On Halloween night last week, there was a programme called Ghosts on the Underground, about ghost stories and sightings on the, well, London Underground*. One point I remember from the programme speculated that as the Underground network grew, many old graves were being ‘disturbed’, and that may have led to the rise in ghost sightings. These spirits are possibly unhappy about their earthly remains being exhumed for urban development purposes.

In Singapore, graves are being exhumed fairly regularly. In an old story from 2002, we learn that “… the government has exhumed more than 36 cemeteries of different races and religions.” Deceased members of my family have recently been exhumed and cremated (with a humourous account of a columbarium salesman trying to sell a niche with a leasehold of 30 years to my 40-something aunt added to the mix), and as far as I’m aware, there have been no rises in the already prolific numbers of ghost stories told in Singapore. Seeing as how most of these former cemetaries are turned into apartment complexes, it leads me to wonder if the ghosts in Singapore are as pragmatic about the costs of progress as they are in life.

* Which, by the way, was much eerier than Most Haunted. Most Haunted was stupid.