Dear Editor,
I have noticed that people are beginning to speak out about the abundance of rum shops around the rural villages in Guyana.
For too long this has been a plague, a disaster, a source of grief for hundreds of Guyanese families. Growing up in the rural country areas as a boy I have seen and experienced it all. The abuses are meted out to wives, children, mothers, brothers, sisters, neighbours, strangers and almost anyone in Guyanese society by men who waste their lives away on the wanton abuse of alcohol. I have seen these people trade their wives for money to purchase alcohol.
Alcoholism is more a danger to Guyanese society than AIDS, cancer, hepatitis, cholera, heart disease and blood sugar combined. I challenge the University of Guyana, Depart-ments of Sociology and Medicine to conduct studies to prove me wrong. Instead of being meaningfully employed these able-bodied (but mentally incapacitated) men sit and consume large amounts of alcohol. Then they go home to heap abuses at the family and the Guyanese people.
The government should enact legislation to make drinking less of a problem.
Here are some suggestions:
Clamp down on illegal rum shops.
Do not issue new rum shop licences.
The timing of these rum shops should be from 5:00 pm to 8:30 pm on weekdays; 5:00 to 10:00 on Saturdays and closed on Sundays.
Make it illegal to purchase any kind of alcohol from any shop. Alcohol should be sold only by government licensed business.
Raise the tax on alcohol so high that it becomes prohibitive. Currently a bottle of rum costs $500-$1000.
Tax it so it should cost $5000 per bottle. Here is a way of getting more tax and cutting back on VAT.
Increase the penalty for offences committed by people under the influence e.g. increased driving fines, increased fines for disruptive behaviour, increased fines for family abuses, etc.
Make it mandatory that alcoholics go through a rehabilitation programme. They will then have to be monitored.
Also the following infrastructure needs to be set up in these rural villages:
There must be playgrounds in good condition. Start coaching programmes for the various sports. You know how many Chanderpauls and Sarwans must have wasted their talent with the “white ball” rather than the red one?
The churches need to play a more active role in ensuring that the males participate more in family oriented fun than to waste ¾ of the salary on booze.
Job creation is important in rural areas. Lots of times people are just bored and have nothing to do but drink rum.
The government needs to be more proactive with these things. Do not let the people continue to live in abject poverty and ignorance.
It is time that the Guyanese people join together, stand up and fight alcoholism.
Yours faithfully,
Nishard Williams
