The bigness of God

IT HAS beeen a rather depressing week for NTU this past week -- two deaths in the space of five days, both from Electronic and Electrical Engineering. The first, David Widjaja, alledgedly stabbed his professor and fell to his death. The second, a Chinese National, apparantly hung himself in his apartment.

With the economic crisis hitting the nation hard, it seems that we might expect more of such news in the coming months. Dark days and depression might become more commonplace, people will fret more over their jobs, over money, and over every worry and concern that might come their way.

In the case of David Widjaja, perhaps it was his studies that did him in. That is the theory that the mainstream media seems to be pushing, but whether it is true or not is another matter.

While dramatic, such cases are old hat really. How many times have we heard in Singapore of suicide and attempted suicide cases over studies and poor results. If my memory serves me right, it is quite substantial. And I believe this is just the tip of the iceberg. The media has a policy of not reporting every suicide case for fear of "copycat suicides" -- so what what we are seeing is just a drop in the ocean.

It makes me wonder -- is it all worth it? Is it worth to take one's life because everything has spun out of control? It is easy to say it is not. But depression is not an easy thing to overcome. I know, because I certainly have been through it before. While I've never reached the point of being suicidal before, I know how is it like to have thoughts bombard your head -- thoughts that do you in, thoughts that put you down...

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