A good short piece to think about, accompanied by a 25-mins long video.
Second last paragraph goes into a little more detail about suicides & some causes of it, & they all paint a picture of any so-called modern country. Modern, Westernized countries from North America (US & Canada) to Western Europe (Germany, France, UK etc.) to Asia (Japan & South Korea) might have achieved economic successes but they have come at a great social cost of hyper-competition, isolation, & mental illnesses.
Most people in these countries are busy in the rat race. There's hyper-competition at every level of school & career, & at every age group. Every parent is running from one task to another to make themselves & their children look "successful" in the eyes of the society. Children are enrolled in all kinds of extra-curricular activities & parents are trampling over anyone who come in their way to achieve their own economic / career successes. Of course, with such busy lives, who can have any time to take a peaceful time when one can sit down to reflect upon life in general, talk to each other among family members (including elderly family members), talk to neighbours (to actually know them & not merely talk to them to boast of one's own successes), & ultimately, self-reflect & take a breather.
All this hyper-competition & this worldly race to be better than that another guy leads one to nowhere. This "pursuit of happiness" actually leads one to chronic mental illness & other side effects of it; stress, fatal diseases, anger issues, loneliness, marriage breakdowns etc.
Now, this problem of hyper-competition is quickly creeping into developing countries of Latin America (Brazil, Argentina, Chile etc.), Africa (Kenya, Nigeria, South Africa etc.), South Asia (India, Sri Lanka etc.), China, & Vietnam etc. They are developing fast & their populace wants to emulate the Western countries, unfortunately, right down to the horrible side effects of development; mental illnesses, loneliness, marriage breakdown, suicides etc.
Although, the piece ends with a question that we may never know the real reasons of why South Koreans are committing more suicides than say, people of Namibia or Iceland, I can offer my opinion, here. The comparative countries stated in that statement are the wrong countries to compare to, in the first place. Anyway, there are several other factors at play, here. Iceland is not considered as much of a developed country as, even, South Korea or Japan. Iceland is not even a G20 country. Plus, it's much smaller in size in terms of population (329,000) compared to South Korea's 51 million (both 2015 stats). Of course, population size has a direct relationship with that society's level of competition. Mix in the level of economic development & you get a potent environment for mental illnesses. Similarly with Namibia, economic & population size (2 million as of 2011) play a huge part why South Korea is more susceptible to mental illnesses.
Besides the level of economic development & population size, religious affiliation of that country's population also affects how much hyper-competitiveness leads one to commit suicide. Religious people often ask for divine help when they are in problems. But religion is on the decline in industrialized world, & as such, people of the modern, industrialized, Westernized countries are far more prone to suicides than say, Uganda or Panama or Hungary or even Saudi Arabia.
There's one more problem with people around the world. Most of the people want to compare their lives against their colleagues, neighbours, or extended family members. But they forget to look & see how great their lives are compared to their own compatriots, & even people in other countries, who are living in worse conditions than them. South Koreans, in general, are in much better condition than millions in South Asia, Africa, & in Latin America. Heck, even in industrialized countries of US, Canada, UK, Australia etc., millions are homeless & live way below the poverty line. We humans are forgetting to count our blessings, whatever & however many / little they are, & prefer short-term successes over long-term consequences. If we start to take a long-term view & always look to the person who is less fortunate than us, then we wouldn't be having these mental illnesses, since we will always know that we are in better condition than that other person.
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Loneliness, poverty, chronic illness, losing one's job, the death of a loved one or the breakdown of a marriage - there are many reasons why people fall prey to heartbreak & despair, but most of us, thankfully, will find a route out of that unhappiness or at least develop ways of dealing with it.
Even for those who can not, whose sadness turns into the 'black dog' of overwhelming clinical depression, the right help can still make a crucial difference to being able to cope - be it medical care, the understanding of therapists or the love & support of family & friends. Eventually some sort of recovery takes place, some balance & perspective is restored.
Yet for some the experience of depression can be so profound that none of this works, that all remedies & assistance seem valueless & there appears to be only one way out - to end it all & takes one's own life. Such a step is, of course, a mark of absolute & final desperation, a tragic, wasteful act that can often be cruelly devastating for the people left behind. But people still do it, many thousands around the world every year; lost souls whose mental health has been damaged & stretched beyond breaking point.
Curiously though, some societies & cultures seem more prone to suicide than others. Take South Korea, for example, where suicide has become the fourth most common cause of death, with up to 40 of its citizens taking their own lives every day. For the last eight years it has had the highest suicide rates in the industrialised world (and the second highest in the whole world behind Guyana) & it is now, astonishingly the number one cause of death for its citizens between the ages of 10 & 30.
Delve a little deeper into these statistics (gathered as the nation has become more concerned about the phenomenon) & you will find that men commit suicide twice as often as women; that children & young adults will cite the stress of living in a hyper-competitive society or pressure over exam results & college entrance as the main reason for contemplating suicide; that middle-aged South Koreans most often turn to it through concern over personal economic problems; & that the elderly will kill themselves (or consider doing so) because of isolation as a result of the breakdown of the traditional family unit.
Each of these facts & figures, so easy to write out, conceals a sad personal story, a life that has somehow lost its purpose & meaning or an unbearable anguish that has been crying out for relief. And they still do not explain why South Koreans are more susceptible to suicide than, let's say, the people of Namibia or Iceland.
