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Humanity as seen through sewage

Posted 05.29.2007 by Bunga Din
A well-written piece in The Globe and Mail recently explored the history and conditions of Palestinian refugee camps in Lebanon -- something most North Americans aren't really well informed about. And while the story of the refugees and the conditions they are forced to endure is a huge story in itself, I realized that HOW this article was presented -- and the possible motivations of the writer -- were worth a look here on PoopReport.

After briefly explaining the history that led to the creation of these refugee camps, journalists Rym Ghazal and Mark Mackinnon brings us back into the present with this phrase: "The occasional whiff of raw sewage floats by as gunmen from some of the 14 armed militia groups that operate in the camp go about their business. They view outsiders with suspicion -- a suspicion that is often reciprocal."

This is a very powerful statement. It informs us that these camps out-and-out stink of shit -- not a situation anyone would wish on anyone else. Is this one of the many reasons there is such a continuous cycle of uprisings and violence? Would you be satisfied living in a place like this?

Further into the article, the writers quote sixty-year-old Abu Mahmoud Husseib, whose family fled their homes in what was then Palestine in 1948. To underscore his statement about '60 years of degradation,' Ghazal and Mackinnon state that Husseib "has been displaced eight times since, and now lives with his entire family in a one-room house with sewage-infested halls, no telephone lines and no electricity."

So once again the writer brings home the point that this is a deplorable place.

Following the narrative of the article, the Globe and Mail then presents facts about each of the twelve refugee camps in Lebanon. I reproduce five of them below:

1. NAHR AL-BARED
Refugees: 31,023 Established: 1949
Conditions: Although all shelters have indoor plumbing, these are linked to an inadequate water supply and untreated sewage is discharged into the sea.


2. BEDDAWI
Refugees: 16,198 Established: 1955
Conditions: The camp's main problems are poverty and unemployment. All shelters have indoor water supplies but sewers flood frequently and discharge directly into the sea.


5. SHATILA
Refugees: 12,235 Established: 1949
Conditions: Living conditions are extremely bad with damp, overcrowded shelters, open drains, inadequate sewage and unreliable potable water.


10. BUSS
Refugees: 10,107 Established: Originally created in 1939 to accommodate refugees from Armenia. Palestinians arrived in 1948.
Conditions: All shelters are supplied with water and electricity but only 60 per cent are connected to the unfinished sewer system.


12. RASHIDIEH
Refugees: 25,580 Established: 1963
Conditions: Almost all shelters in the camp have water and electricity. Although they all have private toilets, sewage flows into open ditches along roads and pathways.

In total, 246 words of this 1,516 word article highlight the fact that these people live in shit.

This, in my opinion, is an astounding amount of space; but, with constant exposure to gunmen in the streets and pitched battles running in urban areas, we tend to be shocked by less and less these days. Maybe the writers are trying to hit us where they know we are still vulnerable: our fear of poop.

Had this article been a rundown of the usual battles that take place and the human cost of them, I don't think it would have made me think too much about it. I've become -- like many -- pretty callous in the reporting we see from this part of the world. It's a never-ending death spiral and the human element is all but removed. It's just numbers of dead and wounded.

This story, though, really made me think of how conditions like this would have shaped my thinking, had I endured them. These refugees are exposed to media themselves; they know just how deplorable their conditions are. The writer took a subject matter that frightens us and built upon it a good argument: that if we treat people like animals, we should not be surprised when some of them act animalistic.

These refugees are, as the article makes clear, pawns in a very complicated game in this part of the world. Day-to-day living conditions like this probably provide a tipping point into extremism for some of them; and other groups use their suffering to recruit people and further agendas which do not solve the immediate problems or even address the core issues that exist.

In short: where tales of violence and suffering have failed, only sewage could put a human element into a story that has so long been only about the political condition.

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Show some poop support, or make a poop retort.
Dave (11578) -- 05.29.2007

I think this is really astute that you noticed this. In my book I talk about the use of sewage as a tool to dehumanize people -- specifically in terms of encouraging the US to occupy and rule the Philipines in the 19th Century because by making it sound like it was up to us to cleanse these filthy savages of their disgusting ways.

