Antiguans have not yet warmed up to the idea of cremation, according to Chief of Staff Lionel ‘Max’ Hurst

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7 COMMENTS

  1. How would he know that….where is all the hype of the cremation. Since they bad play the young Antiguan-Canadian ladies..
    All of a sudden the idea is no longer feasible by Antiguans…when Barnes, Straffie and the grave diggers taking the poor dead savings…even the priest wants fu he share.

  2. To be fair to Lionel ‘Max’ Hurst, he has made some very valid points.

    However, to persuade the public at large towards cremation; I would suggest that those that hold positions in high office should set a good example themselves in their future wills for cremation.

    Politicians, President’s, the so-called elites, and Kings & Queens all have very elaborate funerals with grand caskets (I recall Lester Bird’s grand send off), very few have cremations.

    If cremation is the future, then please set an example!

  3. Truth be told we are from a culture that don’t talk about life and death issues. How many patients are at the hospital with advanced directives? We tow the traditional lines. We pay exorbitant prices to Barnes and Straffie, and families we don’t see in decades will show up for the grand finale.
    As a health professional on a code team, it’s devastating seeing the length we have to go through when families want everything done to keep a family alive. Just imagine a 275 lbs staffer pressing on the chest of a 98 year old frail patient weighing 99 lbs.
    I once listened to a preacher that I have the greatest respect for. A value of 89 cents was placed on a dead body when the Soul is separated at death. If you truly believe that the Soul is separated from that cancer striken, diabetic stricken, stroke strike body at death; then how much economic sense it makes spending $30,000.00 to cover up that 89 cents/valueless body? Food for thought.

  4. In all fairness to Max Hurst, the subject of cremation is not something that has occupied our minds even when we have someone who is dead. Citizens have been more concerned with the lack of burial space at the Public Cemetery and the already overcrowding of all the other major cemeteries islandwide. People seem to be more concerned about the delay of the opening of the new cemetery as most Antiguans and Barbudans still view traditional burying as their preferred mode of “disposing” with the dead. If anyone has been to a burial at the St.John’s Public Cemetery over the past 15 years or so, it was inevitable that the cemetery was full and very often we would see fragments of bones from old graves which was dug up to make way for new burials.
    Long ago, when the new cemetery was envisioned, we should have started the process of educating the public to the need for cremation as an alternative option to burial and we should have already set up a crematorium here or at least have a crematorium jointly opened alongside the new cemetery. With most of the country’s cemeteries full, we are running out of options and with many of our citizens at an advance age, even the new Tomlinson cemetery that is not yet commissioned would be full in no time. We cannot continue like this and we have to seriously begin to educate the public because many of our citizens still view cremation negatively and are fixed on the burial option.

  6. @Curious George, I completely agree.
    I demanded my family to spend no more than $500 on my dead body. When I am dead there are people alive who needs food, medicine, education, and necessities etcetera.

    I strongly believe it is morally wrong to spend the kind of money that Antiguans seems to spend on funeral on a dead body.

    I do not want that for myself, with or without my own funds.

  7. Its an investment that must be made. Why not have Namco join with a private sector entity/entities? The public will buy in. I find it hard to believe that Barbados, Saint Lucia can have crematories yet Antigua can’t due to culture? We have a high number of persons from so called developed countries living in A&B who are interested in this. Nearby islands, I have no doubt would also be interested in using this resource. This to me is an area that government can probably get a group on locals, including myself to invest. My family has been into baking bread, and I recall joking to my mom some years ago that this is the next step for us to make

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