THERE are quite a few quotable lines in The Dark Knight Rises 2012 - a superhero film directed by Christopher Nolan.
Most of them are by the main antagonist Bane - excellently portrayed by actor Tom Hardy, who employs an unusual accent in the movie making quite a few of his lines quite memorable, no matter how absurd a few of them are.
In one scene, where Bruce Wayne is lying with a broken back in an underground prison controlled by Bane, the villain tells the injured hero that when "Gotham is in ashes...then you have my permission to die."
Such a line is not out of place in a superhero movie where people dress as a bat or a cat but surely it would make no sense in the real world. Death comes for us all and certainly no one needs another's permission to do so, right? It isn't like there's a town in Norway where it's actually illegal to die, is there?
Verdict:
TRUE
The remote town of Longyearbyen, located in Svalbard and closer to the North Pole than the capital Oslo, has prohibited dying since 1950. Being one of the coldest places, with temperatures dropping between minus 20 to 30 degrees Celcius in winter when locals have to endure their days in complete darkness, the town has a unique problem. Corpses do not decompose due to the extreme cold.
This issue became especially concerning when the Spanish flu was discovered in corpses that had been buried for a century. In the 1990s, scientists exhumed several bodies to study the disease, and tests on 11 of these bodies revealed that the deadly 1918 influenza virus was still present.
Climate change is another concern for the residents, as thawing permafrost could potentially release the virus again. To prevent this, no one is permitted to die in the area. Instead, individuals who are nearing the end of their lives are flown to mainland Norway.
If it appears that you are nearing death, every effort is made to transport you to the mainland. Since 1950, it has been illegal to bury anyone in the local cemetery.
While cremation urns can be interred locally, this option is rarely chosen. Instead, terminally ill individuals must leave the island and spend their remaining days in Norway.
But Longyearbyen is not unique in placing restrictions on its inhabitants kicking the bucket.
Sellia, a medieval town located at the southern tip of Italy, has a population of just 500, predominantly aged over 65. To address the declining population, Mayor Davide Zicchinella instituted Ordinance 11, making it explicitly "forbidden to fall ill within the municipality" and stating that "dying is prohibited."
Residents who do not take the necessary health precautions, such as skipping medical check-ups, face a yearly fine of €10. Other places with similarly stringent measures include Cugnaux and Sarpourenx in France, Biritiba Mirim in Brazil, Lanjaron in Spain, and Falciano del Massico in Italy.
The primary reason for these laws is the lack of available space in local cemeteries.
References
1. https://www.mirror.co.uk/news/
2. https://www.express.co.uk/
