This was posted on the BM Newswire on PoopReport.com, where I am the editor. Please note that the author is Bunga Din; I'm reposting it here because, as you'll see, it really is quite profound.
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.
Because where war and suffering have failed, the writer uses sewage to create empathy.
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.