Alcoholism in Chile

Last week we discussed about social issues and we concluded that the most important social problem in Chile is inequality, which is also related to how much money somebody can have – because we know that in this country you need to have money if you want to access to good quality education, health, food, etc.-. But I think that there’s another big problem in our society and it is related to alcohol. Chilean people are known as alcoholics, this is because we drink a lot and we make up dates and opportunities to drink. I know this because I have heard some comments from my foreigner classmates and they’re impressed with our “alcoholic culture”. Yes, our identity has been created associated to alcohol since our origins. Fiestas Patrias, for example, it’s a special date in which we celebrate the first government meeting and people get crazy drinking and eating as pigs. 

Maybe this could explain why alcoholism in Chile is not so important than inequality, because we have included it to our normal life. Obviously the government has made some politics to change this like “Ley Emilia”, for example, or the IVA rising in alcohol, but it’s not enough I guess. And it’s a big problem, not only for adult people but in teenagers and young people too. For example, I know some classmates who are drunk every day and they start to drink early in the morning. And the big thing is that they can’t drink alone, they have to do it with more people and now some others classmates have started to drink excessively.

I guess that this social issue won’t change until people understand that alcohol doesn’t mean fun, and been drunk doesn’t make you look cool. We need to take out the alcohol from our identity.