Flailing, falling to his death, leaving many emotionally numb

A recent noisy and aggravated conversation on the eleventh floor of the resort caught the attention of many.

Those looking up from below, including my wife, watched as a fellow threw himself to his death.

 

My wife didn’t actually see the fellow climb over the balcony railing, but she did see the flailing, falling man.

Many tradesmen, mostly younger rather than older working nearby on the roof of a single story building, saw what happened as their attention had also been taken by the commotion.

Emergency people were called and the police, in dealing with what was in fact a suicide, offered the opportunity of counselling to all who had seen the man fall to his death.

News of the man’s death ricocheted around the community leaving those who had seen what happened asking “why” and along with that being emotionally damaged.

The man’s fall from and death at the Maroochydore resort is a microcosm of a near non-stop daily dilemma in which millions of people from around the world are trapped.

Many die from direct violence, thousands of lives are wasting away because of institutional violence and the world is held at ransom by the military/industrial complex which sees every problem as a nail that needs to be driven by a hammer.

Those in other parts of the world trapped by that direct/institutional/military violence that fill news broadcasts everyday are meant to find comfort in the idea that peace will evolve from overt use of force. It won’t.

The counselling offered to those who witnessed the Maroochydore calamity is a great compliment to a police force that has morphed from being in the early 19^th century little more than a protector of the propertied, profit makers to being a general guardian of society’s wellbeing, while maintaining law and order.

What we experience here in Australia is entirely absent in other countries with the devastating complexity of “there is no other way” view bringing down upon people degradation and violence of extremes that few here can even imagine.

Those living with, and dying from the application of that belief have only personal resources to fall back upon for no one is going to be there offering counselling or other emotional support to deal with whatever might be threatening them.

Emotional fragility can afflict even the strongest, but take away the support mechanisms we all take for granted, along with a lifestyle rich in comforts and even “strong” is a subjective term.