A death alone

The body of a man who died three years ago was not discovered until one of his neighbour's heard a radio playing in his apartment. The grim discovery in an apartment block in the eastern city of Strasbourg was made at the weekend after the neighbour called police about the radio which had been at full blast, day and night, for two weeks. When police entered the apartment, they found it filled with pigeons which had got in through a window. They believe one of them had switched on the radio by sitting on it.

The man's death had not been alerted to any authorities as his rent had continued to be paid by direct debit from his bank account.

"People don't really known each other much," said one resident.
The above story is not uncommon. A similar situation was reported in Edinburgh very recently. However the irony of a pigeon being the catalyst is rather pathetic, I am reminded of the dove released by Noah to find new life. Although these tragedies are complex I feel that a sense of community requires more than the family, religious, tribal, racial or other tight/exclusive categories.
A territorial identification of community means that we can begin to forge a relationship with others on our literal doorstep- we are then community. As long as this identification is a civic and not ethnic(tribal) one i.e. Scots here are Scots no matter their background , we can relate to our neighbours as members of a community(Scots). And the other necessary side of this equation--- that those who leave Scotland cannot cling to it. No more kilt wearing Cockney/Californian etc etc Scots, please. Join your new community, after all I'm sure the choice to leave was not forced on you.