A Suicide

Korea, a country that has the highest suicide rate among the worlds top 30 economies, has a real high profile one: former President Roh Moo Hyun. He was facing some corruption charges and he decided to end it by jumping off a cliff. Couple of thoughts:

1. I think every Korean president faced corruption charges once they left their office.

2. The amounts that he was involved with was peanuts compared to the amounts other former presidents were involved with (couple of millions vs hundreds of millions)

3. He always seemed to be an insecure and not quite happy person (even though he has quite a compelling life story – although I did not like the way that he came into power and some of his policies) and thus though this news is shocking, in some ways, it feels like it is in character. Mind you I am no psychologist and so this is just a feeling thing.

Anyway, what I really wanted to ponder was Korea itself. Again, it has one of the highest suicide rates - high even among what one would call the elites of society. Not only this former president, but many famous Koreans such as actors and actresses have committed suicide recently. On top of that, Korea has the lowest birth rate outside of Hong Kong I think. Someone said that a quick measure of a society’s happiness and optimism is to plot the birth rate and the suicide rate. Those with high birthrate and low suicide rate can be considered happy while those with low birth rate and high suicide rate can be considered unhappy. If this is the case, Korea is depressed. Not sure if Korea is following Japan….Anyway, I feel that this was not always so as I think birthrates in the 60s and 70s were much higher.  Perhaps with the rapid industrialization and economic growth, something got lost?

Something to ponder….