hi my name is Mary and I’m an exchange
student from the University of Essex but
if you’ve already read the brusha then
you probably already know that so I’m
not gonna bore you with a long
introduction and now to start I want to
ask you all a simple question who here
has a job you can just raise your hands
with them so if you’re looking at me a
bit confused and a lot of you your
students are like I’m living this budget
student life so don’t even ask me and
you’re probably thinking why am I asking
this question you’ll find out a little
bit later now as I was doing some
research for this talk I found that most
of the countries with the highest rates
of suicide are developing countries and
that’s largely due to economic political
religious struggles and constraints and
so I looked up the world happiness
report of 2017 and I found that Hong
Kong ranked 71 out of 155 countries that
means according to this report Hong Kong
sits in the top half the top forty five
percent of the world’s happiest
countries now that sounds amazing right
it sounds cool isn’t it come on I’m
sorry to burst your bubble but
everything is not okay yeah everything
is not alright I challenged the notion
of the world happiness report because
although Hong Kong has a high GDP
religious freedom a Bill of Rights
Ordinance that doesn’t mean everything
is OK people aren’t necessarily happy
but more specifically students are not
happy according to the World Health
Organization Hong Kong sits in the top
half of the world’s jurisdictions with
the highest amount of suicide per
100,000 so I don’t know about you but
it’s a bit ironic right it completely
contrasts the notion of Hong Kong being
the world’s happiest country and
according to the Research Institute for
suicide prevention they estimate that
the amount of suicides of young people
aged between 15 to 24 is at 8.9
per 100,000 and this is an increase from
8.4 in 2015 now what these figures
trying to tell us what are they trying
to say they are trying to tell us that
student suicide is an issue that needs
to be re-examined it seems like this
sense of identity this sense of
community has been lost and this issue
is is so grave but it seems like society
has become numb desensitized to this
phenomenon but we cannot simply brush it
underneath the cup but we can’t ignore
it something needs to happen according
to an article in the South China the
South China Morning Post half half of
Hong Kong secondary school students were
dealing with depression when the survey
was done and over 1/4 considered suicide
now just just think about that for a
moment with a ratio that high that
person could be your brother that person
could be your sister or someone someone
else you know someone else younger in
your family in your surroundings and I
don’t know about you but that’s a bit
scary it is pretty scary and now I’m
gonna tell you a really embarrassing
story really really embarrassing so yeah
have mercy on me so for us females all
the women in the house it was that time
of the month hmm you know it’s a
struggle for some of us it’s really hard
we don’t even want to move that day I
wanted to watch Netflix in my bed but I
couldn’t do that because I had an online
deadline submission I had work that I
had to do and what was my fortune my
laptop was broken so I couldn’t even
stay inside I had to go to the to the
learning garden I had to go and do my
work and I was there doing my work to my
work I was tired I’ve got some crackers
from the vending machine do my work
doing my work and I was feeling a bit
dizzy I was feeling a bit nauseous I was
like okay I’m gonna go to the bathroom
cause I’m not feeling good so I took one
step
I took another step step and it all came
out I threw up in front of everyone in
the landing garden and that’s not even
the worst part
I ran up to the toilet up the bathroom
and looked in the mirror and I had a
beard and what was my beard
it was my regurgitate at breakfast so I
had been walking through the library
looking like a zombie like and I came
back down and it looked like there had
been an alien abduction because no one
was there just the sick on the floor and
you’re probably thinking why would she
tell such an embarrassing story why the
sad reality
the sad fact was that no one not one
person asked me how I was doing not even
a member of staff ox are you okay and I
thought to myself wow why are these
people so cold Wow now what if we
projected those secondary school
statistics to this university setting
what if I was part of that half who was
dealing with depression now what now
even worse what if I was part of that
quarter who was considering suicide no
one would know because no one cared no
one took the time to ask this is what’s
happening today in Hong Kong this is the
mentality that students themselves have
towards student suicide isolate
isolating themselves from the cases from
the people blaming parents even though
they do play a critical part blaming the
government and even worse labeling the
individuals themselves as weak weird and
outsider or whatever words you want to
find and with this in mind isolating
themselves they see as it has nothing to
do with me not my responsibility but who
newsflash you are totally wrong it has
everything to do with us it has
