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The balcony did it? Why Thailand's falling deaths raise eyebrows


webfact

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people dont usually leave notes like this and use these methods in other countries. its specific to thailand.

many of these cases are murders.

disgusting in the video how the police are laughing at that nutty guy on the balcony.

thats how these cases are treated and investigated, like some kind of joke.

Edited by fey
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Lets take few things into consideration as the percentage may be small. Why is it there are so many people falling over rails at condos; far more than any other country? Yes they could be drunk but people get drunk in other countries as well yet they dont just fall from above.

There are too many of the same incident for people to consider it just an accident

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I love how some foreigners just believe 'some' stories because the RTP said it.

Go against all your natural intuitions and the inconsistencies of the report and just believe.

e

On my way to Thailand

Don't know if I'll be back

falling off a balcony

Below my head will crack

Police in brown, they always say

Farangs, they like to die this way

Coming here on most vacations

Suicides, top destinations

High above we have our views

Happy drunks are full of booze

Foul play, not deemed a theory

Just a drunk, who plunged while cheery

Our Holidays pure misconception

Laying dead outside reception

Bungy jumping, without a rope

People thought, another dope

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Well, when Thailand's finest, faced with a body exhibiting deep stab wounds in the abdomen as well as slashed wrists, or another with wrists tied behind the back whilst dangling from a balcony, determines suicide to be the cause, a then constant stream of RTP-described suicides can hardly fail to invite speculation.

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Flat block of two dimensions

Neon totem pole to the sky

Keeping scores of people stacked up so high

Above the ground

But all they can hear is the sound

Of the wind in the antennae

It's a human zoo

A suicide machine

Starfish of human blood shape

Tentacles of human gore

Spread out on the pavement

From the 99th floor

Well, somebody said that he jumped

But we know he was pushed

He was just like you might have been

On the 99th floor of a suicide machine

Hi rise, hi rise....

Stuck inside a hi rise block...

I always find it comforting just how many Hawkwind fans there are on ThaiVisa..... clap2.gif

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Lots of "jumping" threads, I posted this on the Isaan forum yesterday

"the international standard height for handrails is ~1m, I worked offshore for 40 years and never heard of one person (on a offshore MODU or installation) falling over-board!"

only in Thailand?

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Aathe explanations don't answer the questions. If you wanted to commit suicide but didn't live in a high rise, what would you do....gun, overdose, jump off a bridge, hang yourself etc. but there seems a major imbalance between methods of suicide....why do people on high floors of Pattatya condos disporportionately commit suicide? The answer is likely to be found in organized crime rather than being on a high floor makes you depressed.

Turning to booze as a factor, it's easy to test to see any jumper's blood alcohol content. Do the police even check it, or just assume that anyone jumping is drunk?

This is really sloppy.....I wish I had the patience to go back through 2015's TV postings and see if there were only 32 jumpings reported last year....it's only one every 11 days!

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In such headlines there’s only one clear cause of death – gravity.

Um, no, Einstein, the clear cause of death is invariably impact.

I always say it's not going really fast that kills you, but stopping really quickly.

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the first wave of retired Expat's who learned about Thailand firsthand or in the early days of the web as a cheap retirement destination are growing old now.

Chronic pain, cancer, advanced diabetes with the possibly of blindness and limb amputations, Alzheimer's disease.

Add to that, alcoholism, depression, money problems and in the case of living in Pattaya, waking up the the realization that you live in a huge lie.

On a recent trip the Soi Six, Pattaya, I saw a man who was approximately 75 years old and had the body of a Olympic swimmer. He looked great and was chatting up a 22 year old bar girl. He had the right attitude both mentally and physically. I don't think you will see him jumping anytime soon. Lets hope he can set a example for others to follow. smile.png

Make sure you find a good Thai woman to take care of you in your old age, before you lose your marbles.

I rather build up my finance to prepare myself a decade's stay in a retirement home...

I'd rather build up my finances to spend a decade in a soapy massage parlour.

How would you have known your have got a soapy massage when marbles are lost? ?

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Aathe explanations don't answer the questions. If you wanted to commit suicide but didn't live in a high rise, what would you do....gun, overdose, jump off a bridge, hang yourself etc. but there seems a major imbalance between methods of suicide....why do people on high floors of Pattatya condos disporportionately commit suicide?

To me it looks like an Asian thing, the jumping. In the west people shoot themselves, in here they take the plunge. With all the news of the balcony diver's club in TVF, it's also the first thing coming to mind.

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It is not that suicide by jumping from a condo balcony is unbelievable...

It is the numbers of deaths and the frequency of these so-called suicides that cause one to ponder...

But do you not think Thailand has a disproportionate number of older farang who may end up committing suicide primarily due to financial reasons (which may or may not be related to health)?

