Brno suicides: in defence of Red Hat & Fedora

In 2022 I was one of the bloggers who analyzed the tragic Debian Day Volunteer Suicide.

Shortly after that, people began asking me to publish something about suicides in Brno. In the Debian case, all of us Debian Developers have full access to the debian-private history so we can all verify the authenticity of the messages. I've never worked for Red Hat and I've never been to Brno so there is no easy way for me to verify an email and publish it on my blog.

Furthermore, in the case of Frans Pop, it is hard to deny a connection to Debian because he resigned to commit suicide the night before the Debian Day anniversary. Red Hat employs 1180 people in Brno, that is a large enough number that if one person did commit suicide it may be completely unrelated to their workplace.

The Czech statistics office has shared some interesting revelations about suicide in the Czech Republic (and similar reports in Czech media).

The largest number of suicides last year was in Brno, at fifty.

Most significantly, Brno (Moravia) in the Czech republic has a rising suicide rate. There were 36 the year before Red Hat arrived. In recent years it is in the mid to high 50s.

However, there is no way we can go back in time, remove Red Hat and see if the suicide rate would have been any lower. In such a hypothetical world, we may well find that the suicide rate would rise more quickly if Red Hat was not there. We simply have no way to know whether Red Hat pushed the rate up or if their presence is helping to keep it from rising further.

Yet in many other regions of the Czech republic, the rate has come down.

Secondly, the experts started to notice suicides with guns. Previously, people had used other methods to end their life, like jumping into the Macocha Abyss.

Now there are also cases of suicide with a gun. There are also more and more bizarre acts, such as jumping into electric wires or under a moving train. It can truly be said that drastic methods of death are increasing

The United States Center for Disease Control (CDC) identifies firearms are the most common method of suicide in Red Hat's home country. Surely this proves some connection? Not quite. In fact, there was a massive influx of guns in the region due to the Balkan wars. Many of those guns found their way into the black market in Eastern European countries.

Recently, we've seen evidence of Red Hat pursuing an aggressive law suit against a volunteer to shut down WeMakeFedora.org. There is a high correlation between bullying and suicides.

Then there are reports about Red Hat killing CentOS. But CentOS is software.

One of the more alarming stories concerns a Red Hat employee who came home from work to find his partner had committed suicide while he was at work. This isn't a story that I can verify. In fact, there are similar stories from many of the more obscure cities where ex-pat wives and girlfriends are excluded from a meaningful career. The employer is not necessarily at fault.

Nonetheless, while I didn't see any evidence that Red Hat is responsible, I feel that anybody who thinks about moving to Brno with their wife or girlfriend will want to think about what the statistics office have confirmed: it is one of the only regions in the Czech republic where the suicide rate is rising.

Raw data: Czech statistics office: find 130068 : Demographic Yearbook of Regions of the Czech Republic - local copy

List of Open Source volunteer suicides and accidents