Bloody Greek Easter: five suicides in 48 hours

Five people decided to put an end to their life over the Greek Easter holidays, four of them were on the island of Crete. The fifth victim was a lieutenant of the Greek Armed Forces. The father of two jumped to death from the balcony of his home. He had left a note. According to defense news portal OnAlert, the man had economic problems and used also to do several works outside the army in order to come along with the families’ expenses.

Many members of the Armed forces complain about wages and allowances cuts due to austerity.

Crete

On Easter Sunday, a young mother hung herself, while another young man stood up from the festive Easter meal and shot himself. A man, 70, shot himself on Monday.

The latest incident was that of another 70-year-old who shot himself on Tuesday morning.

It’s the damned general mood

A friend was complaining the other day about the general mood in the country, about people knowing no way out of their problems, mostly of economic nature. “I personally feel I’m OK, I still manage to cope with my financial obligations. But whenever I speak with friends or family members, all I hear is …misery. This takes me down as well.”

Greece saw a sharp increase of suicides since the country sought the aid of International Monetary Fund exactly three years ago. Income cuts, tax hikes, unemployment and uncertain future do not help much the general psychological mood in a country with 7% recession and more than 1.3 million jobless.

It is estimated that more than 3,000 people, the majority of them men, committed suicide since April 2010.