Second last paragraph goes into a little more detail about suicides & some causes of it, & they all paint a picture of any so-called modern country. Modern, Westernized countries from North America (US & Canada) to Western Europe (Germany, France, UK etc.) to Asia (Japan & South Korea) might have achieved economic successes but they have come at a great social cost of hyper-competition, isolation, & mental illnesses.
Most people in these countries are busy in the rat race. There's hyper-competition at every level of school & career, & at every age group. Every parent is running from one task to another to make themselves & their children look "successful" in the eyes of the society. Children are enrolled in all kinds of extra-curricular activities & parents are trampling over anyone who come in their way to achieve their own economic / career successes. Of course, with such busy lives, who can have any time to take a peaceful time when one can sit down to reflect upon life in general, talk to each other among family members (including elderly family members), talk to neighbours (to actually know them & not merely talk to them to boast of one's own successes), & ultimately, self-reflect & take a breather.
All this hyper-competition & this worldly race to be better than that another guy leads one to nowhere. This "pursuit of happiness" actually leads one to chronic mental illness & other side effects of it; stress, fatal diseases, anger issues, loneliness, marriage breakdowns etc.
Now, this problem of hyper-competition is quickly creeping into developing countries of Latin America (Brazil, Argentina, Chile etc.), Africa (Kenya, Nigeria, South Africa etc.), South Asia (India, Sri Lanka etc.), China, & Vietnam etc. They are developing fast & their populace wants to emulate the Western countries, unfortunately, right down to the horrible side effects of development; mental illnesses, loneliness, marriage breakdown, suicides etc.
Although, the piece ends with a question that we may never know the real reasons of why South Koreans are committing more suicides than say, people of Namibia or Iceland, I can offer my opinion, here. The comparative countries stated in that statement are the wrong countries to compare to, in the first place. Anyway, there are several other factors at play, here. Iceland is not considered as much of a developed country as, even, South Korea or Japan. Iceland is not even a G20 country. Plus, it's much smaller in size in terms of population (329,000) compared to South Korea's 51 million (both 2015 stats). Of course, population size has a direct relationship with that society's level of competition. Mix in the level of economic development & you get a potent environment for mental illnesses. Similarly with Namibia, economic & population size (2 million as of 2011) play a huge part why South Korea is more susceptible to mental illnesses.
Besides the level of economic development & population size, religious affiliation of that country's population also affects how much hyper-competitiveness leads one to commit suicide. Religious people often ask for divine help when they are in problems. But religion is on the decline in industrialized world, & as such, people of the modern, industrialized, Westernized countries are far more prone to suicides than say, Uganda or Panama or Hungary or even Saudi Arabia.
There's one more problem with people around the world. Most of the people want to compare their lives against their colleagues, neighbours, or extended family members. But they forget to look & see how great their lives are compared to their own compatriots, & even people in other countries, who are living in worse conditions than them. South Koreans, in general, are in much better condition than millions in South Asia, Africa, & in Latin America. Heck, even in industrialized countries of US, Canada, UK, Australia etc., millions are homeless & live way below the poverty line. We humans are forgetting to count our blessings, whatever & however many / little they are, & prefer short-term successes over long-term consequences. If we start to take a long-term view & always look to the person who is less fortunate than us, then we wouldn't be having these mental illnesses, since we will always know that we are in better condition than that other person.
---------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Loneliness, poverty, chronic illness, losing one's job, the death of a loved one or the breakdown of a marriage - there are many reasons why people fall prey to heartbreak & despair, but most of us, thankfully, will find a route out of that unhappiness or at least develop ways of dealing with it.
Even for those who can not, whose sadness turns into the 'black dog' of overwhelming clinical depression, the right help can still make a crucial difference to being able to cope - be it medical care, the understanding of therapists or the love & support of family & friends. Eventually some sort of recovery takes place, some balance & perspective is restored.
Yet for some the experience of depression can be so profound that none of this works, that all remedies & assistance seem valueless & there appears to be only one way out - to end it all & takes one's own life. Such a step is, of course, a mark of absolute & final desperation, a tragic, wasteful act that can often be cruelly devastating for the people left behind. But people still do it, many thousands around the world every year; lost souls whose mental health has been damaged & stretched beyond breaking point.
Curiously though, some societies & cultures seem more prone to suicide than others. Take South Korea, for example, where suicide has become the fourth most common cause of death, with up to 40 of its citizens taking their own lives every day. For the last eight years it has had the highest suicide rates in the industrialised world (and the second highest in the whole world behind Guyana) & it is now, astonishingly the number one cause of death for its citizens between the ages of 10 & 30.
Delve a little deeper into these statistics (gathered as the nation has become more concerned about the phenomenon) & you will find that men commit suicide twice as often as women; that children & young adults will cite the stress of living in a hyper-competitive society or pressure over exam results & college entrance as the main reason for contemplating suicide; that middle-aged South Koreans most often turn to it through concern over personal economic problems; & that the elderly will kill themselves (or consider doing so) because of isolation as a result of the breakdown of the traditional family unit.
Each of these facts & figures, so easy to write out, conceals a sad personal story, a life that has somehow lost its purpose & meaning or an unbearable anguish that has been crying out for relief. And they still do not explain why South Koreans are more susceptible to suicide than, let's say, the people of Namibia or Iceland.
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