I can't believe it! I had yet another article rejected! My articles are rarely rejected! I am totally batting zero this month. I think perhaps the content may have given the MOI a coronary?? I did provide a tasty recipe for an aftershave cocktail in my article..........Ooooooooooops! Any-hoo read and see for yourself. I am developing an inferiority complex!!!
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‘Cocktails’ in Kuwait
When I was a college student I really got a first hand education on the lengths people will go to not only to consume alcohol but to hide it from others as well. The college I attended boasted in its brochure that it was a ‘dry’ campus, which meant that there was a zero tolerance policy for alcohol on the campus and for drunken students returning back to the dorm. And they really enforced this policy. I knew a couple of infamous drunks on campus that seemed to ‘magically’ disappear. I later found out that they were quietly asked to leave the college or face a permanent mark on their record. They opted for leaving. As for those left behind, they found ways to beat the ‘dry’ campus policy by hiding their alcohol. I remember a student who use to go home every weekend to buy a couple bottles of alcohol and then she would smuggle it into the dorm under piles of her clean laundry. Then to evade detection she hid it in the ceiling, which was comprised of Styrofoam panels. Another student was a little more blatant. She would mix up a jug of her favorite powdered-drink mix and then pour a bottle of her favorite alcohol in it. She would keep it right in her mini-fridge and once even drank it in front of the Resident Director!
I never really thought about how people who want to drink alcohol in Kuwait do it. I just assumed that they didn’t given that alcohol is not readily available except of course on the ‘black market’. However, two incidents that I have heard about recently have shown me that some people in Kuwait are finding a way to have their alcohol and drink it too!
An online friend in Kuwait relayed the first incident to me. She always goes to a certain garden in Kuwait every weekend. And each time she goes she sees a couple of elderly men sitting at a card table playing cards. They have little mugs of Arabic tea and each time she goes she notices that they have an artificial floral centerpiece in the middle of the table. This is strange because why would anyone use a centerpiece to play cards in the garden? She just assumed maybe one of the wives had done it to make it look nice and did not think much of it again until this past weekend. While walking past the gentleman she saw one of them insert his hand into the middle of the bouquet and pull out a flask. He then topped off his Arabic tea and his friend’s too!
The next incident was also witnessed by another acquaintance of mine. And it is very disturbing. This time the setting was a local ‘bakala’. My friend had gone to pick up a few things she was missing at home in order to prepare lunch for her family. As she was bent down inspecting some vegetables a man came in and hurriedly went to the cooler. The only reason she noticed him was because his gait was a little off and he was really rushing about. He grabbed two small boxes of orange juice, 2 big glass bottles of lemonade, and then 2 bottles of aftershave. This guy was clearly out of it and immediately set to work in front of both my friend and the astonished ‘bakala’ clerk. He adeptly opened up both lemonades and dumped the contents into a nearby wastebasket. He then proceeded to mix and measure the aftershave and the orange juice equally into both bottles. The guy then grabbed both bottle of his special brew and stumbled out of the store. This case is the most alarming. A quick search on the Internet revealed the dangerous chemicals used to make after-shave and their fatal effects on the human body (when ingested). The most harmful chemicals include:
Ethyl Acetone – a narcotic that damages the liver and kidneys.
Benzyl Acetate – a carcinogen linked to Pancreatic cancer.
Limonene – a carcinogen that acts as an irritant.
Linalool – a narcotic that causes respiratory disturbances, which can lead to death.
A-Terpineol – an irritant that, when aspired into the lungs, can cause pneumonia and even death.
Depending on how often this guy whips up this deadly concoction you can rest assured he is living on borrowed time and for what?
So, what’s the solution? Should alcohol be legalized in Kuwait? I say a resounding “N0”! The main reason being, for me personally as a Muslim, is that first and foremost Islam forbids the consumption of alcohol and Kuwait is a Muslim country. Whether you are Muslim or not, I think everyone should try to abide by the set of laws for the country you reside in. Second, as the daughter of an alcoholic I have seen first hand the effects of alcoholism. My father, whom I barely knew due to the fact my parents divorced when I was an infant, drank himself to death. He died at the age of 57 due to cirrhosis of the liver. The main cause of cirrhosis, or scarring of the liver, is prolonged consumption of alcohol over the course of several years.
The Kuwaiti government needs to implement an educational program to educate the public about the effects of alcohol on the human body rather than pretend the consumption of alcohol does not exist in Kuwait. People are drinking in this country and, regardless of whether it is whiskey that was bought on the ‘black market’ or aftershave purchased locally, the problem will only get worse until the public is well-informed about the negative effects of alcohol.
