Chapter 34, Part Two of 'The Man Who Killed Himself'
Peter Basilio's family had its problems. His brother Mike was always hassling with supervisors on the job. Peter suffered from bi-polar syndrome. And Peter's sister got a job as a cook with a high government official. She ran into problems also, though in the end she kept her job. Still, the Basilio siblings knew that Peter was the one family member with the most problems.
This kind and sensitive individual had to stay on his medications or 'meds'. If he stopped taking them, trouble developed. In the mid-1980's, he listened to a new friend and stopped taking his pills. Soon he fell into a great depression, left his rooming house home, and ended up homeless. Later he went back on his medication.
He then took a bus to Toronto and ended up in a house that took care of the homeless. The enormity of the life ahead of him with all its problems overwhelmed him. Now full of despair, he took his own life at the age of 42. Peter was a progressive caring person who couldn't deal with his problems. "I miss him," said someone who knew him before he died. " Peter was a really nice guy."
Peter's life and death must be seen in its social context. As the coloumnist Barbara Yaffe pointed out in the pages of 'The Vancouver Sun' some time ago, British Columbia has a very high incidence of mental illnesses. Then again, if Peter's father hadn't died in a car crash when Peter was in his teens and had stayed with Peter's mother, Peter might have lived a normal depression-free life. He might have even been alive to-day.
Wednesday 31 May 2017
Tuesday 30 May 2017
A Man Who Killed Himself;Chapter 34 of Right, Left and Centre: The Politics of Some Canadians by Dave Jaffe.
A Man Who Killed Himself: Chapter 34, Part One.
He was a kind caring man who killed himself and he wasn't alone. Peter Basilio was one of 3500 Canadians who kill themselves every year. Why they do this can depend on many things. They may be very depressed, or feel their heart is broken, or they may have lost all their money.
Many more men than women commit suicide. "Women try more often to kill themselves," one sociologist said. "But men are far more successful in ending their lives." Men kill themselves at a rate three times that of women. Peter Basilio was alas, a typical suicidal male. This short dark haired native of Metro Vancouver was in his 40's when he committed suicide. He suffered terribly from bi-polar syndrome and couldn't stand life anymore. He swallowed a big dose of sleeping pills in the late 1980's and then he was gone.
Basilio was not programmed to end his life this way. He grew up in the 1950's in a roomy house in the growing and prosperous suburb of Richmond, just to Vancouver's south on the other side of the Fraser River. His father was a professor who taught at the University of British Columbia. His mother was your typical 1950's housewife who raised Peter and his three other siblings. Yet then something went wrong. His father and mother split up. Then the professor died in a car crash.
Everybody in the Basilio household felt terrible. Yet Peter was hit the hardest. Now in his late teens he fell into deep depressions. He sought help with a psychiatrist who gave him powerful anti-depressant pills. His school work suffered yet he managed to graduate from high school. He ended up as a landscape gardener working for the city of Vancouver.
This was a part time job so sometimes he went fishing on commercial fishing boats to earn some more money. The tough men on the boats sometimes turned him off. "They don't give a toot about anybody except themselves," Peter said. He lived in a small suite in a low rent rooming house in east end Vancouver. Peter identified with victims, and underdogs like the Jews who were victims of the Holocaust. Peter also ended up as a volunteer with poor people on the city's Downtown Eastside. Peter sometimes bought presents for his co-workers though some of these people didn't appreciate his gifts.
Peter's siblings had their problems too. One of his brothers Michael or "Mike" as he was called worked in schools as a janitor." Mike's in some dispute with his supervisor," Peter once said. "He's always having trouble where he works." Mike also believed that the Central Intelligence Agency was lurking in many places. At one time he harassed a reporter at a local television station. He kept phoning up the reporter to ask him, "Why are you working for the C.I.A.?" Finally the police warned Mike to stop phoning the man. And he did. Yet he kept on seeing the hand of the C.I.A. everywhere.
He was a kind caring man who killed himself and he wasn't alone. Peter Basilio was one of 3500 Canadians who kill themselves every year. Why they do this can depend on many things. They may be very depressed, or feel their heart is broken, or they may have lost all their money.
Many more men than women commit suicide. "Women try more often to kill themselves," one sociologist said. "But men are far more successful in ending their lives." Men kill themselves at a rate three times that of women. Peter Basilio was alas, a typical suicidal male. This short dark haired native of Metro Vancouver was in his 40's when he committed suicide. He suffered terribly from bi-polar syndrome and couldn't stand life anymore. He swallowed a big dose of sleeping pills in the late 1980's and then he was gone.
