Suicide in Indonesia...

Suicide is a tragedy. It is not only a tragedy for those that make the ultimate choice to end it all, it is also a tragedy for those that are left behind and who must deal with the shattered lives that remain. Two things had me thinking about death and the way it is portrayed and discussed this morning: the first was an article in The Jakarta Globe and the second was seeing that "RIP Justin Bieber" was trending on Twitter (just about anything that has a Justin Bieber link trends or goes viral on Twitter, just ask Conan O'Brien. And, I am wondering whether or not "Justine Bieber: Suicide Death" within this post will result in any additional traffic to this blog post? If there is, then this might be a good thing from an awareness perspective).

This short post is an opinion piece on suicide in Indonesia.

According to The Jakarta Globe, the Ministry of Health's 'suicide hotline' has been ringing off the hook with a sharp increase in the number of calls during the first three months of operation. The hotline number for those that need it is 500-454 (although I recall Jakarta phone numbers having more digits than that...the number is correct, I checked!). The hotline was launched as part of World Mental Health Day in October 2010. Dr. Bella Patriajaya, Head of the Suharto Heerjan Mental Health Hospital, said that the reason was that more people were seeking help for their problems.

The data to-date is showing that not everyone who calls the hotline is intending to commit suicide. There are also significant numbers of people calling who are depressed or suffering other mental disorders. Even though, there is no confession of intent to kill themselves, the suicide hotline is still an excellent starting point for a sympathetic ear and perhaps some direction to services that can provide longer-term support.

Interestingly, the World Health Organization 2001 data states that the suicide rate in Indonesia is 1.6-1.8 suicides per 100,000 people. Nevertheless, a more recent study conducted by Ahmad Prayitno of Trisakti University in Jakarta supports more recent WHO data for Southeast Asia that claims that the suicide rate is closer to 24 incidents per 100,000. This is a staggering number as it would equate to about 50,000 suicides per year or 1,500 suicides per day. The reality is that even this study suspects that the actual rate and numbers are much higher.

The more recent studies are showing a trend in the reasons for suicide becoming more economic related. This includes losing a job, being demoted, or even living beyond one's means and getting into a spiral of uncontrollable debt. Nevertheless, the study also shows that more 'traditional' reasons relating to an inability to deal with emotional trauma remains a significant factor.

One of the biggest difficulties in determining exact numbers is the taboo nature of the subject. In most religions, and communities, suicide is frowned upon. Therefore, it is not uncommon that many suicides go unreported or are misreported as natural or accidental deaths.

It is important to remember that suicide is not a problem unique to one country. So, speak up and reach out! You might just save a life.

Indonesian Celebrities -- Atiqah Hasiholan...

I am up and at 'em early today. It is very much a case of very early to bed, very early to rise.

So, with nothing better to do, seeing that I handed in two assessment tasks yesterday, I figured I would make a couple of blog posts and do a little blog housekeeping. I have made a couple of "serious" posts already, and figured that I would check out my blog stats and see what people were looking for and what keywords they were following to get to my humble abode here on blogspot.

It seems that there are a lot of people out there obsessed with celebrity, particularly naked celebrities. It also seems that I have quite a lot of people ending up here in search of naked Indonesian celebrities. My recent posts on the sex tapes of Nazriel 'Ariel' Irham, Luna Maya, and Cut Tari ranked well. Although, a post I did 18 months or so ago on Tia Lestari still continues to bring in the visitors. Yet, of late it has been anything Luna Maya related that has been getting people dropping by and downloading the pictures that accompany most posts.

I tend not to publish too much naked stuff, being a family-oriented blog and all (just kidding :D). I am all for context, so if it is contextually appropriate, then I am likely to publish it and let the cards fall where they may.

Now, a post about naked celebrities would lend itself to the posting of some images of naked celebrities, but then that would be gratuitous, wouldn't it? To write a post on naked celebrities in order to post full-frontal nude images. So, while I was out surfing the net I came across these images of Atiqah Hasiholan. Atiqah is the daughter of Ratna Sarumpaet. Atiqah according to the spiel is an Indonesian actress. This would seem to fit the mold because mum is an actress and playwright  in her own right, which makes it a family affair.

I like Ratna Sarumpaet's work, both as a dramatist/ actor and as a social justice activist.

And here you were thinking "Indonesian Celebrities" I bet there will be some interesting pictures here. I bet you were not expecting this rather long lead in to the images, were you? A lesson in how to write lots about nothing...