When I was a college student I really got a first hand education on the lengths people will go to not only to consume alcohol but to hide it from others as well. The college I attended boasted in its brochure that it was a ‘dry’ campus, which meant that there was a zero tolerance policy for alcohol on the campus and for drunken students returning back to the dorm. And they really enforced this policy. I knew a couple of infamous drunks on campus that seemed to ‘magically’ disappear. I later found out that they were quietly asked to leave the college or face a permanent mark on their record. They opted for leaving. As for those left behind, they found ways to beat the ‘dry’ campus policy by hiding their alcohol. I remember a student who use to go home every weekend to buy a couple bottles of alcohol and then she would smuggle it into the dorm under piles of her clean laundry. Then to evade detection she hid it in the ceiling, which was comprised of Styrofoam panels. Another student was a little more blatant. She would mix up a jug of her favorite powdered-drink mix and then pour a bottle of her favorite alcohol in it. She would keep it right in her mini-fridge and once even drank it in front of the Resident Director!
I never really thought about how people who want to drink alcohol in Kuwait do it. I just assumed that they didn’t given that alcohol is not readily available except of course on the ‘black market’. However, two incidents that I have heard about recently have shown me that some people in Kuwait are finding a way to have their alcohol and drink it too!
An online friend in Kuwait relayed the first incident to me. She always goes to a certain garden in Kuwait every weekend. And each time she goes she sees a couple of elderly men sitting at a card table playing cards. They have little mugs of Arabic tea and each time she goes she notices that they have an artificial floral centerpiece in the middle of the table. This is strange because why would anyone use a centerpiece to play cards in the garden? She just assumed maybe one of the wives had done it to make it look nice and did not think much of it again until this past weekend. While walking past the gentleman she saw one of them insert his hand into the middle of the bouquet and pull out a flask. He then topped off his Arabic tea and his friend’s too!
The next incident was also witnessed by another acquaintance of mine. And it is very disturbing. This time the setting was a local ‘bakala’. My friend had gone to pick up a few things she was missing at home in order to prepare lunch for her family. As she was bent down inspecting some vegetables a man came in and hurriedly went to the cooler. The only reason she noticed him was because his gait was a little off and he was really rushing about. He grabbed two small boxes of orange juice, 2 big glass bottles of lemonade, and then 2 bottles of aftershave. This guy was clearly out of it and immediately set to work in front of both my friend and the astonished ‘bakala’ clerk. He adeptly opened up both lemonades and dumped the contents into a nearby wastebasket. He then proceeded to mix and measure the aftershave and the orange juice equally into both bottles. The guy then grabbed both bottle of his special brew and stumbled out of the store. This case is the most alarming. A quick search on the Internet revealed the dangerous chemicals used to make after-shave and their fatal effects on the human body (when ingested). The most harmful chemicals include:
Ethyl Acetone – a narcotic that damages the liver and kidneys.
Benzyl Acetate – a carcinogen linked to Pancreatic cancer.
Limonene – a carcinogen that acts as an irritant.
Linalool – a narcotic that causes respiratory disturbances, which can lead to death.
A-Terpineol – an irritant that, when aspired into the lungs, can cause pneumonia and even death.
Depending on how often this guy whips up this deadly concoction you can rest assured he is living on borrowed time and for what?
So, what’s the solution? Should alcohol be legalized in Kuwait? I say a resounding “N0”! The main reason being, for me personally as a Muslim, is that first and foremost Islam forbids the consumption of alcohol and Kuwait is a Muslim country. Whether you are Muslim or not, I think everyone should try to abide by the set of laws for the country you reside in. Second, as the daughter of an alcoholic I have seen first hand the effects of alcoholism. My father, whom I barely knew due to the fact my parents divorced when I was an infant, drank himself to death. He died at the age of 57 due to cirrhosis of the liver. The main cause of cirrhosis, or scarring of the liver, is prolonged consumption of alcohol over the course of several years.
The Kuwaiti government needs to implement an educational program to educate the public about the effects of alcohol on the human body rather than pretend the consumption of alcohol does not exist in Kuwait. People are drinking in this country and, regardless of whether it is whiskey that was bought on the ‘black market’ or aftershave purchased locally, the problem will only get worse until the public is well-informed about the negative effects of alcohol.
2 comments:
nice article...really loved it...loved the stories...and your conclusion :)
as for alcohol...I'm against legalizing it in kuwait...not coz am religious...but imagine the massacre that will happen when people can get drinks legally...
very nice article.
altho i would say that the scary ting about the bakala incident isnt necessarily the toxins in the aftershave,... if dude wants to kill himself fair enough,... but most of the time people pull up to the bakala in their cars already drunk just to top up on ice and mixer. since alot of them cant drink at home, they drink in their cars.
altho i think legalising alcohol would make it easier to control and limit the toxic chemicals being sold here now,.... i do think its too late for kuwait,... you couldnt legalise it without, as spikey said a massive death toll of drinkers and non drinkers.
saddly you cant equate it to the US in the early 20's after prohibition, cos in their case they already had a history of relatively responsible drinking,.... no such thing has ever been in existence here.
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