8

A portrait of a man Libera met on a train from Brussels to Liège. The man, getting off the train, said: "Those who are single and thirty-seven years old are cull individuals. Like animals without paws. You won't tell me that a normal thirty-seven-year-old is alone because he wants to. Strong individuals are always well-managed." Libera remembered the man's statement because it had nothing to do with their earlier conversation. A few days later, Libera saw a photo of a man with similar features in the newspaper. The man in the newspaper threw himself under a train running between Liège and Brussels. Libera does not know to this day whether the man in his portrait and the man he saw in the newspaper are the same person. Every year there are 10-20 million suicide attempts (i.e., acts that do not end in death). Every 40 seconds, one person in the world takes her own life. Annually, 800,000 people commit suicide - that's more than the number dying from malaria, breast cancer, murder or war.