Tonight at dinner, I got inebriated. Not to say I�ve never been intoxicated before, but it seems that in the last 2 years, I�ve got smashed more times in a month here, then I have in America for the entire time I�ve lived there. Though there has always been large quantities of alcohol consumed here, it seems to be that drinking has become THE national pastime here in Armenia and Artsakh.
What�s sad is that when I came here, I didn�t drink at all. I mean an occasional beer or sip of wine was my limit. Now, I drink everything. Though I could give up drinking at anytime, I have to say that the luxury I have of being able to do that would be quite hard for most locals.
The other day when Arsineh and her interns were here for a visit, one of them got quite drunk and had a conversation with the Mayor about Eastern-Armenians and their drinking habits and Western-Armenians and their drinking habits. He pointed out that in his whole life, he had never seen his parents or grandparents drunk. He was raised to understand that drinking has its limit and it comes well before one looses control over their physical and emotional being. I have to say that I too have never seen my parents nor any of my relatives that live in the West in an inebriated state. I think it would be fair to say that my family has always promoted that being drunk in front of ones children was something you don't do. Here, it�s a different story and in fact, I�ve seen mature adults encourage small boys to drink until they are drunk. At the time, the Mayor really didn�t comment much on that not so pleasant subject, so tonight at dinner with my neighbor, I revisited the subject as we sat and drank ourselves drunk.
My neighbor told me that in the old days, there were very strict rules to when someone was allowed to drink. He said that during working hours, drinking was prohibited and was well regulated by frequent checks.
Today, drinking is on the rise and even I�ve seen that in the last two years there has been an increase in the number of drunk people that I�ve run into during daylight hours. My neighbor believes that all this drinking is due to the lack of work and a promising future. He said that people drink to forget and relax. There is nothing better than getting drunk so you can loose your worries just long enough to fall asleep. He believes that when things get back on track and the economic situation gets better, at that time we will see a dramatic decrease in the sale of alcohol.
What�s sad is that when I came here, I didn�t drink at all. I mean an occasional beer or sip of wine was my limit. Now, I drink everything. Though I could give up drinking at anytime, I have to say that the luxury I have of being able to do that would be quite hard for most locals.
The other day when Arsineh and her interns were here for a visit, one of them got quite drunk and had a conversation with the Mayor about Eastern-Armenians and their drinking habits and Western-Armenians and their drinking habits. He pointed out that in his whole life, he had never seen his parents or grandparents drunk. He was raised to understand that drinking has its limit and it comes well before one looses control over their physical and emotional being. I have to say that I too have never seen my parents nor any of my relatives that live in the West in an inebriated state. I think it would be fair to say that my family has always promoted that being drunk in front of ones children was something you don't do. Here, it�s a different story and in fact, I�ve seen mature adults encourage small boys to drink until they are drunk. At the time, the Mayor really didn�t comment much on that not so pleasant subject, so tonight at dinner with my neighbor, I revisited the subject as we sat and drank ourselves drunk.
My neighbor told me that in the old days, there were very strict rules to when someone was allowed to drink. He said that during working hours, drinking was prohibited and was well regulated by frequent checks.
Today, drinking is on the rise and even I�ve seen that in the last two years there has been an increase in the number of drunk people that I�ve run into during daylight hours. My neighbor believes that all this drinking is due to the lack of work and a promising future. He said that people drink to forget and relax. There is nothing better than getting drunk so you can loose your worries just long enough to fall asleep. He believes that when things get back on track and the economic situation gets better, at that time we will see a dramatic decrease in the sale of alcohol.
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