Attitudes toward Alcoholism in the DR

[minerva_feliz]

If you've lived here long enough in a more rural area, surely you've come to know (and perhaps love) the local borracho (drunk). They can be found stumbling down the street on a Thursday at 10 a.m. with a bottle of Brugal blanco or perhaps some cleren if they are low on cash. Some are funny and harmless, others will launch a rock or bottle if provoked. Still others are less visible and relegate their heavy drinking to nearly every night they have some money around a domino table.

Of course alcoholics come from all classes, age groups, etc., but those are the ones I've been exposed to. Three things that I have observed have made me interested in better understanding more about alcoholism in the context of the DR. First, an article (one of countless with the same story) that talks about how a man drank himself to death over a period of several days right in front of his family. Apparently they didn't stop him.

Agricultor que tenían días bebiendo ron, muere intoxicado en el Enriquillo : Cuatriboliao.Net

The second thing was that once while attending a burial, I noticed an fresh grave in the earth with a simple cross reading "Nacho" and an empty bottle of rum neatly sitting on top of the mound. When I asked around about the story of Nacho, I was told that he was an old drunk and that on his deathbed, his dying words were 'give me another shot of Brugal'. So his drinking buddies continue to comply by going to his grave and dumping a little.

Finally, in one small town a man left the bar drunk. His friends knew he shouldn't have been driving, but after he insisted they handed him the key to his moto. He crashed down the road on a sharp curve into a telephone pole and died. An elderly local woman claims that she was in that spot just half an hour earlier, and an 'evil black dwarf' appeared to her and said 'the next person that passes through this curve will die', and so some people attribute his death to that and NOT to the fact that he was drunk and driving.

So, what do Dominicans think about alcoholism? What does this have to do with the drinking culture? Is it viewed clinically as a disease? Is there any type of intervention approaches involved, do people take a lassiez-faire stance, or are they outright enablers? Has anybody, government or otherwise, done anything to deal with the prevalence of alcoholism in the DR?

So many social problems are caused by or inter-related with alcohol (poverty, gender based and family violence of all types, motor and vehicle accidents, etc.), yet it seems no one wants to point the finger at alcohol.

[dv8]

DR alcohol culture is different than european, that's for sure. in poland one sees drunks every day, they pass out on the grass in parks or on benches in the middle of the city. usually men, middle aged or old. in england one sees lots of young people sloshed beyond belief, vomiting on the street, being loud and vulgar.
i have been in DR over 3 years and i have seen none of that. sure, people drink and they drink a lot but i have never seen folks drunk off their arse.

[bachata]

Thanks God, thanks Bill W. and DR. Bob thousands of Dominican are recuperating of alcoholism, we have meetings of AA every day in most of the important cities.

JJ

[Chirimoya]

Originally Posted by dv8

DR alcohol culture is different than european, that's for sure. in poland one sees drunks every day, they pass out on the grass in parks or on benches in the middle of the city. usually men, middle aged or old. in england one sees lots of young people sloshed beyond belief, vomiting on the street, being loud and vulgar.
i have been in DR over 3 years and i have seen none of that. sure, people drink and they drink a lot but i have never seen folks drunk off their arse.

I agree, but please make the distinction between Northern and Southern European drinking culture.

[jrhartley]

there used to be a bigger difference between northern and southern European drinking, I think they have lessened the gap

[TOOBER_SDQ]

While living in Trinidad I quickly noticed the high cost of basic items; food, rent, fuel etc. Pretty much everything was expensive for locals with the exception of rum.

I commented about this observation of mine to a Trini friend one evening. I will never forget his response…. “…. The Government keeps the rum cheap which makes the people happy, so they forget how miserable they’re lives are…”

I thought about it for a while and found myself thinking that his statement could be plausible. I imagine that a population distracted and submissive to drink is a population which is easier to control.

[suarezn]

There's an old Johnny Ventura song that goes "Que se acabe el arroz, la leche y la gasolina...pero el ron que no se acabe porque esa es mi medicina" - Basically it says "I don't care if we run out of rice, milk or gas as long as there's rum". That kind of sums up the attitude that exists in The DR.

You grow up drinking and encouraged to drink by everyone starting with your immediate family. To be fair I do prefer the relaxed attitude we have towards drinking vs. the hypocritical attitude that exists here in The US where you can go fight in Afghanistan at 18, shoot a gun at pretty much any age, but you can't have a beer until you're 21.

In my family my dad used to say "Si no bebe no es Reyes" (If he/she doesn't like alcohol then he/she's probably not a Reyes - our last name).

The levels of tolerance are very different. I've known many people (including some in my own family) who here in The US would probably be considered alcoholics, yet in The DR they're just people who love to party...almost every day...I think it goes with our live and let live attitude where as long as you're not hurting anyone everybody is just going to let you do whatever you wish.

[jalencastro]

Originally Posted by TOOBER_SDQ

While living in Trinidad I quickly noticed the high cost of basic items; food, rent, fuel etc. Pretty much everything was expensive for locals with the exception of rum.

I commented about this observation of mine to a Trini friend one evening. I will never forget his response…. “…. The Government keeps the rum cheap which makes the people happy, so they forget how miserable they’re lives are…”

I thought about it for a while and found myself thinking that his statement could be plausible. I imagine that a population distracted and submissive to drink is a population which is easier to control.

There was a similar thesis I came across by a student at Berkeley [CA] about malt liquor and drinking amongst the 'urban' neighborhoods in big cities in the US. It was a long study/observation on the commercials and advertising of such products and how it was directed towards a certain audience.
I am beggining to believe this theory and your friend's statement. Keep the common people happy and drink their problems away...and malt liquor is very cheap indeed!

[jrhartley]

people check into rehab in America if they have two snowballs at Christmas instead of the usual one.

[pedrochemical]

Whatever happened to binge drinking?
I still practice the art occasionally.
Getting rip-roaring drunk is a fine thing to do now and again.

Whilst living in Italy I drank like the Italians - Sambuca with my espresso in the morning, glass of wine for lunch, evening meal would involve an aperativo, wine with the meal, a digestivo, and a few beers afterward. Oh, and the odd Grappa. And doing this I never got sloshed in those days.
The key may be to blend the two styles of drinking.

I realised at one point that the only people I knew who never drank were alcoholics.