SUICIDE and self-harm are the logical results of hopelessness and despair. Guyana is the suicide capital of the world; we have the highest suicide rate of any place on Earth. This is according to the most prestigious international body existing.Guyana is the epicenter of suicide in the world, Berbice is the epicenter of suicide in Guyana, and Black Bush Polder is the epicenter of suicide in Berbice.

Our local response – well-meaning obviously — is to hold long “workshops”, seminars and conferences, one of which was held just a few Fridays ago. Ministers were there, and many people spoke. There was nothing new. The organisers — concerned people full of worry, woe and words –undertook to send a detailed report to the concerned ministers of our new government.

Over the years, similar workshops and events have been held across the country, and many people would have attended from many professions. There were plenary sessions in which Ministers, Permanent Secretaries, religious and social leaders, members of the GPF, the press, nurses, doctors, teachers, and so on were often present. Then there would be “break out” sessions, each group being given topics to explore — all geared at avoiding repetition and useless duplication.

Then months would be spent writing a detailed report; but after all of that, no one would even bother to collect it. Many, many words; plenty, plenty anecdotes; reports amounting to more pages than people can count — all good — would all be futile.

Just over a week ago, a child hanged himself in Rose Hall. He was in his early teens. The secondary school which he attended hung up a small black flag the size of a small child’s tee-shirt in a nice gesture. The small symbol will disappear and life will go on — until it happens again. It seems as if the child did something naughty at school and was instructed to bring his parents to school the next day. The situation seems quite involved, and one hopes that there will be some thorough and speedy investigation.

At first, it was around Rose Hall that the boy was playing a game called “Charlie”, a game which has caused some consternation in recent times.
A few short weeks ago, another child in Rose Hall Town also killed himself, same vicinity –mere streets away. A few days ago, another woman killed herself. The story is that she had been married for seven years and could not beget a child. There was much blaming: the man impotent; the woman barren; it was a daily fight. She is dead now — same Rose Hall Town.

This trend will continue, and will get worse. This is not pessimism; it is simply that we have no one in this country who seems capable, or willing, to do the serious in-depth research. At best, we handle the epidemic in a case by case amateurish way — Band-Aid on cancer. The police are not trained to deal with families of suicide victims; teachers are not trained to identify signals of depression; no one is trained as to what actions to take.

Social Work people (given University of Guyana) are woeful; it is all hit-and-miss. We cannot blame the “professional” people; we need to get the real work done! Let’s find the root causes and take action. It may take a year of hard work and the employment of verifiable expertise, but we do not seem to be able to work well, cannot seem to understand what research really means, and are paralysed. This is much more than classroom UG-type stuff.

Meanwhile, our citizens are dying at their own hands, and this nation is awash in grief.