Cambodia, The Heaven of Alcoholic Drinks [Opinion]

Do you know how many brands of beer, wine, and liquor are being traded in Cambodia?

Frankly I do not the exact number but I can tell that there are many!

The name can be found in letter A to Z. Maybe not every letter but many within the range from A to Z.

Noticeably, nightclubs, beer gardens, and places for drinking are also boosting but there is no accurate figure yet.

The increasing in the numbers of such clubs and entertainment places is a signal showing that Cambodia is becoming a heaven of alcohol at present.

Photo from flickr.com/photos/colodio/150629010/

And for this matter, there are many things we should worry about.

It is not a big issue for how many brands are being traded locally now; the point is that alcohol consumption has also been encouraged through various forms of advertisement every day: official Medias TV, radio, big poster in public place and so on, are happily advertising variety of alcoholic drinks local products and imported.

The encouragement tends to change people perception to drinking is good for health, to be socialized, and to be rich (with their madness prize and lucky draw).

People behavior toward alcohol consumption has changed.

In the past, they enjoyed drinking for only special occasion. But now it becomes a habit for most Cambodian.

What is to be worry about is the increasing number of youth who are drinking.

They are the future human resources for this developing nation. Drinking becomes a habit for those people. Teenager enjoys drinking since their very young age.

More and younger people start to take up drinking and get addicted to it.

The increasing of availability to find the place for consumption is another encouragement.

You can even find alcoholic drink almost at every grocery store in the city and even in the rural areas, you can find a stance selling white wine in a very far-off area.

Some people argue that the advertisements seem to encourage only better off people to drink. It is thought that these more expensive advertised alcohol brands are affordable to only urban people and a few better off villagers.

They are right to say so but they are neglecting that those with less money tend to consume local product white wine which is known to be very strong. Also the white wine production has not been regulated and checked the quality and expiration date.

Cambodia is alarmed with the increase of traffic accident across the nation over the past several years. Alcohol drink is considered as a major cause to traffic accidents and social problems such as domestic violence, family conflicts and immoral gestures.

Drinking can be one of the big factors that lead to community safety issue such as gang fight and rape.

Somehow, drinking alcohol can actually decrease the risk of heart disease if you drink moderately; otherwise it causes you many health problems such as blood disease, organ failure and severe damage to your nervous system.

It is heard that Cambodia begins to ban all advertisements of alcohol drinks in public with an aim to reduce the alarming rate of traffic accidents that were merely caused by drunk drivers.

Will it work or still a mist?

Also there are TV spots showing the bad consequence of immoderate drinking that leads to traffic accident.

Is it enough?

It is not enough but at least we know that our government does take action. And there should be more and more to put in action or we just keep enjoying this heaven.