My Stats and buzzfeed.com

I had a bonanza in terms of page views and visitors yesterday and I have buzzfeed.com to thank for that.

I average a paltry 150 page views per day. On a good day I might hit 200 page views. I generally average out at about 80% of those views will translate into a visitor. However, yesterday I hit 1,009 page views and 784 visitors. These are records for me and I am not expecting that this popularity will be maintained.

When I logged on this morning at about 10.30 I already had some 500 page views.

I thought this to be a little weird seeing that 500 views is about 3.5 times my whole day average. So, I checked out the stats and found that I was getting all these hits from buzzfeed.com. It seems my post of the virtual strip search was linked to a piece on the buzzfeed site. Maybe I will have to start dropping hints to them so they link to more of my stuff.

In any event, buzzfeed.com thanks for making my Friday a statistical record breaker.

World's Oldest Blogger -- Now In Blogger Heaven

I would love to still be alive and blogging at 108! Although I have gotta say that blogging will probably be technology of the past. Innovation and the need to develop new technologies will mean that blogging will undoubtedly become obsolete, and probably sooner rather than later. Nevertheless, whatever takes its place I want to be doing it at 108. Hopefully, I will still be able to see and hear then.

Olive Riley, who lived in Woy Woy on the NSW Central Coast, died in her nursing home early yesterday morning. I had never heard of this old bird nor her writings. Both, apparently are going to be missed, Olive by her family and friends and Olive by the many thousands of people who visited her personal musings.

The technology is amazing in that the world is becoming an increasingly smaller place all the time. According to her great grandson, Darren Stone, Olive loved to communicate and had regular correspondence going on with readers in the US and in Russia.

Olive had led an interesting, some might say extraordinary life raising three children on her own, living through two world wars and the Depression, working as a station cook in rural Queensland, as an egg sorter, and barmaid in Sydney throughout those 108 full years. Since February last year she had managed to post more than 70 entries on her blogs.

Olive's blogs can be found here and here. After one particular post Olive's blog had more than 350,000 hits. Truly amazing!

Olive Riley was born in 1899, and would have turned 109 on October 20.

I have stopped by to both blogs and I wish I had found the old dame a little sooner.

RIP Olive Riley.

Alexa

I really do not understand this traffic counting stuff. I am not a techno wizard and any explanation is likely to go way over my head. Particularly, if it is any more detailed than the question I pose at the end.

I do not really know why I linked it to my blog. I guess it seemed like a good thing at the time. And when the numbers were coming down pretty consistently it probably seemed like fun. I have been down to 914,000 plus a few and I have now blown back out to 1,028,396.

I am not sure how this works as the other stat and traffic counter seems to suggest that I have statistically grown and grown somewhat significantly, like double over the last 30 days. I am guessing the Alexa number is my rank and that must mean that there are others out there who are growing much faster than me. Is that how the figures should be read?

Public Sex -- Who Cares?

This might be a brazen attempt to boost my blog statistics, at least as they relate to page views and visitors, then again it might just be a funny picture that needs to be posted to ensure that it spreads far and wide.

I have posted a few entries of late on pornography, indecency, obscenity, and the like. However, this picture (perhaps photoshopped) of a man and woman engaging in sexual intercourse through a wall is when it is all said and done a photo of a statue. I wonder what your thoughts on this would be if we were to assume that this is not photoshopped but in fact a real statute commissioned by a government?

Anonymous sex in public places. Sounds like a fantasy that many might harbour to me (although not me anymore as I am happily married -- and I am not making any comments on any pre-marriage fantasies that I may have held)!

This photo / picture I have definitely seen before, but once again I am borrowing from the Boys Night Out blog.

Football -- The English Premier League

My ode to the English Premier League or the EPL. This is a post for the boys (sorry girls) and also my ode to smutty posting and the complete lack of it in my blog :D

If I was not the Managing Editor of a legal / law website then my next choice of profession would have been body painter extraordinaire!

I guess today is just one of those days where I have had too much time on my hands. I should also add that I am feeling a little stoked as today is the first day I have managed to attract more than 200 site views and almost 100 visitors, of which about 60 are new. Nah, for all you blogging legends out there, these numbers might not be much but they are good for me and I am happy for myself...I am also a realist with numbers like these I am not going to be making any money on this venture!

Happy viewing with the picture though! I stole it from here.