Mission & Justice

Or Kashti; 14/3/08

Nearly eight percent of Jewish Israeli 10th-graders and nearly 18 percent of their Arab counterparts say they have tried to kill themselves at least once, while 17 percent and 20 percent, respectively, say they have thought seriously about suicide. These figures emerge from a study carried out several years ago by Dr. Yossi Harel-Fisch of Bar-Ilan University submitted recently to the Education Ministry. About 1,600 Jewish 10th-graders and 2,000 Arab 10th-graders participated in the survey. Among the Jewish respondents, nine percent reported that in the year prior to the survey they had thought about how they would kill themselves. Some 3.7 percent of the Jews and 9.2 percent of the Arabs reported at least one suicide attempt that ended in injury, poisoning or a drug overdose.

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Julie Robotham; 8/9/08

The number of women who die as a consequence of pregnancy or childbirth may be nearly twice as high as shown in official figures, which capture only one-third of suicides in the year after giving birth, according to NSW analysis that reveals the true toll of post-natal depression. Suicide was the leading cause of death between six weeks and a year after giving birth or having a termination, followed by violence and heart attacks, according to an examination by researchers from the University of NSW of a seven-year period ending in 2001. Each of the 76 deaths during the period was classified as being probably linked - either directly or indirectly - to the recent pregnancy. “Many of these deaths were among vulnerable women post-pregnancy and are an important group of often preventable deaths,” said the leader of the study, Elizabeth Sullivan, from the University’s National Perinatal Statistics Unit.

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Ron Rolheiser; 20/7/08

Sometimes things need to be said, and said, and said, until they don’t need to be said any more. Margaret Atwood wrote that and its truth is the reason why, each year, I write a column on suicide. We still have too many misconceptions about suicide. I won’t try to be original in this column, but will simply try to re-state, as clearly as possible, what needs to be said over and over again: What are our misconceptions about suicide?

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Leo Lewis; 25/4/08

More than 120 people fled their homes yesterday when a 14-year-old Japanese girl took her own life by creating clouds of highly toxic gas. Her death, just a few days into the new school year, was the latest tragedy in what some in Japan see as an epidemic of copycat suicides among the young and internet-obsessed. The girl’s death brought to 70 the number of young people in Japan who have brewed the fatal concoction and killed themselves with hydrogen sulphide gas this year. Police fear that worse is to come: one of the products used to generate the gas has sold out in many stores in the past few weeks.

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Sarah Smiles; 18/4/08

Before school broke for holidays in the Kimberley this month, an Aboriginal student in Halls Creek tried to hang herself with a hose pipe. In the distant town of Derby, a funeral was held for a boy who killed himself at the start of the term. The suicides of young Aborigines in the outback Kimberley towns of Western Australia are sadly common. A recent WA coronial report into 22 deaths of Kimberley Aborigines — including the suicide of an 11-year-old boy — described the plight of young people as “bleak”. Some leave high school unable to write a sentence in English. Substance abuse is rife in towns and welfare dependency entrenched. One Kimberley resident told The Age how a group of students asked for advice on what they should do when they find an “uncle hanging in a tree”.

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Philip Setunga; 11/07

Jasih, a 30-year-old mother, set her two sons on fire while they were sleeping and then killed herself in the same way. Neighbours found her dead body hugging her 4-year-old boy. Her husband, Mahfud, explained that their life had come to the end of its tether and was no longer bearable. Their second son, Galuh, had suffered from brain cancer for a year and the pain was getting worse. The family did not have the money to buy prescription medicines that cost 300,000 rupiah (US), as their total income was only about 500,000 rupiah (US). A desperate Jasih could think of no solution but to take his life, and her own. In another case earlier in the year, a 35-year-old mother poisoned her four children, recorded the crime on her phone and then committed suicide. Mohamed Ronji, a 27-year-old father with no money to pay his electricity bills, hanged himself with a plastic rope. Minan Bin Missan, unable to afford medicine, committed suicide. The list of such miserable stories is long and dreadful and points the finger poignantly at the state.The Indonesian constitution clearly spells out the obligations of the state toward persons deprived of socioeconomic benefits. Section X, Article 27 (2) states, “Each citizen shall be entitled to an occupation and an existence proper for a human being.” Similarly, state responsibilities under Section XA, Article 28B (2) also gives “each child the right to live, grow up, and develop as well as the right to protection from violence or discrimination.”

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