Economic Development and Suicides

I heard that in the eighties that Japan had the dubious distinction of being one of the countries with the maximum number of suicides. I could never understand why it was so. Japan was an economic power. Their cars were utilitarian with low fuel consumption and were exactly right for the times (OPEC had increased the oil prices by as much as four times). Their cars were exported to many countries in the west. Their electronic industry was the best in the world. They became leaders in whatever they did. Perfection was their mantra. The Japanese way was considered the way to go and there were a lot of studies on the Japanese way of doing things.

India has grown fast in the last two decades and it is reported that India has overtaken Japan in respect of suicides. It was also found that the suicide rates are low in the countries where economic development is low. This is a paradox. To understand this I started analyzing the reasons for the suicides.

The following seemed to be the most common reasons among others for suicides:

Unrequited Love
Chronic Illness
Unemployment
Depression
Inability to cope with studies
Ragging and harassment

What is it about the reasons that connect with economic development?

Liberalization has created a vast number of new millionaires while at the same time still leaving a majority of the population poor. Ethics have touched a low. Sophistication has taken a beating. People have become more insensitive. The rich get away with anything. Rules are perceived to be different for the rich. The children of the rich are brought up in this environment and they too become insensitive. Most accused in abetting suicides due to ragging / harassment are fairly rich and derive pleasure in viciousness.

Most cases of suicides on account of unrequited love is because of differences in the lovers' caste and /or money. Many a time the lovers commit suicide together. In some cases, the girl (generally) is not interested in a relationship and the boy starts harassing leading to the girl's suicide. If the boy is mentally weak, then he commits suicide. Psychologists say that these suicides could be driven because of the extreme pressure that media content in TV, Movies and Radio puts on the youngsters. For example it is expected that a college student should have a boy/girl friend.; a boy should tease a girl; a boy should have a bike/car to impress the girl and so on. The spending on Valentine's day is going up year on year in India in the last few years. Apart from suicides, this trend also leads to young boys taking to crime to fulfill their misguided aspirations.

Suicides on account of chronic illness is also common. Liberalization has also spawned corporate hospitals and took medical costs extremely high. Those committing suicides for the reasons of chronic illness are generally the poor who cannot afford proper medical care.

Inability of students to cope with studies is also because of high aspirations of parents and perhaps of the student. Higher education has become more affordable with many new colleges especially in the professional studies. Government has schemes to reimburse fees and hostel expenses for students belonging to certain castes and communities considered to be backward. This results in students getting into these professional courses without considering whether they can cope with the academics or not. Even after graduation, most remain unemployed because of their inability to compete, thus in some cases leading to suicides.

In the olden days, people used to be content with what they had. Wants were limited. Aspirations were realistic. Liberalization and Globalization changed all that. In spite of having successful material life, more people are unhappy today than they were in the olden days. This leads to Depression. Depression is perhaps the major trigger for suicides. That is why many suicides in this category are inexplicable to people.

I feel it is the sudden change in lifestyles that are causing these suicides. India is ripe for psychiatrists. Till now Indians think that therapy is only for the mentally ill. They do not realize there are millions of mentally ill (though not classified as such) who are unable to cope with change and need therapy.

Climate Change

Wish you all a very happy and prosperous New Year 2009. I pray to God that all of you have a year of peace, plenty, health, wealth and happiness doing what you want to do.

I have always thought in the past that climate change does not concern me; does not affect me. How wrong I was.

My family moved to Hyderabad, India from Chennai (then Madras) in 1968 after my father passed away. In Chennai people say there are four seasons; summer, summer, summer and more summer. Hyderabad however was different. The weather was extreme with maximum temperatures touching 43 to 45 degrees celsius during summer and 8 to 12 degrees celsius during winter. Rest of the year used to be very pleasant.

Winter used to be really great. That's when you would try out your sweaters / pullovers / blazers and make your style statements. Style did not cost too much then and most could afford it. This was also the time when you would need woollen blankets in the night to ward off the cold.

I remember we used to sit lazily in the morning sun along with a bottle of frozen coconut oil. As the oil started melting, we would take it and apply it on the exposed parts of our hands, legs and face to relieve the dryness that went with winter.

I find that now the minimum temperatures in the winter hardly touch 13 degrees celsius. You cannot sit in the morning sun. It is too warm and uncomfortable. Day temperatures touch a high of nearly 32 to 35 degrees celsius even in winter. You hardly need sweaters / pullovers / blazers unless you are biking in the night. A cotton blanket suffices for the night.

This set me thinking that there is truth in global warming and it is no longer something that happens in Arctic but is there for us to see here and now. Lets all do our might to fight global warming.

First Entry

At last I have created a blog. In spite of being fairly tech savvy, there is always trepidation when you start doing something for the first time. I intend to post weekly updates on everything that has happened during the week that has moved me.

My next (and essentially the first) post will be on 1st January 2009. I hope that my posts will be interesting, topical and provocative enough.

Wish me luck.