thing to do with you because our
inaction is a disease and it’s
contagious
we are breeding a generation of selfish
people with the courage to help others
and the official terminology is called
the bystander effect popularized by
social psychologists Bibb latane and
John Dalli the bystander effect occurs
when the presence of others discourages
an individual from intervening in an
emergency situation the perceived
diffusion of responsibility deters an
individual from taking an action to help
and if this is what is happening in Hong
Kong this is so prevalent and you may
think wow this is sad but there is hope
we can find that sense of community we
do we do have something inside of us
that we can do to change this and being
your neighbor’s keeper is exactly that
being your neighbor’s keeper not only
benefits the receiver of support but it
also benefits you yourself according to
a neurobiological study done by the
University of California being your
neighbor’s keeper giving someone support
has great great benefits for the brain
and now I’m gonna give you those
benefits so it it helps with reducing
stress in the amygdala and you may think
what’s the amygdala this area is
responsible for emotions such as fear
anger anxiety and when you give someone
support this area of the brain reduces
the negative emotions that I emits how
amazing and it also helps with reward
related activity in the ventral striatum
and you think okay what’s that it
relates to resolving issues
decision-making and risk and when you
help someone it stimulates a sense of
reward in your mind and motivates you to
help someone again amazing again and
also in the septal area this area deals
with pleasure and also under suppression
so when you help someone else
it stimulates a sense of pleasure in you
you have that motivation to help it’s
pleasing and you feel like caring
because your brain has pleasure from
doing it and it motivates you to do it
again so can I say Wow who knew that
being your neighbor’s keeper could have
so many benefits come on you knew now
I’m gonna tell you a story about a girl
called X around primary school age
really really young and for
confidentiality reasons we’re gonna call
her X and this girl was in primary
school as I said you know she was
bullied a lot she dealt with hardships
in her childhood that also led her to
being suicidal every single day was a
challenge it was a battle to keep going
and she just felt like she wasn’t pretty
enough like she wasn’t good enough
she was chirping class but that was just
to mosque the the turbulence that she
was holding inside I imagine at such a
young age primary school age she didn’t
know how to deal with the emotional
issues inside she didn’t know what to do
so she said okay one day I’m gonna kill
myself I’m gonna take my life because I
don’t have the strength anymore I just
don’t want to fight so she put on a
thick jacket because she was scared she
was really scared but she was ready to
die she had the knife in her hand she
had the knife in her hand and she was
ready so ready to go
but fortunately someone took that knife
out of her hand and now you’re wondering
what happened to X finish the story
okay so I will X met loads of people
encountered loads of different people
and sometimes that was one random acts
of altruism one random acts of kindness
and some of them ended up being long
lasting relationships but each of those
people that she encountered were her
keeper each of those people impacted her
in some way and form and now she she has
endless reasons to live endless and she
loves helping people because she knows
how it is to be in that dark place and
she doesn’t want to be there anymore she
doesn’t want anyone else to be there and
Wow
isn’t that amazing the power of being
our neighbor’s keeper isn’t that amazing
guys come on
isn’t that amazing it’s amazing all the
what if I were to tell you that I am X
what if I were to tell you that that
girl was me and now you understand why
I’m so passionate about this issue so I
urge you I encourage you to be your
neighbor’s keeper to not keep silent if
you see a friend or someone around you
feeling down feeling weak feeling a bit
low don’t keep it to yourself
refer them to someone who can help maybe
the Wellness and counseling department
do something but do not be a bystander
and do not underestimate the power that
you have being your neighbor’s keeper
you can turn someone’s day around but
moreso you can save someone’s life
so right now I want you to turn to the
person on your left and say you’re my
neighbor come on guys now I want you to
turn to the person on your right and say
and now you may think now you may think
okay I’ve got my neighbors I’ve got my
neighbors but what about myself what
about me you also if you’re feeling down
if you have any issues that maybe you’re
dealing with inside and you don’t know
what to do don’t keep quiet find someone
you can trust
in someone you can confide in and speak
up because you are much more than a
statistic let me tell you you are much
more than your GPA and your grades you
have a purpose in this world let me tell
you that if no one else has told you and
so I want you to repeat after me I’m
special my life is worth living and I am
my keeper thank you [Applause]
