Prejudice

14Feb09

I am often considered as a conservative traditional old fashioned village girl when I oppose against the much practised alcohol culture among the youths. Nevertheless we fail to understand that moderity is as much a prejudice as traditional or cultural conservativeness. We are too much inclined to follow blindly the Western culture because they are monetarily and technologically more advanced than the Eastern counterparts. We rarely realise the effect of our actions in society, people and ourselves. Moreover in a profit based economy it is of no wonder that alcohol industries which one of the largest industries in US, will be always supported by the government. Today one bottle of alcohol is cheaper than one bottle of milk or one packet of cut vegetables.  The sport event are often sponsored by different alcohol manufacturing industries. The government which gain so much revenues from alcohol industries is bound to campaign for it in the media. The alcohol industries  sell products (e.g. Vodka)  in the name of  famous personalities like Che Guevara who had once banned alcohol among his troops. While some countries campaign for alcohol, some other countries like Cube always campaign against it in mass media. 

Today when hundreds of people die due to terrorism we raise our voice to protest against it out of social consciousness. When more than one lakh people die every year because of alcohol, why does our social consciousness goes to sleep. Why don’t we start a non-cooperation movement against alcohol when just like we do against war or terrorism when we know that many more people have died because of alcohol or smoking than those that have died due to all of the wars in history combined. 

Alcohol is the largest drug addiction in US and one reason for it is its social acceptabilty. More than 40% of the families today in US are affected due to alcohol. It is the largest 3rd reason of cancer and the 3rd largest reason of mortality. Most of the domestic violence and most of the traffic accidents are attributed due to alcohol. Many people die even due to beer addiction.

Even though moderate drinking of alcohol may not be that harmful as binge drinking, accoding to WHO reports of 2004, the chances of breast cancer (both in males and females), colorectal cancer, and digestive track  cancer increases linearly due to alcohol even though the percentage being 15%-20% increment in chances of cancer for 5-7 drinks per week. Every increase in drinking category shrinks the brain by 0.25% and brain shrinkage is conducive to many other disease of  the nervous system. Some research scholar had said- “Every time we are very happy by drinking alcohol some of the brain cells are damaged” . And brain cells are the only cells in the body which do not reproduce itself. Social drinking of alcohol for prolonged period of time decreases the brain capacity so much so that people fail to do anything more than routine activities. “Alcohol not only blocks thiamin assimilation but injures the small intestine, making nutrient absorption in general very difficult”.  (http://www.vitamins-supplements.org/thiamin-deficiency.php) And thiamine deficiency causes several brain disoders and brain malfunctioning and causes diseases like beriberi and Wernicke’s encephalopathy. According to Professor Roberta Pentney of the University of Buffalo, – ” Alcohol does not kill brain cells but damages dendrites, reducing message traffic between neurons.  Even though the change is mostly reversible, neuronal structure is changed in the process.  So most function returns to normal but some does not.”  (http://www.newswise.com/articles/view/?id=alcohol.ubu) . Moreover according to WHO report every person who drinks runs the risk of health problems, dependency and intoxication. Alcohol is not compatable with more than 150 medicines and should be taken when using those medicines. Research shows that even low amount for alcohol causes cognitive impairment and as such it is illegal to drive or use heavy machinaries after drinking. In fact, researchers said low to moderate alcohol consumption may account for nearly 13 percent of the cancers of the breast, liver, rectum and upper aero-digestive tract combined. (http://blogs.kvoa.com/health/?p=447) 

Every though moderate thinking of alcohol might increase cardiovascular activity due to presence of flavonoids (specially resveratrol in red wine), the same benefit can be achieved by eating red grapies, canberries and red-berries and by doing exercises without the harmful effects of drinking. 

Moreover my people does not know how much drinking is too much. For man it is two drinks per day while for woman it is one drinks per day, many people cross this limit. There is a prolonged period of alcohol dependency or alcohol abuse which inevitably leads to alcoholism. 

Many people do not know the signs of alcohol dependency like drinking to get rid of stress, drinking to do to sleep, drinking alone, requirement of more quantity of alcohol to get high. Almost 45% of the youth between 18-25 years age group abuse alcohol.  Moderate drinking may not be as harmful as binge drinking or alcoholism by it do support the alcohol industry and the alcohol culture which helps create a society where  our children are at risk from drunk drivers, addicted criminals, over-taxed police (who are so busy with alcohol-related calls that they’re less available to respond to other emergencies), overwhelmed healthcare system and social service organisations. 

Alcohol culture is not just a personal health problem. It is a social problem and has to be eradicated at a social level. The alcohol culture which has become a symbol of status quo among the richer section of the society have lead many youths to binge drinking and alcohol dependence  since they do not know how much is too much and since many cannot control themselves. Its time to change our perspective now.

In today’s world alcohol is the greatest epidemic. As such should we not non-cooperative against the alcohol industry which mislead the teanagers and adolocents with their advertisements. Government can lay down rules like- an individual should not be allowed to buy more than one bottle of alcohol in one week. More taxation should be imposed on alcohol.  And mass media should always highlight its ill affects. Banning of alcohol advertisements is also necessary. And above all it is the citizens that should campaign and protest against it. We have heard enough of our fundamental rights to drink and enjoy. We now want to hear of our fundamental duty towards the society which has given us the right to drink at its own risks. Let us strive to make the world a better place to live in.

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Tags: rights and responsibilities