Sunday, November 04, 2007

It’s not the end of the world…..

but is it prejudice?

I have been mulling this over for a number of weeks. It may take some space and bore the hell out of you, none the less here I go.

The facts:
It is legal to purchase alcoholic beverages in licensed establishments in this province.
It is legal to consume alcohol in licensed establishments, in the privacy of your home, at special licensed functions in this province.

It is socially acceptable to consume alcohol at above mentioned establishments, with some provisos. Why politicians in the past have purchase large amounts of alcohol, no big deal until it was discovered that it was tax payer’s expense [expense account].

The NLLC puts out a glossy magazine called ‘Occasions’, it has recipes for alcoholic drinks, alcohol in food, new products and the like.
Why I hear that NLLC has one store with a new ‘wine tasting’ machine. You insert a pre paid card into a slot, put a glass under a selected wine from a list of 15, press a button, plonko, you have a sample of said wine for you tasting and enjoyment. Provisos are that you can only insert the card 4 times in any given hour, if you insert it a 5th time it cuts your card off for the next hour.

So why is it that when you live on the North Coast of Labrador one may feel like some sort of pariah when one enjoys a pre dinner drink at home, whether it be a beer, sprites, wine?
Why should people feel guilty because they enjoy a nice wine every now and again? Why should people feel guilty if they become slightly inebriated, as long as they obey the law and do not annoy others?

What’s the big deal some may ask?

This may partly explain what the big deal is. In the past, if I, or any one else, wanted to make a purchase from the NLLC store in Happy Valley [and I did not want go to the expense of the 800 buck return flight] all I had to do was fax out my order.
On the order fax would be what beverages I required, the number and type of credit card, my signature and a request of how I wanted the order to be delivered to me. Here there are a number of choices. 1. You could get someone you know to pick the order up and take it to the airline of your choice [two of them]. It would then be delivered to your community either COD or you may have an account with them, or the friend would pay up front. 2. Ask the NLLC people to contact the airline of your choice to pick the order up and deliver as described above.

I and tens and tens of people have been ordering from the NLLC this way for a long long time.

So on making a small order this week I received a call from the NLLC store immediately after. No surprise as they often call back with questions or informing you of out of stoke items. I should mention that the staff at the NLLC store are always accommodating, helpful and friendly.

What was a surprise was the request [lets say] that to fill this order and future orders I was going to receive a form by fax.
The form had to be filled out by me, signed and faxed back to NLLC and would be kept on file.
The information required was my name, community, ‘I authorize NLLC yadda yadda’.
Then at the bottom I had to place a copy of a driver’s license or MCP card or another type of card with my signature on it as proof of my age.

After some not so subtle words [not aimed at the NLLC staff] I hung up the phone, did some deep breathing, walked the dog, went about my business.

I did comply with the request next day, the alternatives are just either too expensive or would require some form of self imposed prohibition.

There would be differing opinions as the above request by NLLC being discriminating, or prejudice, also that it was any big deal for that matter. People in remote communities get used to going to extra efforts and cost just to garner goods and services that are taken for granted in larger urban areas.

But, we now get to the crux of the matter. Several weeks ago the NG finely got around to releasing [in the form of a public forum] to this community the report on hearings held on the abuse of alcohol and drugs, its findings and recommendations.

Some media outlets picked up on the story, several front line workers in the addictions area were either interviewed or quoted, that’s fine, it is a difficult field to work in, as well as it being a difficult subject for many to talk about and more so to deal with.

In the next day or so the president of NG is interviewed, his statements and announcements of how to deal with the decades old problem of addictions were as usual general while at the same time ambiguous.

The president did not seem to want to take control or responsibility [as governments are supposed to do]; rather he was more interested in asking others to deal with the issue.
The president said he had asked the head of NLLC to reconsider its selling and delivery practice for North Coast communities.
The president went on to say he had approached both airlines and asked them to reconsider their pick up and delivery service of alcohol to the North Coast.

There was mention of bootlegging, but no mention of targeting or dealing with bootlegging, no mention of getting to the soul of the addictions and its devastating affects on some people and some families.
No mention of how to target the drug dealers.
Just generalizations on the whole, really playing to the prejudices that already exist and totally absolving himself and the NG hierarchy.

The next day a spokesperson for the NLLC was on air saying the NLLC would co operate in any way it could to address the issues raised by NG.
Also a representative from one of the airlines said similar words as to addressing the issue. Both interviews were very general and leaving a lot to interpretation and speculation. The other airline made no statements to my knowledge.

Things then went quite, well color me surprised!!!! No nothing from no one no way.

I asked around if any policies had changed, “no, have heard nothing” was the response.

So I made my order.

So while everybody on the North Coast has been painted with the same brush some of the leadership of NG goes on its merry tipsy way [note I said some].

To deal with the addiction problems will take strong pro active leadership, not wishy washy statements with an eye on reelection. It will take many people to face up to the problems, to talk about them, not with the aim of blame, more to the aim of looking back and what can be done in the future to limit the excesses. Not to say “I don’t care what people think” [unless of course its election time], but to think of the future, and to think of the people who the leadership is elected to represent.

In the above mentioned report there is a lot mentioned about role models [not my favorite term]. There are identified problems with a section on recommendations on whom, what agency, what communities could do to address these problems.
There is a section on leadership and how it could/should get involved. The are no recommendations or comments in this section.

Well color me surprised.

Before posting I took a walk in the hills with the dog. Came back soaked, its obscure in wet snow and just above freezing. I even did a little jogging with the aim of wearing the dog out. No such luck, my jogging abilities are limited, usually have to get my hip back in place after, but of late it has not been too bad as long as I don’t overdo things. And boy do I feel refreshed.

The above problems are close to home too, I have to deal with them often, to not talk on the subject is just not an option IMO.

No comments: