24 April 2012 – The Good Funeral Guide

Pyre appeal, Ghana

24 April 2012

Charles

1 Comment

Categories: cremation, funeral pyres, music

In Ghana the famous xylophonist Bernard Woma is appealing for money for a new funeral pyre for the people of his village. Here’s what he says:

Due to centuries held traditional practice, the Dagara people perform funerals in a public setting. This public funeral ritual means that the deceased is displayed in a pyre mounted on woods and covered with a large cloth for public viewing and mourning. Funerals are the most important rites of passage for humanity on earth and the way cultures celebrate funerals serve to satisfy their beliefs in honoring their dead.

Due to the deforestation in the area and no more trees to cut and mount a funeral pyre, people are moving toward better ways to get a funeral pyre. Majority of Dagara communities have began using metal framework designed by the local metal workers at the Nandom Technical School to make permanent funeral pyres in which communities in one area can come together to purchase one for use when there there is a funeral in their villages. The cost is not cheap especially for these poor communities, but it is a good lasting investment and it helps to save the already poor environment in terms of cutting down the trees to make pyres anytime death occurs.

In line with these changes, the villagers of Hiineteng have approached me to help them acquire a community pyre. They have demonstrated their seriousness and commitment by contributing a meager amount of 150 Ghana cedis equivalent to $100. This contribution has been going on for two years due to their poor financial capabilities. The pyre, made in three sizes, cost between $800 and $1200. When I asked at the NandomTechnicalSchool, the small size of funeral pyre costs 1,200 Ghana cedis about $800. The medium one costs 1, 400 Ghana cedies about $950 and the large one cost 1, 600 Ghana cedis about $1100.

Because of their passionate appeal to me and their commitment to get one for the village I am appealing to you to support us with whatever you can afford. We are looking to purchase the medium size pyre and we hope to get it this year if we can come up with the money.

I emailed Bernard and asked him what he reckons is the best way to get money to him from the UK. This is what he said:

Dear Charles

Thank you so much for the note. I went on your funeral website and saw what you are doing. These things sometimes considered little do contribute significantly to the social well being of society and I appreciate your work and willingness to help out my community. I am currently in the US and will be going back to Ghana on May 17th to be there for the entire summer. One way to send money to Ghana is by western union or if you want to send the donation by check to avoid the wiring charges at western union, then you can just mail a check in my name to my US address. So please let me know how to want to send it. Thank you again and this means a lot to me and my village. My address here is

Bernard Woma
800 N Smith Road
Apt K 5
Bloomington, IN 47408
USA

The GFG, skint as it is, will be sending Bernard a cheque, and we hope you will, too. One for you, GM?

Find Bernard’s website here.

What does it cost to run a crematorium?

24 April 2012

Charles

8 Comments

Categories: cremation, crematoria, funeral cost

Here’s an extract from a feasibility review conducted by Rugby Borough Council Jan 2010, which plans to build a new crematorium. The review gives us useful info about how these things are costed:

Staffing:

“It is proposed that the number of staff recommended would be: 1 Manager, 1 Administration Officer, 1 Operative

“With on-costs this would be in the region of £99,450 per year, so based on 1,000 cremations a year this would equate to £99.45 per cremation.

“An additional personnel cost at crematoria has been the organist, however there is an alternative system, called the Wesley Music System which is PC and internet based and could be operated by staff and would cost approximately £5,000 per year. Allowing £1,000 for equipment purchases etc the cost would work out at £6.00 per cremation.”

Equipment operating costs

4 cremations a day for 50 five-day weeks of the year (ie, 250 days out of a total 365) in a single cremator @ 90 mins a funeral = 6hrs’ cremator use per day.

Gas — £7.50 per cremation

Electricity — £4.00 per cremation

Reagent and disposal — £4.75 per cremation

TOTAL — £16.25

So: staffing and operating costs as per Jan 2010 stood at £99.45+£6.00+£16.25 = £121.70

The rest of the money goes on maintenance of plant, grounds and building together with capital costs.

Go figure.

Rugby’s plans go to the Planning Committee any day now.

Read the full document here.

Following the logic of more efficient cremation

24 April 2012

Charles

1 Comment

Categories: cremation, crematoria

Posted by Charles

An undated document issued by the Institute of Cemetery and Crematorium Management (ICCM) makes clear its policy on the practice of ‘holding over’ – the retention of bodies for up to 72 hours in order to optimise cremators:

5. Operation of Cremation Equipment

At present cremator operating time in relation to usage of fossil fuel, reduction of harmful emissions and efficiency is overlooked.

It is current practice to pre-heat cremators at the start of each day and cool them down after the last cremation of the day and repeat this process throughout the week. Apart from the excessive use of fossil fuel for daily pre-heating, the risk of emissions of pollutants from the first cremations of each day is increased.

Holding cremations over for a limited period will allow continuity of use with resultant reductions in fuel consumption. Industry codes of practice have attempted to address this situation with the Federation of British Cremation Authorities code stating that the cremation should take place within 24 hours of the funeral service whilst the Institute of Cemetery & Crematorium Management’s Guiding Principles for the Charter for the Bereaved states 72 hours. Despite these codes of practice being in existence very few crematoria hold cremations over for any period. This lack of action by authorities is perpetuating the impact on the environment. [Source]

You’ve got to hand it to the ICCM, it got away with pushing the holding over time from 24hrs to 72hrs with barely a squeak of outrage from the media. Its acceptability to families is now proven – they have to give permission. But we hear of funeral directors so opposed to it that they talk their families out of it.

Once in a while, inevitably, we hear howls of outrage. Here’s a recent howl from Salisbury:

PLANS to refrigerate dead bodies for up to 48 hours before cremating them were approved on Monday despite being branded “morally unacceptable”.

Five councillors on Salisbury City Council’s services committee were outraged by proposals for a cold storage facility to be installed as part of the £2.34million refurbishment of Salisbury’s crematorium.

Councillors Jo Broom and Brian Dalton said it would be insensitive to bereaved families and cllr Bobbie Chettleburgh said nobody wants to think that their mother is being kept in the freezer “next to the frozen peas”.

This sort of inflammatory imbecility from indigenous community leaders is a common feature of debates about death and funerals. It goes to show just how profoundly ignorant people generally are about such things, especially those who should know better.

There was some good sense uttered at the meeting:

Cllr Frank Pennycook said: “I think we need to remember that bodies are kept in storage after death already – in the hospital morgue and at the undertakers. If I died and my body was the only one at the crematorium that day I’d want them to store it until they had more.”

And:

City clerk Reg Williams said: “By far the most expensive part of the crematorium is firing up the cremators. If we only have one or two a day, that’s an extremely expensive and poor use of them.

[Source]

The ICCM’s impact-on-the-environment argument is strong. But come on, chaps, 72-hour holding over is a sticking plaster solution to a much more serious problem. Crematoria as they exist in this country will forever be grossly inefficient burners of the dead. If the logic of 72 hours holds, then so does the logic of uncoupling the incinerators and having one incineration facility for several crematoria. If people aren’t bothered by the wait, they are hardy likely to be bothered by a short journey by road.

If the environmental argument is strong – and it is – then it should be pursued to its logical conclusion.