http://english.chosun.com/w21data/html/new...0704230029.html
http://www.fbi.gov/ucr/05cius/offenses/exp...hrtable_07.html

After reading the first article I decided to do some comparisons. SK has 24.7 suicides per 100,000. Extrapolating from the stats in the second link puts the USA gun murder rate at 3.367 per 100,000.

In other words SK's suicide problem is over four times greater than America's gun violence problem, and SK's suicide rate is increasing while the US' gun murder rate is actually decreasing (I found that it was 4.8 per 100,000 in 1999, and 3.6 in 2001). Food for thought.

SK's suicide rate is 17.9 not 24.7 and most countries in the world including all the developed countries have suicide rates higher and above the gun death rate.

If you think you can prove the OECD researchers wrong then please go ahead.

Anyway, so what? That's mainly because most developed countries have very low gun death rates. What I see as interesting here is that while American gun deaths are deplored the world over, including in South Korea, as some kind of evidence of a sick culture obsessed with guns, here you have a similar problem which dwarfs that of US gun murders but doesn't receive nearly the same attention even in the country it's happening in.

links?

apples and oranges. I don't see the relationship between gun homicides and suicide rates. btw, there are many european countries with higher suicide rates.

Korea's suicide rates also reflect the aging demographics, which is related to my thread on declining birth rates. Suicides go up after age 55 so since korea is the fastest aging country in the world it stands to reason that it would have high suicide rates. Yet, there are about 10 eastern european countries with higher rates.

of course it's still a problem that needs to be worked on by society. Like the low birth rate, high suicide rates needs to be addressed.

Of course they're not identical but um... the relationship is they're both social problems where people die?

I just thinking it's interesting that across the world our gun death rate is often viewed as this really terrible thing that makes America unique in terribleness, yet look at SK and, as you point out, perhaps some Eastern European countries as well, having a suicide problem which by the numbers is about 9 times greater. Maybe 10 times so in Eastern Europe then. And there is not much mention of it in those countries.

I just think that's pretty interesting. You could easily think of other examples, like Americans who can be easily aroused to outrage by let's say, hand chopping off in Muslim countries, but happily joke about the torturous conditions in our own jails and prisons.

Japanese male suicide rate is 38 approx. Now that is a huge problem. High suicide rate plus aging population, means big time population decrease. Alot of int'l organziations are pinning the pop of Japan at 2050 at below 100 mil.

Off topic, I think this is a huge chance for Korea. If we can implement solid policies that would increase our birth rate we would be able to match and surpass the total size of Japan's GDP. Along with a good trade relationship with China it'll give the next generation of Koreans a very powerful country.

yeah real off-topic.

use another's loss as your gain, especially when it deals with the sensitive issue of death/suicide?

i hope you burn in hell.

Do you feel better? You know you had to look for something to make the US gun murder rate seem trivial. Suicide, murder, both involve death. Does that make you feel better?

Man, you're off base. I've already explained three times why I thought it was an interesting comparison. If you choose to think I'm a liar then go ahead.

I think the US gun murder rate excludes gun suicide rates in the US. If you add that then the numbers for the US might be in the double digits.

Also, total homicide rates for the US are much higher than SK, perhaps 4 times higher.

i think this is the right one.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qzGZ0DmLn4w...ted&search=



@ thread op if you look at 2nd generation korean americans, the suicide rate is higher than that of 1st and 1.5 generation korean americans. also mental disease rate is higher for 2nd generation KA.

so i don't think 2nd generation KA suicide/mental disease rates are because of "korean culture".

You guys really are missing my point. You seem locked in some mode where you assume I'm trying to badmouth Korean culture or make it look like the US is not so bad. That's not what I'm doing and if you read post #6 above you will see so.

well I don't think you got my point. the gun deaths you mention don't include gun-related suicides. In the US gun-related homicides are recorded separately from gun-related suicides. If they did count them together then the comparison would in fact be less lopsided.

also, in my opinion, homicide is more important in determining how violent a society is.

having said that, however, I think people, including koreans, should be allowed to own guns. If every korean civilian had had a gun during the korean war, I don't think NK would have attacked. Government should not be allowed to tell its free citizens that they can not own guns.

