Who would more likely kill themselves?
Ahmed the Palestinian member of Hamas, or Iko the Japanese Schoolgirl?
According to this wikipedia article, Hamas 'only' managed a 'paltry' 480 kills from their 70 odd Suicide attacks from 1995 till 2005. Even then only 70 odd people actually committed suicide, the remainders were innocent bystanders.
Compare that with the 33,093 Japanese that killed themselves in 2007. Over the last 10 years, the Japanese suicides outnumber Hamas 1000 to 1. Yet, they're suicide rate is still lower than that of South Korea, but higher than Hong Kongs 17.4 suicides per 100,000 population.
But let me spell it out for you:
1) 100 people kill themselves everyday in the worlds 2nd largest economy.
2) Everday one Singaporean takes their lives in South East Asias most properous economy
3) In South Korea 26 people in every 100,000 take their own lives. Including their former Prime minister.
In the time it takes me to drive to work in the morning, 3 Japanese would have killed themselves. Obviously having the worlds second largest economy is no quick fix for depression, it actually causes it.
Of course, I'd forgot to mention that Japans economy has been in stagflation for the last 10 years, unemployment soaring and many Japanese undergoing 'financial difficulties'.
The question then is who'd you rather be, a Palestinian Doctor or a Unemployed Japanese. Compared side-by-side the unemployed Japanese has a better standard of living than just about any Palestinian...so what 'financial difficulties' are we really talking about? The answer is merely social status and financial 'desires', truth be told a bowl of rice in Japan is probably easier to acquire than a bowl of rice in the Gaza strip.
Why then are we so interested in the Economy?
Why is it the number one priority for so many? The number one issue of most discussion? The number one in everything, when the empirical evidence suggest there is no correlation between being a rich economy and being a Happy people? The latter being the more important question we should ask.
In fact it's the economy or more specifically the downward economy that's forcing all these people to take their lives.
"One of the saddest cases happened last year when an odd jobs labourer in his 40s killed himself by jumping in front of a speeding MRT train at Jurong.
Why then do we continuously focus on money, and the economy like our lives depended on it. When it facts our lives and the lives on many other Malaysians depends on 'slowing' down our economy.
If people in rich countries aren't much happier than us? Why do we pursue this rat-race for riches?
If people in rich countries are committing suicides at alarming rates, why are we interested in following their footsteps.
What's the point of having the best health-care in the world when Suicide ranks higher than cancer or heart disease or AIDS as a cause of death?
Something fundamentally flawed in our pursuit for the material gains of life, to find the scarce material and to achieve some sort of social status, when the very acquirement of these material gains and acquirement of scarce deprives someone else of it. As these examples show, that deprivation can push people to a horrific end.
Are we starving some poor African kid named Kwame in the mud hut somewhere in Malawi, just because our demand for food such as rice has pushed up it's price making it unaffordable for his mother to buy. It's that same specks of rice we neglected to finish in our Nasi Lemak because it had too much sambal in it. That same speck of rice that cumulatively increased Malaysia demand for rice, which in turn raised it's price too high for Kwame to buy.
In short it's out culture of consumerism and destruction that pushes people in Africa into starvation. Yet, we won't even contribute Rm38 per month for the UN to help the orang asli?
Isn't it odd, that Europeans come to Malaysia for a tan, but Malaysians buy 'Whitening cream'?
What is the logic in that, other than marketers creating a reason to buy something. It just so happens that to look beautiful in Europe you need to be rich enough to afford a holiday in Sunny France or Malaysia, and to look beautiful in Malaysia you need to be rich enough to afford those ridiculous whitening creams, bust-enhancers and slimming centers. Beauty is no longer something bestowed by God for the rest of us to admire, but something which we buy, and if we can't afford we feel depressed and sad, it reflects badly on us.
Suddenly beauty became about wealth. A Total utter fucking disgrace.
What can we do?
I intend to fix this crap. From now on, this blog will no longer focus on the useless stuff. I'll focus on the stuff that makes Malaysians unhappy and how I'll try to eliminate them from my life.
I'm no scientist but I read more than most people, and what I do know is that money will never make you happy.
The empirical evidence from countless studies prove beyond a shadow of a doubt, that going from middle class to rich does nothing to your overall happiness level. So why even bother striving for a promotion that won't make you happy?
Sounds counter-intuitive and illogical. Malaysian are indoctrinated by the Kiyosaki rat-race 'I need money to be happy' bullshit. Coupled with the Lilian Too crap about toilet bowls bringing happiness, it's no wonder that the rich Malaysians who buy this crap end up unhappy.
That's my 2 cents. Don't spend it all in one place.
Ahmed the Palestinian member of Hamas, or Iko the Japanese Schoolgirl?
According to this wikipedia article, Hamas 'only' managed a 'paltry' 480 kills from their 70 odd Suicide attacks from 1995 till 2005. Even then only 70 odd people actually committed suicide, the remainders were innocent bystanders.
