In Africa, when one digs a latrine for use in the bush, there are different ways of going about it. A "scrape" is literally that - scrape away the surface dirt, do your business, and cover it with the dirt you'd previously removed. If you're planning a longer stay (e.g. overnight), or if multiple people want to use the same facilities, a "short drop" is called for - digging a hole a foot or two deep, using it (with each successive user scooping a little dirt over his or her "deposit" to control odors), and then filling it in before departure next day. A "long drop" is for longer-term use, several days or weeks in the same camp. A hole is dug at least four or five feet deep, sometimes more, depending on whether the soil is firm enough not to collapse into the cavity. It's often surrounded by a thatch shield, so that ladies can use it in greater privacy.
(I could tell a rather embarrassing story against myself involving a long drop, a snake, and a double-barreled 12ga. shotgun . . . but I shall refrain. Ahem.)
At any rate, it seems an unfortunate resident of Mumbai in India inadvertently discovered another meaning to a "long drop". In fact, it's probably the longest drop of all . . .
A 52-year-old man with an upset stomach died after falling from the 18th floor of a building in Mumbai on Sunday while defecating from the edge of a shaft, an official said.
The incident occurred at the 18-storey Matoshree Sadan building, Wadala, in central Mumbai, said the official from RAK Marg police station.
The man, a resident of the high-rise, had been suffering from dysentery for the past few days.
"The victim, who was jobless, lived with his sister on the 18th floor. Someone was using the toilet in their house when he lost control of his bowels and rushed outside," an official said.
He sat to defecate on the edge of a shaft near a lift but lost his balance and plunged into a pit on the ground floor, the official said.
There's more at the link.
A tragic situation, and I'm sure his family is devastated . . . but I can already hear the jokes around campfires the length and breadth of Africa! Unfortunately, Indians are not popular in Africa because they run many of the local stores that are regarded as interlopers and profiteers, so the jokes will be rather barbed.
Peter
6 comments:
Lacking a cover around the hole, I've seen some individuals use a standard rain poncho to conduct 'business' in private. Even used the same unit to take a 'bucket bath' without exposing naked flesh to others nearby.
You gotta be shitting me??!?!
As an aside - you would think that the descendants of the cradle of humanity would be first in line to establish their own businesses, thereby not even needing Indians to start & run local stores. The native business owners could then become profiteers themselves.
Only their customers would complain and hate these native profiteers, even as those same customers purchase necessities in said stores. Envy is a dish best served cold, or in the case of central Africa, hot and humid.
It's thought that when sailors go inexplicably missing from their small vessels at sea, it is often a case of falling overboard while urinating off the side.
If they were unpopularnand it was at night, they probably had assistance...
Jonathan
Thing is, a lot of times Africans do start small businesses in Africa, and do quite well.
They just end up doing it in other countries in Africa, because if they do it at home they're expected to A. Share the money they make with the entire family, out to the first cousins at minimum, and the more successful the business is further out they're expected to share the largesse; B. Provide jobs for the people in the family who can't get one, and the same rules apply. You can imagine what this does to entrepreneurship.
(Also, side note: I've talked with folks from Lebanon and Pakistan--same rules apply, and I'd be willing to bet that a lot of the Indians went to Africa to avoid the same sort of parasitism.)
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