Stiff competition
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Stiff competition
By Ho Ai Li
For the ultimate send-off, funeral homes here now offer Mercedes-Benz or limousine hearses. Others do up lorries like mini temples, with resplendent bronze-tiled roofs and life-size Buddha statues. For the coolest exit, however, home-grown casket company Singapore Funeral Services offers air-conditioned coffins. They cost $2,988 for a basic model to $8,888 for a greener model with multi-split inverters.
http://straitstimes.asia1.com.sg/portal/site/STI/menuitem.b0c342bf39ac6a158ace2810a06310a0/?vgnextoid=01e2758920e39010VgnVCM1000000a35010aRCRD&vgnextfmt=vgnartid:6ebd14e16c59b010VgnVCM100000430a0a0aRCRD:vgnarchivedate:1149285600000:vgnpdate:1149371940000 -
can't see... din subscribe..Originally posted by neutral_onliner:Stiff competition
By Ho Ai Li
For the ultimate send-off, funeral homes here now offer Mercedes-Benz or limousine hearses. Others do up lorries like mini temples, with resplendent bronze-tiled roofs and life-size Buddha statues. For the coolest exit, however, home-grown casket company Singapore Funeral Services offers air-conditioned coffins. They cost $2,988 for a basic model to $8,888 for a greener model with multi-split inverters.
http://straitstimes.asia1.com.sg/portal/site/STI/menuitem.b0c342bf39ac6a158ace2810a06310a0/?vgnextoid=01e2758920e39010VgnVCM1000000a35010aRCRD&vgnextfmt=vgnartid:6ebd14e16c59b010VgnVCM100000430a0a0aRCRD:vgnarchivedate:1149285600000:vgnpdate:1149371940000
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Jun 3, 2006
Stiff competition
By Ho Ai Li
For the ultimate send-off, funeral homes here now offer Mercedes-Benz or limousine hearses. Others do up lorries like mini temples, with resplendent bronze-tiled roofs and life-size Buddha statues. For the coolest exit, however, home-grown casket company Singapore Funeral Services offers air-conditioned coffins. They cost $2,988 for a basic model to $8,888 for a greener model with multi-split inverters.
As competition heats up in the local undertaking industry, undertakers are serving up a plethora of new products and professionalised services.
Instead of casket shops, companies are called funeral directors, as in Britain and the United States. Besides selling coffins, urns and funeral clothes, these one-stop death supermarkets also package in a death certificate, a wake and a cremation slot - for a fee, of course.
Ten years ago, there were about 40 casket shops here. Now, there are almost 60 players. This week saw another entrant, All Saints Christian Bereavement Services, which opened on Thursday.
This does not include the hundreds of middlemen angling for a cut of the funeral business. They could be char kway teow sellers or cabbies, basically anyone with a funeral parlour contact, hoping to earn a $500 commission for each successful referral.
Direct Funeral Services owner Roland Tay, 58, who has been in the business for 22 years and is often in the news for sponsoring the funerals of murder victims such as Huang Na and Liu Hongmei, says: 'Every day there are about 40 deaths. There are more funeral companies than deaths.'
Many have seen their business shrivel up and - sometimes - die. Mr Tay estimates that up to 10 funeral companies exit the scene each year.
Casket company Ang Yew Seng, in the industry for over 20 years, used to handle 40 to 50 cases a month in the 1980s. Business has since halved.
The Asian financial crisis of the late 1990s saw many put aside their pride and prejudice and step into what is known in Britain as 'the dismal trade'.
Mr Charles Wan, 63, director of Casket Company, 63, says: 'When the economy went bad, people went out of jobs. They forgot about pantang (superstition in Malay) and reason that everyone has to die.'
Many of the new entrants are former casket company employees striking out on their own, or those in related industries such as suppliers of chairs or tidbits at wakes.
Many are drawn in by the promise of 'easy money'.
Mr Victor Hoo, 37, funeral director of Singapore Funeral Services (SFS), adds: 'In Singapore, more and more people are looking for a job that can give them fast cash. Three to five days' funeral, fast cash.'
There is now no lack of Singaporeans willing to take up odd jobs in the funeral line, including teenagers on school vacations to those in their 40s.
Mr Freddie Choo, 52, chairman of Trinity Casket, says: 'It's good money in the sense that an outing carrying a coffin can earn them $40 to $50...They just carry it, then put it down.'
Another industry veteran Olivia Stravens, 43, formerly Trinity's operations manager, adds: 'It's better than working at a fast-food joint where you only earn $5 an hour.'
With deaths going up from about 10,000 a year in the 1950s to almost 16,000 now in tandem with population growth, the future looks bright for the gloom trade... ... ... -
There's a saying that, It's always easiest to earn money from the dead.
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To: Editor
Forum Page
I refer to the article “Stiff Competition” in the Straits Times dated 3 June 2006.
Many Chinese practices have been mistaken to be Buddhist funeral rites. Many such rites are not deemed to be a necessity but a cultural preference.
In a Buddhist funeral, a simple and inexpensive casket is sufficient. There is no need to have elaborate caskets as they will be either buried or burnt in the cremation. It is important to evaluate the options a funeral service company offers and even shop around if the charges are high. Don’t allow your grief to be taken advantage of. It is not “bad luck” to negotiate a sensible package.
Inviting monks or nuns (“sangha”) to preside over the last rites is a common practice at Buddhist funerals. In return, requisites could be offered to the sangha or donations given to the temple. Buddhists are not encouraged to hire professional chanters who charge fees for chanting. Instead, they could request chanting services from Buddhist temples or organizations that do not charge a specific fee.
Making donations to temples or charities in the name of the departed will result in greater merit to the deceased and the family than spending on an expensive funeral or columbarium space.
Resources are better used to make the funeral dignified, loving and positive than performing wasteful or superstitious actions. Burning paper or effigies is not a Buddhist practice.
At Buddhist funerals, family members are not required to wear all black. They can also wear white, plain or sober-coloured attire to reflect the mood of the occasion.
Buddhism promotes practicality and sensibility when making decisions in life and this applies equally when dealing with matters of death.
Angie Monksfield
President
Buddhist Fellowship
Dated: June 3, 2006
P/S “Monks” are usually associated with Buddhism, in Taoism, the equivalent are referred to as “Priests”. -
Didn't see this reply appearing on the ST forum page. Any idea when was it sent? Maybe a reminder should be given to the editor to be mindful when making reference to buddhist practise.
Generally, there is a this misunderstanding when it comes to Taoism and Buddhism, because both religions are the main faith among Chinese. I remembered attending a funeral, and the taoist priest actually chanted a buddhist sutra, even though the entire event was conducted according to the traditional chinese belief way (ie. buring of joss papers, offering of meat etc). -
they 'anyhow' 'anyhow'Originally posted by coolbluewater:Didn't see this reply appearing on the ST forum page. Any idea when was it sent? Maybe a reminder should be given to the editor to be mindful when making reference to buddhist practise.
Generally, there is a this misunderstanding when it comes to Taoism and Buddhism, because both religions are the main faith among Chinese. I remembered attending a funeral, and the taoist priest actually chanted a buddhist sutra, even though the entire event was conducted according to the traditional chinese belief way (ie. buring of joss papers, offering of meat etc).