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Does alcohol drinking reflect peoples` growing income?
2008-02-03 11:09:59
By Imani Lwinga
It`s Wednesday evening and I meet a friend at one of the popular pubs in Dar es Salaam. People have filled up the pub, chatting and sipping beers.
It`s as if tomorrow they will be spared from work just by looking at the way they are drinking and having fun.
You may think these people are running profitable businesses allowing them to at least congratulate themseleves over a beer or two.
The drinking habit of Dar es Salaam residents is changing dramatically. Unlike in the past when people used to drink on weekends alone, today it`s more or less a daily routine.
Probably, this would please some brewers who sometime back were complaining that the drinking habit of Tanzanians was not encouraging the growth of the industry in the country.
The estimated consumption is 6.5 litres of alcohol per capita of the adult population, according to sources.
The brewers say should the drinking habit shoot up to at least 30 litres per capita, Tanzania would have more earnings from alcoholic drinks than it gets now.
European countries` drinking rate is above 50 litres per capita of the population. Despite representing a small population of alcohol takers, breweries industry is one of the largest tax payers.
The growing drinking habit of Dar es Salam residents reflects the increase of peoples` income - from both private and public sectors. However, Jimmy Mwenda says drinking on daily basis is not good and it may affect work performance as well as affect family welfare.
``We have people whose drinking budget is bigger than the domestic budget,`` says Mwenda. ``Drinking beer at a pub is like an army at war as there is no fixed budget one has to use.
You may meet friends you did not plan to meet and still offer them scores of drinks.``
Men represent a larger number in pubs than women of similar age.
It has been observed that men mix mostly with young ladies spending lavishly while their wives are at home taking care of their families under a tight budget.
``I hate seeing my husband coming home drunk. Not because I don`t want him to drink but I`m always worried that he must be drinking with other women around.
I`m definitely suspicious of him. But if he invitesn me to accompany him that is ok. But not on daily basis,`` says a young married woman, Juliet Dickson.
The presence of many young ladies in pubs reminds me of one of the phrases hanged on the wall of an internet café room in one of the Johannesburg Broadway streets that reads:``In our old days girls used to cook like mothers but today they drink like fathers.``
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