Elaborate graduations, funerals and poverty

Aubyn Hill, Financial Gleaner Columnist

It is the season of graduations and no high school is apparently able to avoid what is, for many, a costly exercise.

Of course, funerals are always occurring and the poor, who are also always with us, are getting more numerous with the tightening squeeze of the no-growth economy.

They simply cannot afford the elaborate funeral packages available.

The economics of graduations and funerals is quite astounding - especially when one considers how poor people are able to find all that cash to spend on these two events.

One wonders why people who are stretched financially do not simply say they cannot afford the cost of funerals as they are now fitted out and conducted, then identify alternate methods, materials and measures to bury their dead.

As with any other habit or custom driven by what other people think, rather than on an individual's need and financial capability, plenty people will tell me that finding alternatives is 'easier said than done'.

These expensive and individual-debt-producing cultural activities are very hard to change. Maybe the shortage of cash and the inability to borrow anymore, and some necessity-driven common sense may bring some changes.

TRY A PINE COFFIN

Many of my readers will know that I lived in the Middle East (Bahrain, Kuwait and Oman) for over 20 years, and during those two decades I travelled extensively in the region.

I have had the chance to observe Muslim burial customs at close range and find their manner of dealing with death to be simple, dignified and economical.

So too are Jewish traditions which predate both Christian and Muslim ones.

Jews believe in honouring the dead and in keeping with that principle, Jewish burials take place as quickly as possible after the death of the individual. Burials are postponed for a day only if immediate relatives cannot arrive from abroad on time, or there is not enough time to bury the dead before the Sabbath (Shabbat) or a holiday.

Both the Jews and Muslims avoid embalming or similar interference with the body unless local laws require it. An autopsy is done, if required by law.

Jewish burials are made in a simple wooden casket without metal parts. Casket handles are a major cost in Jamaica.

Traditional Jewish caskets range from unfinished pine to solid plank walnut. Most traditional funerals do not have flowers although many reform and conservative Jews, with their rabbi's permission, choose to have some flowers present for the service.

This next part I really like about Jewish funerals. They usually last about 20 minutes and cover the whole range of the recitation of Psalms, scripture readings and a eulogy.

The three- and four-hour-long funeral services that are so common in Jamaica are a real turn-off to me. They are often repetitious, boring and take employees away from their jobs for far too long when those ceremonies include endless and endlessly long tributes, massively lengthy eulogies and then messages from ministers who believe they must speak forever.

It may be indelicate to mention this, but these long funerals rob employees from time at work and employers of productive time.

We have so many murdered people to bury; therefore, some funerals must take place on workdays. The work time spent at these funerals is a cumulative drag on the economy.

The Muslim burial arrangements are similarly simple. The body is wrapped in sheets of clean, white cloth, and if local laws allow it, the body is laid in the grave without a coffin. If a coffin is required then a very simple pine box is made for the occasion. The Muslim tradition discourages people from erecting tombstones, elaborate markers or put flowers or other mementoes at the graveside.

Both the Muslim and Jewish burial traditions encourage speed to burial, the simplest of clothing and the most economical caskets and little or no floral arrangements.

Services are simple and short and those who wish to spend more time with mourning families can do so at times other than at the funeral, as we do in Jamaica.

UNAFFORDABLE BURIAL EXPENSES

Let us start with the suit. Why do we need one? The Muslim plain, clean, white sheet - we may in our own inimitable style choose a coloured one - or Jewish white linen are attractive parting-from-this-life kind of garments.

The Jewish simple white garment without pockets is physical proof that we take nothing with us when we leave this world.

Indeed, Christians believe we can only accept salvation as a gift of God's grace, yet our Jamaican burial arrangements are so elaborate, costly, time-consuming and economically impractical that they give the impression that some family members want to impress God - or is it the neighbour?

We furnish our caskets with expensive wood and even more expensive casket handles - both materials imported in most instances. Then we spend more money on fancy floral bouquets.

So we import the oil to keep bodies for a long time, import the cloth to make costly suits, import the wood to make exorbitantly costly caskets in many cases, import expensive casket handles and, finally, we import the cars in which to carry the bodies.

Funerals are a huge export-of-cash activity. Funerals are necessary but there must be a more cost-effective way to make them happen.

THOSE FANCY GRAD PACKAGES

This week, an office attendant attended a graduation ceremony for her five-year-old child for which she had to pay J$5,000 for the graduation package.

It was a difficult stretch to find the cash; she really could not afford it.

What is the academic accomplishment at age five that warrants a 'graduation'? Why this charade this early in children's lives?

The bills get real burdensome at the high-school leaving graduations.

The hair, nails, new dresses, shoes and gowns can cost as high as J$70,000, I am told. This kind of expenditure can keep poor people in poverty as they seek to keep up with the Joneses.

Luckily, not all girls' high schools force their students to spend this kind of money. One of the most sought after and most respected of them requires its ladies to graduate in uniforms which are covered with rented gowns. That is an eminently sensible and cost-effective approach.

Aubyn Hill is the CEO of Corporate Strategies Limited and was an international banker for more than 25 years. Send feedback to Email: writerhill@gmail.com, Twitter: @HillAubyn or Facebook: facebook.com/Corporate.Strategies