part racist slurs.

Or on a global scale: about dead children, because they can't get clean drinking water!

About people being killed by Malaria, because they can't have access to cheap medicine!

About children being raped and women stoned to death because of some god.

Be outraged, be offended, be insulted!

If you have nothing worse to insulted about, than pictures of statues of some guy, who lived 2000 years ago on a door of a toilet...you are one dam_n lucky country!

[daoyai]

when you really need to find one of those facilities, and it is finally located ,you may exclaim, "oh, thank buddha",,,,,,, !

[retell]

or could it be were afraid the buddists in holland might mistake them for porta-temples ?

[Mosha]

When my Bhuddist wife mentioned this yesterday, she didn't appear offended. She wasn't bothered when the Taliban blew up the standing Bhuddas in Afghanistan either. So are "we" offended because it upsets our western pc ideals?

[SouthernMan3]

The Royal Netherlands Embassy in Bangkok announced yesterday on its Facebook page that Boels rental, the company that put pictures of the Lord Buddha on the doors of portable public toilets in Brunssum City, has apologised to the Thai and Buddhist communities.

AS well they should.

Some uneducated person thought up this one.

Some people in THE NETHERLANDS made PICTURES of STATUES...and had to apologize for that?

Brave new world!

Yes as well they should.

Do you know nothing about Buddhism and respect for the image of the Buddha ?

Sure!

Someone somewhere in the world is now offended about something, that someone did or said and should appologize for!

Are you for real?

There ios a lot that Thai people can be offended about, like a 65 year old guy with cancer, being thrown into prison about sms, he most probably didn't even send!

About a rich guy, killing a police-man and trying to cover it up and bribing himself out of the case.

A 16 year old girl,who was speeding on a highway, killing 9 people and getting off, almost scott- free!

About teachers being shot in the south over a supposedly religious conflict!

About people, waging war about 4,3 sqkm of land and a stupid temple!

About one part of the population calling the other part racist slurs.

Or on a global scale: about dead children, because they can't get clean drinking water!

About people being killed by Malaria, because they can't have access to cheap medicine!

About children being raped and women stoned to death because of some god.

Be outraged, be offended, be insulted!

If you have nothing worse to insulted about, than pictures of statues of some guy, who lived 2000 years ago on a door of a toilet...you are one dam_n lucky country!

Yes, Thailand IS one very lucky country .

Not to say we don't have our share of problems........................

And yes, I am for real.

And no, I'm not offended or insulted.

My comment referred to the ignorance of the toilet makers re : Buddhism and it's traditions.

Ex : We DO NOT sleep with our heads pointed towards the bathroom in our house.

The rest of you post gets an from me.

Have a nice day kap.

[Espinete]

Excellent staff at the Dutch Embassy found time to warn a toilet rental company! In 2009 / 2010 all diploamts were sleeping when a Thai accountant working for 12 years at the Embassy was able to simply embezzle 18.000.000 Thb. in 14 months. The poor man (Mr. Phasith Somboon) has been court sentenced for 28 years at Klong Plem prison, because of a heavily frustrated Ambassador seeing his reputation destroyed (he has been replaced luckily....) and diplomats could put their head to rest again. But good to hear they are alert on toilets.

In my humble opinion traveling around, I see hairs of Buddha exposed in Myanmar, a teeth of Buddha in Sri Lanka, a large footprint of Buddha nearby Vientiane, Laos. Wasn;t he human after all? Didn't Buddha burn nutrition to fuel his body? With all respect for the wisdom of Buddha; approx. 1.200 mtr. from the same Dutch embassy are bars where naughty naughty naughty things happen and Buddha images monitor the scene. Even pictures of the King of Thailand.

How many decades does it need to make a population grow up and act mature. And fight their own hypocrisy?

[ericnoodeeka]

Anuchit Pomthong and Nok Ja held a press conference today to say how happy they were that their online campaign that was launched and updated during working hours (they work for a western company that pays them far in excess of what a Thai company would). Whilst sporting fake levi jeans, a Swastika t shirt, rip off reeboks, a copy rolex watch and smelling of imitation Guess aftershave, Nok Ja said he was happy that this newsworthy campaign has succeded.

We caught up with the intrepid pair on a beachfront in Phuket. As we watched with a backdrop of Immigration officers loading up Rhohingya refugees onto a bus to be sent back to Burma to face certain death or be sold into human trafficking, Anuchit added "I am so happy that Thais have come together on this very sensitive issue to force the Dutch company to change their design" He added "we Thais are a sensitive bunch when something annoys us. And we are also aware of the sensitivity of other nations" Nok Ja chipped in "Thats why when the Japanese visited our country during world war 2 not only did we welcome them with open arms, we actually helped them torture POWs and swept it under the table when they broke the Geneva Convention" Anuchit (getting excited now by the attention) adds "And dont forget we let the Americans have airbases here during the Vietnam war. We sold our daughters/wives/sisters to them for their sexual amusement. So I challenge anyone to say Thais aren't respectful of other people" He added "okay I admit that we were hoping to get something in return for our efforts, like, say the return of Angkor Wat that really belongs to us"

At this point we have to break from the interview for 1/2 hour as a group of taxi drivers complained we were getting in the way of them beating an innocent tourist to a bloody pulp.

