IF YOU ARE A REGULAR Reggae On The Hill fan you would know that before you can enter the venue you are subjected to a number of security checks.
You may find yourself walking through a body scanner as well as being checked by handheld scanners, in addition to being dressed down by hand in an attempt to determine to the maximum extent possible that you are not trying to take a weapon or anything that could be used as a weapon into the venue.
If you pass all of those tests and you think it’s all over you will soon yourself being eyed and sniffed by two very gentle-looking members of the Royal Barbados Police Force’s Canine Unit.
One of those doggies is there for the purpose of sniffing out any drugs that someone might have still managed to slip through the security net. The other is for sniffing out weapons.
So, having watched the video that went viral on the Internet last week about the gun that dropped out of somebody’s bag or pocket in full view of all the mourners as gravediggers were performing the final rites of filling in the grave of a dearly departed, I am wondering.
I am wondering if, just as it’s mandatory for us to have those police dogs at our events in order to help protect the living from the living, those in the church, cemetery and funeral businesses should not now be considering similar measures in order to prevent a recurrence of last week’s believe-it-or-not episode or, worse yet, the possibility of one of the almost daily occurrences of death by gunshot happening in a place where the body can be buried immediately.
But check this. While we in Barbados will have to look at this scary situation of guns at funerals, I have been reading about a situation in China where authorities there are struggling to control a popular way of celebrating a loved one’s life by having naked dancers perform.
According to the report, this practice has got so out of hand that China’s Ministry of Culture is trying to crack down on the performances where, rather than being there to get people “in the mood”, strippers are being hired in a bid to attract more mourners. Apparently, some elements of the culture suggest that if a funeral is attended by many mourners the deceased will have good fortune in the afterlife.
The Chinese government is expected to start working with police in an attempt to put a stop to the practice after a picture of strippers doing their thing at a funeral quickly went viral internationally after being posted online. If you doubt me search YouTube for Chinese Strippers Dance For The Dead.
One funeral which featured a female stripper ended with the organisers being fined 70 000 yuan (BDS$21 000) after police turned up.
The government says such practices “corrupt the social atmosphere” but it’s not a new phenomenon because state television ran a story on strippers being booked for funerals way back in 2006.
Maybe they are just trying to see if they can get another Lazarus to rise from the dead.
Al Gilkes heads a public relations firm. Email algilkes@gmail.com
