note to myself: what about the dead?

[ritaxis]

It occured to me that though I did have an idea about how to build a science-fictional refugee camp -- I had an understanding of water issues, sanitation, building materials, camp organization -- I had overlooked the issue of disposing of the dead.  In any camp there will be deaths, and in this camp there are waves of epidemic disease lapping at the edges.  So I thought I'd look up what current-day refugee camps do about it.  When I've looked up other things about refugee camps I usually find UNHCR papers or church groups' reports to their congregations or something.

This time the first page of Google returns 8 references to Jenin, a "camp" in Palestine.  Quotes because when you see pictures of Palestinian camps, you see what looks like cities.  Though if you Google Jenin -- I do not recommend this for the faint of heart, like me: you get pictures of rubble, but mostly you get pictures of destroyed human bodies.

The thing about Jenin was that the Israelis shelled it for days and the Palestinians were not allowed to bury their dead.  It's also the place where, having shelled the place for days, the IDF went in, called out for the residents to turn themselves in, and getting no response, they bulldozed the city right over the people, living and dead together.  History is a terrible thing, and we're living in hostory every moment.

Since the reburial of massacre victims is the opening for the last chapter (the next one after the one I'm working on -- it's pretty much written) I think I'm going to have to go through and think about burial right through the book.  I'm thinking that, it being science fiction and technology being sufficiently advanced, the canned clinic facility contains a kiln for cremation.  But what do these people do with the ashes?  There must be issues.   I've got some odd little religious cults.  The one which I've talked about the most is wonky about cleanliness.  They're always an issue one way or another.

Just in general I don't think I've paid enough attention to dead bodies.  Well, I did want to add a few thousand words to the total, anyway.

I'm at 63237 words.  I've been putting in several-hundred word chunks about handling the dead and various crises and stuff: some things I'd always planned on putting in but handn't for one reason or another, and some things that I've been thinking about just now.

At one point I had thought the book wasn't going to be sufficiently grim for a book about war and its aftereffects. but I don't think so anymore.