School-funded drinking? It worked for Chile
Carolina Rodriguez
Issue date: 3/27/07 Section: Opinion
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Last Friday, I went with some friends to a party on the beach. No, I didn't attend an MTV sponsored party of debauchery in Cancun, Mexico. I went on an annual start of the semester event sponsored by my Jesuit university in Santiago, Chile, where I am studying abroad. Other than that difference in sponsors, you may think I was in Cancun.
A series of about 20 buses escorted us students to a beautiful beach in a small town about an hour and a half outside of the city. The all day marathon of drinking began on the bus ride. It is one thing to discretely take sips of alcohol and another to light up cigarettes on the bus, which nearly everyone did and drank very non-discretely.
The scene could not have been better; vibrant blue green water with music and a stage on one end of the beach and porter-johns lined up at the other. Though the water was cool and tempting, no one got in. Men in black and lifeguards in red were ready to enforce that fact.
As soon as we pulled into the area my friend and I realized that this would never happen in the United States. Think of the liability issues! All day heavy drinking on a beach with water that students could potentially drown in. That'd never fly.
One of the first reasons why this would never happen at our college, or any other American one, is the obvious difference in drinking ages; it is 18 to drink here. It may be possible to make it similar to a "Senior 50s" because of our 21 and over law, but certainly would not be open to the whole school like Friday's event was. Even if the encouraging under-aged drinking argument was thrown out, there is still that of encouraging binge drinking. I could easily see organizations like MADD and SADD all over that event.
Then there is the issue of the alcohol containers themselves. Most alcohol comes in glass bottles; pisco (basically the national liqueur), 40 ounce bottles of beer, vodka. Glass around drunk people is like glass around children; it's an accident waiting to happen. They could be easily broken and cut someone accidentally or purposefully in a drunken brawl.
A series of about 20 buses escorted us students to a beautiful beach in a small town about an hour and a half outside of the city. The all day marathon of drinking began on the bus ride. It is one thing to discretely take sips of alcohol and another to light up cigarettes on the bus, which nearly everyone did and drank very non-discretely.
The scene could not have been better; vibrant blue green water with music and a stage on one end of the beach and porter-johns lined up at the other. Though the water was cool and tempting, no one got in. Men in black and lifeguards in red were ready to enforce that fact.
As soon as we pulled into the area my friend and I realized that this would never happen in the United States. Think of the liability issues! All day heavy drinking on a beach with water that students could potentially drown in. That'd never fly.
One of the first reasons why this would never happen at our college, or any other American one, is the obvious difference in drinking ages; it is 18 to drink here. It may be possible to make it similar to a "Senior 50s" because of our 21 and over law, but certainly would not be open to the whole school like Friday's event was. Even if the encouraging under-aged drinking argument was thrown out, there is still that of encouraging binge drinking. I could easily see organizations like MADD and SADD all over that event.
Then there is the issue of the alcohol containers themselves. Most alcohol comes in glass bottles; pisco (basically the national liqueur), 40 ounce bottles of beer, vodka. Glass around drunk people is like glass around children; it's an accident waiting to happen. They could be easily broken and cut someone accidentally or purposefully in a drunken brawl.
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