Looking around me during the few funerals I have attended since last year, I have noticed that many funerals seem to be part of a competition to show off the best caskets, clothes, food and decorations used at the venue for the service.
I cannot help but wonder why the family of the deceased would want to go through all the trouble of impressing the community, while drowning themselves in debt and leaving themselves wondering from where their next meal will come.
I will forever remember the funeral which I went to in January, this year, where the casket was covered by one of the most expensive blankets, while the deceased, when she was still alive, was the victim of cold weather, with not enough blankets to keep warm.
She worked hard as a domestic worker to ensure that she provided a better life for her children, who she raised alone after the death of their father.
Her hard work paid off in the end, as three of her children were employed and the last born was doing his third year at university.
Living a good life with their husbands, her daughters forgot about her.
They did not give her money for groceries or to buy clothes and blankets.
However, on the day of her funeral, they provided her with the most expensive blanket, casket and flowers, while the food that was served at the funeral appeared to be prepared by the best chefs in the country.
When visiting the graveyards,one thing that one sees is big and expensive tombstones.
With thieves not even respecting and fearing the dead, I ask myself if all the trouble of installing the most expensive tombstones really is necessary.
I understand that to some of the people giving the best to the deceased is the way of showing love to their loved ones, but is it really worth it now that the thieves see business in stealing from the dead?
I just cannot help asking myself how much the thieves get for stealing one tombstone, and what they do with it.
Maybe they sell them to other families in need of a tombstone, or use them for their own loved ones.
The world is, indeed, changing and becoming a place not free to live in.
Is the high rate of unemployment the cause of the escalating thefts, even from the graveyards?
The only explanation that makes sense to me about thefts from graveyards is that thieves are not doing this as the only way of making ends meet, but that they are being followed by a curse.
