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Drinking beer and other alcoholic beverages make you sexier, more witty and suave, grown up and sophisticated and are a must if you are to socialise effectively. Drinking these beverages is also a sign of success - it shouts to all and sundry, "I have made it, I am a success!"

Without drinking beer and other alcoholic beverages, your life would inevitably be boring and unexciting. You would not be able to socialise and everyone would realise what a failure you had made of your life.

Members of the opposite sex would find you unattractive boring and completely unglamorous. In short life would not be worth living. No function whether a wedding celebration or a funeral would be complete without beer or some form of alcohol. No birthday or engagement party could flow with all the guests feeling ‘mellow’ without basking in the warm glow of beer and other alcoholic beverages. And of course every good host wants their guests to leave praising their party and how can they do that if they were not served with copious amounts of booze?

In short alcohol is the lubricant that relieves the stress in our otherwise unbearable lives. Beer allows us to 'unwind' after a hard day's work; a time to meet with 'the boys' Sports too would be incomplete without this lubricant especially ‘manly’ sports like rugby.

This is the Kenyan way, this is how I grew up so you can like it or lump it. Put up or shut up! You don't drink alcohol? You are weird. There must be something wrong with you! You are an oddball. A freak You don't fit into Kenyan society. People glance askance at you. So you have to drink and suddenly you are part of the in crowd. You are accepted. 'Wewe ni mmoja wao' (You are one of them!)

But what about all the horror stories you have heard about alcoholics and people who drink until they lose their families, jobs and even their lives? What about them? They also drink beer and other alcoholic beverages. I don’t want to end up like that.

No, no you are told. Those people are the 'irresponsible drinkers'. Those are the 'alcohol abusers'. If they drank 'responsibly' and did not 'abuse' alcohol they would have no problems. It is not the alcohol's fault. Anything taken to excess is bad even food.

True, you nod to yourself as you shudder at the word abusers. It brings to mind child abusers, women abusers, sexual abusers and of course (shudder) drug abusers! In our minds, the word 'abuser' is associated with the vilest of human behavior.

What if I were to tell you beer is a drug. Alcohol is a drug. I can see you shaking your head vehemently. What about all the statements above? Beer makes you 'cool', 'mmoja wao' it makes me feel good - its legal.

Tobacco fits the above description yet it is a drug. Heroin fits the above description except it is illegal. All the reasons to drink beer and other alcoholic beverages given above is a message which has been drummed into us by the brewers, vintners and distillers in an effort to sell their products.

Kenya Breweries Ltd. (KBL) sells millions of liters of beer every month. But they want to sell more and more. Why? Like any other business profit is the name of the game. They are not a charity or philanthropic organisation. Nor is any other manufacturer of alcoholic beverages in Kenya or elsewhere in the world. They are all in it for maximum profits.

However there is a problem as beer indeed alcoholic beverages are not your run of the mill household product. It has severe side effects, including death. So how are you going to pass it off as a necessity instead of the luxury it is?

How are you going to explain away, the brawls, domestic violence, family disintegration, increase in HIV/AIDs, crime, rape, murder, school disturbances, accidents, un-planned pregnancies, increased school drop out rates, un-productive employees, child abuse - the list is endless - and other incidents all related to or caused by the use of alcohol? How are you to explain the maiming and death caused by the use of this product?

The manufacturers of these drinks came up with a novel though tragic solution. Shift the blame a way from the product. Turn the focus away from the product onto something or someone else. A scapegoat was needed and one that would effectively and convincingly explain away all the above side effects.

Enter the unsuspecting alcoholic grappling with his own confusion and personal demons haunting him and filling him with guilt about the effects of his or her own drinking on themselves and those they love. Here was a perfect vehicle to carry the distraction and focus away from their product.

Thus with one brilliant stroke the brewers and manufacturers of other beverages managed to shift attention away from the drug alcohol, to the individual in this case the problem drinkers and mainly, alcoholics.

They also came up with the language necessary for this new scenario. It consisted of terms like 'responsible drinking' and 'alcohol abusers'. Note however that no mention of 'alcoholics' is made. Because by using the word alcoholic, their newfound strategy would be shot down, as that would be tantamount to recognising that alcoholism is a disease! Therefore the issue of irresponsible or abuse does not arise. This of course could not do.

You cannot tell a bhang (cannabis sativa) addict to smoke responsibly. You cannot tell a heroin addict to 'shoot up' or 'snort' responsibly. They are not abusing bhang or heroin, they are addicted to it. An alcoholic is not abusing alcohol he or she is addicted to it.

I was not abusing alcohol. I am addicted to it. So the only way out was to stop using it. Once I did the change was miraculous. The fact that I am sitting here on a Friday (member’s day) typing out this article, sober, is testimony to this fact.

But for every recovering alcoholic many are still drinking and suffering or are dead. The families of those who are still alive, suffer immensely. From property sold of at throw away prices, to domestic violence, traumatised children, spouses who are breadwinners losing jobs and thus throwing these family units into chaos, they still prefer to suffer silently than to admit they have an alcoholic family member. The shame and stigma attached they feel is greater than the suffering they are undergoing.

So they suffer on silently trying all manner of 'cures' and in the process enriching hundreds of quacks that claim to be able to ‘heal’ alcoholics and rid them of the desire to drink. Many die without ever having known there was help at hand.

The brewers and distillers also found an unexpected ally in the church who condemn alcoholics as drunkards and sinners. People who are morally weak and who could easily stop if they wanted but who simply do not have the 'willpower' to. They completely overlook the fact that a drunkard could stop if he would, while an alcoholic would stop if he could. The church in Kenya in short has mainly failed to recognise alcoholism as a disease and this to the glee of booze manufacturers.

It is time to get the focus back on the product alcohol and not the alcoholic. For as long as the stigma agenda is pursued alcoholics and their families will continue to suffer and die in silence while the drug alcohol continues to wreak havoc in our midst and the manufacturers laugh all the way to the bank!

I who a short time ago was deemed 'beyond salvage' and 'hopeless' is now back on track with life. As a bonus I have one advantage over you. I now know that beer is a drug. I now know that all alcoholic beverages are drugs. I now know what havoc they are capable of creating. In short I have learnt to beware and be aware of the drug alcohol. What you know can't hurt you. For it is alcohol which is the 'abuser' of man. I can only tell you that with firm authority. Whether you answer or not, like the stone was told "I know you have heard!"

David Ogot Sr.
20th June 2003
Nairobi, Kenya

David Ogot is a freelance journalist/producer who has personal experience with alcoholism. He can be reached at ‘goinghomedotcom@yahoo.com’ or info@goinghomedotcom.org

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