Toolbox

Ads for rum giveaways not appropriate in this culture

Dear Editor,

The colourful advertisements for the El Dorado Chutney Masala rum giveaways are an insult to those women and men who have suffered as a result of the rum-drinking culture in Guyana and the rest of the Caribbean.

The prominent displays of ‘official rum’ are also a slap in the face of those who struggle to curb alcohol consumption in Guyana.

What is even uglier, is that there is no shame, no remorse in DDL targeting the rural Indian people. Chutney is one of the products of the rural Indian experience in the Caribbean. Is it so important to the Caribbean, that we will blindly ignore in this review of culture, that rum has to play this dominance? Doesn’t El Dorado have enough prominence already in the lives of those people, especially Chutney lovers, who have suffered through alcohol?

Once again, the government seems to have compromised on a commitment by the Ministry of Health to review alcohol advertising and the use of private sector funds to promote alcohol use. Surely the Indian supported government and the El Dorado sellers know that there is no such thing as drinking responsibly for many of the people. Ambiguous messages have not worked.

Or is that because people have started to drink responsibly that El Dorado has to get people to drink more of it?

Caribbean culture is rife with the caricatures of the ‘drunken Indian man.’ Few Indo-Caribbean works exist which do not refer to the problems of alcohol use in the lives of the Indian people in the Caribbean. Instead of using Carifesta X to change the culture, to show that it is possible to enjoy Chutney without rum as many have learnt to do, the government and DDL seem to be helping to reinforce the destruction of more lives of people, especially of Indian origin.

Yours faithfully,
Vidyaratha Kissoon

Comments

About Comments

We thank all readers who have contributed to this site since its relaunch. This section of the website is intended to provide a forum for reasoned and reasonable debate on the newspaper's content and we hope that readers make full use of it as many have already done.

The comments section is an extension of the newspaper and what it has become well known for over its history: accuracy, balance and fairness.
In recent weeks a large proportion of the comments posted have contained attacks on other users, slander, coarse language and profanity. Comments of these types will be deleted.
Comments which contain gratuitous and incendiary references to race and ethnicity will be struck.
We reserve the right to edit/delete comments for length, any libel and taste. We moderate all comments so be patient while your message waits to be approved.
Curious about the little images next to each commenter's name ? Go here and sign up using the same email address you used to register for Stabroeknews.com then upload your image and confirm it.

3 Responses to “Ads for rum giveaways not appropriate in this culture”

miltonbruce
on August 19th, 2008 2:01 pm

Well said Vidyaratha, I have been calling for a ban on the DEMON for a long time.

[Reply to this]
vatvic
on August 19th, 2008 10:19 pm

Ridiculous, why not seek to sanction the elimination of the Bud, or JB and Coke, schupps, I use a occasional shot or two or three so does that make me less a person? Go target the actual abusers and leave the non-volatile product alone.
A better effort would be to eliminate the enormous amount of trans fats that are being served to the nation.

[Reply to this]
bishnu R
on August 20th, 2008 6:35 pm

THE ONTARIO GOVER. BANED SMOKING IN PUBLIC PLACES BUT NOT THE SALES OF CIG,

TAXES , THINK,
IT IS STRANGE COMMING FROM YOU milton you used to work for a rum company .

[Reply to this]