South Korea: Suicide nation, People Power

Loneliness, poverty, chronic illness, losing one s job, the death of a loved one or the breakdown of a marriage there are many reasons why people fall prey to heartbreak and despair, but most of us, thankfully, will find a route out of that unhappiness or at least develop ways of dealing with it. Even for those who can not, whose sadness turns into the black dog of overwhelming clinical depression, the right help can still make a crucial difference to being able to cope be it medical care, the understanding of therapists or the love and support of family and friends. Eventually some sort of recovery takes place, some balance and perspective is restored. Yet for some the experience of depression can be so profound that none of this works, that all remedies and assistance seem valueless and there appears to be only one way out to end it all and takes one s own life. Such a step is, of course, a mark of absolute and final desperation, a tragic, wasteful act that can often be cruelly devastating for the