September 11 just came and gone again. While we at the other end of the world were expecting a lot more coverage, but media reports seem scant. While deepest sympathy continue to extend to victims of 9/11, it is worthy for us to note also other statistics:
- 9/11 Terrorist attack – 2,974 deaths
- 12/26 Asian Tsunami – 295,000 deaths (est.)
- Deaths due to war?
How about these figures:-
Deaths due to smoking:
Over 438,000 Americans (18.1 percent of all deaths) die because of smoking each year. Secondhand smoke kills about 50,000 of them.
http://www.inforesearchlab.com/smokingdeaths.chtml
Deaths due to suicide:
More than 30,000 Americans commit suicide each year, and 5,000 of these people are teenagers.
http://www.coolnurse.com/suicide.htm
Deaths due to flu:
An average of about 36,000 people per year in the United States die from influenza, and more than 200,000 have to be admitted to the hospital as a result of influenza.
http://www.cdc.gov/flu/about/disease.htm
Deaths due to accidents:
There are nearly 6,420,000 auto accidents in the United…
News – There are nearly 6,420,000 auto accidents in the United States yearly. The financial cost of these crashes is more than 230 Billion dollars. 2.9 million people were injured and 42,636 people killed. About 115 people die every day in vehicle crashes in the United States — one death every 13 minutes.
http://news.netscape.com/story/2007/04/07/there-are-nearly-6420000-auto-accidents-in-the-united-states-yearly/
Deaths due to drug abuse:
19,102 persons died of drug-induced causes in 1999 USA (NVSR Sep 2001)
http://www.wrongdiagnosis.com/d/drug_abuse/death-types.htm
However, there is one important statistics I believe is not easily available (if they do at all). Who can estimate the number of people that die earlier than they should due to hopelesses and unhappiness about their lives? Those who committed suicide are easy to count; those who chose various substance abuse or getting into violence are also obvious in numbers. But I am referring to those who who are normal like everyone else, and suffer from lack of vision, motivation and hope? Don’t people die faster when they have no good reasons to live for? When they see no hope of a better life, yet do not have the “guts” to take their own lives and decided to just drift along till they die?
Death toll due to unmotivated living. This number would not be small either. In fact, it could be significant. But no one even takes notice of it.
