Last year, government officials from Guanzhu, China had to face a rise of suicides on a particular bridge in the city. They were of course not preoccupied with this social issue, but rather with the traffic jams created by the disturbance. According to government spokesman Shiu Liang, they tried everything: “We tried employing guards at both ends, but that didn’t work – and we put up special fences and notices asking people not to commit suicide here. None of this worked – so now we have put butter over the bridge and it has worked very well. Nobody can get up there and anybody who tries either falls (or..?)” Clever, isn’t it?

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