In what may be proof of Dr. Patrick Moore’s rather morbid assertion [3] that drinking Roundup isn’t the most effective suicide method, more than two dozen Chinese taxi drivers were found passed out in Beijing with empty pesticide bottles scattered around them in what appears to have been an effort to protest a law forbidding taxi driver self employment.
As The NY Times reports [4], drinking pesticide is a popular method of addressing grievances in China when all other methods fall on deaf ears:
A group of taxi drivers drank from bottles of pesticide in central Beijing on Saturday to protest what they said was poor treatment by their taxi companies, state and social media outlets reported.
At least 10 men, some of them frothing from the mouth, fell to the ground on a busy sidewalk at the Wangfujing shopping center about 11 a.m. after drinking the pesticide, according to the Beijing police force’s official microblog account. The men were rushed to nearby hospitals and all survived, the police said.
Videos of the protest quickly spread on Chinese social media sites, showing the men splayed on the ground and large crowds staring at them from behind police cordons.
According to The South China Morning Post, the men were all from a city in the northeastern province of Heilongjiang and tried to kill themselves to protest the way taxi companies renewed their vehicle leases.
Drinking pesticide is a common way to commit suicide in China, particularly in rural areas.
People with grievances in China have long sought to petition the central government in Beijing. But the ruling Communist Party presses local officials to thwart those seeking redress. Petitioners are often detained for protesting and trying to file lawsuits. Many are beaten, threatened and sometimes sent away to mental hospitals to prevent them from airing their grievances in the capital.
All of the protesters were hospitalized and are "out of danger," according to local media.
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As a reminder from one week ago [3]...
