Fathers and suicide
The BBC reported that “A Romanian man sets himself on fire in Bucharest in a desperate bid to get custody of his son who is living in Spain.”
Unfortunety it doesn’t give us any more information. “Get custody” may in reality mean; to have a meaningful relationship.? The average wage in Romania is 130 euros a month. A flight from Bucharest to Madrid on a budget airline is 342 euros. That does not include accommodation, food, transport,etc. Ask yourself: How many times will this father be able to see his child – if ever?
Many NZ men will know how he feels. In New Zealand 4 men of child rearing age die every week. In 2004 207 males between the ages of 25 and 55 killed themselves. This was actually a reduction from previous years. But don’t expect any media or public persona to be concerned about it.
many of you will be aware of Dr Viv Roberts research in the area which shows the links between the so called Family Court’s decisions and the male suicide rate. He has even shown the link between regional male suicides to particularly biased judge’s court rooms.
About 5+ years ago Jim Anderton as leader of the Alliance was on the same flight as me. I knew his daughter comitted suicide so I wondered if this guy was aware of some of the leading causes of suicide in New Zealand. When we went to collected our bags I asked him what is views on shared parenting were. He had no idea what I was talking about. I explained. He obviously still had no clue about the issues and thought the laws were just fine.
I think that was the point I realised just how backward a country New Zealand has become.
Fidelbogen, of Counter-Feminist fame, also covers this story here.
Comment by Rob Case — Thu 9th August 2007 @ 11:21 pm
The full story is worse than I imagined. If this isn’t state sponsored child stealing, then what is?
Comment by Dave — Fri 10th August 2007 @ 12:19 am
We had a guy torch himself to death here in NZ related to Family Court issues and removal of children. I and a few others I think kicked up a real stink that this wasn’t published (as consistent with law here) yet it got an item a few days later.
As Viv will know already, and this is the reason for him standing out as far as I can see, is that the deaths men suffer here in NZ because of suicides is huge. We just haven’t reported it. It is just too inconvenient. It’s just too convenient to factor as it is just too inconvenient to factor in the number of abortions each year – presently around and between 17,000 and 22,000 per annum as I remember off hand. I’ll correct these figures if I am wrong.
Comment by Benjamin Easton — Fri 10th August 2007 @ 10:25 am
I know Fidelbogan will be here to check this link. hehehe. He is onto these things. I just hope I haven’t missed him because I want him to check out this link from Dave’s writing.
http://menz.org.nz/2007/speak-out-while-you-can/
Comment by julie — Fri 10th August 2007 @ 7:08 pm