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Eye of The Argus
Baby Step in Preventing Suicide
ByKangYoung-joon
EditorialConsultant
he 10th of last month was World Suicide Prevention Day. We need to focus on the day’s meaning
because South Korea has had the highest suicide rate amongst all OECD countries for the last 13
consecutiveyears.Lastyear,14,427peopleinSouthKoreacommittedsuicide,whichaveragedoutat
about40peopledyingperday.ThisiswhySouthKoreaisoftencalledtheRepublicofSuicide.
Many steps have been taken in order to prevent suicide. One of these steps is the Love Bridge at Mapo
Bridge. Warm words with messages such as “How are you doing?” have been written along the walls of the
bridgeinthehopesthatpeoplewhoareconsideringsuicidewillfeelthewarmthofthemessagesandprevent
themfromtakingtheirownlives.Inaddition,thebridgelightsturnontoilluminatepeoplewhowalkonthe
bridgeatnighttoallowdistantpeopletoseeifanyoneistryingtocommitsuicide.Throughthesemeasures,
179ofthe184peoplewhotriedtocommitsuicideonMapoBridgewererescuedin2014.
Regarding other prevention measures on the bridge, the Seoul government accepted a citizen’s
recommendation and is going to add an extra one meter to the 1.5 meter walls as well as rollers by this
Decembertokeeppeoplefromclimbingupthewallstocommitsuicide.
However, this new measure has aroused many heated discussions on the Internet. In a news article about
this new measure, a netizen (member of the online society) claimed that, “This will make people who try
to commit suicide go to another place instead of Mapo Bridge,” and another netizen said, “No matter what
measureistakentopreventsuicide,peoplewhowanttocommitsuicidewillcommitsuicidenomatterwhat.
Thisisgoingtobeuseless.”
These criticisms could be true. To prevent suicide, it is more important to try to solve the social problems
causing it such as education fever, the job crunch and the high costs of housing, rather than higher walls.
However,weshouldnotjustaccusethegovernmentofnottakingtheseproblemsintoconsideration.Whatwe
have to understand is that this new measure is a baby step. To make this new measure a true step in solving
thesuicideproblem,thegovernmentneedstomakemoreeffortsinresolvingsocialproblemsasnetizenshave
claimed.
youngjoon92@hufs.ac.kr
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www.theargus.org

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