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3 Countries Where People Stink...and It’s OK
By Yelena Gertsenova of Denver Cleaning Service
In the US, emitting a body odor is a huge faux pas. It is not so all around the world however, as in some countries giving off a smell is considered not only OK but socially acceptable and, in some cases, desirable. Here are 3 countries where smelling is not offensive. Though their smell is locally contained and steeped in folklore, the Dassanetch tribe of Ethiopia definitely deserve some recognition. Their reverence for the smell of cows translates into a strong desire to take on the smell themselves. The scent of these sacred animals translates into social status and fertility, so the men wash their hands with cow urine and smear their bodies with the manure and the women rub their bodies with butter. Under the scorching African sun, we can only imagine that any smell the Dassanetch hope to take on is magnified tenfold.
The French lead the pack, as their reasoning behind the lack of hygiene is rooted in tradition. After the World War II occupation of France by German soldiers, the French had to survive off extremely rationed amounts of everything—including water. This continued after the Germans left, because the American soldiers stationed there remained for some time. Water had to be saved for cooking and drinking, rather than bathing. Combine this situation with the fact that most French homes did not have running water until the late 1940s, and you have the history of body odor. Generations that grew up in these times of ration and inconvenience have kept up with conservation, even as access to clean water improved. According to LePoint magazine, nine out of ten French citizens do not wash regularly. This translates into about 54 million people, all fans of the most human of odors. Though the French have a smell written into textbooks, the Chinese have a city named after it! Hong Kong means “fragrant harbor”—and we have reason to believe that the person who named it had a sense of humor. This incredibly crowded town is choking on the smells of cooking, laundry, sewage, pollution and exhaust. The locals take on even more of the smells as they hang their clothes out to dry. Regardless of tradition, any place with 16,000 people per square mile is going to get a little funky.
Now, this list is not intended as a way of scorning those outside the Western tradition. We Westerners can definitely take hygiene a little too far, and our smells are not the universal truth in human hygiene. We are convinced that if we Americans adopted some of the bathing traditions of our less-sterile neighbors, life would probably be a lot less chemical. So save some water, pry your iron grip off your Speed Stick, and unplug your Glade plug-in. See what you actually smell like, what your home actually smells like—you might like it! Learn more about keeping your home clean and smelling like Swiss Alps at our website www.DenversCleaningService.com and click through to the blog when you get there.
Born and raised in Ukraine, Yelena Gertsenova practiced pediatric medicine (specializing in allergy treatment) for 17 years. It was during that time that Yelena saw a clear connection between the cleanliness of one's surroundings and one's health. It was with that thought in mind that Yelena started a Denver cleaning company in 2002 after having moved to the States. Yelena has been publishing articles related to home cleaning for over 3 years and recently Yelena started a blog dedicated to healthy cleaning practices, which can be found at denverscleaningservice.com/blog.
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http://www.denverscleaningservice.com/blog/
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I find it a little ironic that a cleaning company in Denver is discouraging people from using their service and then saying that if they use their service they will be healthier.
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