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you're a regular decorated emergency
Mar. 20th, 2013 12:29 amfiled under: things you write because there's idiots and you still hold on to the hope that one day there will be less of them*
*There will never be less of them. Ever.
Point A: Whether or not Kristel Tejada committed suicide because UP forced her to file an LOA is irrelevant. Repeat, in case that did not get through to you: whether or not Kristel Tejada committed suicide because she was forced to file an LOA is irrelevant. You do not know why she committed suicide. It is not your business to know why she committed suicide. It is disrespectful and dismissive and simplistic to sniff around her life trying to find out the ~real reason, like suicide can ever be boiled down to one thing.
It is, however, your business to know that two repressive policies prevented her from studying in a university that 1. accepted her as a student, and 2. professes, by virtue of its being a state university, to be a university of and for the people, where the people is generally presumed, again by virtue of its being a state university, to refer to everyone who qualifies and not just those who can afford to pay for a top-tier education. (If I am mistaken about any part of the above sentence, feel free to correct me.) It is your business to know this as either a taxpayer or someone who depends on one, because this means that your money is going into an institution that does not perform the functions it was designed to perform (the entire government notwithstanding). It is even more so your business to know this if you are a part of the university in question, because these are policies that affect your learning environment, at the very least, if they do not affect you. It is your business because as a human being your business is other human beings. If it weren't we'd have spent our formative years sitting at home and reading instead of going through the three-ring circus that is the education system.
Point A.1: Whether or not Kristel Tejada committed suicide because UP forced her to file an LOA is irrelevant. I understand how frustrating it is to keep on hearing people reduce her suicide- anyone's suicide, actually- to one focal turning point. If you are truly fed up with the way people discuss mental health and the direct results of the lack thereof- well, talk about mental health. Talk about how discussing mental illnesses is still taboo at worst and about how they are hardly ever taken seriously as physical diseases and not as failings of character. Talk about the lack of awareness about mental health in the country and about how, when people talk about making health care available to all, mental health is often forgotten. Talk about how the increased stress on people of lower socioeconomic status correlates to increased incidences of mood disorders, and about how a lot of these are left undiagnosed and untreated due to a dearth of available, accessible, affordable health care. Assigning blame to her family and to her personal life and character and then saying multifactorial like it will magically make everything better... does not qualify as a reasonable discussion, to say the least.
( Point B: Whether or not Kristel Tejada committed suicide because UP forced her to file an LOA is irrelevant, but the fact that she was prevented from attending a university that 1. she qualified for, and 2. is meant and was made to give those who could generally not afford to pay for a top-tier education said top-tier education, is not. )
*There will never be less of them. Ever.
Point A: Whether or not Kristel Tejada committed suicide because UP forced her to file an LOA is irrelevant. Repeat, in case that did not get through to you: whether or not Kristel Tejada committed suicide because she was forced to file an LOA is irrelevant. You do not know why she committed suicide. It is not your business to know why she committed suicide. It is disrespectful and dismissive and simplistic to sniff around her life trying to find out the ~real reason, like suicide can ever be boiled down to one thing.
It is, however, your business to know that two repressive policies prevented her from studying in a university that 1. accepted her as a student, and 2. professes, by virtue of its being a state university, to be a university of and for the people, where the people is generally presumed, again by virtue of its being a state university, to refer to everyone who qualifies and not just those who can afford to pay for a top-tier education. (If I am mistaken about any part of the above sentence, feel free to correct me.) It is your business to know this as either a taxpayer or someone who depends on one, because this means that your money is going into an institution that does not perform the functions it was designed to perform (the entire government notwithstanding). It is even more so your business to know this if you are a part of the university in question, because these are policies that affect your learning environment, at the very least, if they do not affect you. It is your business because as a human being your business is other human beings. If it weren't we'd have spent our formative years sitting at home and reading instead of going through the three-ring circus that is the education system.
Point A.1: Whether or not Kristel Tejada committed suicide because UP forced her to file an LOA is irrelevant. I understand how frustrating it is to keep on hearing people reduce her suicide- anyone's suicide, actually- to one focal turning point. If you are truly fed up with the way people discuss mental health and the direct results of the lack thereof- well, talk about mental health. Talk about how discussing mental illnesses is still taboo at worst and about how they are hardly ever taken seriously as physical diseases and not as failings of character. Talk about the lack of awareness about mental health in the country and about how, when people talk about making health care available to all, mental health is often forgotten. Talk about how the increased stress on people of lower socioeconomic status correlates to increased incidences of mood disorders, and about how a lot of these are left undiagnosed and untreated due to a dearth of available, accessible, affordable health care. Assigning blame to her family and to her personal life and character and then saying multifactorial like it will magically make everything better... does not qualify as a reasonable discussion, to say the least.
( Point B: Whether or not Kristel Tejada committed suicide because UP forced her to file an LOA is irrelevant, but the fact that she was prevented from attending a university that 1. she qualified for, and 2. is meant and was made to give those who could generally not afford to pay for a top-tier education said top-tier education, is not. )
