Despair ... And Suicide

[reader]

From National Public Radio

The Cost Of Thailand's Coronavirus Success: Despair ... And Suicide

One of Bangkok's street vendors and his bicycle worker. So-called "informal workers" have suffered the loss of income in the wake of coronavirus lockdown measures. Patrick Brown for NPR

From a small corner storefront in Bangkok, Suchart Prasomsu, 53, a rice dealer, leads a rescue team of 30 volunteers. They rush to car crashes or crime scenes. They also retrieve the bodies of those who died in their homes, and since the start of the pandemic, part of their job has become trying to prevent people from killing themselves.

Sacks of rice are stacked among disinfectant tanks (used to clean the apartment of a neighbor who contracted COVID-19), Prasomsu's rescue diving suit (for when someone has jumped into the river), a Buddhist shrine, a cage of songbirds and his poodle, Lion.

Parked outside is the Harley he uses to weave through Bangkok's traffic. His shortwave radios — one that picks up police reports in his riverside district and the other for the entire central region of Thailand — crackle in the background.

Prasomsu has been a rescue volunteer for nearly 30 years. He says the reports of suicide have ticked up since the country announced a lockdown on March 26 in the effort to stop the spread of the novel coronavirus.

He and his team have responded to at least 10 police reports of people who are publicly suicidal in his area. He talked to one young woman who nearly killed herself after losing her job at a factory.

He remembers her because she backed away from the edge.

Sometimes, he responds to a call and there's nothing left but a pair of flip-flops. It becomes a job for the divers to recover the body, Prasomsu said. "Then we can help by giving them a proper burial."

The case and death rates from COVID-19 in Thailand are among the world's lowest, with about 3,100 confirmed cases and 58 deaths, as of Thursday. Thai epidemiologists say their health care system — one of the finest in the world — had a major role to play. So did a strict lockdown.

But like many other countries, the measures to contain the virus have also caused mass disruptions as the economy came to a sudden stop. Shops, offices, malls, markets, factories, gyms, restaurants and bars were ordered to close. Domestic and international flights were grounded. People were ordered to stay home, and if they went outside, they were required to wear a mask. The few businesses that stayed open, like grocery stores, were required to do temperature checks at the door and squirted alcohol hand sanitizer into the hands of their customers.

In May, the government began easing the restrictions, and as of mid-June, most businesses have been allowed to reopen.

Dr. Varoth Chotpitayasunondh, a psychiatrist and spokesperson for the mental health department of Thailand's Ministry of Public Health, says that now the threat of COVID-19 is under control, the government is faced with a different public health challenge: "The next wave of the problem will be mental health."

Continues with photos

https://www.npr.org/sections/goatsandsoda/2020/06/16/874198026/the-cost-of-thailands-coronavirus-success-despair-and-suicide

[Boy69]

This is not relevant that they have free food !

What about the bills people need to pay ? Where unmployees will find jobs nowadays? people whom lost their businesses and had been left with debts ?

[reader]

56 minutes ago, muscfair said:

I don't know why they need to commit suicide when there are still free food donation. .

It's a shame those who took their lives in desperation didn't consult you first. They would have been spared the inconvenience.

It's easy for those of us who don't wait in lines for our meals, have income to pay our bills and the means to travel to judge those without those benefits.

[PeterRS]

It is perhaps hard for those of us who read this forum to realise what life is truly like when you live virtually on the breadline earning only just enough to survive. Then your only source of income is taken away overnight Perhaps you have kids and a corrugated roof over your head. You can find ways of feeding them but you have no idea when or if you can start to earn a few thousand baht a month again. The constant worry, fear and then despair has to have an effect on your mental health.

Perhaps we should remember the case of the Korean salaryman during the Asian Economic crisis which hit that country very hard. Every morning, he got up, dressed in his suit for work, had a meagre breakfast with his family and went off to work carrying his briefcase. In the evening he returned late, as many Korean workers do. This was the pattern of his life. After many months he killed himself. It was then realised he had been fired from his job when the Crisis started but he could not bear to admit this to his family. Fear of being regarded a failure and the culture of Korean society overcame reason.  So every day he left home and just sat on a park bench for more than 12 hours thinking and worrying. As his savings finally vanished, he felt suicide was the only way out.

[Londoner]

Don't forget the impact of shame on the part of  parents who can't feed their children.  A "real man" makes sure his family eats; if he doesn't he loses his sense of manliness.

I recall a few years ago when I was back in Palestine that a Gaza father saw his children picking-up and trying to eat  a discarded, rotten orange  because there was no food in the house because of the siege.

He hanged himself.

[TotallyOz]

This is a hard time for everyone. Those that have no money or job may be able to get some food but so many other things. They can't pay for their motorbike, rent, phone, etc. It is truly destroying lives all over. I can't do much for everyone but I have upped my tipping of every delivery person, maids, guys I meet online, any one else I come in contact with. Remember that most of the boys we meet still send money home to family and now that is stopped and they were depended upon.

[Boy69]

The main problem with the Thai economy is that the int'l tourism is a substantial part of it when it's not likely that international flights will be open soon and mass tourism is not likely to happen in the near future the economy will be hit hard , millions loosing their jobs with no opportunity for recovering .

[TotallyOz]

8 minutes ago, Boy69 said:

The main problem with the Thai economy is that the int'l tourism is a substantial part of it when it's not likely that international flights will be open soon and mass tourism is not likely to happen in the near future the economy will be hit hard , millions loosing their jobs with no opportunity for recovering .

That is why I think it is our responsibility to each take in and care for 10 guys each! Who is with me?

[kokopelli]

I take care of three guys and do up my  tips to one and all. I think I am now spending more on others than  on myself.

[TotallyOz]

19 minutes ago, kokopelli said:

I take care of three guys and do up my  tips to one and all. I think I am now spending more on others than  on myself.

That is kindness!

[spoon]

1 hour ago, kokopelli said:

I take care of three guys and do up my  tips to one and all. I think I am now spending more on others than  on myself.

Think of tips dispensed is spending on yourself as well. You did spend tonrecieve something hehe.

[Londoner]

Joking apart,  if you helping the disadvantaged, you are making merit even if you don't subscribe to  Buddhist philosophy. To know that you are needed and are able to answer that need gives meaning to our lives. Thais have given me so much of the decades (including but not only pleasure) that I  "owe" them.  Particularly P!

[Vessey]

Michael, you can happily send me 10 to England LOL, my house is big enough. LOL

Seriously though, of my regulars, of which there are about 10, all have either asked me directly for money, or implied that they need money over the last few months.

Now nothing really new in that, it was always a common plea in Low Season pre-Covid.

And I do occasionally weaken and reach for the Western Union App on my phone. The tricky bit is sorting out the deserving poor, from the undeserving 'poor'.  By that I mean those who really are desitute from those who would like you believe that they are destitute; and that isn't always easy.

For example, one of my main squeezes was asking for money for 'beer' the other day. Now I know for a fact that he has two active sponsors that bring him in 30k + a month, and his FB is peppered with pictures of drinking with his friends (Red Label of course as befits any self-respecting money boy haha) while he dangles his gold jewelry to the camera.  Others are probably more in need, but there again they were to be found posting on FB about their dire impovrishment months before Covid. 

I do send modest sums every now and then, but the trick, like I said, is trying to decide where it is actually most needed. 

[kokopelli]

On 6/29/2020 at 4:03 PM, spoon said:

Think of tips dispensed is spending on yourself as well. You did spend tonrecieve something hehe.

In reality, my spending is more charity than anything else. I will never, ever receive back what I spent.