Australian found dead in Chiang Mai hotel

[louse1953]

I think 59 years in this world is long enough. I'll be there in a couple years....why go through all the BS.....

I will be looking for your obituary in a couple of years,but my bet is i wont find it.

[poweratradio]

Wow! Like lemmings of the cliff here in Thailand? Must be the environmental atmosphere and indirect hypnosis.

[anakot]

Can people please ease up a bit....one day his family or friends may search his name and this thread will turn up. Posters should be mindful of this when dealing with any passing. Some of the speculation/judgement is not that nice.

I had come across David quite a while back.....a gifted and schooled musician. At the time he was doing voluntary teaching having completed quals in Chiang Mai. He had quite a few excellent guitars that probably cost more than a condo.

A little self restraint by posters or policing by Mods on ALL news of similar circumstances would not go astray.

Think of the family please folks.....

Absolutely spot on here. Thanks for this.

By the way he is 'Mr Crooks' not 'Crooks' as the article states. The guy deserves some respect. Whatever the reason (and TV folk like to brighten up their lives with speculation) this man was in a state of crisis and we should just leave it at that IMHO.

[mrtoad]

Really sad story, RIP

[tingtongtourist]

Seen it happened twice in our building where foreigners are so destitute and desperate

to off them selves over paltry money problems specially in the days where you can get help

from government bodies and NGO groups, salvation army, help lines and support groups..

I can't understand it....

how is the guy to access the services you mention while in thailand?

First have to pay for a flight home to do these things and even then he will probably have nowhere to live and be put on a long waiting list for help.

we like to think the destitute have help but in reality governments and countries owned and operated by rich will give away nothing.

look at the case of homeless farangs on streets of bamgkok..no-one to help them, even embassy wipes their hands of it if u have no way of repaying a loan.

sad case but it will happen a lot more since greed rules this world.

Suicides in Australia are many if you know ambulance officers, but are not allowed to be reported since it reflects how the supposed leaders and lawmakers are to blame from repressive rules and laws that help out them in power

Got any proof of your claims? Suicide is covered extensively by the Australian media, relevant government agencies, together with many support organisations. Just one example of media reporting below:

Australia's suicide rate climbs as experts declare a 'national tragedy'

Seventy-five per cent of people who took their own lives in 2012 were male, with the highest rate among men over 85.

http://www.theguardian.com/society/2014/mar/26/australias-suicide-rate-climbs-as-experts-declare-a-national-tragedy

My point was that news of individual suicide case are not allowed to make the paper in Aus,only statistics like you point out. Maybe it is to protect family of the person or some other more underhand reason but you never see news unless it is someone famous. This is why we are shocked when we see so much reports in thai news.

No proof other than ambulance friend from australian capital city who said many many suicide every week just in one capital city and we never hear about.

the government is doing nothing- im ok jack- is the attitude of all pollies until some tradgedy happen to theirs.

I read on net recently about a young man in a country town, hung himself because the government take his licence away for three years,lost his job because cant travel,not even any usable public transport in the town for normal work hours. He went on to smoke dope and on anti depression meds probably until its all to much.

Wont hear that story in media i bet. No licence may as well take away a young guys life for three

Years but he decide to end it for good. Ugly laws and ugly governments

[guillemserra]

R.I.P.

[jobin]

" He went on to smoke dope".

Hope you are not suggesting that smoking dope leads to suicide. I believe alcohol is a far greater threat/evil to individuals and society at large.

check post 91, above, for inane comment on the merits?? of drinking. And from a medical point, drinking alcohol certainly leads to loss of sexual function as blood vessels are compromised by poisonous alcohol. Blood vessels in brain, testes and penis. Get the picture?

[simple1]

Seen it happened twice in our building where foreigners are so destitute and desperate

to off them selves over paltry money problems specially in the days where you can get help

from government bodies and NGO groups, salvation army, help lines and support groups..

I can't understand it....

how is the guy to access the services you mention while in thailand?

First have to pay for a flight home to do these things and even then he will probably have nowhere to live and be put on a long waiting list for help.

we like to think the destitute have help but in reality governments and countries owned and operated by rich will give away nothing.

look at the case of homeless farangs on streets of bamgkok..no-one to help them, even embassy wipes their hands of it if u have no way of repaying a loan.

sad case but it will happen a lot more since greed rules this world.

