Suicides in belfast

antrim | miscellaneous | opinion/analysis Monday May 23, 2005 21:49 by clodagh

There were at least 15 suicides in West belfast and 13 suicides in North belfast, from 2004.

It is no surprise that these are the areas most effected by poverty, desolation, homelessness, unemployment and sectarian violence.

Sprawling estates in west belfast are served by only 2 leisure centres and there are No leisure centres situated in the catholic communities in north belfast.

At a time when doctors are being adviced by the GMC to recommend exercise instead of prescribing anti-depressants.

The facts of our capitalist economy are that there are not enough well paid permanent jobs for everyone, especially with multinational coroporations relocating to exploit cheap labour in the third world.

So if you are condemned, through no fault of your own to a life of unemployment and tedious boredom, there is no escape/relief available to you through sport, martial arts etc.

You can go on mickey mouse training schemes, and endure the punishment and degradation of the New deal but at the end of the day, if you are homeless, working class and poor, you have no chance of securing a job interview.

As a result a certain section of our young people, mainly those in working class catholic communities in west and north belfast, will never be able to attain the materialistic ideals promoted by our increasingly competitive dog eat dog consumer society and will also be denied the opportunity to escape and relieve the monotany and boredom of everyday unemployment, through sport/martial arts.

Prison inmates have access to exercise facilities, yet our young people who've commited no crime and are having to serve life sentences in poverty on the outside are denied access to leisure facilities to relieve stress and depression of their imprisonment in poverty.