When the interview restarted we asked the pair what was next on their "if its Thai its ours, if its not we will copy it" campaign. Nok Ja replies "Well right now we are starting a petition to overturn the world court and the World heritages decision to give OUR Preah Vihear to the Khmers" he continues, "after all they only got it in the first place because we were to chicken shit to fight them one year so we ceded some Thai land to them. Anuchit interupts, "Do you know Thailand has never been colonised by a foreign country!. We Thais are so proud of that. Apart from letting the Burmese come and go as they wished for hundreds of years and eventually moving our capital to a swamp to facilitate their looting and rampaging oh and of course our brief occupation by the japs we have never been colonised! We have a simple method for that sort of thing. Whenever we are threatened by another country we just give them a huge chunk of our country"

When asked how they would be celebrating this monumentous victory Anuchit replied "well I will be out on the town sinking a few beer Laos tonight! (technically beer Laos is a Thai beer, because years ago the land on which the factory sits was Thai but they gave it away to avoid being invaded) asked if his wife would be joining the celebrations Anuchit replied "NO this victory is so big I will have to take out my Mia Noi"

Nok Ja replied that his celebrations would be a bit quieter: "I will celebrate at home" he replied "I dont have the money to spend on beer as i am saving up for a sex change. Then I will go and work in Pattaya and really rake in the money" he continued "Anuchit always has money because his dads side of the family are all policemen who have a large Tea fund and all of his mums side of the family are hookers who cornered the market in drugging their punters and stealing from them" So No, i will just stay at home and tweet my friends on my Knock off Ipad about this earthshattering result, I may however watch a 100bht pirated movie later"

The Interview ends here as Anuchit has to go home sink a bottle of Lao Kaow and beat his wife for not getting any farang punters to shag her her before he goes out to the snooker hall with his mia noi and Nok Ja has 15 excited schoolgirls waiting for him to teach them cheerleeding!

Being a non biased newspaper, we did contact the Dutch advertising ageny involved. Unfortunately they had no comment AS THEY WERE TOO BUSY GETTING ON WITH THEIR F@#&ING LIVES!!!

your falling(or falled)of your trolly!

Why waisting so much words on a solved case.??

more like: you're falling( or fell) of tour trolly

why wasting so many words on a solved case.

and im not english too.

[ericnoodeeka]

Anuchit Pomthong and Nok Ja held a press conference today to say how happy they were that their online campaign that was launched and updated during working hours (they work for a western company that pays them far in excess of what a Thai company would). Whilst sporting fake levi jeans, a Swastika t shirt, rip off reeboks, a copy rolex watch and smelling of imitation Guess aftershave, Nok Ja said he was happy that this newsworthy campaign has succeded.

We caught up with the intrepid pair on a beachfront in Phuket. As we watched with a backdrop of Immigration officers loading up Rhohingya refugees onto a bus to be sent back to Burma to face certain death or be sold into human trafficking, Anuchit added "I am so happy that Thais have come together on this very sensitive issue to force the Dutch company to change their design" He added "we Thais are a sensitive bunch when something annoys us. And we are also aware of the sensitivity of other nations" Nok Ja chipped in "Thats why when the Japanese visited our country during world war 2 not only did we welcome them with open arms, we actually helped them torture POWs and swept it under the table when they broke the Geneva Convention" Anuchit (getting excited now by the attention) adds "And dont forget we let the Americans have airbases here during the Vietnam war. We sold our daughters/wives/sisters to them for their sexual amusement. So I challenge anyone to say Thais aren't respectful of other people" He added "okay I admit that we were hoping to get something in return for our efforts, like, say the return of Angkor Wat that really belongs to us"

At this point we have to break from the interview for 1/2 hour as a group of taxi drivers complained we were getting in the way of them beating an innocent tourist to a bloody pulp.

When the interview restarted we asked the pair what was next on their "if its Thai its ours, if its not we will copy it" campaign. Nok Ja replies "Well right now we are starting a petition to overturn the world court and the World heritages decision to give OUR Preah Vihear to the Khmers" he continues, "after all they only got it in the first place because we were to chicken shit to fight them one year so we ceded some Thai land to them. Anuchit interupts, "Do you know Thailand has never been colonised by a foreign country!. We Thais are so proud of that. Apart from letting the Burmese come and go as they wished for hundreds of years and eventually moving our capital to a swamp to facilitate their looting and rampaging oh and of course our brief occupation by the japs we have never been colonised! We have a simple method for that sort of thing. Whenever we are threatened by another country we just give them a huge chunk of our country"

When asked how they would be celebrating this monumentous victory Anuchit replied "well I will be out on the town sinking a few beer Laos tonight! (technically beer Laos is a Thai beer, because years ago the land on which the factory sits was Thai but they gave it away to avoid being invaded) asked if his wife would be joining the celebrations Anuchit replied "NO this victory is so big I will have to take out my Mia Noi"

Nok Ja replied that his celebrations would be a bit quieter: "I will celebrate at home" he replied "I dont have the money to spend on beer as i am saving up for a sex change. Then I will go and work in Pattaya and really rake in the money" he continued "Anuchit always has money because his dads side of the family are all policemen who have a large Tea fund and all of his mums side of the family are hookers who cornered the market in drugging their punters and stealing from them" So No, i will just stay at home and tweet my friends on my Knock off Ipad about this earthshattering result, I may however watch a 100bht pirated movie later"

The Interview ends here as Anuchit has to go home sink a bottle of Lao Kaow and beat his wife for not getting any farang punters to shag her her before he goes out to the snooker hall with his mia noi and Nok Ja has 15 excited schoolgirls waiting for him to teach them cheerleeding!

