2 July 2010 – The Good Funeral Guide

Good with grief

2 July 2010

Charles

4 Comments

Categories: Co-op, Co-operative Funeralcare

The banner on The Co-operative website proclaims that it is “good for everyone.” This accords with the long-held and passionate belief of all who toil at GFG HQ. To us, it’s a resounding statement of the obvious. We thought it was common knowledge.

It looks, though, as if Co-op’s marketing creatives have stalled in their efforts to transfer variants of this this little strapline to its manyother services. The Co-operative is “good with money” and it is “good with food” — but there it stops. They are probably beavering away, torturing their brains to generate “good with” straplines for travel, electricals, farms, cars and the rest. They are not “good for nothing”. They’ll come up with the mots justes, they will.

But it looks as if they need some help, and we think that the learned readership of this blog can rally round. Come on, everybody. “The Co-operative Funeralcare — good with ______________ .”

Suggestions in a comment box, please.

Dying inside (2)

2 July 2010

Charles

No comments

Categories: prisons

A few days ago I blogged about death and dying inside prison. If it’s the sort of thing that interests you at all, you’ll be interested in a post over at Jailhouselawyer’s blog.

In most British prisons there are old men in their late sixties and seventies, at least three-quarters of them very ill and years over tariff. They could never re-offend and the vast majority would not want to.

At least a third of Wakefield residents come under the category of the ‘body bag club’. They are well over tariff, very ill and disabled. Lots are in wheelchairs and it’s costing the government a small fortune to keep them in prison. A hell of a lot more than it costs to keep a normal healthy inmate.

It costs a little over £40,000 a year to keep someone in prison. It depends how you calculate it, of course. If you build in the capital cost that figure rises steeply.

John’s post also details the procedure when someone dies in prison.

Read it here.

Something for the weekend

2 July 2010

Charles

No comments

Categories: funeral directors, funerals in other cultures

An insight here into the Nigerian way of death.

For mankind, death is an inevitable end. Whenever it comes, no matter the age of the dead, pains, sorrow and unquantifiable anguish are its accomplices. Ironically, this is simply not so for those in the business of coffin making and funeral management. While their patrons mourn and lament over the loss of their dear ones, the coffin makers and funeral managers smile very broadly to their various banks. This then makes real the adages that ‘it is different strokes for different folks’ and ‘one man’s meat is another man’s poison.’ Odd and startling as it may sound, it is a confirmed fact that the undertaking business in Nigeria, is a booming one that permits only the bold and the liberal hearted. YEMISI ADENIRAN takes you to the world of the undertakers, as they reveal the peculiarities of their ‘calling,’ why many are favouring it all of a sudden and the challenges of the business.

The business of funeral management, as far as Dehinde Harrison, the Managing Director of Ebony Funeral Home, is concerned, is one business just like any other business … Describing the basics for the success of those in the business, he said it is all about destiny. “Ori ti yoo su’po ko ni je kalaare o gbadun. This means that when a man is destined to inherit another man’s wife, his luck will never grant the former his utmost wish of recovering from his illness. Relating this to his profession, he explained that since he has been designed to care for the dead, it is simple and normal for somebody to die.

Harrison had a query to answer: But do undertakers then pray for people to die? His prompt response, “Yes and no. We pray for the old and the aged only to die and not the young ones. When an aged person dies, it is fun and we would be free to make good charges and display all that we have at our disposal to entertain everyone. But if it is the other way round, everyone will be sober as they will be mourning. And in that wise or condition, we would not be chanced to even charge as much as we would have loved to.”

Read the entire article in Nigerian Compass here.