Graves in Norway bagged for late payment
Richard Orange - [email protected]
Published: 15 Nov, 2013 CET.
Updated: Fri 15 Nov 2013 09:18 CET
A company contracted to run a cemetery in Norway has started putting black plastic bags over gravestones, along with late-payment notices to warn relatives that the grave will shortly be removed.
The practice has generated a heated reaction in the country since Thor Øivind Jensen, a politics lecturer at the University of Bergen, posted a photograph of the covered-up grave stones on Facebook. "What we saw is both tasteless and unworthy of a burial ground," Jensen told Norway's state broadcaster NRK. "The grave stones have been covered up and locked with a clip, with something that looks like a debt collection notice attacked to it. It reminds me of how parking wardens clamp the wheels of cars." Akasia, which runs the Møllendal cemetery in Bergen and began the practice earlier this year, was unapologetic. "We believe that this is a sensible way to do it. Grave stones are left standing with a small label attacked for half a year. The labels state that we want contact with the right person," Ove-Christian Fredriksen, the company's chief executive said
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The practice has generated a heated reaction in the country since Thor Øivind Jensen, a politics lecturer at the University of Bergen, posted a photograph of the covered-up grave stones on Facebook.
"What we saw is both tasteless and unworthy of a burial ground," Jensen told Norway's state broadcaster NRK. "The grave stones have been covered up and locked with a clip, with something that looks like a debt collection notice attacked to it. It reminds me of how parking wardens clamp the wheels of cars."
Akasia, which runs the Møllendal cemetery in Bergen and began the practice earlier this year, was unapologetic.
"We believe that this is a sensible way to do it. Grave stones are left standing with a small label attacked for half a year. The labels state that we want contact with the right person," Ove-Christian Fredriksen, the company's chief executive said
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