Wednesday, December 8, 2010

I Don't Need To Work But If I Did


I would totally apply for this job. Exercise, fresh air, dead bodies to drag to shore for identification and a fat paycheck.

This is CHINA after all - I could add my own dead bodies to one end of the river and collect them at the other. I suspect that some quick Chinese kids have figured this scam out already.

"Lun Lun, 24, of Shangping village in Gansu Province, China, is a body fisherman. He rows his hand-made canoe down the Yellow River seeking dead bodies, and charges 3000 yuan (US$450) to deliver corpses for identification."

Lun Lun and his fellow fishermen have dragged more than one hundred bodies out of the river this year alone as they float downstream from the bustling metropolis. Body fishermen claim the dead are typically victims of suicide or murder from the bustling western provincial capital city of Lanzhou, just 20 kilometers to the west. Authorities say other victims have drowned or died in accidents.
Meanwhile, Wei Jinpeng and Wei Yinquan publicly advertise their services by spray-painting their mobile phone numbers and the words "body fishing up ahead" on the sides of mountains and buildings along the river and roads between Lanzhou and Shangping...

"They are working a job like anyone else," said Ms. Wei of nearby Shangping village, who is not related to Wei Jinpeng. "And somebody has to do it, right? Otherwise our river might get too full with bodies."


http://www.boingboing.net/

3 comments:

M. D. Jackson said...

$450 a body? Wow. That'd almost tempt me to start adding to the body count. If you combined it with a Mafia "Hitman" gig in the nearby town you could get paid at both ends. And if you moonlighted at a funeral home... well, you're entrepreneur of the year, my lad! Good on ya!

Paladin said...

I applaud their embrace of capitalism... They are certainly earning every cent they get fishing human bodies out of that river.

I've never been around a dead person that's been in the water, but as an unfortunate consequence of what I do for a living I've been in the room with several dead folks that had suffled off the mortal coil several days before being found.

"Ick" doesn't begin to cover it.

I do have to retrieve deceased animals sometimes that have been in the water for a day or two - and that's bad enough. Can't imagine facing every day with smile if I was doing the same with human remains. Ghastly...

Kal said...

You would get used to the bloated corpses. I once held the book for my buddies in dental school who were working on their cadavers and it wasn't as bad as I figured it would be.

Just hook the package and pull it behind your boat. I could live like a millionarre in China - and start an all girl singing group who dress like western superheroes.

Dammit bitches. A man can dream.