Burial or cremation? The paucity of choice about our mortal remains reminds me of a South African Airways flight attendant squawking "chicken or beef"? before lobbing over a state-captured sandwich. Indeed, for many there is no choice but a preordained rite demanded by orthodoxy. For those who do want a choice, new technologies as well as ancient ones are entering the expanding and highly profitable "death-management industry". However, rigid religious beliefs, a lack of legislation, as well as a general avoidance of contemplating death and its after-effects prove that old habits die hard. What shall become of me, and how would I like to be remembered? This question is often left to the bereaved. Contemplating mortality, my thoughts quickly turn to how we treat not just the dead but each other; and the things we fail to say or imagine while we’re here. That’s why, when death happens, often the first undertaker on the scene will, rather like a tow-truck driver, "get the business and ...
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