WHO: Alcohol kills more than AIDS, TB or violence

"Alcohol causes nearly 4 percent of deaths worldwide, more than AIDS, tuberculosis or violence, according to the World Health Organization.

In Russia and the Commonwealth of Independent States (CIS), every fifth death is due to harmful drinking, the highest rate. Binge drinking, which often leads to risky behavior, is now prevalent in Brazil, Kazakhstan,, Mexico, Russia, South Africa and Ukraine, and rising elsewhere, according to the WHO.

Alcohol consumption rates vary greatly, from high levels in developed countries, to the lowest in North Africa, sub-Saharan Africa, and southern Asia, whose large Muslim populations often abstain from drinking.

In France and other European countries with high levels of adult per capita consumption, heavy episodic drinking is rather low, suggesting more regular but moderate drinking patterns."

source: Reuters

The glue of the societySocial strcurture of Congolese villages and mass rape during the war

Another horrifying observations on mass rapes in Congo by a photographer Marcus Bleadsdale. The author mentions the role of women in a Congolese society. Women tend to make 95% of work, which is important to the community: raising children, educating them, planticg, harvesting etc.
Raped women often loose their social position and become excluded from their communities.
The whole situation makes me think about the gender division of labour.What is the role of the male in the Congolese rural society? I don´t really understad it. It seems to have a strong link to the situation in rural Russia where the male population is de facto not participating on the social life beacuse of mass alcoholosm. The women there also tend to be major force due to the village subsitence economy.

Dutch clinic helps alcoholics by 'binding them with beer'

'Open since last October, Centrum (Centre) Maliebaan in the central Dutch city of Amersfoort allows its residents to drink up to five litres of beer on the premises every day, with an hour between each 500 ml (half-quart) serving. It goes through nearly 4,000 half-litre cans every month, bought at wholesale prices and sold with no mark-up.
"Our main goal is to stop binge drinking: it is better for the individual and for his environment," the centre's psychiatrist Eugene Schouten told AFP on a recent visit to the centre, which he believes to be a first for Europe.'
view the AFP article

The idea sounds rational. Some psychiatrists mention that being guilty is a very important part of the alcoholic´s 'social role'. If drinking is allowed it´s much harder to feel guilty. "Here I can drink a beer in the morning without anyone laughing at me or calling me names," a patient says.