Mark: Suicide up 72% under PNM

Wade Mark
Wade Mark

OPPOSITION Senator Wade Mark says suicides have gone up 72 per cent under the PNM.

He was speaking yesterday during the Senate debate on the budget.

He said the savage cut in expenditure has had consequences on citizens and unemployment rose from 3.5 per cent in 2015 to 5.3 per cent in the second quarter of 2017.

“Rising unemployment has adversely impacted on the health of our citizens, manifested in mounting psychological problems, increased risk of mortality and the generation of unhealthy behavioural patterns.”

He said the country under the PNM has witnessed the rise in the suicide rate, particularly of males. He reported an alarming increase from 22.9 per 100,000 between 2010 and 2015 and under the PNM it has risen to 39.5 per 100,000 between 2015 to the present.

Minister in the Finance Ministry Allyson West asked for the source of the information and Mark said it was from the World Health Organization.

He said the question of the budget was in whose interest it was, and it was certainly not in the interest of the vast majority.

He slammed the “vision-less, inept and incompetent” government for not generating any meaningful and sustainable economic growth and said GDP figures from the Government were the subject of “creative accounting” and the economy had not grown but stagnated and contracted.

“We walking down a path, but it is a path of ruination.” He said the 25 per cent increase in super gasoline – part of an 84 per cent increase in the last three years – has hurt the middle classes and had a significant impact on disposable income. He described the inflation rate of one per cent as “completely unrealistic and deceptive.

“And if you, like me, shop in groceries and supermarkets and the market, the story is telling and very different.”

He said Government has been conducting a “virtual slash-and-burn” social policy agenda which has left tens of thousands of citizens with little access to public assistance. He added many citizens were facing unemployment and underemployment and Government was boasting of kicking out 18,000 citizens and their dependants deemed unfit for the food card.

“After three years of crushing and unrelenting economic and financial blows manifested in rising taxes, astronomical increases in the cost of living, the impending dreaded property tax, this Government has decided to throw some crumbs from the master’s table at the feet of the masses at the master’s feet.” He said Government offered citizens a paltry $100 across the board after three years and spending more than $200 billion.

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