Well, reflecting back now at the gates of 40 and a dash of sense and reason in my head, the things we did with the “boys” scares a heck out of me. Climbing in a rotten triangulation measurement tower, diving bags of old license plates from the bottom of a pond, disposed there by the police, experimentations with homemade explosives and firearms. Taking a trip down the railroad with a “borrowed” handcar (resiina)…Or the “holeheaded” brothers next door. One throws a dart on others back, while he is sunbathing in the backyard and gets shot with an airgun by the other. The one, who got the dart in the back has still some bomb shrapnel wounds in his face. (Detonators for dynamite in a paint tin.)

What I miss? I’m probably never going to make friends like that anymore.

Extreme Duudsonit

nuff said.

The son of a University teacher of mine, whom I was very close to, died one Easter because during a cottage weekend with friends he simply had to jump head first into the sea which was still partly frozen. He drowned after having drifted under the ice.

They don’t call it Jackass for nothing.

Well, it’s tankerous to be a young man anywhere in the world.

Are these statistics accurate, or is there some Finnish spin to them?

For example, what about that old girl that was on stictly come dancing. Her son committed suicide by throwing himself under a train. I bet his death was classified as an accident

Well, how would you know if it was a suicide? Were you there?

The likelihood is that he committed suicide, that’s what most people think, including the media. However, what odds on the verdict being accidental death, rather than suicide. Less embarrassing for the Finnish authorities, one less suicide in the official figures and all that

For example, what about that old girl that was on stictly come dancing.

What does this sentence mean? What is “stictly come dancing” and how does one get on it?

However, what odds on the verdict being accidental death, rather than suicide.

Verdicts are given at trials. Suicide is not a crime in Finland, therefore it is not tried in court or investigated by the police.

Anzi: Strictly Come Dancing is the British variant of Tanssii Tähtien Kanssa:

http://www.bbc.co.uk/strictlycomedancing/

I understand The reference was to the Finnish variant of that show.

My friend’s brother in law slit his wrists and then cut off his genitals for good measure while he was bleeding to death. It was classified as an accident but the coroner did look kind of embarrassed.

Strictly Come Dancing is the British variant of Tanssii Tähtien Kanssa:

Thank you for clearing that up! Next question: Do people actually watch that show?

Anzi: apparently they do. I saw just one episode of Tanssii tähtien kanssa. I’m not a big fan of these reality shows with celebrities.

I don’t think in Filand there would be any trend to “cean” up the statistics, as even if suicide is not discussed, it isn’t such a moral/religious taboo as in some countries.

Hank: there are taboo issues in Finland. I think this issue is more of a taboo in some other countries, though. Of course, the habit of not burying suicides in hallowed ground was an old Christian way of declaring suicide a crime in the distant Christian past. If that kind of thinking still haunts some people, I don’t know. This text turned up when I started looking for stuff on suicide as taboo (it’s from a website on chronic pain disease):

http://rsds.org/4/stories/suicide.html

I think Finnish honesty wanted to provoke some debate. Some people call his style of doing it trolling. I think he’s simply playing the devil’s advocate (advocatus diaboli):

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Advocatus_diaboli

He either believes in his claims or doesn’t but his main purpose is to put into question truths that most people on this forum believe in or hold as self-evident.

In Japan, the government is trying to get the suicide rate down:

http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/asia-pacific/5082616.stm

Why is there a high suicide rates in Finland ? Is it anything to do with Finnish people being very reserved and introverted or people having difficulty adapting to long winter nights ? Is it that when these issues are compounded people find themselves very vulnerable ?

I am interested to know how do you bring yourself back from the brink ? In this vulnerable state when all is going wrong and voices of doom and gloom are pushing unchallenged where is the voice of reason, hope and optimism ? Is it that this very voice has been sidelined throughout life that it has lost the will to speak ?

If you look at other cultures around the world they endure extreme poverty, hardships, war but yet suicide rates are not that high why then this disparity ? Can any fellow finn sincerely explain this to me ? The cries of the heart fall on deafened ears similar to the lamenting of the Reed flute as explained in this extract from Rumi, ‘The Song of the Reed’:

1. From reed-flute hear what tale it tells; ***
What plaint it makes of absence’ ills.

2. “From jungle-bed since me they tore, ***
Men’s, women’s, eyes have wept right sore.

3. My breast I tear and rend in twain, ***
To give, through sighs, vent to all my pain.

4. Who’s from his home snatched far away, ***
Longs to return some future day.

5. I sob and sigh in each retreat, ***
Be’t joy or grief for which men meet.

6. They fancy they can read my heart; ***
Grief’s secrets I to none impart.

Yours sincerely Hak.