In TEFL class one day we were discussing using obituaries as a way of sharing real texts with our students. My friends in class who weren't North American needed an explanation of what an obituary was. They must not have them in Europe for ordinary people.
"I wouldn't want my life written about in the paper," one my European friends declared. "What's the point of that? More privacy please! Besides, who cares if I die beyond my family?"
"Lots of people care," I replied. "you're part of a community. If your Dad's retired barber dies, you'd want to know. If your childhood teacher that educated 25 years of students in your town died, a lot of people in the community would want to know. People impact more than just their immediate families."
Unconvinced, my dear friends turned back to the assignment.
"See, Ian," I tsked-tsked to my Canadian flatmate, with all of the know-it-all certitude of someone who had spent two weeks in country. "This is why horrible things happen on the European continent. They don't have any sense of community."
"They don't have community?" he said with a incredulous grin. "They have universal health care."
Point taken.
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As a general rule we Brits don't have the sort of obituary either. In my small town we are still enough of a community not to need them! We talk to each other and so word goes round - "Have you heard so and so has died?" Often we already know they are in hospital. And when the local antiques dealer died in Czecho I learnt about it that way too.
In Britain we use a system of public notices in local newspapers of deaths, births and marriages and I have seen similar notices on a board near the post office in Cesky Krumlov.
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