Why Does Korea Have Such A High Rate?

The Here and Now website, Nahnews, has some comments on the latest celebrity suicide. The suicide didn't make any sense. He was a popular movie star and singer. Well known in countries outside of Korea and seemed to have all that anyone could desire. He left no testament and left many puzzling about what went wrong.

Recently, Korea has had a number of celebrities killing themselves. Statistics show that among the developed, OCED, countries, Korea is leading by far in this unfortunate statistic. Every year there is an increase, but what we do not hear much about is the elderly suicides, where the rate is increasing every year. The average would be 26 persons for every 100,000; the rate for those over 80 is 112.9 persons for every 100,000. The number of the elderly over 60 who have taken their lives would be almost 33% of the total suicides.

Why would a country that has made such great strides economically have so many finding it difficult to live? As important as it is to be friendly with older people--talking and being kind to them in public places, in buses, in subways and in stores, whenever and wherever we have an opportunity to do so--alleviating the symptoms can only be a temporary solution; we must look for the underlying causes if a permanent solution is to be found.

Many of the elderly have seen the breakdown of the family; they are living with an economic strain and illnesses that are too hard for them to contend with, which prompts many of them to take their own lives. Depression is a very big part of this picture.

The structures of our society have not kept up with the improvement of our living conditions. The article stresses that the quality of life in Korea has deteriorated in the past 20 to 30 years, and asks what happened during this time. We have become sensitive to our rights more so than any time in our history. Have we ever had a time with more prosperty? Have we ever worried like today over the excessive nutrients the body has to deal with?

It is difficult to try to make sense of what is happening. The prosperity we have achieved can also bring sadness into the lives of many. Are we making a society where the survival of the fittest will be our reality?

The current reality for many is the heightened interest and enormous resources devoted to develop the economic sector of society. It would be unrealistic to try to put a stop to this, but at the same time, interest has to be directed to understand the reasons for the death wish of so many. In Korea, and undoubtedly in other countries, families do not want to talk about these untimely deaths, and asking about the causes brings no satisfactory answers, only more sadness. What is needed is an attempt to look into the reasons, make them known, and work to eradicate the causes if we are to have a healthy society.

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