RadX ah RadX, Sin Ming is now officially the Funeral Hub?

[Apollo]

Thomson residents upset over plans for funeral parlour in their backyard

By Asha Popatlal, Channel NewsAsia | Posted: 07 October 2007 2215 hrs

 

SINGAPORE: Residents in Thomson are upset over plans to build a funeral parlour in the area and they expressed their unhappiness to the Transport Minister on Sunday.

 

Minister Raymond Lim was holding a dialogue session with the residents after his community visit to the Thomson Division.

 

The session almost got derailed by a lively exchange on the intended building of a funeral parlour in Sin Ming.

 

Residents asked why the URA and HDB want to build another funeral parlour in the area when there are already many funeral parlours in the area.

 

They also wanted to know how this would adversely affect the prices of their houses and whether the government would compensate them for the drop in property prices.

 

In fact, the issue has been brewing for months now.

 

Residents did meet URA representatives but they were disappointed.

 

One resident said: "When they tell me that the meeting was like something (that has been) finalised, (it) reminded me of the show 'Just Follow Law'. Somebody upstairs say, build it there, so build it there. If this is something so important in Singapore, why there? Why not Orchard Road area?"

 

Another resident said: "I agree when he (URA representative) said that as a result of ageing population, we needed more funeral parlours; (it) made sense.

 

"What the residents are against is: why Sin Ming? Are we now creating the area into a funeral hub? He said, 'having such a beautiful facade is going to help'.

 

"Another shocking thing I hear from one official is that 'it's going to look like it's Disneyland'. Come on, death is something that should be dignified, not a Disneyland concept. So that was another disappointment for the residents."

 

A third resident said: "According to somebody who gave me this (information), in the central region - we are in the central region - (there are) 21 funeral services. There are another two in the northeast and one in the east. A lot of places do not have funeral parlours, so why Sin Ming? One of the strongest reasons URA gave is that it's central. I don't know why it is central. There is no MRT service going there and buses servicing the road are also very few."

 

MP Hri Kumar, who was at the dialogue session with Minister Lim, addressed the concerns of the residents.

 

Mr Hri Kumar acknowledged that the siting of the funeral parlour was a difficult issue.

 

But he said the decision is not final and that discussions are still going on with the authorities on ideas such as having a commercial building on the adjoining plot to block the view of the funeral parlour from residents.

 

Mr Hri Kumar added that there would be no Disneyland concept.

 

"This Disneyland idea, not sure how it came about, maybe a poor choice of words. As I understand it, there is no Disneyland concept. It's not going to be a rollercoaster ride into the parlour," he said.

 

He also explained why the authorities chose Sin Ming.

 

Mr Hri Kumar said: "In the unfortunate incident of someone passing away, relatives and friends from all over the island will want to come and pay their respects, and the feedback from the funeral parlour operators is that when you have a parlour in the outskirts, in a very difficult or very inaccessible part of the country, it makes life difficult for residents from around the country to go and visit and pay their respects."

 

He said that when HDB and URA tendered out some land in Yishun for a funeral parlour some years ago, it failed because operators said it was not commercially feasible as it was too far-off. - CNA/ir

 

 

-------------

i hate to agree. Disney theme is so passe.. even HK having problems filling the place now. How abt a casino theme like vegas/ macau.

 

plenty of hell money no place to spend. let's bring back Harry's Island theme by Packer. call it harry's hub.

[Comfy]

i see the topic headline and i thought must be u liao..

[Apollo]

cannot b Darth_Mel meh

[Mzrmazda3]

Another shocking thing I hear from one official is that 'it's going to look like it's Disneyland'. Come on, death is something that should be dignified, not a Disneyland concept.

 

Si bey dis-respectfully

[Comfy]

u la.. got RadX ma.. either u or porker liaoz...

[Apollo]

y leh? instead of 金童玉女 can get Mickey and Miney

 

but dunno disney will sue them anot...

[RadX]

siang ka pager ha

 

yeah, imagine mickey and minnie as funeral director and the pall bearers would be the 7 dwarfs

Edited October 8, 2007 by RadX

[Mzrmazda3]

 

Idea siah

[Xefera]

This Hri guy is talking bull. He sounded as if the government is giving in to the operators on the Yishun project. My sense is, if the government were to go ahead, there will be no shortage of operators as business sense still takes priority. Most likely its due to some other reasons which he did not elaborate, prolly residents complaints again.

 

Why not just situate these parlous near the cemeteries to make things easier for all? He really make it sounds as though Singaporeans are that hard-hearted that they rather not pay their last respects if the funeral place is out of the way

[Apollo]

got this type of tombstone boh?

 

 

got this type of welcome boh?

 

[RadX]

actually have it next to MRTs, next to Block 9, SGH, or have the whole Outram ...ie convert the cantonment polis station into one...well, half of those in there are dead(brain) anyway

[Comfy]

tat's cute... i won't know to cry or smile looking at it...

[Xefera]

cannot lah ... wait those who bought the Duxton units will complain like hell

[Apollo]

siang ka pager ha

 

yeah, imagine mickey and minnie as funeral director and the pall bearers would be the 7 dwarfs

 

u and Qpix got Mickey and Minee suit to dress up?

[Stary]

Mr Hri Kumar said: "In the unfortunate incident of someone passing away, relatives and friends from all over the island will want to come and pay their respects, and the feedback from the funeral parlour operators is that when you have a parlour in the outskirts, in a very difficult or very inaccessible part of the country, it makes life difficult for residents from around the country to go and visit and pay their respects."

 

This is BS. Paying respect is something that most believers would take it very seriously. Even if they have to go to Lim Chu Kang, I am sure they will, afterall, it's not like you are going there everyday. I still remember when I was young, many of my relatives or friends go even into Msia to pay their respect, because back then, we do have many relatives in Msia.

 

The issue about paying respect is that there are two camps. One will believe it so strongly that they will go anywhere just to pay respect. The other camp are those who don't care. For these people, even if the funeral parlour is next door, they will not even go. So you just have to take care of those guys in the first camp, which to them, distance is never an issue.

 

They should think deeper before they give an answer.

[Silver_blade]

I agree. Most people wouldn't mind going out of the way to attend the wake. It's not like you have to do that everyday.

[Ray7456]

No matter where the hub is, no one will like it to be behind their courtyard. There wil still be pple that is no happy about it. So just accept the fact, get compensation if possible n move on.

[Apollo]

more like enjoy the smell of human satay...