Alcohol, and self-righteousness

Alcoholism is a big problem here in Bundibugyo. I see it all the time: men stumbling down the road, sometimes even in the middle of the day, carrying the little square plastic bags in which liquor is sold. It’s a problem for a number of reasons. It consumes a lot of money that is usually hard earned and could be used to feed and clothe the family, or to pay school fees. In a place of intense need, it’s hard to see so much money used on alcohol. It’s also bad for domestic relationships, as drunk men may often return home and beat their wives or children. Men also deal with a lot of health problems related to long-term alcohol abuse. This is something we struggle with when employing people – while I am helping them to support their family by giving them work, I may also be further enabling their alcohol problem. It’s hard to know how to address that, since I can’t control how people will use the money they have earned, no matter how much I’d like to.

It’s very easy to decry men for their drunkenness here. It’s easy to judge, to blame them for wasting money that their families desperately need. But then I have a thought – in their place, how different would I be? If my children were always sick, if some of them had died, if I’d lost my wife, if I had to beg, if food was always short, if I couldn’t give my kids a decent education, if I was unable to provide for my family, I think that some way to escape that harsh reality would be extremely attractive. If I were unable to be the competent provider that a man “should” be (for any number reasons, including those out of an individual’s control, such rapid population growth and soaring food prices), if my very identity as a man were compromised, I bet that some way to leave that behind would be hard to resist. Under those circumstances, would I be any different? Would I have better self-control? As you can guess, I can’t be sure of the answer, but I’m thinking it’s probably no.

So, as I struggle with how to think about the chronic drunkenness that is so often a problem here, I have to keep a frightening reality in the front of my mind. That could just as easily be me. In those circumstances, I might spend that money on a way to escape too. That’s a good realization to help me understand others, and a scary realization as I think about myself. So, I still need to struggle against the rampant alcohol abuse here, but I need to try to do so without the self-righteousness that is so hard to escape.