A girl killed herself at my school yesterday morning. Some frantic school administrators came into my class to make sure it wasn't a student of the school. It wasn't. It was a twenty-something Taiwanese girl. One of my friends said she was on campus early in the morning and saw a splotch of blood and some far-flung shoes. My roommate Nathan was there later in the day and says he saw a patch of very clean asphalt about ten feet from the edge of the building.
I guess suicide is a pretty big problem in Taiwan. Work is really stressful here. I know that a lot of people work more than 10 hours a day. The Taiwanese authorities are not, however, without a plan. At the subway station nearest my house there is a sign above the escalators with a picture of a smiling monk, feet on a cliff and head in the clouds with a big, blue-lettered reminder that "You don't need to commit suicide!" and a hotline number.
This led to many questions for me. Why is the monk smiling? Was he recently dissuaded from suicide? Was he about to jump off that very cliff? If so, how did he call the hotline? Also, how do you talk someone down in Chinese? Is it customary to say "You have so much to live for?" Can you say that with a straight face to an old monk?
1 comment:
I think he is smiling because he realizes no one can reach him to talk him down.
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