All This Is That: The $2 million bath of ashes

Friday, November 14, 2008

The $2 million bath of ashes

This is old, but interesting news from the Daily Telegraph in London on August 22, 2008:

"The chairman of a Nigerian development company was charged in August with stealing the equivalent of $5.5 million, and burning $2 million of that in cash so he could smear the ashes over his naked body in a nighttime "fortification" ritual in a cemetery."

---o0o---

4 comments:

Anonymous said...: Trying to outdo the KLF ? They burned their own money, and they didn't bathe in it, but it was almost their entire fortune in pop success :)

KLF burn a million quid; 11/14/2008
Anonymous said...: Oops, get the link right!

KLF burn a million quid; 11/14/2008
Keekee Brummet said...: Wow, Sto...that is one of the strangest stories I've ever heard about your landsmen.

That story is completely bizarre. I don't know if this guy, or KLF are the more insane.

I sort of get--sort of--not wanting the money, but why not give it to the poor or hungry? I guess I'd have to read the book or watch the movie to figure that one out...but somehow, I just don't think they could come up with an intellectial justification for it.

I wonder what it felt like the next morning--to suddenly wake up poor?; 11/14/2008
Anonymous said...: Yeah, nutters. Hard to conceive why they did it. The early 90s in England there was an amazing feeling that we the youth were reinventing the country. Time to bring back some love and community. It sounds really corny now, but the spirit of the time spawned some extreme behavior at the far edges. Hopefully that helps makes some sense!

David Galloway is a fan of theirs, and showed me a video one time he'd found of them playing at a big outdoor parties. One of the orbital raves that used to take place on the outskirts of London before the police cracked down. It's well into the night, and everyone is off their tits, clearly having a really good time. The KLF are a surprise act, and they are performing from a booth high above the crowd. At the peak of their biggest hits, they start throwing money over the side. Thousands of pounds in 10s and 20s are fluttering down onto all these dancing folks high as kites. Those guys just didn't care much about money!; 11/15/2008

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