A fortune consumed (A Sad True Story)
To the poor and needy, each day is like sport, surviving each day is like winning a particular game out of the many sports. However, to Win any of these games requires tactical lessons and knowledge, not necessarily learnt in a classroom.
But the lack of these knowledge to survive, plus extreme poverty are fierce enemies to most humans on this planet, like a predator, it consumes and devours those who do not master the art of surviving at all cost. I'm writing this story from an Alien perspective. The sadness in one of these real life happenings as regarding the young man in this image would be better understood from a stranger's standpoint hence read like you are not from this planet called earth.
Charles(fictional name) is a young man struggling for survival like Billions of people living below the poverty line across the globe. To the rich, every day is like luxury, surviving each day is like a ticking hands of the clock. With ease, it rotates clockwise non stop, but the poor masses like Charles might never know or understand such ease of life.
People do different things to make a living, to feed themselves and their families, Charles resorted into fishing to make ends meet. Since no permit is needed to fish in some parts of the of the world and you do not need sophisticated equipments and boats to start, you are a fisherman in the making. The problem now is, too many people fishing in an area will mean a drop in demand of fishes and then a static economy is created. This is the case of the community where Charles was fishing.
One faithful day,the young man woke up earlier than the village cockerel just to get an headstart into another fishing day. He had rowed for hours before the first light of dawn hit the surface of the river, he is used to rowing boats in darkness so he could navigate well with a handmade bush lamp hung beside his fishing boat. By noon, he had gone way too far than the other Fishermen would go, and by late afternoon he hasn't come back to familiar waters.
Nobody saw him throughout that day, only a few were worried, but everyone seems not to care but mind their fishing businesses. At noon the following day, there was chanting and cheering at the river base where fishing boats docks at night.
Charles had come back with a rare fish, an uncommon sight, even the most versatile and most experienced fishers had never seen before. Nobody knew how Charles caught the strange looking exotic fish, everyone was curious at the same time wanting to have a taste of this strange fish different from what they all are used to.
Big knives came blazing, butchering axes, cutting slabs went to work to dissect the fish for food. Charles and the other fishermen were oblivious to their hero's folly and the regrets that will ensue in the coming days.
The Reality!
The fish you are looking at is one of the last few endangered species of exotic fish and scientist are rumoured to pay up to $3 Million(unconfirmed price but within this range) to find one. That was the reality of this story, Charles(not the real name of the young man) is no where to be found and the fear of his friends and family is that he had committed suicide.
Imagine what $3 Million could have done to Charles and the entire community? Also imagine if has the right knowledge to find information about his rare catch? What a life changing experience it could have been for the man in question!