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PHOTO: www.medafricatimes.com |
“As the standard
of living roared in those years in Kenya, alcoholism soared,” Dr Moyo, the Eliminate
National Drinking (END) campaigner, continued. “Alcohol-related deaths statistics
shattered families like broken promises. Each digit was a person, a family
affected, a tragedy…”
There was a
gasp in the audience and he paused to let what he had said sink in.
“Politicians
are wired to make good decisions about tragedies when faced with mathematics
reducing their voter base. They did not need to engage with people on a human
scale, make eye contact, touch, hug, and empathize. They sequestered themselves
in high-end hotels and made laws that banned drinking at certain hours; banned bootleggers
and chang’aa, booze affordable by the
common mwananchi; and established
agencies and police units to combat the drinking problem in the country, but speakeasies
and bootleggers who used the lethal embalming fluid used in mortuaries in
producing illicit brews were everywhere. Few people followed the law.
“Despite
legislative attempts to curb drinking, Kenya still faced its greatest threat
from alcohol abuse. Calamities associated with excessive intoxication—dementia,
seizures, liver disease, infertility, blindness and deaths occasioned by
illicit brews—did nothing to deter users. School-going children joined the
party. So, the government started enforcing it differently—poisoning the alcohol
used in breweries using highly concentrated methyl alcohol, kerosene, gasoline,
and chloroform.
“The country was
a picture of alcoholism. Families shattered: husbands and wives relocated to
drinking dens, children went home to no food and went to school with empty
stomachs, and adults were either listless or violent.
“Everything
decayed: the housing, the streets, the minds. It was a cycle of pain, each
generation damaging the next and all for poisons their bodies craved…”
“Doc,” a voice
interjected. “Weren’t the addicts treated?”
“Of course they
were,” the doctor said. “But the alcohol treatment was a joke. It was all about
the drinking and nothing for problem that drove the people to drink in the
first place. When the soul is arid and weary, when darkness comes and you have
nowhere to go, alcohol is tough to resist. It made the treatment as effective
as telling a hungry person not to eat...
“Another
question, doctor,” a girl in the front row said. “How did it end then? Today
there are no cases of alcohol and drug abuse, rehab centres are schools, like
ours.”
“People saw
where they were going wrong. Teen alcohol and drug abuse was how our society
was being knocked down. Who can think of global issues when their child has
been stolen from them? The war on drugs had been false for so long, the laws
against them were a smokescreen for protecting the drug lords. Those who sold
alcohol to school children were not prosecuted. Addicts were treated as
criminals not as victims. The government imposed taxes on the drinks instead funding
the worst in society. Anyone who wanted to expose the drug lords were killed.
It worked every time until people learnt that thinking differently is good,
that problems are only solved by new approaches, that keeping doing the same
things over and over is a form of societal neurosis, change was just a dream.
“Everyone
realized that in this world there are many sensitive souls that need help to
thrive. We need to see them as fellows of our kind, ones with gifts from the
divine as much as ourselves. When it is most challenging to give love we should
be taking that as a signal to give more. Wounds are healed by love, compassion
and caring, genuine support. Do that and your addict will find it easier to
cast away the drugs…”
Nice read Vincent.
ReplyDeleteThank you my unknown reader, I appreciate you reading and comment. Read more.
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