The suicide of a gypsy

 

The suicide of a gypsy

 

          I have always been interested in suicidal behavior in the oppressed. I have written about suicide in the German concentration camps of World War Two, suicide in prisoners, and other oppressed groups. I was also fortunate to be asked to contribute a chapter on suicide in the Roma people and Irish Travellers:

 

Lester, D. Suicide among the Roma people and Irish Travelers. In D. van Bergen, A. H. Montesinos & M. Schouler-Ocak (Eds.) Suicidal behavior of immigrants and ethnic minorities in Europe. Boston, MA: Hogrefe, 2015, pp. 101-111.

 

At the IASP conference in Brussels in 1989, I saw a poster on suicide in Hungarian gypsies by Tamas Zonda, and I persuaded Tamas to let me help him publish his study.

 

Zonda, T., & Lester, D. Suicide among Hungarian gypsies. Acta Psychiatrica Scandinavica, 1990, 82, 381-382.

 

          This week, The Economist reported that a successful member of the Roma people had died by suicide at the age of 46. László Bogdán (he preferred the label Cigány rather than Roma) was the mayor of Cserdi, a town of 350 in southern Hungary. He was elected mayor in 2006 and had transformed the village. The town had dilapidated houses, joblessness, rubble strewn everywhere, and 300 cases of petty crime each year. Under László, the houses became restored and neat, with bathrooms added, and people worked in the fields and in plastic greenhouses producing quality vegetables. Officials from other towns came to learn from the Roma people working in the Cserdi miracle. László (Laci) ran the town like a father, watching over everyone and trying to motivate the young people to go to university. Roma from outside the village sometimes criticized him, for some preferred to remain victims.

 

          According to The Economist, there were no clues that he might die by suicide but, then, the villagers and The Economist’s reporter are not trained to notice the clues which I’m sure were there. It is hard for a Roma to move into the mainstream where he or she might have influence on, or even in, the government. It is a tragedy to lose László.