Suicides in Australia are many if you know ambulance officers, but are not allowed to be reported since it reflects how the supposed leaders and lawmakers are to blame from repressive rules and laws that help out them in power

Got any proof of your claims? Suicide is covered extensively by the Australian media, relevant government agencies, together with many support organisations. Just one example of media reporting below:

Australia's suicide rate climbs as experts declare a 'national tragedy'

Seventy-five per cent of people who took their own lives in 2012 were male, with the highest rate among men over 85.

http://www.theguardian.com/society/2014/mar/26/australias-suicide-rate-climbs-as-experts-declare-a-national-tragedy

My point was that news of individual suicide case are not allowed to make the paper in Aus,only statistics like you point out.

Use to be the case, but no longer. At the URL below is the Australian press Council policy & media guidelines for reporting individual suicides.

http://www.presscouncil.org.au/document-search/standard-suicide-reporting/

Example media outlet comment on the above...

http://www.smh.com.au/national/press-body-lifts-veil-on-reporting-of-suicide-20110801-1i8bz.html

[Spock]

59 years old in a foreign country with no job, probably no money and no prospects of getting either one. It might seem like the most sensible thing to do.

RIP

I was thinking about that yesterday. Thailand attracts a lot of people most of them good people. But it does attract a lot of desperate people looking for some thing in a bottle and a women also drugs which Thailand is well known to have an ample supply of all three.

After a while they realize they are still looking and just decide to end the search for what ever. There seems to be a lot of deaths in Thailand by falls off of balconies. I just wonder if in some of those cases it is a deliberate fall with no assistance.

Just a thought

If you read the Pattaya Mail, quite a few tourists tend to die from flinging themselves off balconies. I often ask myself much the same as you - did he jump or was he pushed? Surely with some heavy duty drugs available in Cambodia or Laos, or even Thailand, why choose such a desperate method of suicide? Jumping from heights doesn't seem a great option.

[Ulysses G.]

I am guessing that people who have not been drug users, do not know how to go about getting them without taking a chance on being arrested and ending up even worse off. The only way that I know is to ask a tuk-tuk driver and that ends badly for many people.

[TheyCallmeScooter]

The guy deserves some respect. Whatever the reason (and TV folk like to brighten up their lives with speculation) this man was in a state of crisis and we should just leave it at that IMHO.

Respect is an subjective illusion but in his position, I would be disrespected if people just "left it at that". People have reasons for doing things and if you approach their actions with infantile dismissal, you could find yourself in a world of infants incapable of learning from history, determined to learn everything the hardest possible way (20/20 hindsight).

It is disrespectful and illogical to presume that anything stigmatised is "bad". The sons of non-married women used to be stigmatised as "bastards" and "whoresons" (by married courtesans). In a world where assisted suicide is stigmatised and assisted murder (war) is glamorized, you'd be a pretty reduced slave to play along.

Ugly laws and ugly governments

Ugly people.

"Every nation deserves the government it has."

[Spock]

I am guessing that people who have not been drug users, do not know how to go about getting them without taking a chance on being arrested and ending up even worse off. The only way that I know is to ask a tuk-tuk driver and that ends badly for many people.

You'd be on the money with that reasoning. Even those who do take drugs come unstuck in Thailand and elsewhere, often becoming unwilling contributors to the police benevolent fund when trying to score. Thailand is probably a nightmare in which to procure drugs given how squeaky clean it has sought to become. Scoring from tuk tuk drivers would be enough to drive you to suicide. If they were your only drug source, your life would be a living death anyway.

[Sparkles]

Seriously someone would hang themselves over loosing a job??

Another sad Thai ending.

Got to be more to it than just losing a job.

My money is on his lovely teeruk left him also in the process. No money, no honey, however regardless, neither losing a job or/and a GF is worth losing your life over, not even close.

RIP

At age 60 in Thailand, you are finished as a teacher.

What was he gonna do?

Not true, many of my former colleagues are still working in private schools, teaching mature age students, and they are well into their late 60's. They are not doing it for the money but they are true education professionals who would die of boredom if they were not teaching.

A huge advantage here is working for a private school,and if you are a valued employee, you can negotiate how many hours you want to work and there are many companies in Bangkok that require teachers for a few hours a week.I had a very cosy gig with an International company ,all all above board legally and very enjoyable, helping staff with presentations and emails back to head office in Europe.15 hours a week.