VOA Special English --Health Report

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This is the VOA Special English Health Report.
A study says more people are killing themselves in Greece and other countries affected by economic troubles in Europe. David Stuckler, a sociologist at Britain's University of Cambridge, co-wrote the report.
DAVID STUCKLER: "For the most part, the countries that have been more severely affected have experienced greater rises in suicides -- Ireland, Spain, the Baltics -- reaching up to sixteen percent in some of the worst affected countries, like Greece."
Suicide rates in Europe had been decreasing. But then the international banking crisis hit in two thousand eight.
The study looked at reports from ten European countries from two thousand seven and two thousand nine. Nine of the ten countries had a five percent increase in suicide rates between two thousand seven and two thousand nine. In Ireland the increase was thirteen percent.
The study found that suicide rates have not increased in countries where governments have helped get people back to work. Examples include Sweden and Finland.
DAVUD STUCKLER: "We found that just giving money to people who have lost jobs to replace their income did not appear to help. Instead, giving people a reason to get out of bed in the morning, a hope in terms of searching for a good, meaningful job seemed to be the most beneficial to helping people cope."
The findings appeared last week in the Lancet medical journal.
Greece is suffering the costs of a huge public deficit. For over a year, the government has cut spending and increased taxes in an effort to improve its finances.
Pavlos Tsimas is a journalist based in Greece. He recently made a documentary about the increase in suicides.
PAVLOS TSIMAS: "We investigated the case of a small businessman from Herakleion in Crete, who took his car, loaded it with tins of petrol, and first shot himself and then put fire to the whole car."
Pavlos Tsimas says some people commit suicide in a public way, like the businessman in Crete.
PAVLOS TSIMAS: "We found out that people killed themselves in a very dramatic and sometimes a very violent way, which maybe means that they are trying to make their suicide a statement, want the whole world to understand how badly they feel, how hopeless they have felt."
He says Greeks who kill themselves are mostly men. And he says the number has gone up most on the island of Crete.
PAVLOS TSIMAS: " ... where social and family life is more traditional, more patriarchic. The father of the family has to be respected as a figure of great strength. And when the economic problems arise, when jobs are lost and businesses are closed down, it is this despair because of the loss of respect, the loss of self-esteem, and the fact that the person feels that his life no longer has meaning, that drives them to this kind of act."
And that's the VOA Special English Health Report. For more health news, go to voaspecialenglish.com. I'm Jim Tedder.

这里是VOA特别英语健康报告
一份研究表明，受欧洲经济危机的影响，希腊和其他的一些国家的很多人正在自杀。David Stuckler，是英国剑桥大学的一名社会学家，他一同写了这份报告。
David Stuckler：在大部分地区，影响比较严重的地区自杀人数已经增加了很多，例如爱尔兰，西班牙等波罗的沿海国家。而在某些特别严重的地区例如希腊，已经达到了百分之十六
。
欧洲的自杀率已经开始减少，但是，随后在2008年世界银行危机又到来了。
这项报告对欧洲的十个国家从2007年到2008年进行了研究。十分之九的国家在2007年到2009年中自杀率上升里百分之5，爱尔兰增长了百分之十三。
这项研究发现，在那些政府帮助人们提供工作的国家里面，自杀率没有上升。例如，瑞典和芬兰
David Stuckler：我们发现如果仅仅是通过给失去工作的人钱对他们的帮助并不是很大。另外的，给人们一个早起的理由，一个寻找良好的有意义的工作的希望，看起来是最有意义的。
这个调查结果刊登在了《Lancet》医学杂志上。
希腊正在遭受巨大的公共赤字的痛苦，在过去的一年里，政府已经减少开支并努力增加税收来提高财政收入。
Pavlos Tsimas 是一名希腊的记者，他最近制作了一部关于自杀不断增加的电影。
PAVLOS TSIMAS：我们调查里一个来自克里特岛的小生意人的事件。他取了自己的车，然后在上面浇了汽油，首先开枪射击了自己，然后点燃里整个车辆。
PAVLOS TSIMAS：有些人承诺使用一种公开的方式进行自杀，就像克里特岛的那名商人。
PAVLOS TSIMAS：我们发现，人们自杀会选择一种引人注目的并且有时候会非常极端的方式
，好像是在把他们的自杀变成一种声明，希望全世界的人都明白他们的境地是多么的怀，他们是多么的无助。
他说那些自杀的人男性居多，并且他说，数量已经增长到了最大在克里特岛。
PAVLOS TSIMAS：在社会和家庭生活比较传统的地方，家庭中的父亲被尊敬是最主要的家庭支柱。但是，当经济危机不断上升，工作不断丢失，公司不断倒闭，正是这种失去尊敬，失去自尊的绝望，和人们感觉到他们的生命已经没有意义的事实，正是这些趋势他们选择自杀行为。
这里是VOA特殊英语《健康报道》，更多的健康新闻，请访问voaspecialenglish.com，我是im Tedder.

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1 楼 BuN_Ny 2011-11-14