JOE's CORNER!
A brief note by the editor
 I thought the Swamp things would disappear after Carnival. Every year the Swiss pre-Lenten celebration spawns characters that stand outside human society, monsters or beasts, which are not terribly nice. More like sarcastic. They like to fool around with people and they express opinions more distinctly and sharply than a person normally would do. Sort of like Dilbert's companion, Dogbert, if you know what I mean.

Well, this one missed the end of Carnival and took residence in a swamp outside of Lucerne which I occasionally visit. I had seen him a number of times before and had made friends with him. His name is Joe Swamp. He looks fierce and has a rather distorted sense of humour. Fortunately, though, his character is friendly. He likes to discuss ecological issues with me, calling himself an "aware swamp inhabitant".

He's always keen on news about constructed wetlands and sees them under a "free homestead perspective". Last time I saw him he had just encountered one of my colleagues. And here is what he told me:

Joe Swamp speaks

 "I'll have you know I spared one of your limologist colleagues last week. He got caught in one of my traps, and I was looking forward to a great meal of limnoloq au vin. But he convinced me he was doing something good for the ecosystem by measuring what he called 'organic microcontaminants' in surface water, part of a project that would save future fish generations.

"Well, I've always believed that a limnologist in the hand is better than two fish in the swamp, but I guess, what is bad for future generations of fish is even worse for me, isn't it? So I nibbled on him a bit, and finally let him go.

"You know what he told me? He said that 80% of medications you guys sometimes take are excreted via the kidneys, and make their way through the wastewater treatment plants back into nature virtually undegraded. He said, that some hormones would do the same. And that they have found fish downstream of treatment plant outlets with severely damaged sexual organs, due probably to these hormones.

"If this is true, do you really believe that urine can readily be used on the land, like your friends, the Ecological Engineers, propose it? I mean, urine may be "essentially sterile", but what good is that, if there is other bad stuff in it?

"And," he continued, "is it really so free of pathogens, anyway? I mean, in the spring, I got one of those darn urinary infections, you know, where you can hardly pee anymore. Wouldn't the bacteria also be in the urine? You'd better be darn sure of your answers to these questions if you want the public to go along with urine spreading!"

Before I could say a thing, he jumped into one of those swamp pools and disappeared.
 
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