depressing story

good morning. hate to open the week with the story of marianeth amper, the kid who committed suicide. i have been getting reactions about that.

this morning, i got a call from a very concerned woman. i thought she just wanted to express her thoughts and opinions on the matter so i suggested that she write something about it. she's more interested however in finding out more about the family. she wants to help them.

which brings me to yet another reaction. a reader called and told me, well complained is more like it, that news shows from the philippines basically highlighted this child's suicide and that as responsible media people, they should not have allowed its airing on primetime tv because a lot of children who are also dirt poor would be able to watch the story in its entirety and give them an idea that committing suicide could mean getting their 15 minutes of fame (nakita sa tv!) and on top of that, the outpouring of support from the mayor to the businessmen and now even an office worker from new york wants to help them out.

i wanted to argue but i saw his point. did the news broadcasts pretty much encourage kid suicide when they incorporated in their stories the financial help and support that the family is going to receive? in a young child's mind, wouldn't that be enough motivation to commit suicide and sacrifice their lives for their families to reap the benefits? i told him that as responsible media, we (i felt i was being alluded to as well, since the story was on our front page) were just doing our jobs and we owe it to the readers to give them the news, good or bad.

edited to add: to make matters worse, some camps want to prove that the poor kid really committed suicide, and was not a victim of foul play. her body was exhumed and an autopsy will be done.

please, let the kid rest in peace. she's been through a lot despite her very tender age and she probably thought that the only way out of poverty was for her to take her own life.