Latest update April 19th, 2024 12:59 AM
May 25, 2019 Editorial
The first thing to be said about a sober bar is that it is not a contradiction in terms. According to an article of the same name (the full caption is: “The rise of the sober bar”) from the BBC dated May 13, by Margaret Eby such a startling hybrid does exist.
These creations are becoming more and more popular in known watering locales like the Getaway in Greenpoint, Brooklyn; the Redemption Bar (three branches) in swinging London and, believe it or not, the not-so-well labeled, but provocatively called, Virgin Mary in Dublin, Ireland of all places. It is the early stages in the beginning of a global trend.
Guyana could benefit enormously should such a trend take hold here, no matter how meager the appeal and traction at the inception. There are already well-established juice bars and coffee bars, which are well attended.
Sports bars do not count. What is sure to count with more and more Guyanese, and just like the small wave gathering some horsepower on different places on the map, is the total absence of alcohol, and anything remotely related to alcohol.
Things are so straight-laced and puritanical that the surroundings in sober bars are completely alcohol free. There are no non-alcoholic beverages, as those do have a few miniscule drops (0.5% by volume). Teetotalers would have been very much at home in the alcohol-free environment and ambience.
The latter is so stringent that even the aroma of booze-sometimes heady, other times repulsive-is also noticeably missing. This might be one tough sale for liquor soaked local citizens.
After all, in Guyana, alcohol is culture; alcohol is family; alcohol is history. Although in these so-called modern days, cool and chic have stepped away somewhat from that liquid monopoly through the new arrivals of illegal hard drugs like cocaine, softer ones currently just as illicit, like cannabis, and the frightening presence (illegal, too) of pharmaceuticals such as Ecstasy and others from that toxic tree.
To be sure, a dent has been registered, especially with the well-heeled younger set, in national hold of alcohol. But it is still king of this hazy, addled, and hungover Congo by the Atlantic.
It is manly and empowering, with the surrender of good sense and inhibitions now first intriguing and then luring increasing numbers of women, and from very tender ages. The introduction of sober bars could give place and opportunity for socialization, relaxation, conversation, and healthy continuation. This society’s relationship with alcohol has been long and very loving; it is going to be inestimably difficult to reverse that legacy.
This is notwithstanding failures and addictions, the evidence of which litters the streets and communities.
Individuals, families, communities, commerce, and society all have paid some brutal prices for that now near inseparable and irresistible attraction. There is a trail of broken homes, domestic abuse and violence, self-inflicted poverty, loss of man hours, loss of skills, loss of motivation and pride and self-esteem.
And added to these are the fatal and maiming accidents (particularly of the hit-and-run variety), the not infrequent alcohol-fueled batteries and murders. It has been a terrible and still unmeasured toll, and with the true cost of the accumulated damage still unknown. It cuts across all segments and strata of local society, be they urban or rural, rich or poor, educated or unlearned, wise or ignorant.
This nation grapples feebly with the pox of alcohol; it is one that is widespread and scars the national face with red veined, glazed eyed, slack jawed disfigurements.
Sober bars may not be a cool, celebrated idea of fun for many anywhere; that would definitely be a large majority in this country.
Still, it is an idea and business undertaking whose arrival is overdue. The government could extend some incentives to encourage proliferation and, who knows, temperance.
Please share this to every Guyanese including your house cats.
Apr 19, 2024
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