Friday, December 11, 2009

Socio-Cultural Issues: Excessive Drinking in Ireland

Thought people might find this BBC Article interesting.

A particularly difficult social issue in Ireland is the excessive drinking habits that Irish culture instils and propagates amongst the youth. Believe it or not, one of the major reasons for Irish binge drinking habits can be traced back to the Irish 'church rule' culture that dominated the minds and hearts of the peoples here for centuries. It's not an argument I will get into here but if interested I recommend the works of noted Irish sociologist Tom Inglis.

Despite numerous attempts the government to curb this facet of society (like raising alcohol taxes, 'shock factor' television ads [NB: this is an English ad but the message is still the same]) I don't think many would argue that binge drinking has decreased in any significant proportion any time recently. An unfortunate but concurrent side effect is that deaths due to drink driving are relatively common. Now the name of my blog is Ireland via Chile, so it would be unfair of me not to compare with my home country. Drink driving is also a very relevant problem back home, but in contrast to Ireland, the mortality rate isn't as high and as such it is not as high up on the social agenda.

The points I wish to make here are of a analytical and observational approach respectively.

1. In relation to the socio-cultural aspect of binge drinking - I can see no way of changing this without a complete overhaul of Irish values and norms. All the way from the top of the top of societal leaders to the most 'average joe' and the bottom rings of society. I had an argument once with an Irish person where they a) laughed about the fact that their leader (then Bertie Ahern) had once been photographed coming out of a pub visibly intoxicated and b) would not accept that Chile's president (Michelle Bachelet) does not occasionally get drunk in her spare time. The attitude that it's ok for people in powerful positions to drink excessively (Ahern is still viewed as a 'man of the people' and this just further endeared him to many - though not all) is frankly absurd, and I won't get into why as I deem these reasons to be fairly self evident.

2. The second point - deaths on the road. Why here more than some other places? Infrastructure is my best argument. At best, it's difficult to navigate Irish roads when sober, in the day time, with no traffic. Many countries have based their road infrastructure on the Roman chess board model (in other words it's a grid) and I think this really contributes to road safety (not only in relation to drink driving) as it minimizes confusion whilst maximizing flow of traffic.

Can a drinking problem be solved by any forceful means like the Australians are trying this weekend (refer to the BBC article above)? Or does the discourse of daily lives have to, unequivocally, change? As always; food for thought.

Manuel