"I expect I shall have to die beyond my means." The Irish writer Oscar Wilde made that comment on accepting a glass of champagne on his deathbed. Oscar Wilde was not the only person to have felt that they will have to die beyond their means.
Funerals can be expensive, the funeral business can be lucrative and the funeral business is, for a variety of reasons, quite attractive to organized crime.
The Taipei City government has recently taken steps to reduce the influence of organized crime and corruption on the funeral business. The Taipei City government's attention to this problem is certainly a welcome first step.
It should be a welcome step for everyone. Most "regular" people are not overly interested in organized crime because they feel that organized crime will have little impact on their day-to-day lives.
One can, and most people do, go through life without becoming involved in prostitution, gambling, the narcotics trade or other areas that are considered the business of organized crime. But everyone dies and everyone sooner or later has contact with the funeral industry.
There is the old American adage that you can't get away from "death and taxes."
In Taiwan, organized crime and corruption affects the funeral business in a number of different ways. The most obvious is that organized crime groups will buy into or take over by force a private funeral business. They then discourage free market competition by threats or outright destruction of competitors.
Then, to ensure that their market share stays healthy, the gang-controlled funeral parlor will bribe cops and city morgue workers to send business their way.
Although I should inject a note of warning: if you work for the city morgue don't set your bribe price too high.
A couple of months ago two Taipei City morgue workers got beaten up by some hoods for asking too high a bribe. So be moderate in your demands.
Having secured their business thus, the gang-controlled funeral parlor then goes on to prey on the families of the deceased.
They do this by charging for unneeded services, failing to in fact render services that have been paid for and otherwise taking advantage of the families' grief and concern over face.
The whole thing is despicable and Taipei is doing the right thing in cracking down on it.
This crackdown involves a number of programs. The Taipei City government has drafted a set of new laws to regulate the funeral industry. The laws are "new" in the sense that there has, up till now, been virtually no regulation of the industry.
That draft is currently awaiting approval by the City Council.
I would hope that approval is forthcoming and that the City Council acts with more speed than the Legislative Yuan usually does.
Along with this set of regulations, the city government is engaging in a program of public education regarding the funeral industry, acceptable funeral business practices, listings of recommended private funeral companies and alternative methods of burial.
This two-prong approach that aims to regulate the industry and educate the public is an excellent one.
The issue of organized crime, corrupt business practices and the funeral industry is of particular interest to me because I have had some first hand experience in this area. In my first year in law school I worked in a mortuary in San Diego.
Although the company I worked for was quite scrupulous I quickly learned that the funeral business provides very fertile soil for corruption. It was largely due to the extremely tight regulation by the California State Board of Mortuary Services that California's funeral business was as free from corruption as it was.
The death of a loved one is a difficult enough time for the bereaved family. They should not also have to endure the insult of having to deal with criminals who rob from them at graveside.
There is the story that Voltaire was urged on his deathbed by the priest in attendance to renounce the devil. Voltaire's reply was "now is not the time to make new enemies." Now however, is the time to clean up Taiwan's funeral business.
Brian Kennedy is an attorney who writes and teaches on criminal justice and human rights issues.
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