Not the most cheery of topics, but none the less it's something that has really caught my attention.
Over the last month or so I've been reading rather a lot of Bali-based Indoneisan language newpapers and news websites.
Normally I'm in Java, and normally I read the Indonesian language local press there.
Besides the vague sense that things are generally more chaotic, that the the politics is more fractuous, and that the corruption is worse in Bali, one thing really stands out - the sheer number of suicides and attempted suicides.
In Java (Surabaya) I do see accounts of suicides in the local press, but not that often. But here in Bali they seem to happen with really distressing frequency. I have genuinely lost count of how many I've read of in the last month. Most seem to relate to financial troubles and familly arguments, or what the Indonesian media refers to vaguely as "stress".
Now I do know something about what media accademics term "news values", the nature of coverage, and the fact that just because something does't appear in the papers, doesn't mean it doesn't happen (and vice versa, the critics might argue). But on the unscientific basis of an unstructured media survey I REALLY do think there is a higher rate of suicide in Bali than in East Java. In any case, there are certainly a LOT of suicides here.
I am puzzled (and slightly disturbed) by the question "why?" and have no idea of the answer. Would be interested to hear ideas from informed longer term residents of Bali than I.
Discuss...
Over the last month or so I've been reading rather a lot of Bali-based Indoneisan language newpapers and news websites.
Normally I'm in Java, and normally I read the Indonesian language local press there.
Besides the vague sense that things are generally more chaotic, that the the politics is more fractuous, and that the corruption is worse in Bali, one thing really stands out - the sheer number of suicides and attempted suicides.
In Java (Surabaya) I do see accounts of suicides in the local press, but not that often. But here in Bali they seem to happen with really distressing frequency. I have genuinely lost count of how many I've read of in the last month. Most seem to relate to financial troubles and familly arguments, or what the Indonesian media refers to vaguely as "stress".
Now I do know something about what media accademics term "news values", the nature of coverage, and the fact that just because something does't appear in the papers, doesn't mean it doesn't happen (and vice versa, the critics might argue). But on the unscientific basis of an unstructured media survey I REALLY do think there is a higher rate of suicide in Bali than in East Java. In any case, there are certainly a LOT of suicides here.
I am puzzled (and slightly disturbed) by the question "why?" and have no idea of the answer. Would be interested to hear ideas from informed longer term residents of Bali than I.
Discuss...