500.

My home country has one of the worlds highest suicide rates. There are a plethora of factors which i can't even begin to explain that are both universal, and national; contributing to the sad statistic of five hundred per 365-day period. I will never-the-less ram through some of my theories and principles on the subject beginning first with the old-age idea that if you "hush" away a certain topic it will disappear, not exist, not be encouraged, or glorified. (this also relates to the idea in the 1950's that homosexuality as covered up from existing, meant people who are older than the baby boomer generation still think that gays and lesbians have not been around for a lengthy period of time), but I digress to the issue of self-annihilation next.

It is currently unlawful for any publication in New Zealand to publish an article specifying that a suicide has taken place in regards to the individual involved. This law was passed many years ago under the then accepted idea that broadcasting the decision a person makes to kamikaze themselves, would only fuel a kind of "copy cat" mentality and exacerbate the problem. That theory and the reasoning behind it to me is irrevocably false and disordered. The only way to heal is to communicate. Silence is the enemy of progress and integration, and the compete antithesis to what society should expect on a topic which kills more citizens per week than any other cause (to my young knowledge, but seriously five people per week committing suicide is insane!!). In each instance, the suicide of a person is mourned by those closely involved, silenced by the broader laws and deafened to the immediate populous, then easily swept under the rug once the mourning process has ended for the family involved.

To print that a death happened "under no suspicious circumstances" has appeared to be the most recognizable way for a newspaper or media agency to extend the idea that an individual has exited the world by their own will, not the will of another person (murder, manslaughter, euthanasia), or the will of a medical affliction (heart attack, cancer, etcetera). It is an odious way to supersede the law and standards while barely acknowledging the problem, it is not nearly alarming enough to people with no knowledge of the person involved.

There is going to be no community discussion over the fact a human being felt so isolated and locked in their own hell that they had to pull a trigger, swing from a rope, or gas a four walled vehicle. The lack of such outpouring emotion from the community and frank discussion over the disgusting anguish suicide causes only fuels the ideas among people who have mental health issues or extreme life pains that they are in fact the only ones whom have had a problem and therefore there is a lack of hope, help, understanding and recourse to their feelings of self-loathing. Out of sight, out of mind.

People can't heal on their own. No-one can. It's impossible.
A brother, sister, mother, father, uncle, aunty, grandparent, friend or partner will seemingly go quiet, or missing, and then one day not exist anymore. Our world, and my country in general has a deplorable "she'll be right" attitude that not only causes apathy involving child abuse and self-inflicted death but also an antipathy for real life issues that are minimized to insults calling people "emo's," which makes for a very toxic cocktail of bottled up negative energy and a bloodbath of lost lives and feelings that were out of repair for what could have only been a transitory stage. Humans are obsessed and wrapped up in the "complexities" of their own lives and moreso their work; so as that noticeable differences in another persons demeanor or words go unnoticed.

This world is meant to be inhibited by creatures whom communicate eighty percent through non-verbal communication. Without eclipsing my previous statement into an internet issue, I turn to those of us who still do not bother to notice anything out of the ordinary with the people around us in day to day life (although while ironically pointing out superficially "wrong" aspects of peoples personalities, looks, goals and opinions). I am not to say that I blame people whom are busy and wrapped in life otherwise we'd all be guilty of not perceiving a threat to a life or whatever; I merely point out that as products in a world where the "normal" thing is to value time and money over personal relationships we should stop,.. take a look at the landscape permeating our existence and then try to change it for the better.

The first thing in my opinion is a legal overhaul of the archaic and harmful suicide legislation that is primitive and destructive in its efforts to deny people the knowledge that a problem envelopes society. The second thing in my opinion is a complete change in how people deal with "the other," for one, to stop using the word "normal" in such a broad context with a negative connotation stapled to it when thrown at someone a person happens to disagree with. I sit here in wonder at my own writings, consistently reminding myself as conditioned by our society that my views are outlandish and how can it be possible to expect people to just stop using one word? What difference would one word make?

I can't answer that. All I can do is offer my thoughts hither to the dynamics of our world that are clearly causing the wrong things to happen. Unfortunately things remain the same by and large, and therefore the idea "everything happens for a reason" exists only if in fact it existing causes more heartache and despair for everybody involved.