suicide rates continue to increase as a society becomes more immoral and loose with its values. Spend and medicate all you like but it won't remove guilt, shame and condemnation. On a previous post we have posters offering opinions on what kind of sex is okay and what isn't and with whom. It's no wonder so many young ones turn to suicide/drugs with such messages imposed on them from an early school age. Secularism encourages the me generation who can't bear to think they are flawed. When they find out many can't handle it.

Dear runner,

This is how I know it is Christmas, when you dish up gifts like this.

So you are of the firm belief that suicide rates are tied to the licentiousness of a country. Let us go with that.

Firstly in Australia the suicide rate has been declining, particularly among males who are traditionally four times as likely to end their lives. In fact in the last 10 years it has dropped by around 25%.

Therefore, by your analysis we must becoming a more moral country. Wow, go figure.

But what is a good guide to the conservatism or 'morality' of a nation? Births out of wedlock would be a fair measure one would think unless you had a better parameter.

Switzerland traditionally is regarded as the the most conservative nation in Europe. While around one third of Australia's births are out of wedlock the figure in that country is half that.

So how does their suicide rate compare? It is DOUBLE ours.

So dear runner you are left with two choices, either claim, against all evidence that Australia is a more moral country than Switzerland or concede that suicide rates have very little to do with a country becoming “more immoral and loose with its values”.

Since if they do then the prescription for the Swiss suicide rate may well be to loosen up, liquor up and sleep around a little. One can only hope they have a very merry Christmas.

csteele

manipulate figures all you like. A large number of young men drive into a tree or hang themselves because their girlfriend is sleeping with someone else and vice versa. To deny this is to deny the obvious. Your analogy with Switzerland is interesting. Unless you had accurate stats on abortion you could not draw your needed conclusion. Guilt and shame increases the rate of suicide. Only someone in complete denial would disagree.

In fact in the last 10 years it has dropped by around 25%.
csteele,
I don't know who provided those figures & how close they are to real figures. I would not at all be surprised that many suicides are being hushed up in order to not show the real situation. There is severe desperation out there caused by incompetent bureaucrats. Any figures on how many suicides due to the live export ban ?
One factor in this doubtful drop in suicide rates could be that many people are now so desensitised that they're actually incapable of stressing about issues that many thinking & caring people worry about. Any figures on how many people commit gradual suicide to the light at the end of the tunnel being from the oncoming bureaucrat bandwagon ? By gradual I mean people just giving up on healthy living & start drinking themselves into an early grave.
Do your quoted figures include those who just give up but don't commit instant suicide ?

My apologies to the author.

Dear runner,

Luckily the Swiss keep excellent records on abortions. Their rate is low and dropping. At its highest in 2001 it was 14.7% for every 1000 pregnacies. It has dropped by nearly 15% since then. This equates to 8.2 abortions per 1000 women aged between 15 and 44.

Unfortunately South Australia is the only state with comparable records. Its rate of abortions per 1000 women in 2002 was 17.2, over DOUBLE that of Switzerland.

Yet the Swiss have DOUBLE our suicide rate!

If you feel I am manipulating figures the internet is a wonderful thing, go find your own and we will compare.

Got another parameter you would like us to consider?

Dear individual,

If you go here http://www.aph.gov.au/library/pubs/bn/stats/Suicide.pdf and scroll down to page 19 you will find the suicide rate in 1997 was 14.6 per every 100,000 persons and by 2007 in had fallen to 10.6, a 27.4% drop.

Now I'm not sure how many suicides might be attributed to the live cattle export ban. Perhaps the figures are not in yet although claims for an increase because of the drought were found to be baseless. Perhaps it would be instructive to see historically if there was an increase when Howard shut down the live sheep trade to the Middle East for a year.

Suicides especially among rural men continues to be of concern and access to similar support facilities that are enjoyed by city dwellers should be a priority for both sides of politics.

David Webb,

I have had three friends who chose to quit and a few others who were dispatched by criminals.

Fine minds, whose departure gave me the determination to fight the irresponsible greed of the privileged and the crass inutility of the blinds.

If you have someone who can translate from Italian, kindly, look at the following link. The man died in 1975.

The interview took place in Stockholm three days before his death and this recording was found a few days ago.

http://espresso.repubblica.it/dettaglio/cosi-pasolini-previde-litalia-di-b/2168712//0

This link is the first one of three. the others finish with 1 then 2 and 3 instead of 0