But this is the exact opposite of that. In a sense, what you have noticed echoes the ethos of Poop For Peace -- that even though we're unable to relate to their religion and their politics, we're able to relate to their poop. Poop really is a point of common humanity.

daphne (3527) -- 05.30.2007

Basically, we don't seem to bat many eyelashes at killing any more, but for God's sakes, make sure they have plumbing, or we feel bad. It's a connecting item, isn't it?

Nice article, Bilgey.


_______
.....hugging bunnies since 1969
www.daphneszoo.com

Dave (11578) -- 05.30.2007

Bilgey?

Mary Queen of Scats (387) -- 05.30.2007

This report instantly made me think of that scene in Schindler's List when the little boy jumps down to hide in the bottom of the outhouse...only to find that he's not alone because there's a group of other people hiding there too.

Why is it that I can watch a movie about the genocide of 6 million people, but yet I remember a child having to hide in a cesspool?

Great observations, "Bilgey."

_______
What do you mean you didn't see it? It was right next to the toilet!

Bilgepump (1643) -- 05.30.2007

I know I'm constantly on your mind, Dear Daphne, but Bunga wrote this one up, not I.

Pantload (74) -- 05.30.2007


What, are these people children who can't be potty trained or to clean up their own mess? If all those militiamen would put down their guns and pick up some shovels maybe they could dig themselves a sewer. And I don't call some place you've lived since 1950 a "camp". It's a town. Get used to it. Isreal handed your butts to you when you attacked them. You make your own shit, you clean it up. No sympathy here.


What's so funny 'bout poop, love, and understanding?

Bunga Din (1239) -- 05.30.2007

Pantload, if you'd read the article you'd have noticed that building is prohibited in the camps, these are "temporary settlements" until the Palestinian people can either be repatriated to their original homes or find some other place to live who'll accept them.

The people of Lebanon where these camps exist do NOT want them considered permanent residents. The Arab league supports this position.

Dave (11578) -- 05.30.2007

And I don't call some place you've lived since 1950 a "camp". It's a town. Get used to it.

Please read the article and see if you still feel your statement is accurate.

Pantload (74) -- 05.30.2007


Look, I apologize for going political about this. I confused Lebenon with the so-called "occupied territories". I'm not going to pay to read an article that is, from what I can tell from the posts, most likely an article that leaves out many important facts and timelines. No one should have to live in their own excrement but if I had to live in a camp I'd figure it out.

Why don't the arabs help their brethren?

Anyway, sorry to have swirved off our endevour into great poop culture. I hope Mr. Hankey will forgive me.


What's so funny 'bout poop, love, and understanding?

daphne (3527) -- 05.31.2007

Oops. Sorry, Bunga. My bad.

And Goddamn, Pantload. Just goddamn.


_______
.....hugging bunnies since 1969
www.daphneszoo.com

Dave (11578) -- 05.31.2007

I didn't realize they hid the story behind a pay wall. I updated the link to a version that's free.

Deja Poo (615) -- 05.31.2007

Not being one to pick nits (or other assorted fleas and vermin), but I was wondering how a one-room house can have even one, much less more than one, hall. Assuming that the interviewee adopted the Western notion of what counts as rooms, it seems to me that, if you've only got one room, that the crapper and kitchen would be hanging directly off of it. There would be no hallways, only doors. The point of hallways is so that you don't have to go directly from one room to the next (like going through your parents' bedroom in order to get to yours). Even if, for whatever reason, you decided that you didn't want the door to the crapper directly attached to your living/dining/bed room, you would, at most, need only one hallway.

Still, it's an appalling way to live and it's a shame that nobody can or will do much of anything to help the poor bastards.
_______
Deja Poo - Because this shit's so strange, it couldn't ever have happened before.

Deja Poo (615) -- 06.01.2007

And I don't call some place you've lived since 1950 a "camp".

It's interesting that the barracks that we stayed in at Fort Knox was called a "temporary living quarters". How can you call anything that was built in the 1940's and that you have no intention of tearing down in the near future, "temporary"
_______
Deja Poo - Because this shit's so strange, it couldn't ever have happened before.

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