The question of when or whether children should be given alcoholic beverages is a controversial one. In the United States it is illegal for anyone under 21 to have any type of drink containing alcohol. When I was a waiter in NYC, we had to be very careful about this because the NYPD would send in underage cops in plain clothes to catch waiters "red-handed." If you served them a drink, you would be handcuffed and taken to the station, and the restaurant would receive a stiff fine. That is why in the States you are always asked to show your ID when ordering a drink, even if you look 40. Nevertheless, this does not stop the phenomenon known as "binge drinking," which is commonplace on college campuses across the US.
In my conversations with people here in Spain, the same words usually come up to describe the American attitude towards drinking: "puritan" and "extremist." I tend to agree, at least in part, as it seems ridiculous to give a young adult a gun and send him off to war, allow him/her or vote in presidential elections, and then deny him/her a beer. Having said that, the practice known as "botellón" in Spain hardly seems like a healthy habit for young people. Teenagers, it seems, when left to their own devices, do not know how to control their alcohol intake. Then again, neither do many adults.
The top-ranking health official in the UK has an opinion of his own on this matter. Read this BBC article and watch the two short videos which accompany the article. Then answer the following questions.
- Are parents legally allowed to give their children alcoholic beverages in the UK?
- What does Liam Donaldson think about the idea that children should be given watered-down alcoholic drinks at a young age in order to prime them and teach them to drink sensibly?
- How does the chief medical officer (Sir Liam) feel about parents drinking heavily in front of their children?
- What does the mother in the second video think about the consequences of forbidding her children to drink alcohol?
- According to the daughter, why do youngsters start drinking?
- Do you agree more with Sir Liam or with the mother, as regards adolescents being given alcoholic drinks at home?
- Is there an official drinking age in Spain? Is it respected? Should it be? Why or why not?
- What advantages would there be to a society without alcohol? What disadvantages?
Before answering the questions, I'd like to say that I don't see the US posture "puritan" or extremist" it's just incoherent because as you have said, if they have the right of using a gun or going to war they should have the right of drinking alcohol, but I don't see the age of 21 as an extremist age to start drinking, because for me the later, the best, I mean, with 18 you are not mature enough to control yourself, you just have to see the how young people behave...
ReplyDelete1. Sir Liam is a bit extremist, I don't think it's dangerous that children try some alcohol beverages in special occassions or things like that. In my opinion the important thing is to act naturally, I mean you don't have to forbid them alcohol and say it's a bad thing because if you drink with moderation it's not bad at all but neither you have to drink too much and get drunk in front of them, of course
2. The official age here in Spain is 18, and it is not respected. I think it should be respected because that way we could solve some of the drinking problems that we have here
3. As I think that alcohol is not neccessary at all I think there won't be any disadvantages. We don't need it to live, or to have fun like some people think