When I was working in Africa, I would read the newspaper, a grandly titled publication. There is a lot of Russian aviation equipment scattered about the West African Coast. There is nothing apt to cause mischief as the operation of Russian equipment left over from the Cold War by the indigenous people of that region.

On one occasion one of these old Soviet cargo transports, an [author cannot recall the aircraft designation], was loaded with 270 Africans, with their baskets of produce, gas cans and what have you. As the transport was gaining altitude over the jungle the tail gate opened, and all across the jungle was a sprinkling of African passengers—citizens of that very nation—dropped hundreds of feet to their deaths in bunches, a dozen here, twenty or thirty there.

Not only did the plane callously continue to its destination with whoever managed to cling to the interior, there was not a word about it in the illustrious paper of record. Imagine if you would, near three hundred Americans spat out by an airbus in any state, no less one of the states abutting Washington D.C., and there not being a word devoted to the event in the media?

That’s Africa.

-Sea Daddy

The Complete Catalog by Lynn Lockhart