Beer and football, rum and cricket

The alcohol industry has great power in the way it uses sport to market a product that is destructive to many persons

FIFA GS Jerôme Valcke from http://www.cbc.ca/sports/soccer/brazil2014/fifa-official-amazed-by-brazil-world-cup-drunkenness-1.2694273

One of the side stories about Brazil's hosting of the World Cup Football is that Brazil had to lift an 11 year ban on alcohol sales in its stadiums - causing violence. Budweiser is a sponsor of the football. There are no reports available of any of the violence, but last week in Brazil , Fifa’s Jérôme Valcke reportedly told a media outlet that he was unhappy with the amount of alcohol in grounds. ‘’I was amazed by the number of people who were drunk and the level of alcohol. It’s a surprise.”   This apparently must be good for Budweiser and others because Brazil also has to waive the taxes on the alcohol sales for the Partners.

And In Guyana , Limacol CPL management tell us that "The LimacolCPL is the Biggest Party in Sport, and you can’t have a party in the Caribbean without rum! " (Guyana Times June 11 2014) and we are told again that DDL /El Dorado Rum will be an integral part of the CPL.

In 2011, defender of Guyana's soverignty Minister Manickchand partnered with the alcohol industry to host her Feminition event. Since that partnership, there has been no aggressive campaign by the alcohol industry to stop the sale of liquor to children - and there have been small prosecutions of persons without licenses.   There are no publicly funded easily accessible alcoholic rehabiltation programmes - it is more easy to access the alcohol industry than it is to access any rehab and perhaps it is that since the alcohol industry thrives on alcoholism, there is an unwritten part of the partnership arrangement.

 

It can be no surprise then, in the partnership arrangements which the alcohol industry enters into, that even as Guyanese are encouraged to party with rum, we as a society continue to be overwhelmed by the violence, the destruction of livelihoods and the health care costs associated with legal drugs which apparently represent "the Spirit of Guyana" (Kaieteur News 6 July, 2014)

But party with rum we must !

(This was also published as a Letter to the Editor in the Stabroek News and Kaieteur News ) 

A woman told me about a school on the East Bank near Grove and a shop nearby which sells liquor the children. She has seen the children drunk several times and made reports to the police.