02-08-2005, 10:47 PM | #1 |
40th Level Warrior
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http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/programme...ht/4071805.stm
In Japan, the internet has been blamed for a spate of group suicides which appear to have been arranged in online chat rooms. Andrew Harding talked to one young man searching for someone to die with. Naoki Tachiwana opened his apartment door with a surprisingly warm smile, and beckoned us in to a neat living room. His computer was switched on - the screen facing out towards Naoki's eleventh floor balcony, and the night sky above Tokyo's eastern suburbs. "Last night I was up all night," said Naoki, smiling again, "talking online to this woman who really - I mean really - wants to die. She asked me to do it with her today, but I said I couldn't because I had this television crew coming to see me. So she said we can do it after they've gone." It had taken days of online research, emails and text messages to bring us here - face to face with a member of Japan's "internet suicide" community. Naoki Tachiwana has searched the web for a suicide partner It is a growing, and morbidly frank underworld of chat rooms and websites with names like "Suicide Club," where thousands of (mainly young) people meet and talk and plan their deaths. At least 26 people have died in this manner in the past two months. Death ads The message boards are littered with personal ads like: "I have pills and charcoal briquettes - I'm looking for someone to die with," and "I'm 23 and want to die. I can travel anywhere." I asked Naoki - a 34-year-old bank employee who has been off work with stress-related problems for six months - why he was considering joining a suicide group. "Well, I'm depressed - and that's a disease," he said. "But to be honest, I think I've always been interested in killing myself." His enormous cat jumped down from a shelf and waddled over to the computer screen. "I'd never thought about doing it in a group before," he continued. "But then I visited a website and thought - ah, if I join this I won't have to go through with it on my own. It's like crossing the road when the traffic light is red... it's not so scary when you're with others." High suicide rate In recent months, dozens of Japanese have crossed that road together. In the last fortnight alone three groups of three people, and two groups of four have been found dead - usually gassed in cars on remote mountain roads. Ama Terasu says it can be difficult to back-out of suicide pacts Japan already has one of the highest suicide rates in the world, and so far the internet-related deaths are only a small proportion. But it's a growing one. "It's almost like a cult... these internet groups," argues Yukiko Nishihara, a Tokyo helpline worker. "When people are lonely and suicidal - but afraid of death - they find these websites which egg them on. There's an inhuman element to it." But others see the sites very differently. "There's nothing bad about suicide," said Wataru Tsurumi, author of a graphic, and best-selling handbook on the subject. "We have no religion or laws here in Japan telling us otherwise. As for group suicides - before the internet people would write letters, or make phone calls... it's always been part of our culture." Ghoulish as many of the sites are - complete with skulls and dripping blood - many of their owners argue that they do more good than harm. Late one night in a crowded internet café in central Tokyo, we met up with a shy 24-year-old who wanted to be known by his online nickname - Ama Terasu. "My site has a message board, and chat rooms and links to other sites," he told me. "It's a virtual world where you can talk about subjects you can't discuss in real life. 'Vicious sites' Mirrors have been installed on some Japanese train platforms to deter suicides "There are some vicious sites which really encourage people to die, and when you get in a group there's a momentum which makes it hard to stop - people become irrational. But my site is not like that. I started it because I had tried twice to kill myself. "I think it has saved my life - because it has enabled me to open up about things online. And I believe it can help others too." Back in his small apartment, Naoki was still weighing up his options. He told me that he'd come close to killing himself the day before with another person, but that she'd pulled out at the last minute. "This time," he said, "it's me who has got cold feet. I told the other woman who wanted to do it today that I was not ready to die so suddenly."
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02-08-2005, 11:14 PM | #2 |
Guest
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that's creepy.....
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02-09-2005, 01:07 AM | #3 |
20th Level Warrior
Join Date: December 28, 2003
Location: Kentucky
Age: 38
Posts: 2,820
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Yeah, thank goodness for the inverted pyramid style of newswriting...what with all the important details being up front, I don't have to read the last half of that...man, that's crazy. And when I say crazy, I mean seriously strange and unnerving.
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02-09-2005, 01:25 AM | #4 |
Jack Burton
Join Date: March 21, 2001
Location: Philippines, but now Harbor City Sydney
Age: 40
Posts: 5,556
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i once helped a friend of mine who wanted to kill himself. i told him "go ahead and do it.. BUT before you do it, just think .. you can die anytime you want. because once youve done it.. its over. so live on first and think about this."
he is still alive [img]smile.gif[/img] talking about death may be creepy but i for one think its something these guys should talk about. you know.. not letting them keep that emotion of suicide bottled up inside. people who are usually depressed try to bottle things up inside and an online chat may be just a wierd way to call "counseling". who knows, it may be the ticket to save thier life. my 2c.
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02-09-2005, 03:24 AM | #5 |
40th Level Warrior
Join Date: March 24, 2002
Posts: 10,215
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I've been to such websites before. Donno why I go there. Bored maybe? I was interested to know why they want to commit suicide. Very stupid of me uh? I nearly been persuaded by one girl to commit suicide together and join her after death. She supplied me some cynide pill. Thanks goodness I didn't join her. After hearing her death sometimes later from the news I stop from going to such websites. It reminds me of her.
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02-09-2005, 05:04 PM | #6 | |
Emerald Dragon
Join Date: December 10, 2003
Location: UK
Age: 40
Posts: 961
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Quote:
It's better to be able to talk to somone when your down, even if they are just as depressed as you are, because it eases the lonelyness which is becoming a part of modern day living.
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02-09-2005, 05:53 PM | #7 |
Harper
Join Date: October 6, 2001
Location: Iceland
Posts: 4,706
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As someone who has lost a friend to suicide and seriously thought about doing it myself in a very low hour of my life, I'm pretty appaled by this.
Why aren't these sites instead trying to help people who come there and are thinking about this? |
02-09-2005, 05:58 PM | #8 | |
40th Level Warrior
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Quote:
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02-09-2005, 06:16 PM | #9 |
Takhisis Follower
Join Date: April 30, 2001
Location: szép Magyarország (well not right now)
Posts: 5,089
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There're some sick people out there. I personally think life is a gift and we often don't deserve it. People who encourage suicide really don't deserve it. Of course some are kids too young to understand.
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02-09-2005, 06:18 PM | #10 |
The Magister
Join Date: December 9, 2004
Location: VA
Age: 35
Posts: 114
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People egging eachother on to die... thats just sad.... (and I mean sad not pathetic)
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