Basilio was not programmed to end his life this way. He grew up in the 1950's in a roomy house in the growing and prosperous suburb of Richmond, just to Vancouver's south on the other side of the Fraser River. His father was a professor who taught at the University of British Columbia. His mother was your typical 1950's housewife who raised Peter and his three other siblings. Yet then something went wrong. His father and mother split up. Then the professor died in a car crash.
Everybody in the Basilio household felt terrible. Yet Peter was hit the hardest. Now in his late teens he fell into deep depressions. He sought help with a psychiatrist who gave him powerful anti-depressant pills. His school work suffered yet he managed to graduate from high school. He ended up as a landscape gardener working for the city of Vancouver.
This was a part time job so sometimes he went fishing on commercial fishing boats to earn some more money. The tough men on the boats sometimes turned him off. "They don't give a toot about anybody except themselves," Peter said. He lived in a small suite in a low rent rooming house in east end Vancouver. Peter identified with victims, and underdogs like the Jews who were victims of the Holocaust. Peter also ended up as a volunteer with poor people on the city's Downtown Eastside. Peter sometimes bought presents for his co-workers though some of these people didn't appreciate his gifts.
Peter's siblings had their problems too. One of his brothers Michael or "Mike" as he was called worked in schools as a janitor." Mike's in some dispute with his supervisor," Peter once said. "He's always having trouble where he works." Mike also believed that the Central Intelligence Agency was lurking in many places. At one time he harassed a reporter at a local television station. He kept phoning up the reporter to ask him, "Why are you working for the C.I.A.?" Finally the police warned Mike to stop phoning the man. And he did. Yet he kept on seeing the hand of the C.I.A. everywhere.
Wednesday 24 May 2017
Right, Left and Centre: The Politcs of Some Canadians by Dave Jaffe; Clarita in Canada; Chapter 33. Part Two
Clarita in Canada by Dave Jaffe. Part Two.
"It's greatest export was its people," someone said about Ireland. This may be true of the Philippines too. Two and one half million Filipinos work outside their native country. So Clarita isn't the only Filipino working in Canada and nor and nor is her family.
Every day she meets or sees other Filipinos who've come to Canada to work. Many of them send money back to the Philippines every month as does Clarita's family. This money flowing from Canada back to the Philippines keeps their native country afloat. The money the Ramos family sends home supports the growing Ramos clan in Manila where Clarita grew up.
Clarita became a nurse in her homeland but Canada or more accurately, Canadian governments don't accept her nursing degree. "I have to take my training all over again," she says. Once again she studies anatomy, physiology and biology. At the same time she's trying to perfect her English. All of this work costs time and money. So lack of cash and living in a crowded apartment sometimes stress her out.
Then off she goes to a Catholic church to pray for deliverance. On Sundays, she often gets together with young women like herself., who are nurses, nannies or food servers. She longs for a man who will love her and free her from the daily grind. Yer there are few Filipino men around or men period who will do this. Of course, after years of hard work and study many immigrants from east Asia do step up into the middle class. They buy homes and leave behind the world of the poor.
Of course this is getting harder to do, as wages remain flat and housing prices in Metro Vancouver shoot out of sight. As for politics, Clarita's not interested. "I don't follow such things," she says." I wish wages were better and governments would care for people like me. But they don't."
She has twice contacted advocacy groups that help Filipino immigrants. Yet she remains poor. "Canada," she concedes, "isn't all that different from the Philippines."
"It's greatest export was its people," someone said about Ireland. This may be true of the Philippines too. Two and one half million Filipinos work outside their native country. So Clarita isn't the only Filipino working in Canada and nor and nor is her family.
Every day she meets or sees other Filipinos who've come to Canada to work. Many of them send money back to the Philippines every month as does Clarita's family. This money flowing from Canada back to the Philippines keeps their native country afloat. The money the Ramos family sends home supports the growing Ramos clan in Manila where Clarita grew up.
Clarita became a nurse in her homeland but Canada or more accurately, Canadian governments don't accept her nursing degree. "I have to take my training all over again," she says. Once again she studies anatomy, physiology and biology. At the same time she's trying to perfect her English. All of this work costs time and money. So lack of cash and living in a crowded apartment sometimes stress her out.
Then off she goes to a Catholic church to pray for deliverance. On Sundays, she often gets together with young women like herself., who are nurses, nannies or food servers. She longs for a man who will love her and free her from the daily grind. Yer there are few Filipino men around or men period who will do this. Of course, after years of hard work and study many immigrants from east Asia do step up into the middle class. They buy homes and leave behind the world of the poor.
Of course this is getting harder to do, as wages remain flat and housing prices in Metro Vancouver shoot out of sight. As for politics, Clarita's not interested. "I don't follow such things," she says." I wish wages were better and governments would care for people like me. But they don't."