student from the University of Essex but
if you’ve already read the brusha then
you probably already know that so I’m
not gonna bore you with a long
introduction and now to start I want to
ask you all a simple question who here
has a job you can just raise your hands
with them so if you’re looking at me a
bit confused and a lot of you your
students are like I’m living this budget
student life so don’t even ask me and
you’re probably thinking why am I asking
this question you’ll find out a little
bit later now as I was doing some
research for this talk I found that most
of the countries with the highest rates
of suicide are developing countries and
that’s largely due to economic political
religious struggles and constraints and
so I looked up the world happiness
report of 2017 and I found that Hong
Kong ranked 71 out of 155 countries that
means according to this report Hong Kong
sits in the top half the top forty five
percent of the world’s happiest
countries now that sounds amazing right
it sounds cool isn’t it come on I’m
sorry to burst your bubble but
everything is not okay yeah everything
is not alright I challenged the notion
of the world happiness report because
although Hong Kong has a high GDP
religious freedom a Bill of Rights
Ordinance that doesn’t mean everything
is OK people aren’t necessarily happy
but more specifically students are not
happy according to the World Health
Organization Hong Kong sits in the top
half of the world’s jurisdictions with
the highest amount of suicide per
100,000 so I don’t know about you but
it’s a bit ironic right it completely
contrasts the notion of Hong Kong being
the world’s happiest country and
according to the Research Institute for
suicide prevention they estimate that
the amount of suicides of young people
aged between 15 to 24 is at 8.9
per 100,000 and this is an increase from
8.4 in 2015 now what these figures
trying to tell us what are they trying
to say they are trying to tell us that
student suicide is an issue that needs
to be re-examined it seems like this
sense of identity this sense of
community has been lost and this issue
is is so grave but it seems like society
has become numb desensitized to this
phenomenon but we cannot simply brush it
underneath the cup but we can’t ignore
it something needs to happen according
to an article in the South China the
South China Morning Post half half of
Hong Kong secondary school students were
dealing with depression when the survey
was done and over 1/4 considered suicide
now just just think about that for a
moment with a ratio that high that
person could be your brother that person
could be your sister or someone someone
else you know someone else younger in
your family in your surroundings and I
don’t know about you but that’s a bit
scary it is pretty scary and now I’m
gonna tell you a really embarrassing
story really really embarrassing so yeah
have mercy on me so for us females all
the women in the house it was that time
of the month hmm you know it’s a
struggle for some of us it’s really hard
we don’t even want to move that day I
wanted to watch Netflix in my bed but I
couldn’t do that because I had an online
deadline submission I had work that I
had to do and what was my fortune my
laptop was broken so I couldn’t even
stay inside I had to go to the to the
learning garden I had to go and do my
work and I was there doing my work to my
work I was tired I’ve got some crackers
from the vending machine do my work
doing my work and I was feeling a bit
dizzy I was feeling a bit nauseous I was
like okay I’m gonna go to the bathroom
cause I’m not feeling good so I took one
step
I took another step step and it all came
out I threw up in front of everyone in
the landing garden and that’s not even
the worst part
I ran up to the toilet up the bathroom
and looked in the mirror and I had a
beard and what was my beard
it was my regurgitate at breakfast so I
had been walking through the library
looking like a zombie like and I came
back down and it looked like there had
been an alien abduction because no one
was there just the sick on the floor and
you’re probably thinking why would she
tell such an embarrassing story why the
sad reality
the sad fact was that no one not one
person asked me how I was doing not even
a member of staff ox are you okay and I
thought to myself wow why are these
people so cold Wow now what if we
projected those secondary school
statistics to this university setting
what if I was part of that half who was
dealing with depression now what now
even worse what if I was part of that
quarter who was considering suicide no
one would know because no one cared no
one took the time to ask this is what’s
happening today in Hong Kong this is the
mentality that students themselves have
towards student suicide isolate
isolating themselves from the cases from
the people blaming parents even though
they do play a critical part blaming the
government and even worse labeling the
individuals themselves as weak weird and
outsider or whatever words you want to
find and with this in mind isolating
themselves they see as it has nothing to
do with me not my responsibility but who
newsflash you are totally wrong it has
everything to do with us it has
thing to do with you because our
