So my this week's read in the Golpark library is Peter Mayer's 'Suicide and Society in India'. Some notes taken by me on the same book are attached below...
"There is but one truly serious philosophical problem and that is suicide.Judging whether life is or is not worth living amounts to answering the fundamental question of philosophy. All the rest - whether or not the world has three dimensions, whether the mind has nine or twelve categories - comes afterwards." (Camus 1955:3)
Statistics of incidence all over the world:
Suicide: (1.6 per cent)
Death due to traffic injuries: (2.1 per cent)
World Suicide rate (per 1 lakh):
Lithuania: 38.4
Kazakhstan: 27.9 ( While reading, I remembered 'The Zahir')
Sri Lanka: 21.5
Switzerland: 16.5
New Zealand: 15
France: 14.8
Japan: 14.5
China: 13.7
Canada: 11.3
India: 11.2
Germany: 10.6
UK: 6.8
Syrian Arab Republic: 0.1
(Only a handful of data taken from the source.)
A few collections :
"Traditional marital relations were relatively emotionless, says shorter. A french farmer of the period would be more concerned at the sickness of his horse than his wife." (Shorter 1976: 56)
"The surest evidence of emotionless courtship would be the arranged marriage. If the wishes of the young people were completely neglected and they were matched to whomever in the village best suited their parents' dynastic ambitions, affection and sentiment would by definition be absent." (Shorter 1976: 138)
"All the farmers who died were trying to speed along the fast lane of agricultural success. Most of them had replaced traditional crops with lucrative cash crops, little realising that raising them is a costly and precise science. This requirement was impossible to meet, given that the farmers today are ignored by the agricultural credit system of banking, squeezed dry by money-lenders and abandoned by the complete breakdown in the government's agricultural extension services. their life is like a house of cards: built on paper thin support. Take one away - like a failed monsoon, an overdoes of pesticides and everything comes crashing down." (Harlankar 1998)
"Why did these numbers never come into the debate on distress suicides among farmers? Simple. Hundreds of them went into police registers with these lines: 'The man (or woman) had several stomach ache. Unable to bear the pain, he (or she) swallowed pesticide in despair'
The despair, then did not arise from the economic distress of the farmer. It came from an epidemic of stomach aches. A number of farmers ended their tummy pain with the pesticide Monocrotophos. An item provided free by the state." (Sainath 2001 a)
"A man who, knowingly or unknowingly, wilfully or unintentionally dies in the Ganges, secures on death heaven and Moksha (release from the cycle of rebirth)" (Padma Purana V:60:55)
"Suttees are less numerous in Benares than many pats of India, but self immolation by drowning is very common. Many scores, every year, of pilgrims from all parts of India, come hither expressly to end their days to secure their salvation. They purchase two large kegree pots between which they tie themselves, and when empty, these support their weight in the water. Thus equipped, they paddled into the stream, then fill the pots with the water which surrounds them, and thus sink into eternity. Government have sometimes attempted to prevent this practice, but with no other effect than driving the voluntary victims a little further down the river; nor indeed when a man has come several hundred miles to die, is it likely that a police officer can prevent him." (Heber 1828, vol. 1: 295)
What do people who feel suicidal want?
1. Someone to listen. Someone who will take time to really listen to them.
2. Someone who won't judge, or give advice or opinions, but will give their undivided attention.
3. Someone to trust.
4. Someone to care, who will reassure, accept and believe...someone who will say 'I care'.
What do people who feel suicidal not want?
1. To be alone. Rejection can make the problem seem ten times worse.
2. To be advised. 'Cheer up' or 'Everything will be okay' doesn't help.
3. To be interrogated. Don't change the subject. Don't pity or patronize.
- April 25th '12
"There is but one truly serious philosophical problem and that is suicide.Judging whether life is or is not worth living amounts to answering the fundamental question of philosophy. All the rest - whether or not the world has three dimensions, whether the mind has nine or twelve categories - comes afterwards." (Camus 1955:3)
Statistics of incidence all over the world:
Suicide: (1.6 per cent)
Death due to traffic injuries: (2.1 per cent)
World Suicide rate (per 1 lakh):
Lithuania: 38.4
Kazakhstan: 27.9 ( While reading, I remembered 'The Zahir')
Sri Lanka: 21.5
Switzerland: 16.5
New Zealand: 15
France: 14.8
Japan: 14.5
China: 13.7
Canada: 11.3
India: 11.2
Germany: 10.6
UK: 6.8
Syrian Arab Republic: 0.1
(Only a handful of data taken from the source.)
A few collections :
"Traditional marital relations were relatively emotionless, says shorter. A french farmer of the period would be more concerned at the sickness of his horse than his wife." (Shorter 1976: 56)
"The surest evidence of emotionless courtship would be the arranged marriage. If the wishes of the young people were completely neglected and they were matched to whomever in the village best suited their parents' dynastic ambitions, affection and sentiment would by definition be absent." (Shorter 1976: 138)
"All the farmers who died were trying to speed along the fast lane of agricultural success. Most of them had replaced traditional crops with lucrative cash crops, little realising that raising them is a costly and precise science. This requirement was impossible to meet, given that the farmers today are ignored by the agricultural credit system of banking, squeezed dry by money-lenders and abandoned by the complete breakdown in the government's agricultural extension services. their life is like a house of cards: built on paper thin support. Take one away - like a failed monsoon, an overdoes of pesticides and everything comes crashing down." (Harlankar 1998)
"Why did these numbers never come into the debate on distress suicides among farmers? Simple. Hundreds of them went into police registers with these lines: 'The man (or woman) had several stomach ache. Unable to bear the pain, he (or she) swallowed pesticide in despair'
The despair, then did not arise from the economic distress of the farmer. It came from an epidemic of stomach aches. A number of farmers ended their tummy pain with the pesticide Monocrotophos. An item provided free by the state." (Sainath 2001 a)
"A man who, knowingly or unknowingly, wilfully or unintentionally dies in the Ganges, secures on death heaven and Moksha (release from the cycle of rebirth)" (Padma Purana V:60:55)
"Suttees are less numerous in Benares than many pats of India, but self immolation by drowning is very common. Many scores, every year, of pilgrims from all parts of India, come hither expressly to end their days to secure their salvation. They purchase two large kegree pots between which they tie themselves, and when empty, these support their weight in the water. Thus equipped, they paddled into the stream, then fill the pots with the water which surrounds them, and thus sink into eternity. Government have sometimes attempted to prevent this practice, but with no other effect than driving the voluntary victims a little further down the river; nor indeed when a man has come several hundred miles to die, is it likely that a police officer can prevent him." (Heber 1828, vol. 1: 295)
What do people who feel suicidal want?
1. Someone to listen. Someone who will take time to really listen to them.
2. Someone who won't judge, or give advice or opinions, but will give their undivided attention.
3. Someone to trust.
4. Someone to care, who will reassure, accept and believe...someone who will say 'I care'.
What do people who feel suicidal not want?
1. To be alone. Rejection can make the problem seem ten times worse.
2. To be advised. 'Cheer up' or 'Everything will be okay' doesn't help.
3. To be interrogated. Don't change the subject. Don't pity or patronize.
- April 25th '12
