The little girl who wanted a pair of shoes: suicide highligh

All she wanted was a bicycle, a pair of new shoes and to be able to finish her schooling. But her family was dirt poor, and eventually the 12-year-old Filipina girl grew so demoralised that she hanged herself.

Mariannet Amper left a letter under her pillow describing her failed hopes and aspirations. Her family also found a diary in which she described the privations of a life with no money in Davao City, on southern Mindanao island.

They are among millions of people living in poverty in the Philippines, a country where the gap between haves and have-nots is wide. Mariannet's father, a construction worker, told the Philippine Daily Inquirer that he had been out of work for several months. Her mother works part-time in a noodle factory, earning less than a dollar a day, and takes in laundry.

The night before she killed herself with a nylon rope in their modest hut, which has no electricity or running water, Mariannet had asked her father, Isabelo, for 100 pesos (about £1) for a school project. But he had no money. The next day, he managed to get a 1,000-pesos cash advance for some building work on a chapel. But when he got home to tell her, his daughter was already dead.

"I suspect she did it because of our situation," he told the newspaper.

The letter found under her pillow was addressed to a television programme, I Just Wish, which grants viewers' wishes. In it, Mariannet wrote: "I wish for new shoes, a bag and jobs for my mother and my father. My dad does not have a job and my mum just gets laundry jobs." She added: "I would like to finish my schooling and I would very much like to buy a new bike."

In her diary, Mariannet wrote that she had not attended school for a month. Her parents said she had actually been absent for three days. But they had not had money for her food or transport. In one entry, the girl wrote: "We were not able to hear Mass because we did not have fare and my father had a fever. So my mum and I just washed clothes (for money)."

In the Philippines, nearly 14 per cent of the 87 million population lives on less than a dollar a day, despite government claims that the economy is booming.

President Gloria Arroyo told a business forum yesterday that her economic reforms were bearing fruit. "The common people are now feeling the benefits of a growing economy," she said, announcing that an extra one billion pesos would be given to "hunger mitigation programmes".

In a recent survey, the Social Weather Stations institute found that about nine million Filipino families regarded themselves as poor. Most live in the south of the country. Many of them said they had experienced "severe hunger" in the past three months.

The Global Call for Action Against Poverty, a coalition of anti- poverty groups, said its own research showed that economic growth was not trickling down to the people who needed it.

Sad.

I guess that you're trying to make a point; would you care to ellucidate ?

We already know that the Phlippines is not as priviledged economically as other nations are.

This is a deeply tragic story, that's repeated all over the world on a sadly too frequent basis. For me it makes me count my blessings and be thankful for what I have. It also makes me realise that the only reason I'm sat in a cosy existence is through shear accident of birth. It's not because I'm better, more clever or wily than others - it's only because I had the good fortune to be into a priviledged nationality.

OP, what does this story mean to you ? you pasted without comment, why ?

Rich

Bullying is Behind Teen Suicide Wave in Japan

By Chie Matsumoto Nov 16, 2006, 7:46 GMT

Tokyo - Six students being bullied in Japan were so desperate to stop the torment that the only way they could find to end their suffering was to kill themselves.

Nine days ago Japan's Education Minister received an anonymous letter from a schoolboy saying bullies were making his life a misery and he was going to kill himself. Since then 16 more letters have been received, but, even more troubling, there have been six teen suicides. Last Thursday, a 17-year-old girl jumped four floors at her school in the southern city of Kokura; Saturday a 12-year-old girl, teased for being small, jumped from the eighth floor of an Osaka apartment building to her death; Sunday a 14-year-old boy being pressured to pay 20,000 yen to a bully hanged himself in Saitama prefecture; and on Monday another 14-year-old boy hanged himself.

On Tuesday, a 17-year-old girl jumped from the fifth floor of her school and a 14-year-old boy hanged himself in a warehouse in northern Niigata prefecture because his classmates pulled down his pants.

Numerous victims have overloaded a hotline service wanting to tell someone how they were bullied at school because they could not tell their families. In the last week Childline Japan has received 27,622 calls, but could only answer 2,890 of them due to a shortage of lines. The media has responded to the upsurge in suicides by running messages from celebrities, psychiatrists and education experts telling teens to cherish their lives and to know there are people who care about them....

OP,

Is this some kind of great entertainment? Or is it your normal way of flaunting your financial advantage? How pleasurable is it to wallow in other people's misery? Does it make you feel better? Does it make you a superior human being?

OP, thanks for sharing this with us; It makes us cheerish life more, to be thankful of what we have, to live the moment as it is.

The question is how can 1 person feed a family of 6 or 8 with an income less than $2 a day? The population in the Philippines is out of control. Fighting poverty should be done in all levels. Even if these poor families earn $6 a day, I don't think it could feed 4 to 6 children. Catholic church is also blocking moves to promote artificial contraceptive. They successfully blocked a reproductive health law for women in Congress which would have provided choices for family planning.

Just read the Ramon Tulfo column in the Daily Inquirer.
He calls this story "media sensationalism", as it now turns out that the girl had been raped by he father, now in the custody of the Davao City Police.
The letter she wrote to "Wish Ko Lang"-GMA-7s public service show, was an assignment from school which her classmates also wrote....

an autopsy showed that she suffered "vaginal lacerations"; according to the press report I read, the brothers appear to be as innocent as the day is long, and the father behaved in a somewhat shifty manner. Allegedly. A google search will provide more references.

SPOT ON PIkayaker, Best Reaction to such a post is to put it in PERSPECTIVE, especially with the NEAREST wealthy country.

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<hr>this story "media sensationalism", as it now turns out that the girl had been raped by he father, now in the custody of the Davao City Police.<hr></blockquote>

Great Follow Through "mrsteve38" after PIkayaker's post.

As Buddhism teaches life is full of PAIN & SUFFERING but I'm a bit confused about the purpose of the post?

When there is no craving, no pain will come...

Bill, I too was confused about the OP, which was why I kept an eye on the press to see if there was another side to the story...
which there was.
Seems to me that some people just want to take any opportunity to slag off a country and people who, as we both know, are generally great......

Isn't she too young to think and do such thing?
I think there's another side of the story, not just hoping for a new shoes and stuffs, i feel so sorry for the child and her family.
Granted she wanted thse things, she can seek help from other people, charitable institution, gov't programs and so on....there are lots of people in the Phils who can help her if she only let her lil voice be heard.

Its too late to give her what she wanted....i hope this will never happen again....poor child.
God bless her soul.

Edited by: caffeine_kitty