Found this text while browsing through Time Magazine today. It's pretty disturbing, but it also made me think.
"A lot of Asian people just work without any other things to make life more interesting; if they lose their jobs, it throws their life into total disarray," said Paul Yip, director of the Centre for Suicide Research and Prevention in Hong Kong. "If the financial crisis is going to have an impact on suicide rates, it'll be more serious in Asia."
Rises in male suicide rates a year after the 1997 Asian financial crisis.
South Korea: 45%
Hong Kong: 44%
Japan: 39%
Anybody has an opinion? I don't think I have enough general knowledge to make any statements on this quote, but I just think it's interesting what he said about Asians. At least this quote is totally valid when I try to think of what happened to my Dad after he resigned from work. He suddenly lost sense of his own value in life and his whole life went into "disarray". Glad to say that now Ken's existence has given back his sense of value in life.
I think one of the things that Indonesian needs is a place where the elderly can do plenty of activities together ('coz I know my Aunt who lives in Canada with her hubby can still do plenty of fun activities with other pensioners). Unfortunately I think if they do build (or have built) that kind of place in Indo, it's going to be SO costly that the elderly can't afford it. Back to ground zero then.
Oh well...just a little something to think about.
When I was putting plastic covers for magazines at the library today, I came across this article in Time Magazine concerning birthrate for young girls in developed countries. So I wrote them down on a piece of paper.
Birthrate per 1,000 girls ages 15-19:
US 42.5
UK 26.7
Portugal 16.8
Aussie 16.1
Canada 13.3
Spain 11.5
Greece 11.3
Germany 10.1
Finland 9.4
Norway 8.7
France 7.8
Italy 7.0
Sweden 5.9
Denmark 5.9
Japan 5.1
Switzerland 4.5
Netherlands 3.8
I don't know who conducted the test, but it's clear that the US government is worried about this. I didn't have time to read it thoroughly, so I just browsed the article quickly. It seems that they're trying to enforce that "no sex is the best prevention" and they're wondering what kind of sex education is the best.
One thing I wondered when I read these numbers, though...what are the numbers for Indonesia? At least in Finland if you have a kid, you'll get some motherhood benefit and child benefit, as well, but in Indo...the parents will be burdened by the cost of living and raising the kid and the grandkid.
The second thing I was thinking was, "Hey, for a country where there are red light districts and gay marriages, the Netherlands aren't that bad!"
Oh well...I have nothing to say about this. Just want to share this article. Raising a child is definitely one of the TOUGHEST things on earth!!!
P.S. I've been given another project at work: decorating the children's section's wall. Today I tried to recreate a BIG version of Tigger (from Winnie the Pooh) HE HE HE HE HE...