She has twice contacted advocacy groups that help Filipino immigrants. Yet she remains poor. "Canada," she concedes, "isn't all that different from the Philippines."
Tuesday 23 May 2017
Right, Left and Centre: The Politics of Some Canadians. Chapter 32, Part One: by Dave Jaffe.
Chapter 32, Part One: Clarita in Canada
Clarita Ramos is a short, brown-skinned lady who came to Canada in the 21st century. "I couldn't make any money in the Philippines," this 26 year-old Filipino says. "So I came here to Vancouver."
Now Clarita works a few days a week for a home care firm in Vancouver. She scrubs old people's floors, vacuums their carpets, takes them to medical and dental appointments, washes their laundry and often cooks for them. Yet she doesn't make much money. She clears about $150 a week. She survives by living with her sister, Isabella, her mother Mabel, and her aunt Isabella who's Mabel's sister.
All of them crowd into a two bedroom apartment on Vancouver's east side. It wasn't the world that Clarita thought she'd be living in when she left the Philippines. "It isn't any paradise," says Clarita.
Yet Clarita's homeland of the Philippines isn't any paradise either. Its 100 million people are spread out over more than 7500 islands in the Pacific Ocean. The Philippines were settled for thousands of years before 1521 by Asian peoples. Yet in 1521 the Spanish showed up. By the mid-1540's, Spanish soldiers or conquistadores started to sieze parts of the islands. Soon Spain had conquered most of the islands. They named the conquered lands after their ruler, King Philip of Spain, and the Philippines became a Spanish colony.
Yet Filipinos did fight back. In the 1890's a huge rebellion in favour of independence swept across the islands. The rebels were on the point of winning, when up pops the Americans. "Walk softly and carry a big stick," said Theodore 'Teddy' Roosevelt, the arch American imperialist and later U.S. President. Roosevlelt led U.S. troops to victory over Spain in Cuba in 1898. The U.S. then grabbed all of Cuba nd then tsurned its attention to the Philippines..
U.S. troops killed hundreds of thousands of Filipinos and crushed the nationalist rebellion. The U.S. then annexed the Philippines and ruled it as a colony. Yet then came World War Two. "I will return," proclaimed General Douglas MacArthur as Japanese invaders swept MacArthur and hiss U.S. troops out of the Philippines. When MacArthur returned a few years later, he faced not only the Japanese army but also Filipino nationalists led by the Hukbelahuks or 'Huks'. The Huks were communists who were a tough force. In the end, Americans, Australians, New Zealanders and Indians defeated the Japanese and the Huks.
Still after this, the U.S. had to grant independence to the Philippines but with strings attached. The U.S. kept two huge bases in the country and also ruled the country indirectly through financial pressures and investments. Since the Philippines won its independence, the country has lurched between being ruled by dictators and democrats. Its current president Rodrigo Duterte is something of both.
Clarita Ramos is a short, brown-skinned lady who came to Canada in the 21st century. "I couldn't make any money in the Philippines," this 26 year-old Filipino says. "So I came here to Vancouver."
Now Clarita works a few days a week for a home care firm in Vancouver. She scrubs old people's floors, vacuums their carpets, takes them to medical and dental appointments, washes their laundry and often cooks for them. Yet she doesn't make much money. She clears about $150 a week. She survives by living with her sister, Isabella, her mother Mabel, and her aunt Isabella who's Mabel's sister.
All of them crowd into a two bedroom apartment on Vancouver's east side. It wasn't the world that Clarita thought she'd be living in when she left the Philippines. "It isn't any paradise," says Clarita.
Yet Clarita's homeland of the Philippines isn't any paradise either. Its 100 million people are spread out over more than 7500 islands in the Pacific Ocean. The Philippines were settled for thousands of years before 1521 by Asian peoples. Yet in 1521 the Spanish showed up. By the mid-1540's, Spanish soldiers or conquistadores started to sieze parts of the islands. Soon Spain had conquered most of the islands. They named the conquered lands after their ruler, King Philip of Spain, and the Philippines became a Spanish colony.
Yet Filipinos did fight back. In the 1890's a huge rebellion in favour of independence swept across the islands. The rebels were on the point of winning, when up pops the Americans. "Walk softly and carry a big stick," said Theodore 'Teddy' Roosevelt, the arch American imperialist and later U.S. President. Roosevlelt led U.S. troops to victory over Spain in Cuba in 1898. The U.S. then grabbed all of Cuba nd then tsurned its attention to the Philippines..
