Tuesday, October 04, 2005

Good grief

Just picked this off the NEA website:

"The Government announced in 1998 that the burial period for all graves at the Choa Chu Kang Cemetery (CCK) would be limited to 15 years, and existing graves that are 15 years or older would be exhumed.

With limited land available, it becomes necessary to extend the lifespan of Singapore's only cemetery currently in use to help to cater for future burials."

So "being laid to eternal rest" now means 15 years in Singapore. After which, you will be dug up and handed back, dirt, soil, mouldering bones and all, to your horrified relatives.

If this practice continues, does this mean that each new generation will have an ever increasing pile of bones to lug around?

What if no one in that family wants to be cremated? Does this mean that you're only allowed to die if and when one of your great-grandparents gets dug up?

Should there be a COE system?

I guess that answers the age-old question of how long is an eternity. At least in Singapore, eternity = 15 years. [Hey! That's shorter than some people's life sentences!]

10 comments:

  1. Anonymous4:01 PM

    heh, i saw a documentary about graves being dug up on Discovery.

    Maybe instead of being buried horizontally, and considering the limited land, people should be buried vertically? u know like the saying 'die standing'?

    hehe, apparently it's happening already in HK.

    ReplyDelete
  2. Anonymous9:26 AM

    What about squatting? Then we can stack them on top of each other in fedex jumbo boxes.

    I can almost hear the Goverment thinking - hmm.. no point only using the topsoil...

    Given the even more severe space restraints in HK, I'm surprised they haven't started burying them under the new airport runway.

    ReplyDelete
  3. Anonymous5:11 PM

    Er.... this has been on the news for a long before 2005 ...

    I guess its true we do not bother about the news till it affects us...

    In the Philippines bodies are 'buried' above ground in a sealed crypt .. five crypts high ... every year the coffins are rotated downwards so the present year's dead occipies the top slab ... after five years ... the family is expected to remove the coffin for cremation ... so at least Singapore gives you 10 years more ...

    As GCT said ... More Good Years!

    G

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