The Man who fell to Earth
In April, a man fell to Earth.
From the damaged branches of the trees the experts could tell that he must have fallen from great heights and had been dead before his body hit the forrest ground. We can only assume how it happened; the most likely theory is that he had been a stowaway, hidden in the wheel well of a plane. How desperate this man must have been, leaving family and friends behind, risking and eventually losing his life.
We don't know his name, his history or where he came from. All that was left of him was his body, a t-shirt, a pair of jeans and a necklace. The logo on the t-shirt is a hint that he might have come from Cameroon, but it's impossible to tell. Maybe he came from France, maybe from Italy - nobody will ever know. He was between 20 and 25 years of age.
So this nameless man fell from the sky and hit the ground in the forrest of one of this country's richest municipalities. The law is very clear here: the municipality where you died has to pay for your funeral if your family can't afford it or if you don't have a family and left no money. If you're living in the community in question, the coffin/urn is free; if you die there and lived elsewhere, it costs about £ 280, plus funeral service. And while £ 280 is a lot of money for most of us, it's nothing for a rich community like the one we're talking about here.
But you know what it's like: the more you have, the less you want to share. So the municipal council stated: "It's not clear who's responsible; after all one doesn't know where he really died." Because "somewhere between plane and ground" is rather vague, sort of. They decided to take a firm stand; after all, if they paid this time, other people would come by the thousands, falling off planes and demanding to be buried in Picturesce!Town. Outrageous!
Luckily for all of us, not everybody in this country has a cash register in place of a heart. A charity organisation (founded many years ago by a local pastor who fought for the homeless, the poor, those without a lobby) decided to pay for the funeral. "This man is somebody's son, even if nobody knows him here," they said. "How can one even discuss this? The value of a society also has to be measured by the way it treats its dead."
Was the municipal council happy to be rid of the problem and the costs?
"We absolutely won't tolerate any involvement by others!"
But because being a jerk is only fun as long as people don't know you're one, things at last got moving.
Today at 2pm, the unknown young man was finally laid to rest. We don't know who or what he believed in, but if you can spare a moment to think of him, it would be a kind gesture.
From the damaged branches of the trees the experts could tell that he must have fallen from great heights and had been dead before his body hit the forrest ground. We can only assume how it happened; the most likely theory is that he had been a stowaway, hidden in the wheel well of a plane. How desperate this man must have been, leaving family and friends behind, risking and eventually losing his life.
We don't know his name, his history or where he came from. All that was left of him was his body, a t-shirt, a pair of jeans and a necklace. The logo on the t-shirt is a hint that he might have come from Cameroon, but it's impossible to tell. Maybe he came from France, maybe from Italy - nobody will ever know. He was between 20 and 25 years of age.
So this nameless man fell from the sky and hit the ground in the forrest of one of this country's richest municipalities. The law is very clear here: the municipality where you died has to pay for your funeral if your family can't afford it or if you don't have a family and left no money. If you're living in the community in question, the coffin/urn is free; if you die there and lived elsewhere, it costs about £ 280, plus funeral service. And while £ 280 is a lot of money for most of us, it's nothing for a rich community like the one we're talking about here.
But you know what it's like: the more you have, the less you want to share. So the municipal council stated: "It's not clear who's responsible; after all one doesn't know where he really died." Because "somewhere between plane and ground" is rather vague, sort of. They decided to take a firm stand; after all, if they paid this time, other people would come by the thousands, falling off planes and demanding to be buried in Picturesce!Town. Outrageous!
Luckily for all of us, not everybody in this country has a cash register in place of a heart. A charity organisation (founded many years ago by a local pastor who fought for the homeless, the poor, those without a lobby) decided to pay for the funeral. "This man is somebody's son, even if nobody knows him here," they said. "How can one even discuss this? The value of a society also has to be measured by the way it treats its dead."
Was the municipal council happy to be rid of the problem and the costs?
"We absolutely won't tolerate any involvement by others!"
But because being a jerk is only fun as long as people don't know you're one, things at last got moving.
Today at 2pm, the unknown young man was finally laid to rest. We don't know who or what he believed in, but if you can spare a moment to think of him, it would be a kind gesture.