Or that they are simply suffering from depression for other reasons, e.g. the isolation of living in a foreign country, no-one to turn to when booted out by the missus, etc.?

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A weekly occurrence it seems nowadays......Pattaya appears to be the favoured jumping location......IMO, I find it hard to believe that all jumpers are suicides...there's just too many.

Say, 50 a year among 50,000 farangs living in Pattaya. Just one in a thousand.

Lets face it, the prospect of living your life in a 25/35m square cardboard box in the sky would a lot of people feel like jumping

It's their choice to live there ,,,,And it's Their choice to jump,,,My old Dad hang himself at 83 I knew it was his choice,,,He din't want to be a Burden to my Mum. The doctors Lasered his eyes and stuffed up his eyes , he was going Blind . wai2.gifsad.png

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It is not that suicide by jumping from a condo balcony is unbelievable...

It is the numbers of deaths and the frequency of these so-called suicides that cause one to ponder...

Puppy love over those sweet young butterflies at vacation spots...

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It is not that suicide by jumping from a condo balcony is unbelievable...

It is the numbers of deaths and the frequency of these so-called suicides that cause one to ponder...

But do you not think Thailand has a disproportionate number of older farang who may end up committing suicide primarily due to financial reasons (which may or may not be related to health)?

Or that they are simply suffering from depression for other reasons, e.g. the isolation of living in a foreign country, no-one to turn to when booted out by the missus, etc.?

I am quite certain some of the suicides are legitimate...unless a note was left...it is hard to say exactly the reasons...but there are far too many questionable deaths which apparently are just not important enough to do an in-depth investigation...they are just farangs you know...

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A weekly occurrence it seems nowadays......Pattaya appears to be the favoured jumping location......IMO, I find it hard to believe that all jumpers are suicides...there's just too many.

They have to be suicides ChrisY.

If they were murders it would be a bad look for tourism!

The only country in the world where visitors have perfected the suicidal art of hanging themselves with hands tied behind the back, an amazing feat that would even bluff the Great Houdini. Rather strange that the unfortunate now deceased Frenchman went all the way to Koh Tao Island when Jomtien or Pattaya would have been more economic in travel costs .

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As a comparison, the USA death rate from unintentional falls is 9.6 per 100,000 population.

The suicide rate from intentional falls is 0.3 per 100,000 population. http://www.cdc.gov/nchs/data/nvsr/nvsr64/nvsr64_02.pdf

I can't find any Thai statistics but if we use the 32 falls (whether accident or suicide) as claimed in the linked article for Thailand, and various web sources that unofficially estimate the expat population for Thailand to be circa 400,000, then that would make the death rate by falling in Thailand to be 8.0 per 100,000 population.

Just a little less than the USA.

You do realize you are using a rate with a population base of some 318 million against a base of a few thousand. Might be better if you could compare Pattaya against say some of the high rise retirement homes in Palm Beach. I bet it's even higher in Palm Beach. Some of the buildings there have extended covers at entrance to protect people from the falling bodies.

TH

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Flat block of two dimensions

Neon totem pole to the sky

Keeping scores of people stacked up so high

Above the ground

But all they can hear is the sound

Of the wind in the antennae

It's a human zoo

A suicide machine

Starfish of human blood shape

Tentacles of human gore

Spread out on the pavement

From the 99th floor

Well, somebody said that he jumped

But we know he was pushed

He was just like you might have been

On the 99th floor of a suicide machine

Hi rise, hi rise....

Stuck inside a hi rise block...

I always find it comforting just how many Hawkwind fans there are on ThaiVisa..... clap2.gif

Robert Calvert was brilliant.

RIP both of them.

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It's surprising that it happens, it's surprising how often it happens and why does it only happen to farrangs?

I still say it is the perfect crime. You hear a knock on the door,

answer it, the brother of your loving wife/girlfriend pushes in with

five men, and pitch you off the balcony. When the police

arrive, your weeping wife/girlfriend says you look sad recently

and talked about money problems at home. Case solved...

If there is a lot of money involved, of course the police will

have to get a cut for the proper suicide result of their

investigation.

Every " suicide" should be investigated from the angle

of financial benefit to the Thai woman. Of course the police

do NOT want murders as it looks bad for Thailand, so

the suicide result is fine with them....

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In such headlines there’s only one clear cause of death – gravity.

Um, no, Einstein, the clear cause of death is invariably impact.

Er, no Newton, the cause of death is always cardiac arrest.

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In such headlines there’s only one clear cause of death – gravity.

Um, no, Einstein, the clear cause of death is invariably impact.

Agreed. As the man falling from the 20th floor said when falling past the 3rd floor: "So far, so good!"

Edited by sugarcane24
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