Being a non biased newspaper, we did contact the Dutch advertising ageny involved. Unfortunately they had no comment AS THEY WERE TOO BUSY GETTING ON WITH THEIR F@#&ING LIVES!!!

You have a very unusual sense of humor - all those points IMHO, were off topic.

still the funniest thing i 've read on here in a very long time. it cracked me up.

its a subtle reminder for humans to learn to laugh at oneselves. nice one dude.

[meadish_sweetball]

Is the problem because the picture of Buddha was on a toilet or is it because they used it at all ?.I don't see what the difference is between this and tourists buying little Buddha statues or pictures in downtown Bangkok and bringing them home to decorate whatever room they wish with them.My mother has two praying Buddhas on her mantelpiece.Is that wrong ?

The difference is that while decorating with Buddha images is not appreciated by most Buddhists either, at least it is not associated with bodily excrement.

In the first case, you reduce what is intended as an object to help contemplation and practice of the dharma to a lifestyle or home decoration object, i.e. in a sense taking away its intended purpose.

In the second case, to many people, associating something that they see as sacred with bodily excrement, is akin to making it, or associating it with, the ugly and profane. I.e. a sort of insult.

I don't necessarily agree myself; like others have suggested, my perception is that the Buddha placed no importance at all on symbols since what he taught is related to going beyond cultural and personal conditioning and beyond the world of form to see ultimate reality, but I still understand their sentiment and would not deliberately offend them.

That being said, I think in apologizing unreservedly and removing the cubicles, the company did what they could to fix their mistake, and that should be the end of the matter.

[pieandmash]

The image of Lord Buddha on a toilet door is obviously going to cause offense, but gladly Buddhists tend to avoid hair trigger sensitivity. Imagine if Lego made Jabba the Hutt's gaffe look like Wat Arun, or the Potala Palace, I doubt a word would have been said, whereas...

http://www.telegraph...r-Wars-set.html

I didn't click on your link but................

Imagine if they painted the toilet lids in England with an image of the Queen wit her mouth that KEE hole

Go over great, eh ?

Same thing kap

Not the same thing at all, the same thing would be a toilet with an Image of Queen Elizabeth II on the door. Most English wouldn't be bothered at all by such a thing, in fact most would probably see the funny side of it.

[SouthernMan3]

The image of Lord Buddha on a toilet door is obviously going to cause offense, but gladly Buddhists tend to avoid hair trigger sensitivity. Imagine if Lego made Jabba the Hutt's gaffe look like Wat Arun, or the Potala Palace, I doubt a word would have been said, whereas...

http://www.telegraph...r-Wars-set.html

I didn't click on your link but................

Imagine if they painted the toilet lids in England with an image of the Queen wit her mouth that KEE hole

Go over great, eh ?

Same thing kap

Not the same thing at all, the same thing would be a toilet with an Image of Queen Elizabeth II on the door. Most English wouldn't be bothered at all by such a thing, in fact most would probably see the funny side of it.

You obviously do not understand Thai Buddhism.

Where do you live anyway ?

[rubl]

Where's Mr Happy Toilet when you need him?

I assume you'd like his picture on the toilets, may be as stimulant to a fast(er) and short use of the facilities

[rubl]

The image of Lord Buddha on a toilet door is obviously going to cause offense, but gladly Buddhists tend to avoid hair trigger sensitivity. Imagine if Lego made Jabba the Hutt's gaffe look like Wat Arun, or the Potala Palace, I doubt a word would have been said, whereas...

http://www.telegraph...r-Wars-set.html

I didn't click on your link but................

Imagine if they painted the toilet lids in England with an image of the Queen wit her mouth that KEE hole

Go over great, eh ?

Same thing kap

Not the same thing at all, the same thing would be a toilet with an Image of Queen Elizabeth II on the door. Most English wouldn't be bothered at all by such a thing, in fact most would probably see the funny side of it.

You obviously do not understand Thai Buddhism.

Where do you live anyway ?

My excuses for moving a bit (more) off topic. The link SteelyDan provided has

"Turkish community said the model was based on Hagia Sophia mosque in Istanbul and that the accompanying figures depicted Asians and Orientals as people with “deceitful and criminal personalities.”"

Looking at the Lego model I cannot say it resembles the Hagia Sophia which was founded as Eastern Roman Christian Church, neither did I know that the Turkish community has such clear and emphatic feeling for 'Asians and Orientals'. It seems one can learn something new every day