I agree with you about the guns, pretty much.

But I think your first two points undermine each other. Homicide is more important in determining level of violence, so then it shouldn't make sense to lump them together. And besides, people around the globe don't really care about US suicides, they only perceive the homicides.

good point. I think my second point is the more important one.

It's clear that overall homicide rates for the US is significantly higher. As I wrote, the US homicide rate is 4 to 5 times korea's rate. If we compare apples to apples, Korea's suicide rate is only about twice the US suicide rate whereas the US homicide rate is about 4 times korea's.

either way you end up dead, a violent death, but I'd prefer to live in a country where the homicide rates are much lower. The US homicide rate puts it in the same catagory as Mexico or Argentina.

people are afraid to walk around at night in the US whereas in Korea there's less of that fear. Americans are generally a more frightened bunch.

Ok, but that's totally beside the point I was making about selective outrage.

not really. I don't think it's unreasonable for people to feel that gun-related homicide is more violent than suicides. For example, the issue of euthanasia is debatable in some circumstances but there is no such debate about homicide.

gun violence is about harming others. suicides are just kiling urself. there is a huge difference between the two. its like the difference between overspending your own money, and stealing from others. they are not "similiar" problems.

that being said, i think hungary (huns), japan, and korea have the world's highest suicide rates in that order.

its interesting, as they are all altaic speaking countries who once lived in mongolia a long time ago.

u can say it is distance from mongolia, makes suicide rate higher. -_-;; hungary is farthest, so its #1, japan is second farthest, so #2, etc...

maybe the cure is to go to mongolia and ride a horse, and live in a gher for a week or two.

I clearly asked for links related to the OP.

If you are unable to provide them, and insist on grindin that little trollish axe ofyours, I'm sure you'll end up with this account banned just as fast as your previous ones.



Now, does anyone have links to the Stats previously mentioned?

do u have any proof i was banned before? please provide links or evidence to back up your claims.

and why do u find that link trollish? please expand.

Because when I asked about a link to articles related to THIS topic - you saw fit to spread your own agenda and provide links to a unrelated topic.

It's called being a troll = just posting to cause trouble.

The data here is a little hard to make sense of, since the most recent years that suicide rates have been tallied vary widely. But according to this chart (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_countries_by_suicide_rate), Korea ranks 19th, behind
1. Russia
2. Lithuania[
3. Belarus
4. Kazakhstan
5. Slovenia 2003 45.0 12.0 28.1
6. Hungary 2003 44.9 12.0 27.7
7. Estonia 2002 47.7 9.8 27.3
8. Ukraine 2002 46.7 8.4 26.1
9. Latvia 2003 45.0 9.7 26.0
10. Japan 2002 35.2 12.8 23.8
11. Sri Lanka 1996 NA NA 21.6
12. Belgium 1997 31.2 11.4 21.1
13. Finland 2003 31.9 9.8 20.6
14. Croatia 2003 31.4 8.4 19.5
15. Serbia and Montenegro 2002 28.8 10.4 19.3
16. Switzerland 2001 26.5 10.6 18.4
17. Cuba 1996 24.5 12.0 18.3
18. Austria

But the numbers game is kind of beside the point, right? Shouldn't we be asking what we can do to reduce the suicide rate, regardless of who's committing suicide more or less than Korea is? I'm an American and I understand there are plenty of cultural issues surrounding the suicide problem that I don't understand. But from what I know, it seems the university admissions policies need to be changed to allow universities to select students however they want. This would allow students more chances to pursue what interests them instead of stressing about memorizing a crushing amount of information, since universities could specialize and cater to individual tastes (so if you're artistic you can go to art school, if you're a middle-of-the road student you can go to an average university, if you're a f*ck up, well, you can go to art school, etc).

Also, I think responding to Korean internet suicide chat rooms by shutting them down (http://www.iht.com/articles/2007/05/20/news/suicide.php) is counterproductive and only isolates the suicidal people more. It makes more sense to allow suicidal people to talk about it freely on the net and have counselors paid to monitor these chat rooms and offer help.

Again I know there's a lot I don't understand but I'd be interested to hear what people more familiar with the suicide problem have to say.