Such a lot of shit out there
So Castro, who has outlasted several US Presidents, is stepping down, sort of.
The PPP & PML (N) may form the next Pakistani government, ostensibly to try and impeach Musharraf, before they get to eachothers throats (readers may be unaware that Sharif & Bhutto had spent years trying to imprison eachother, so this may well continue between Nawaz Sharif and Asif Ali Zardari). I wonder what the Pakistani army chief, General Kiani, will say to either of them? Will he acquiesce, thanks to friendly pressure from the Pakistani army's best friends in the USA, who will provide the money to modernise the Pak army?
The price of food is high, terrorism is rampant (maybe, possibly, depending on which news channel you view)...but I don't expect these guys to change much. The track record of the army and politicians in improving the lot of the poor hasn't been adequate since the mid 1960s.
Bridgend suicides - there's a report on Newsnight tonight as to whether the media started the frenzy and encouraged later suicides. I wonder if any of them had heard of Wataru Tsurumi's suicide manual?
Why is depression sold as a disease rather than regarded as an emotion? Is big pharma culpable?
Wondering why: the Royal Berkshire Hospital is stacking incoming patients three-deep today
posted by Woz at 7:47 pm
11 Comments:
I read this recently and agree with most of it:
"The shape and detail of depression have gone through a thousand cartwheels, and the treatment of depression has alternated between the ridiculous and the sublime, but the excessive sleeping, inadequate eating, suicidiality, withdrawal from social interaction, and relentless despair are all as old as the hill tribes, if not as old as the hills. In the years since man achieved the capacity for self-reference, shame has come and gone; treatments for bodily complaints have alternated and crossed with treatments for spiritual ones; pleas to external gods have echoed pleas to internal demons. To understand the history of depression is to understand the invention of human being as we now know and are him. Our Prozac-popping, cognitively focused, semi-alienated postmodernity is only a stage in the ongoing understanding and control of mood and character."
For me it's simple. Prozac, Crack, Nicotine, Meth etc..all external substances, offer only temporary respite and more often than not a permanent dependance on something external to sort out the mess within. Never works. Only serves to increase the bank balance of all pharmas! Where have all the happy people gone?! When will we learn that The administering of drugs is a chastisement no less than a beating..
2:17 pm
...in some senses, you can substitute crack, crystal meth et al for Nintendo Wii, etc.
You ever see any Adam Curtis documentaries? They touch around this area. Fleetingly.
2:43 pm
One other thing. Why are so many (I think all) of the Bridgend suicides, hangings?
2:44 pm
Hangings? Perhaps because it's a tried and tested method that has obviously worked 'successfully'.
3:13 pm
It's the 100% consistency that I find strange.
5:54 pm
Why do you find it strange?
10:18 am
Maybe because of what I don't know that would make it seem less strange. Don't misunderstand me, I am not suggesting a conspiracy or anything else for that matter. Just that every single one was a hanging (as far as I know, and please correct me if I am mistaken). Why no slit wrists? That works 'successfully', as you put it earlier (if that was you).
Why are there so many oblivion kids?
Anyway, I need to skedaddle to hospital. Have a good day.
10:35 am
Who knows? No gory blood perhaps..Ever read The Savage God?
5:00 pm
There's poison, throwing oneself off a bridge, slitting, etc.
Is that the book by that poker playing chappie....Al Alvarez? What did you think of it?
Ever read/browsed Waturu Tsurumi's suicide manual?
Nice interaction (of sorts) this, why not drop me an email - you can ping me via the link on the right hand side.
5:05 pm
Poison - you need to get your hands on it first, not always so easy.
Bridge throwing - Archway hasn't got the same glamourous appeal as San Fran
Slitting - Blood. Gory. Mess.
Now charcoal burning...hmmm.
Yup it's Al Alvarez. I've yet to read it, waiting for my copy to arrive. I've browsed Tsurumi but can't seem to find a copy of it. Fascinating and 'steadying' stuff.
5:35 pm
Poison - not that hard to find if you're imaginative
Bridge jumping - Archway is London & Leeds. Does Bridgend have any...well, bridges?
Slitting - play the Smiths in the bathroom, nice hot bath, etc
Charcoal burning - possible
Gas - don't wanna blow up the street
Drugs - could OD, but only if the stuff hasn't been mixed with shite
Tsurumi I got from Tokyo but that was for a friend writing a TV drama. Here's what it looks like:
http://wozwrites.blogspot.com/2006/11/all-in-interests-of-research.html
5:42 pm
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