The time of your life | killing time

Playing around with Google has got to rank as the no.1 time-waster ever. I sort of envy youth nowadays - in my time, I only had telnet and solitaire.

Anyway, google search led me to that time hallowed statistic about suicide being the leading non-medical cause of death in Singapore. Apparently - and when I say apparently, that's short-hand for "It was on wiki so don't quote me" - 1,700 people committed suicide between 2000-2004.

Other details that you should pull up and mention at a wedding dinner you didn't actually want to attend:

1 in 8 suicide attempts by Singaporeans are successful. I think our start-up companies experience the same success rate.

By comparison, 408 people were executed between 1991 to 2003.

Because we're Singaporeans, we have to compare to Malaysia - 2,000 committed suicide in 2005. That's 1 in 12,000. In Singapore, that's roughly 1 in 40,000. (I think)

In both countries, Indians have the highest suicide rate. Does that mean that they're simply better at it?

The FAQs of dealing with death in Singapore are handled by the NEA (?!)

Foreigners who want to be buried here are not eligible for public post-mortem housing, but must instead opt for more expensive private niches.

The plural of columbarium is columbaria.

Killing your child of less than 12 months of age is not considered murder if you're the mother. Still not kosher though.

If you commit suicide unsuccessfully, you shall be punished with a term that may extend to one year, or a fine, or both. Whatever happened to "it's ok to fail"? Is it ok as long as you learn from your mistakes and do better next time?

If you commit suicide in Singapore, you're more likely to be male. Oh, and you jumped.


Now I know what to avoid. God forbid that if I commit suicide, I die as I have lived - perfectly average.