Taxi deposit at bar

AC OBHOLZER WRITES:

Most Namibians who have a steady job/income are responsible. However, many derail, their hard-earned income, with alcohol binge drinking, in a bar/shebeen, at the end of the month. These social sites often don’t offer a decent meal. Alcohol on an empty stomach is trouble.

The person loses self-control – foot on alcohol and no brakes. Trouble is inevitable. Wine, women and loud music, argument, assault and gender-based violence, jay walking in the dark, without reflective clothing and driving a car recklessly, cause accidents or hitting a robot, is the outcome.

You may end up in Katutura Casualty or the mortuary. If you recover from babelaas, you need sunglasses for the start of the next month.

Consider a fifty-dollar deposit, when you go to your favourite bar/shebeen. You sign in your deposit, and at the end of the evening, when you go home, the barman checks whether you can stand steadily, with your feet together and your eyes closed.

If you pass the test, you get your fifty dollars back. If you are unsteady, a taxi will be called to take you home safely, with the fifty dollars.

The simple measure, if implemented with persuasion, with the bar owner and city police, Nampol, could contribute to radically reducing the danger of drunks and where they meet innocent sober people. It is worth a try.

With freedom, free choice, comes responsibility.

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