Compare that with the 33,093 Japanese that killed themselves in 2007. Over the last 10 years, the Japanese suicides outnumber Hamas 1000 to 1. Yet, they're suicide rate is still lower than that of South Korea, but higher than Hong Kongs 17.4 suicides per 100,000 population.
But let me spell it out for you:
1) 100 people kill themselves everyday in the worlds 2nd largest economy.
2) Everday one Singaporean takes their lives in South East Asias most properous economy
3) In South Korea 26 people in every 100,000 take their own lives. Including their former Prime minister.
In the time it takes me to drive to work in the morning, 3 Japanese would have killed themselves. Obviously having the worlds second largest economy is no quick fix for depression, it actually causes it.
Of course, I'd forgot to mention that Japans economy has been in stagflation for the last 10 years, unemployment soaring and many Japanese undergoing 'financial difficulties'.
The question then is who'd you rather be, a Palestinian Doctor or a Unemployed Japanese. Compared side-by-side the unemployed Japanese has a better standard of living than just about any Palestinian...so what 'financial difficulties' are we really talking about? The answer is merely social status and financial 'desires', truth be told a bowl of rice in Japan is probably easier to acquire than a bowl of rice in the Gaza strip.
Why then are we so interested in the Economy?
Why is it the number one priority for so many? The number one issue of most discussion? The number one in everything, when the empirical evidence suggest there is no correlation between being a rich economy and being a Happy people? The latter being the more important question we should ask.
In fact it's the economy or more specifically the downward economy that's forcing all these people to take their lives.
"One of the saddest cases happened last year when an odd jobs labourer in his 40s killed himself by jumping in front of a speeding MRT train at Jurong.
He had been unemployed for four months, relying on his wife’s S$500 monthly income to feed his family of four (with two teenage sons).
As bills mounted to $1,000, the hapless man promised his wife he would look for the money.
One night he gave $9 to his younger son and told him before leaving for his appointment with death, “Daddy is leaving for work, you have to look after mummy, you all have to take care.”
Singapore is not a welfare state, it employs the American capitalist model. This is what you get with good capitalist economies. The nearly 'darwinian' natural selection in the elimination of the poor. The problem is the poor outnumber the rich, and it'll take a while for all of them to kill themselves.Why then do we continuously focus on money, and the economy like our lives depended on it. When it facts our lives and the lives on many other Malaysians depends on 'slowing' down our economy.
If people in rich countries aren't much happier than us? Why do we pursue this rat-race for riches?
If people in rich countries are committing suicides at alarming rates, why are we interested in following their footsteps.
What's the point of having the best health-care in the world when Suicide ranks higher than cancer or heart disease or AIDS as a cause of death?
Something fundamentally flawed in our pursuit for the material gains of life, to find the scarce material and to achieve some sort of social status, when the very acquirement of these material gains and acquirement of scarce deprives someone else of it. As these examples show, that deprivation can push people to a horrific end.
Are we starving some poor African kid named Kwame in the mud hut somewhere in Malawi, just because our demand for food such as rice has pushed up it's price making it unaffordable for his mother to buy. It's that same specks of rice we neglected to finish in our Nasi Lemak because it had too much sambal in it. That same speck of rice that cumulatively increased Malaysia demand for rice, which in turn raised it's price too high for Kwame to buy.
In short it's out culture of consumerism and destruction that pushes people in Africa into starvation. Yet, we won't even contribute Rm38 per month for the UN to help the orang asli?
Isn't it odd, that Europeans come to Malaysia for a tan, but Malaysians buy 'Whitening cream'?
What is the logic in that, other than marketers creating a reason to buy something. It just so happens that to look beautiful in Europe you need to be rich enough to afford a holiday in Sunny France or Malaysia, and to look beautiful in Malaysia you need to be rich enough to afford those ridiculous whitening creams, bust-enhancers and slimming centers. Beauty is no longer something bestowed by God for the rest of us to admire, but something which we buy, and if we can't afford we feel depressed and sad, it reflects badly on us.
Suddenly beauty became about wealth. A Total utter fucking disgrace.
What can we do?
I intend to fix this crap. From now on, this blog will no longer focus on the useless stuff. I'll focus on the stuff that makes Malaysians unhappy and how I'll try to eliminate them from my life.
I'm no scientist but I read more than most people, and what I do know is that money will never make you happy.
The empirical evidence from countless studies prove beyond a shadow of a doubt, that going from middle class to rich does nothing to your overall happiness level. So why even bother striving for a promotion that won't make you happy?
Sounds counter-intuitive and illogical. Malaysian are indoctrinated by the Kiyosaki rat-race 'I need money to be happy' bullshit. Coupled with the Lilian Too crap about toilet bowls bringing happiness, it's no wonder that the rich Malaysians who buy this crap end up unhappy.
That's my 2 cents. Don't spend it all in one place.
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