Dear Editor,
The latest discovery of the young couple Kavita Ackloo and Ramesh Beharry on the seawall, victims of a seeming suicide pact, once again brings home the grim fact that suicide is on the rise in Guyana. In fact in 2014 the World Health Organization ranked our Eldorado as having the highest suicide rate in the world.
It appears that we just cannot stop scoring high marks for the negative things in life. It is now concentrated among the young and teenagers, with love being thrown in as a motivating factor.
Emile Durkheim, the nineteenth century social scientist, who was also considered by many in his time and beyond to be the founder of sociology, argued that suicide is a social fact and not an individual pathology. Taking data from the official suicide records in different parts of Europe, he documented significant variations between countries as regards their rates of suicide, which he found were correlated or linked to environmental conditions. Using this evidence, Durkheim once again argued in 1897 that each society has an aptitude for suicide, which is a social fact that is external to the individual members of a given society.
The act of suicide is manifested at an individual level, but suicide itself remains a social fact. Rational or not suicide is an individual choice, it is a reaction ‒ not an action ‒ to an illness or a situation or a society that has taken away all hope of happiness or purpose from an individual’s world. .
The time has arrived for the current government to circle the wagons, get all on board to prevent this rising epidemic from reaching disastrous proportions, which it will do unless people begin to accept their responsibility for their role in creating it. There is no need for finger-pointing and blame-shifting, but rather shame-lifting, as we unite towards a common resolution. Suicide is never a tidy solution for it leaves a whole mess behind in its wake (no pun intended). In addition it also makes a major statement about the value of life, and putting love aside the current social situation in Guyana ‒ the femicides, the geronticides, the road fatalities, the robberies and the home invasions.
Prior to this damning report from the WHO, the Ministry of Health in Guyana singlehandedly developed strategies to reduce the number of suicides. There was the commencement of training sessions for priests, teachers and police officers aimed at identifying at-risk individuals.
A suicide prevention hotline was also established by health authorities. Missing from the list of those who would benefit from teaching/learning/ coping sessions are the parents.
It is blatantly obvious that even in the face of all these efforts, nothing has changed, and we are still off range.
It is never too late to renew efforts, and I daresay renew, maintain and sustain.
Far too many lives are being lost and young ones at that. Whether suicide is an individual or a social problem, whether the government controls the sale, distribution and availability of pesticides, etc, the message being sent even from the grave is clear—death is preferable to the pain you have caused me. Consequently, to stem the flow, the government must start now or never. Stepping aside means more suicide.
Yours faithfully,
Yvonne Sam
