I was just wondering, would it help to reduce alcohol-addiction if senior students in my college got together and counseled their juniors about the negative effects of alcohol and nicotine? I understand that they can't totally get rid of it. Perhaps they wouldn't even want to. In my college, at least a little bit of social drinking is considered important training for future life. Besides, alcohol plays a very important role in college politics, so there would be heavy opposition to any suggestion to reduce its consumption. However, I do hope to achieve at least this much:
Before I end, I think I should also state the reason why I think this might work. See, your juniors look up to you. If the Director or the Dean make such an attempt, they will get laughed at, but your juniors will listen to you. Even if they ignore all warnings, your advice will always remain at the back of their minds. And, well, it might just save their life someday. So, please give this a thought. And do give your feedback.
- There would be no forcing of liquor on juniors/friends (by maroing sento or otherwise)
- Before the first daru-party, the negative effects of alcohol would be explained to all juniors. After them it would be up to them to decide whether they still want to drink or not. In either case, the importance of drinking responsibly would be explained to them.
- The seniors would ensure that any junior who shows signs of addiction gets proper medical help.
Before I end, I think I should also state the reason why I think this might work. See, your juniors look up to you. If the Director or the Dean make such an attempt, they will get laughed at, but your juniors will listen to you. Even if they ignore all warnings, your advice will always remain at the back of their minds. And, well, it might just save their life someday. So, please give this a thought. And do give your feedback.
9 comments:
A good idea and, great thinking....I hope and wish you to get enough support, moral and mental, for carrying out this good deed....
Uday
the question is: can i expect tht support from u, Uday? wud u be willing to risk people's comments for this?
Well, this is a very nice initiative that has been suggested...In our colege I have seen people getting addicted to even drugs and finally resorting to theft of cell phones etc. to meet their expenses. So all juniors no matter whoever convinces you about the harmlessness and the glory associated with alcohol...jst be within limits...and more importantly know your limits...say no if you have to.....Always remember that back home their are people waiting for you and expecting from you.
u know, u hav my full support .. when ever I am
I truly appreciate the sincere effort from every one of you to take up this initiative... alcoholism has developed as one of the most dangerous evil our society is facing. Even I lost one of my friend to alcoholism and more importantly his family lost their sole bread winner..
Talking about your initiative, would it be good idea if you people can put a 1-2 liner fact on a weekly basis on the ill effects of alcoholism at couple of common points in college/hostels.. it can be trivia kind or may be an simple objective questionaire through which students can diagnose themselves if they are/getting addicted to alcohol or otherwise.. because more often than anyone else, you talk to yourself before taking up a call to join for any such daaru party.. because I guess its the person who first himself has to get convinced with his alcohol addiction before he consults a senior or a doctor. And if a person still isn't addicted then atleast our fact bulletins would be at the back of his mind before he makes up his mind for his next daaru party... just a suggestion...
Keep up the good work.
thnx anonymous, tht's a really nice suggestion.....will definitely try tht.... :)
i agree entirely with most of what has been said here: on a more practical note, though, it seems a concept hard to implement- certainly so at the college level- asking people to give a (brief) lecture on the ills of drinking before giving them the drink is like, well, having a living, breathing, talking statutory warning!
What might possibly be more easily doable is convince a few of the "seniors that juniors look up to" to join maybe non-profit groups that from time to time give talks on the ills of liquor, consumption, smoking (maybe NSS groups to that effect), thus setting the example-
most importantly, try convincing your peer group to stay away from excesses!
Plenty of examples in real life- Josh Hamilton, a baseball player, comes to mind easy... life gives a lot of second chances- grab one!
A person is grown up by the time he enters a colloege.If it is intended to let a person move from adolescence to adult life, it is the basic condition that the person is let to make mistakes by his own and learn from it.It is our mistakes that we learn from.If seniors are planning to guide students and prohibit them from doing (so called) WRONG things then the entire motivation of exposing a person to real life,is lost.
a) there's a difference between guidance and prohibition..... forcing a grown up to do, or rather not do something will never work...it has to be their own choice..
b)"the (so called) WRONG things" -- we are not discussing morality or ethics here....alcohol, nicotine and drugs ARE harmful to the health of people, not just the direct user but to all the people associated with him/her, and that's a medically proven fact. We only want to remind people what they've forgotten....
c) Surely there are better ways in which seniors can expose their juniors to "real life" than by forcing alcohol onto them. Life is about mental and emotional strength, and having the ability to make the right decisions at the right time. May I remind you that that's what alcohol takes away first-- the ability to think for yourself.
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