inaction is a disease and it’s
contagious
we are breeding a generation of selfish
people with the courage to help others
and the official terminology is called
the bystander effect popularized by
social psychologists Bibb latane and
John Dalli the bystander effect occurs
when the presence of others discourages
an individual from intervening in an
emergency situation the perceived
diffusion of responsibility deters an
individual from taking an action to help
and if this is what is happening in Hong
Kong this is so prevalent and you may
think wow this is sad but there is hope
we can find that sense of community we
do we do have something inside of us
that we can do to change this and being
your neighbor’s keeper is exactly that
being your neighbor’s keeper not only
benefits the receiver of support but it
also benefits you yourself according to
a neurobiological study done by the
University of California being your
neighbor’s keeper giving someone support
has great great benefits for the brain
and now I’m gonna give you those
benefits so it it helps with reducing
stress in the amygdala and you may think
what’s the amygdala this area is
responsible for emotions such as fear
anger anxiety and when you give someone
support this area of the brain reduces
the negative emotions that I emits how
amazing and it also helps with reward
related activity in the ventral striatum
and you think okay what’s that it
relates to resolving issues
decision-making and risk and when you
help someone it stimulates a sense of
reward in your mind and motivates you to
help someone again amazing again and
also in the septal area this area deals
with pleasure and also under suppression
so when you help someone else
it stimulates a sense of pleasure in you
you have that motivation to help it’s
pleasing and you feel like caring
because your brain has pleasure from
doing it and it motivates you to do it
again so can I say Wow who knew that
being your neighbor’s keeper could have
so many benefits come on you knew now
I’m gonna tell you a story about a girl
called X around primary school age
really really young and for
confidentiality reasons we’re gonna call
her X and this girl was in primary
school as I said you know she was
bullied a lot she dealt with hardships
in her childhood that also led her to
being suicidal every single day was a
challenge it was a battle to keep going
and she just felt like she wasn’t pretty
enough like she wasn’t good enough
she was chirping class but that was just
to mosque the the turbulence that she
was holding inside I imagine at such a
young age primary school age she didn’t
know how to deal with the emotional
issues inside she didn’t know what to do
so she said okay one day I’m gonna kill
myself I’m gonna take my life because I
don’t have the strength anymore I just
don’t want to fight so she put on a
thick jacket because she was scared she
was really scared but she was ready to
die she had the knife in her hand she
had the knife in her hand and she was
ready so ready to go
but fortunately someone took that knife
out of her hand and now you’re wondering
what happened to X finish the story
okay so I will X met loads of people
encountered loads of different people
and sometimes that was one random acts
of altruism one random acts of kindness
and some of them ended up being long
lasting relationships but each of those
people that she encountered were her
keeper each of those people impacted her
in some way and form and now she she has
endless reasons to live endless and she
loves helping people because she knows
how it is to be in that dark place and
she doesn’t want to be there anymore she
doesn’t want anyone else to be there and
Wow
isn’t that amazing the power of being
our neighbor’s keeper isn’t that amazing
guys come on
isn’t that amazing it’s amazing all the
what if I were to tell you that I am X
what if I were to tell you that that
girl was me and now you understand why
I’m so passionate about this issue so I
urge you I encourage you to be your
neighbor’s keeper to not keep silent if
you see a friend or someone around you
feeling down feeling weak feeling a bit
low don’t keep it to yourself
refer them to someone who can help maybe
the Wellness and counseling department
do something but do not be a bystander
and do not underestimate the power that
you have being your neighbor’s keeper
you can turn someone’s day around but
moreso you can save someone’s life
so right now I want you to turn to the
person on your left and say you’re my
neighbor come on guys now I want you to
turn to the person on your right and say
and now you may think now you may think
okay I’ve got my neighbors I’ve got my
neighbors but what about myself what
about me you also if you’re feeling down
if you have any issues that maybe you’re
dealing with inside and you don’t know
what to do don’t keep quiet find someone
you can trust
in someone you can confide in and speak
up because you are much more than a
statistic let me tell you you are much
more than your GPA and your grades you
have a purpose in this world let me tell
you that if no one else has told you and
so I want you to repeat after me I’m
special my life is worth living and I am
my keeper thank you [Applause]
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