JCC ITT we complain about our 1st world problems...

I'm in a dull conference call but I have to pay a little bit of attention while I post here and surf the web

 

The waiters & waitresses at TGI Friday's (the one closest to my work) are way too damn chatty.

Viva Los Angeles!

 

*Sigh*, laundry just for socks? I think I'll just run out and buy new ones.

 

I forgot to make a thread about 15,000 posts.

 

The artsy pretentious coffee shop I am in looks really cool but has few practical places to sit, and 0 comfortable places to sit. :-(

 

I have to help my father pick out a new surround sound system tomorrow. As a reward for my help he's gonna buy me the SW Blu-Rays, provided I watch them with him and his favorite grandchildren (my sons).

Actually, this is going to be an awesome weekend and is therefore not a problem at all.

Also I've been offered a job as an airbrush artist at a local bike shop.

Also my divorce will be final next week.

 

I'm really tired but am in a conference room all day so I have to pretend to work instead of just not working.

 

Just got a notice last night that the main slab pipe in my apartment will be replaced next week. May have to stay in a motel for 3 or 4 days as there will be no water at all for 3 or 4 days! The letter was dated 9/6/11, but the manager just gave it to me yesterday!!!

The bathroom in the pool area will be open for those who wish to stay in their apartments and a vacant apartment will be set aside for those who need to shower, etc., before going to work. Getting a hotel room will be easier.

We will get credit of our rent per diem if we choose to go to a hotel. But, really, the manager should have given us the notice when she first wrote the letter!!!

 

What exactly do you think a "first world problem" is?

 

Megavideo's time limit is pure FASCISM.

 

Today, I couldn't find the frozen pizza I like. FML

 

Well, it's not like I live in a mud hut someplace. This is a first world country, we're never supposed to be out of hot and cold running water!

And, to top it off, my fax machine just broke. The toner cartridge was defective and the toner film tore!

So, no faxes today. I'll just get tons of emailed travel permits to approve and scan and email back. I don't know how the scanner works, exactly, either.

 

okay, and people in developing nations are supposed to be without water? I really cannot wrap my mind around characterizing not having access to water as a "first-world problem," if that qualifies then what on earth doesn't?

 

living in a mud hut apparently.

 

Most people in third world countries do not have easy access to water. They have to get it from a well or a river and carry it home. Most do not have indoor plumbing, at least as far as I know.

 

Exactly

Lack of access to water is not a first world problem. It's a problem for everyone.

 

Yeah, their aqueducts were fantastic! But, I did post about my fax machine breaking. That's a first world problem, I hope.

Just found out the office manager went on vacation without ordering more fax machine toner! How dare she take her honeymoon without ordering more!

 

I'm not sure having the water turned off at your apartment complex really qualifies as a problem of access to fresh water. In the first place, it's temporary. In the second, she has several other easily available, affordable alternatives for getting fresh water. In the third place, free access to freshwater is already being offered as an on-site alternative, albeit only a few hundred yards away from her customary spot, and with more shared usage. In the fourth, she is receiving receiving credit for the cost of expenses necessary to compensate for her inconvenience.

Given that none of these are true of places where there are actually problems with finding safe drinking water, I'd say that treating the two as if they were equivalent is very much in line with the spirit of this thread.

 

Jabba,

If there's no hot water in my apartment, I could go to the vacant apartment with my tote bag of clothes, toothbrush, toothpaste, shampoo, soap, facial cleanser, etc. and pray that no one else is showering at the same time or that there isn't a long line of people waiting to use the facilities. And that I didn't forget something important.

And what if I have to use the bathroom in the middle of the night?

 

I absolutely agree that it's inconvenient. My point is that is very much, as you originally suggested, a "first world" sort of inconvenience.

 

The idea of a "first world problem" is something that is a "problem" that people would only encounter in a well developed, industrial context. "I have to wade through a bunch of beezel and darth_boy threads," or "I can never remember which of my iPhones has Tweetdeck installed on it."

The mitigating factors you listed aren't part of the problem, they're mitigating factors that exist because she lives in a developed nation, but they're not part of THE PROBLEM. The problem itself is that her usual water source is unavailable and she's displaced because of that. That's something that people experience in underdeveloped or undeveloped nations constantly. To characterize it as a "first world problem" implies - as Sami J did a few posts ago - that people in undeveloped nations are "supposed" to have trouble accessing water and that it isn't a "problem" for them because they're so used to it.

 

Well, I mention about the fax machine breaking. Now I have to learn how to use the scanner. That's definitely a 'first' world problem.

 

Sure, those are. I'm not talking about those, am I?