U.S. troops killed hundreds of thousands of Filipinos and crushed the nationalist rebellion. The U.S. then annexed the Philippines and ruled it as a colony. Yet then came World War Two. "I will return," proclaimed General Douglas MacArthur as Japanese invaders swept MacArthur and hiss U.S. troops out of the Philippines. When MacArthur returned a few years later, he faced not only the Japanese army but also Filipino nationalists led by the Hukbelahuks or 'Huks'. The Huks were communists who were a tough force. In the end, Americans, Australians, New Zealanders and Indians defeated the Japanese and the Huks.
Still after this, the U.S. had to grant independence to the Philippines but with strings attached. The U.S. kept two huge bases in the country and also ruled the country indirectly through financial pressures and investments. Since the Philippines won its independence, the country has lurched between being ruled by dictators and democrats. Its current president Rodrigo Duterte is something of both.
Tuesday 2 May 2017
Right, Left and Centre: The Politics of Some Canadians by Dave Jaffe. Chapter 31, Part Three.
The Saviour And His Disciple; Chapter 31, Part Three.
Gerry Coser was rescued from despair and hopelessness by Henry Afflick. Yet soon circumstances drove them apart.
Gerry was a social democrat who belonged to the New Democratic Party. When Dave Barrett's N.D.P. government went down to defeat in the December 1975 B.C. election, Coser fell into a two week depression. "How can a government that did so many good things, be turfed out of office?' he would ask people. "It just isn't fair." A few years later he realized that maybe Barrett's government had done too much in its three year three month time in power.
Yet Henry Afflick wasn't a social democrat. He was an anarchist who didn't vote and didn't care to.
He agreed with the anarchist writer George Woodcock's opinion of Barrett's government. "This brief N.D.P. government," wrote Woodcock, "did no more to shift British Columbia in the direction of a balanced socialist economy than its predecessor the Social Credit Party had done.".
Afflick was a revolutionary who'd organized and led demonstrations against social injustice and the Vietnam War. "Social democrats like the N.D.P. bring in some good social programs," Afflick said. "But they don't change much. And when they meet up with strong opposition they cave in.
"I'm a revolutionary. I want to see capitalism overthrown, not reformed."
Coser didn't want revolution. He saw them as violent, bloody and destructive affairs. Also Afflick criticized much of Coser's politics. Nor could he save money while Coser was a fanatical cheapskate.
Meanwhile Afflick went through a mild nervous breakdown that Coser couldn't deal with. Yet in the end it was their politics that drove them apart.
In late 1979 Coser went back to volunteer and then to work on the Downtown Eastside. The Downtown Eastside back then was a gritty impoverished area of Vancouver which had plenty of tough drinking places. Afflick on the other hand went back to school and then to university. He ended up in China while Coser remained in Vancouver.
Many decades later Coser reflected on how Afflick had changed his life and helped him become a better person. "He saved me," he told a woman who had also known Afflick. "He taught me many things that helped me. Yet his politics weren't like mine and this was the main thing that ended our friendship."
Gerry Coser was rescued from despair and hopelessness by Henry Afflick. Yet soon circumstances drove them apart.
Gerry was a social democrat who belonged to the New Democratic Party. When Dave Barrett's N.D.P. government went down to defeat in the December 1975 B.C. election, Coser fell into a two week depression. "How can a government that did so many good things, be turfed out of office?' he would ask people. "It just isn't fair." A few years later he realized that maybe Barrett's government had done too much in its three year three month time in power.
Yet Henry Afflick wasn't a social democrat. He was an anarchist who didn't vote and didn't care to.
He agreed with the anarchist writer George Woodcock's opinion of Barrett's government. "This brief N.D.P. government," wrote Woodcock, "did no more to shift British Columbia in the direction of a balanced socialist economy than its predecessor the Social Credit Party had done.".
Afflick was a revolutionary who'd organized and led demonstrations against social injustice and the Vietnam War. "Social democrats like the N.D.P. bring in some good social programs," Afflick said. "But they don't change much. And when they meet up with strong opposition they cave in.
"I'm a revolutionary. I want to see capitalism overthrown, not reformed."
Coser didn't want revolution. He saw them as violent, bloody and destructive affairs. Also Afflick criticized much of Coser's politics. Nor could he save money while Coser was a fanatical cheapskate.
Meanwhile Afflick went through a mild nervous breakdown that Coser couldn't deal with. Yet in the end it was their politics that drove them apart.
In late 1979 Coser went back to volunteer and then to work on the Downtown Eastside. The Downtown Eastside back then was a gritty impoverished area of Vancouver which had plenty of tough drinking places. Afflick on the other hand went back to school and then to university. He ended up in China while Coser remained in Vancouver.
Many decades later Coser reflected on how Afflick had changed his life and helped him become a better person. "He saved me," he told a woman who had also known Afflick. "He taught me many things that helped me. Yet his politics weren't like mine and this was the main thing that ended our friendship."
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