Cuba's Suicide Rate

[which doctor]

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_count...by_suicide_rate (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_countries_by_suicide_rate)

Cuba has the 16th highest suicide rate in the world, that's relatively high. It's considerably higher than the USA.

Does anyone know why this is?

[TC]

high rate of atheists and good availability of perscription drugs lol?

Seriously though, the top spots are occupied by former socialist states which suffered from capitalist counter-revolution, where the economy was destroyed and the standard of livingn plummeted by capitalist mismanagement. Places where people lost everything in a short span of time.

The data from Cuba isn't Cuba today but Cuba ten years ago, 1996, which at the time was suffering from considerable economic distress as it hadn't yet recovered from the loss of its socialist trading partners. The difference of course being that Cuban socialism was able to resestablish its economy in the space of ten years whereas new Russian capitalism was not.

[LSD]

Cuba has the 16th highest suicide rate in the world, that's relatively high. It's considerably higher than the USA.

Does anyone know why this is?

It's a complex issue, but I think the most important point to make is that this is not a recent phenomenon. Despite the American propaganda to the contrary, Cuba has always had an unusually high suicide rate (http://www.amazon.ca/gp/product/0807829374/702-8358483-3116834?v=product-description&n=916520[/url). I don't personally have an answer to why that is, but I can say with absolute certainty that it has nothing to do with politics!


Seriously though, the top spots are occupied by former socialist states which suffered from capitalist counter-revolution, where the economy was destroyed and the standard of livingn plummeted by capitalist mismanagement.

That's undoubtably a part of it, but it is worth noting that Japan, Finland, Belgium, and Switzerland all have higher sucide rates than Cuba. More than anything I'd say that that demonstrates that suicide rates often have more to do with culture and history than they do with the form of government or economy.

Capitalists love exploiting facts and figures to serve their imperialist interests and the fact is that with regards to Cuba, there just aren't that many negative figures to exploit.

Health care is good, lifespans are high, and illteracy is all but nonexistant. So when the west noticed that Cuba's suicide rate is markedly inflated, they siezed upon it as "proof" that the Cuban people are all "miserable" and "suicidal".

The reality however is that while Cuba's rate may be high, there are 15 capitalist countries who's rates are higher, and many of them are model first world western market capitalist "democracies" (Switzerland, Belgium, Japan, etc...).

[Janus]

That's undoubtably a part of it, but it is worth noting that Japan, Finland, Belgium, and Switzerland all have higher sucide rates than Cuba. More than anything I'd say that that demonstrates that suicide rates often have more to do with culture and history than they do with the form of government or economy.
Definitely.

Also, one has to take into account the mortality rate and the way in which suicide rates are measured.


The trend for national suicide rates to rise slowly over time might be an indirect result of the gradual reduction in deaths from other causes. Falling death rates from causes other than suicide uncover hidden suicide predisposition

Furthermore, it is also sometimes skewed by politics

There is a common belief, especially in the US, that Sweden has a higher rate of suicide than other countries; this is actually a myth, as Sweden has an average suicide rate. The myth was probably started because the secular government of Sweden started to measure suicide statistics openly before other countries did. President Eisenhower saw this as a chance to promote his political ideology, and maintained that the statistics showed Sweden was the country of "free love, high taxes and suicide" (none of this was particularly true at the time). Also, the dark, relatively cold climate of Sweden in the winter has added fuel to this myth

[Severian]

From that list, it's also interesting to note that a lot of the more developed countries show up on it.

Within a country also, richer people usually have a higher suicide rate. One sociological theory is that people are more likely to commit suicide, the more socially disconnected they are - particularly including things like family ties.

None of which leads to any definite answer as far as Cuba.

[Rollo]

Data seems botched, Gosford where I used to live had the highest teen suicide rate in Australia and that alone is higher then the number there.