Choe Sang-Hun has written an article about the high suicide rate in Korea and how the internet culture helps this trend. Naturally, it is easier to find fault with “the internet” than to talk about the real, chronic problems in Korea that make people want to kill themselves in the first place.
-
English Books on Korea... and More!
-
Visit My Brother's Film Review Site
27 Comments
INTERNETS DON’T KILL PEOPLE. PEOPLE KILL PEOPLE!
This is from wikipedia, so grain of salt: “Despite the alarmed response of the media, however, Internet-connected suicide pacts are still relatively rare. Even in Japan, where most of such pacts have occurred, they still represent only 2% of all group suicide-pacts, and less than 0.01% of all suicides combined. However, they do seem to be on the increase in that country: 34 deaths from such pacts occurred in 2003; at least 50 are estimated to have occurred in 2004; and 91 occurred in 2005.”
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Internet_suicide
You’re right, it’s easier to blame the messenger or take lame measures like making pesticide “weaker” than investing in the mental health services Korea needs.
Since this is the topic of depression. Does anyone know where you can obtain the herbal anti depressant “St. John’s Wort” in Seoul? It also goes by the names, hypericum, Klamath weed, goat weed and the latin name Hypericum perforatum.
If anyone is familiar with this herb, and knows what it translates into in Hanguel please post it. Been in a bit of a funk lately that just doesn’t seem to want to disappear on its own.
Thanks.
“Been in a bit of a funk lately that just doesn’t seem to want to disappear on its own.”
Here the solution is called maekju.
This is a very misleading blurb about the article. Nowhere does Choe or any of the quoted sources attribute Korea’s high suicide rate, or the steady increase therein, to the Internet. Wannabe fraternal suicides recourse to the Internet to hook up is mentioned only as a recent sub-trend. And while the article hardly goes into any depth, it does indicate that the causes of the high suicide rate lie elsewhere. Next time, read past the lead paragraph before drawing your caricature.
Everyone knows that the Internet is nothing more than a series of tubes.
Unfortunately, some of the tubes carry carbon monoxide.
Creo–try the GNC store in the basement of Hyundai Dept. Store in Shinchon. GNC sells it so if it’s not in stock they can order it.
Sperwer, Mr. Choe seems to feel that the internet is a great enabler of suicide. While the internet is a tool, it is wrong to blame the craftsman’s tool for shoddy work. His title “In South Korea, the Internet is a path to suicide” implies that the internet plays an important role in suicide, though he goes on to mention other causes such as extreme academic competition. If Mr. Choe can use red herring for bait, so can others.
– deleted (off-topic)
Creo
While you may need a quick fix, ordering it online is better…you’ll pay out the ass buying it here… But then, I never saw it at a GNC here… and that is something I would notice since I live on it.
Or better, and if you have time, have someone ship it to you …in somewhat minimal amounts … like say 3 bottles at a time …so no alarms and whistles go off at customs… in which case you’d (again) pay out the ass.
I know how you feel…
Creo might also tap a helpful USFK friend if he/she has one.
Elgin:
I doubt Choe wrote the headline which, in any event, just correctly notes that the internet is “a” (i.e., one among others) path to suicide.
And if that still qualifies as a red herring, then that doesn’t warrant, justify or excuse following a shoddy practice.
Stopped in at GNC. Surprise, surprise they don’t carry St. John’s here. The lady there told me “no import.” I stopped at the pharmacy at Severance and the pharmacist told me you used to be able to get it but they started to have a “problem” with it. My guess would be some Korean company came out with a new anti depressant or they figured it was cutting into the ginseng market.
Either way like everything else in this country, somebody probably pushed some cash under the table to some Minister of Confusion to do a way with it in Korea.
Thanks for the advice and help anyway. For those of you having sent into Korea you may want to think about it. I don’t know what the penalty is here, but there is the potential for getting the person sending to you in some hot water too. Sly Stallone just was fined for bringing banned substances into Australia.
After once again wasting hours of my time in Korea looking for something you can get anywhere else in the world at a convenience store I think I figured out the cause of my depression… once again wasting hours of my time in Korea looking for something you can get anywhere else in the world at a convenience.
Creo,
If you’re in Seoul and can’t get on base, you might try the black market stores in Itaewon. I think I have seen it there.
Actually, although there is a so-called St. Johns Wort tea available in Emart (questionable stuff in my estimation), my guess is that the gov’t here has reservations about it since it often interferes with other medications. That may be the “problem” your pharmacist mentioned. So I hardly think it is contraband.
Creo,
Don’t know if they have it, but you might also give the “foreign” section (i.e. black market stuff smuggled off the base section) at Namdaemun or Dongdaemun market a look. Can’t recall having seen it at either one, but I wasn’t looking for it either. I might swing by Namdaemun tomorrow morning - I’ll let you know if they have any, and if so, what the damage is.
Thanks!
Severe depression is the leading cause of suicide, not the Internet, but with as much focus as this article had on the “evil” Internet, you’d think it was the other way around.
I agree the Korean culture is very reluctant to face up to serious mental health issues.
As a former near-suicide person myself, I can attest to how much at least a little counseling and standard anti-depression medication can do to help a person recover. An ounce of prevention is worth a pound of cure.
In other words, if just a fraction of the money spent on anti-suicide measures (erecting anti-jump barriers, policing the Internet, weakening pesticides, etc.,.) were spent on basic, basic mental health care (school counselors, mental health care coverage, Prozac, etc.,.), the suicide rate would likely go down.
“my guess is that the gov’t here has reservations about it since it often interferes with other medications”…
Yeah, but those medications are oral contraceptives, which very few Koreans even use.
…Oh, I forgot, it might send serotonin levels off the charts if used with anti-depressants, which wouldn’t be a good thing.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Serotonin_syndrome
Global–Namdaemun is unlikely for St. Johns because they get stuff from the base they know will sell right away. Hopefully I’m wrong about that.
“once again wasting hours of my time in Korea looking for something you can get anywhere else in the world at a convenience store” Word.
Creo,
I saw one bottle at Namdaemun about 30 minutes ago. 300 mg, 72 pills, W 9000. Brand was Sundown, I think. Was in a hurry, so didn’t check all the booths. If you go to the foreign market, go to the bottom of the stairs from the street, veer right at the ATM at the bottom, and find the booth just inside and to the left of the washroom sign. White bottle, green cap. Hope this helps.
If they run out, maybe you could order more. The vendor didn’t know the price, got on his cell, and quoted me 9000 in about 15 seconds, so I reckon it comes through at least occasionally. Michael is right about stuff that is popular being more widely available. If you find a few bottles of your fave vitamin or supplement, it is best to load up.
Thanks. I will check Namdaemun and Itaewon this weekend.
The internet causing suicide? Hah, silliest thing I’ve read. That being said, I’m leaving my fan on tonight… who else is with me?
The NY Times ran this again, on the front of their website, but changed the title so as to put an emphasis upon the internet being used as a means to enable suicide and not a motivator in such: “Tracking an Online Trend, and a Route to Suicide”.
Editing is a good thing. Now if the NY Times and almost every American publication would hire a copy editor that knows good English grammar (would not start sentences with conjunctions, etc.) it would be an improvement.
Creo,
Checked yesterday at the “red door store”, the black market store nearest burger king, and nothing…The other further down the street was closed…
The one in the Volvo Bldg is usually pretty weak in this category, so you might save yourself a trip to (Sh)itaewon…
The internet causing suicide? Hah, silliest thing I’ve read. That being said, I’m leaving my fan on tonight… who else is with me?
You still alive?
“Foreigner dies of fan death” makes a catchy headline, don’t it?