No one wants to really talk about suicide. Even getting the full figures from the appropriate agencies brings delaying tactics, along with the 'what do you want to know for' attitude. Letters to Editors at newspapers do not get printed. TV won't touch it with a 100 foot boom. Your local hospital big wigs look down their nose and put you off when you ask them about the suicides, sending you on wild-goose chases as to where to get figures. How much do you know about this secret and very hidden epidemic? Very little I bet. And if you want to keep it that way then don't read this article any further.
This article is not just about suicide, it's also about that growing malais among today's more westernised societies that life is, 'so what,' or 'who cares, ' and, 'I just want to get through life and have as much fun as I can on the way.' Most feel that caring about anything is hardly worth the effort in todays militant and mixed-up world. So why bother. A growing majority feel that to get what they can, how they can, is all that life should be about. Belief in God and in any religion is given mostly lip-service in the hope it'll protect them from a supposed 'get even' God should there actually be one. No one really believes in anything anymore, unless it's for self protection, self preservation, and self gain. All the motivational speakers in the world can't change the truth. They can make it sound better, even feel better, but when you get up and leave, there is still that beautiful but totally unpredictable world out there that seems these days to be run by a bunch of un-compromising, un-educated idiots.
Back to suicide, the most hidden, most untalked about epidemic that is inceasing every day. I live in British Columbia, Canada, and this province has a few million people, most of whom live in or near the busy city centres. And on the face of it they appear to be mostly well-off, happy, and progressing through life in a nice liberal, orderly, way. But something is wrong. I couldn't put my finger on it until just over a year ago when I was watching a local TV news item about deaths due to heart-desease. As part of the report a happy-faced, young, attractive, hair-in-her-eyes cute looking reporter said, in passing, 'of course last year [2003] there were 552 suicides in British Columbia..... What followed next I didn't hear. And knowing mistakes happen with facts and figures on local and national news with insatiable regularity I gave it only a heart-stopping, incredible, one moments thought. But then I began to ask myself questions. Was she right?
Why would 552 people want to take their own lives in this part of the world that brags at having the best standard of living in the world. This thought bothered me, so I set out to confirm those figures. After much navigation on perhaps the worst national news website I've ever seen (Global TV) I got off a few emails, with follow-ups, and never heard a thing. Stats Canada won't tell you anything unless you are 'registered' and are a 'valid' agency - whatever that is. Calls to the local and national Coroners offices were not returned. Hospitals and morgues won't tell you anything. Suicide figures (even figures for all forms of death) are not 'bandied about to any Tom, Dick and Harry' and ex government employee told me! So, feeling like that pushy and pugnacious maker of the movie 'Bowling For Columbine' I tackled as many officials as I could, and after being 'pushy & pugnacious' (isn't it a pity one has to resort to such tactics to get to the truth?) I finally found most of the facts and figures I sought after.
In 2004 the total suicides in BC alone has exceeded 600. In two years - over 1,152 - in a small, seemingly happy population in a much venerated corner of Canada known for its beauty, its laid-back attitudes, and its peaceful life style. In the whole of Canada the number approaches 7,000 - seven thousand. You can skew the statistics, do percentages, do whatever maths you want, but 7,000 suicides in one year in this un-newsworthy, un-hurried, almost un-heralded corner of our world - is astounding. Who were these people? And why did they want to end their life in this land of peaceful pursuits? In the sun-baked, poverty stricken, desease ridden, pointless living standards of strife-torn Africa one could almost understand a suicide epidemic. But hardly anyone there ever commits suicide, in their living hell - it's only us - in our paradise.
Of the 600 plus who took their own lives in 2004 in British Columbia the largest proportion were those whose 'good life' had been taken from them by job losses, mostly the changes the new provincial government had made, costing thousands of jobs in the 'secure' sector of public emplyees. These sudden life changes that cost families their home, car, and the job to pay for it all, resulted in nearly 200 suicides, all in one year. What price politics eh? Next comes a variety of 'personal' problems from family break-ups to loss of a loved one, and that very sad one where young people decide the pressures put on them are not worth the effort, amounting to 150 plus. Then comes those who end their life earlier than the doctor had told them it would end, being cancer victims and every other bodily desease that takes away your dignity. This number is around 50 to 70 over the last two years. Then comes those who find themselves in a wheelchair, who through their boundless desire to test 'the limits' led them to a broken spine. These people account for 20 to 30 a year in BC alone, and rising. The rest is made up of those suffering all forms of depression, being between 30 to 40 a year in BC, then the aged who see little point in 'hanging on,' and, finally a large number of unexplianble suicides These are people who just 'end it' for reasons never clear to those who know them. All in all the number is much too high, and suicide needs a complete and thorough investigation into its rising figures before it becomes the third largest cause of death in Canada.
How does Canada stack up to other countries? Australia comes close to Canada in 'percentage' of suicides to population. Canada has 30 million people - Australia 18 million. In the UK the figures are slightly less than the norm for 'western countries' but are increasing in the non-white population. The number of 8,900 in the UK for 2004 is staggering, but the UK has twice the population of Canada, being 60 million. Canada had close to 7,000 remember out of 30 million. In the really poor countries and poor societies suicide is not nearly so dominant. As one Indian (East) said to me, 'when you're that close to the bottom of society you live in continual hope it will improve.' Perhaps we affluent whites don't think that way. We're spoilt. We turn to suicide because we can't have it all, not because we haven't got anything. Whatever this report, this article, conveys to you the reader I hope it reminds us of several things. One, you will know of someone reasonably close to you who will end their life this year. Look for the signs and help them. Two, don't believe that all you can own in life is the most important thing. It isn't. Get a perspective on life. It really is worth the living. And three, if you've lost someone, or coming out of a broken marriage, or a broken home, or feel like ending it - write to me. I've been there, done it, and I'm alive to write this article. I'll listen. Britmail@aol.com
