An article on Haveeru Online draws our attention to the increasing cases of suicides in Maldives.
Acts of suicide or attempted acts of suicide should be taken very seriously from their loved ones and the community as a whole. While we do not fully understand why people take their own lives, we should do whatever we can do to find out what motivates some people to take such extreme action.
For some people it may be total desperation, having exhausted all the means to solve their problems. Attempting suicide even while many regard it dishonourable, they just can't find their way out of the abyss of the profound darkness that their lives have fallen into.
They resort to suicide as an end to all suffering.
The issue of mental health also has to be examined to determine whether people needing treatment are getting diagnosed correctly and getting the required treatment.
Just by looking at the symptoms, we can see that our society is cracking up at the seams.
How did this happen to us?
Before tourism brought the affluence that has seen our GDP climb to the highest in the region, and our elites enjoying the best luxury- our subsistence was mainly based on fishing. Our needs were less and our people led simple lives. Our people helped each other and most people would agree that they were happier then. Social ills such as suicides and drug abuse were no where near to the kind of alarming proportion that has reached now.
Is this a true reflection of the reality? If the argument does hold, then where have we failed the most vulnerable segments of our society as we advanced in affluence?
We are a 100 per cent Muslim nation as required by our Constitution. Suicide is forbidden in Islam. Do we hear this message adequately being delivered to the masses by our Imams? Some people say that many imams are becoming political imams, they are increasingly preaching what is politically correct.
The crux of the argument is that we can help our society only if we start caring about our citizens. Every individual life is precious, valuable and important.
I just read another headline on Haveeru, quoting the deputy minister of gender who says that our constitution is in the way of drug rehabilitation and enforcement. That just doesn't make any sense to me.
Our nation is making economic progress, not in wealth distribution but by the increase in GDP. We are moving backwards in decent human goodness and caring for our society may become a lost value unless we reverse this trend.
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6 comments:
You forgot to mention another aspect of suicide that should be taken seriously. That is if some one mentions about killing themselves or someone having suicidal ideation.
Hopelessness is the main factor in people contemplating suicide. There are many more.
Caring for each other on an individual basis is lacking. I agree .
maldiveshealth.
Thanks your comment. Suicide is a complex social issue, not easy for me to analyse in detail.
I get the feeling that we are overlooking the plight of a desperate group of people who need help- maybe more family support, intense counselling, medical help for depression etc.
Are there any health sector or professionals in the social sector focusing on these type of issues?
Since Maldives also has self help groups including volunteers, what do we need to do to lift these issues out of the back burner and put to the front?
All this is happening not because people are less religious or that they don't fear God. It's happening because we're tumbling down the dark alley towards becoming a failed state. Our GDP might be high but nothing of our wealth is ever distributed evenly.
People still have to beg to pay for simple health services - most of the time abroad in places like Trivandrum.
Our country has no definite plans, no long-term goals, no dreams to offer to the public. What do you expect people to do..just live a hunky-dory life? And on top of that we're confused about our religion, which has confused us about our rights as a people of a nation.
How can we start helping anyone else when we are struggling to even help ourselves get through each day?
It is not we're moving backwards in "decent human goodness". What is that? What goodness can one offer when there is little to offer? We moving backwards together as a whole nation - economically and socially. We might give the impression that we're affluent but where is the money really going? And a better question would be .. are we also suffering a brain-drain as a result of our minimal expenditure on education? And where is our educated elite instead looking towards for their future? Surely, not this country.
Dear Simon. Thank you for your perspective.
I did not imply that anyone is less religious. To me, religion is a personal matter and the state should not impose it on its people. But since we are a 100 per cent Muslim nation only becoz our constitution demands so, our politicians have a duty to provide the environment compatible to what they preach.
When they fail, we should call our elected reps to majlis to pressure the government to bring about the changes. We haven't raised the intensity of that call and we haven't unified in our stand to beat the odds against us.
If our state is the source of all social problems, then we have become more than a failed state. The state has become the tyrant, it is not on the path of democracy, it is becoming fascist.
Despite the politics that is going on, I don't believe as a people we have lost our capacity for compassion.
If we are becoming so self-centred that we are failing to take care of our aged parents, the old and the sick- that is something that needs to change at an individual level to become a caring society.
Hilmy,
I think there are enough caring people to carry on the message to the masses. What is lacking is a cohesive force to bring all these people together. Look at the numbers Maldivians are joining on Face book causes. Although it is not "active on the ground" , these people are the future of the lobby groups who are showing an interest. I am very optimistic.
I agree they are a lost group. What they are showing is that they are interested. Thats a good place to start at least. It will happen. Needs time i believe. We Maldivians are a compassionate people from time immemorial.What is happening now is a cause of many years of neglect. Neglect of our youth. Neglect of our children.
All is not lost though.
On suicide: this is one of the areas i am very interested in and have done a lot of reading on it. I heard that Minister Nasheed met some journalists or written them asking to tone down how they write about suicide, after i mentioned about it on his blog. How journalists tell the suicide stories has a lot to do with trends that appear. Like the methods utilized being written in these news has a reinforcing effect on those who have suicidal ideation . It is a good thing Minister did. I strongly feel that sometime back the rate and method used were as a result of mentioning these on the media. It was again a few days back that Haveeru mentioned in an article that we need to talk more about these things and mentioned about minister asking them to tone down this. Yes we do need to talk about it. But not certain aspects of it. We need to talk more about why these things are happening. We need to talk about the issues behind these. If we want to dramatize news , we will never achieve anything.
I feel that many youth, like me, Simon and many others are really frustrated on the happenings. I am angry , way too angry about the lack of action on child abuse.
Sometime early this year, a friend of mine who recently left CHSE called me up and said that I got to meet him that day because he was going to commit suicide. He told me that he will commit suicide only after telling me what his problem was.
So I made a date and he poured out his heart to me. Don't know why he felt like trusting me because I only met him a few times through some friends. Anyway, he said that he and his boyfriend was "busted" and the boyfriend decided to save his marriage by leaving him.
He was so heart-broken and lonely that he felt that he will never be loved again.
I told him to go out and shag as many people as he can until he gets a good and caring one.
Several weeks later, he called me up and said: "Hilath, you are right. I've met a guy and he is a thousand times better than that ex who jilted me."
I guess there are so many causes for suicide among the youth in Maldives.
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