Khartoum - Cost of Death

This happened somewhere in Khartoum last week.

It rained like hell for hours starting early afternoon one day. The gutters overflowed as they are wont to, by evening. It rained well into the night. Transformers performed the customary fireworks and soon all was dark. Generators in most apartment complexes worked overtime, before shutting down, due to fatigue and lack of fuel.

The roads were flooded and muddy water seeped into basements and water storage facilities.

People in an apartment complex called for help to clear up the ma/udness in their underground water tank. To make the long story short, the plumber who arrived in the night got himself drowned in the muddy sump while trying to fix things. Unfortunate - very.

The panic stricken residents who ran to cops had a good debate on jurisdiction limits late into the night. The body was brought back from the hospital in the morning and there it lay in the basement on a metal bed. Some sort of grim reminder to everyone in the locality.

Next day, the residents paid 200k as a goodwill gesture to the poor fellow's family. Everyone wants to move on from that unfortunate rainy night.

But it looks like it rained pretty heavy for someone that night.
The cops - they wanted a 100k to feed themselves. Why?
Just like that. Apparently some arcane rule says that you cannot do repair work in the night. So ya know, we can cover this one up for you - if you pay up. Bull shit.

Negotiations were on to reduce the amount.
Imagine a cop going home and telling his son: Here's a cycle for you Bobby. Thankfully some fool drowned himself last night.

No wonder unrest is increasing in North Africa.

First they came for the communists,
and I didn't speak out ....Then they came for me
and there was no one left to speak out for me.
-Niemöller