Drinking

[GT98]

Heres a interesting topic of disscussion..Drinking and what it brings about....between the USA and in Europe.

here I go..with my limited view on things..In the USA most drinking in "public" is banned..ie I can't go around lugging around a beer down at the beach while I stroll the boardwalk I live near by. In Europe (esp Germany where I'm basing this off of) there isn't a big issue with drinking in pubic..ie at fests etc.

Next up...Drinking at Sporting events. This past weekend there was a really ugly incident at an American Football game where a bad call was made and the home team fans got pissed at and started throwing plastic beer bottles and cups out on the field at the other team and the officals. I really have no comperable action in Europe minus some of the "football" roits I've seen on the Nightly news here. Are these from drinking or not?

So my point is..In the USA it seems that drinking laws are overly restricive because people can't handle drinking without becoming "instant ****ole, just add beer Etc" where as in Europe...people are more layed back when it comes to drinking and thus dont have the same problem...any comments?

Scott

[dZeus]

Why do you think that English football hooligans are so famous for?

anyway, being able to drink beer in public doesn't mean that you automatically get more problems. It all depends on the situation...

I don't think that people on a beach drinking beer would cause (m)any problems... hooligans in a football stadium however.. or after a (lost) match in pubs...

[VJ]

Well, drinking in public is forbidden by law, but at the time of certain fests or events it is often tolerated. Technically, appearing drunk in public is also forbidden.

However, here in Belgium, people don't tend to drink "on the streets", they go to a "café", sit down and enjoy a good Belgian beer. Apart from the regular pils, the Belgian beers don't lend themselves to drinking out of the bottle; you're not going to drink a "Trappist", a "Duvel" or a "Kriek" from the bottle ! (they all have a typical shaped glass, to bring out the taste to the fullest)

At sporting events, we have occasional riots (esp. football), but I doubt this has to do with drinking. The situation has improved a lot since fan-cards have become obligatory (again, in Belgium) : you need a fan-card (for a certain club) in order to be able to buy tickets for a match of that club. The number of tickets that can be purchased is quite limited, and the tickets are personal (your name is on them !). Main cause for the riots are IMHO not fans or beer, but groups of people that just like to fight. Keeping them out of the stadiums has helped here...
(this does make it very complex for a tourist to see a live footballmatch)

I feel that drinking in Belgium happens either in the privacy of peoples homes, or in a more reserved matter in public places (cafés). Given the tradition of our beer , people accept the fact that beer is drunk at cafés, etc. without immediatly thinking that the guy is an alcoholic.

Jörg

[Sasq]

Sorry not in either place, but its common to see people drinking on the train on the way home or on the street. in certain places there are even beer and sake vending machines . Most people are just happy drunks here. A few get abusive but its all words there is rarely any violence

Dan

[Schorsch]

Re: Drinking

Originally posted by GT98
Heres a interesting topic of disscussion..Drinking and what it brings about....between the USA and in Europe.

here I go..with my limited view on things..In the USA most drinking in "public" is banned..ie I can't go around lugging around a beer down at the beach while I stroll the boardwalk I live near by. In Europe (esp Germany where I'm basing this off of) there isn't a big issue with drinking in pubic..ie at fests etc.

That's correct. Generally, drinking in public is not forbidden in Germany. There are a few exceptions (in some spots in some cities, drinking in public is not allowed to keep the drunken bums away) but normally you can drink your beer wherever you want.

Next up...Drinking at Sporting events. This past weekend there was a really ugly incident at an American Football game where a bad call was made and the home team fans got pissed at and started throwing plastic beer bottles and cups out on the field at the other team and the officals. I really have no comperable action in Europe minus some of the "football" roits I've seen on the Nightly news here. Are these from drinking or not?

If you watch the news on TV and you see some hooligans bashing in each others' heads, you can be sure that they're "drunk like 1000 Russians" (as an old German proverb calls it). It is the main reason why you can't buy alcoholic drinks in most football stadiums in Germany.
On the other hand, if you visit smaller sporting events here (for example ice hockey games), you will find that beer is sold, a lot of people drink it and nothing happens. So I think alcohol is not the main reason for those hooligen riots, but it certainly helps to add fuel to the fire.

So my point is..In the USA it seems that drinking laws are overly restricive because people can't handle drinking without becoming "instant ****ole, just add beer Etc" where as in Europe...people are more layed back when it comes to drinking and thus dont have the same problem...any comments?

I've never been to the USA, but there may be some truth to what you say. Drinking alcohol is nothing special in most European countries, and most people know how to deal with it. In Germany, you can buy beer in every supermarket as soon as you're sixteen years old. I don't know if that's really a good thing, but it seems that many people here have their experiences with alcohol pretty early and when they're 19 or 20 years old, most of them already know how much they can take. I guess it's pretty similar in other European countries (if I consider the amount of wine that our French neighbours consume every year )

Georg

[impact]

You crazy Bavarians!

[spoogenet]

I think the taboo and repression of drinking in the US has lots to do with how much alcohol is abused. I personally feel as though the younger someone is exposed to something, and the less taboo it is, the more likely they are to treat it with respect and/or not abuse it.

But instead we make such a big deal out of it and try so hard to keep it from kids....I think it just drives them to do it even more. Most of my friends were permitted by their parents to drink during high school....we never got drunk, nobody ever drove while under the influence, and we generally had a good time. But I knew quite a few who weren't allowed to drink....and they were the ones who would get the drunkest, pass out, puke, drive drunk, etc.

A beer to all and to all a beer.*

b

*I said beer...not Bud (or any other crappy US beer for that matter)

[VJ]

a list of Belgian beers...

Well, just to make everybody jealous...
A list of Belgian beers...
http://www.dma.be/p/bier/1_11_uk.htm
(page is quite large)

1547 brands ...Not bad for a country with 10 miljoen habitants...

Jörg

[impact]

This is about quality, not quantity...

[KeiFront]

We are talking about quality Impact even the famous Michael Jackson (http://www.beerhunter.com/) has written a book about belgian beers (Great Beers Of Belgium).

In no country are the finest beers so complex in character. No country has so many boldly individualistic beers.

And quantity: Belgium has a total of 42293 cafés (pubs), that's 1 café for every 236 people in Belgium.

Jorg I don't like the fan-card I have an abo but I haven't got a fan-card, get it?.

Extra: pronunciation of some belgian beers http://belgianstyle.com/mmguide/pronounce/speak.html

[dZeus]

belgian beer bah give me a Pilsener Urquell instead :P

seriously, there's a huge difference between 'beer' and 'pilsener', and I only like the latter.

[The PIT]

I just wish I knew when too switch off my mouth when pissed.

[Wombat]

Personally, I think American's just have a culture that does not know how to properly handle alcohol. Through high school and college I knew plenty of people that would structure their entire night out based on "Go to X and get shitfaced." I never really understood it myself. Only a few times have I been quite drunk, and with the exception of my 21st birthday, getting that drunk is never the goal for me.

Maybe we need to change our alcohol legislation changed. Thanks to federal meddling, you can't buy alcohol in the US before you're 21. Teenagers get so used to hiding it and binging, the binging habit stays for a long time.

This is compounded by the fact that the majority of beer sold in the US is crap. Budweiser, Coor s, and all the crap like that. You can't really enjoy such a beer. You just use it to get drunk.

[spoogenet]

Part of drinking responsibly is buying good booze.

b

[DentyCracker]

Apparently in Jamaica there is a law prohibiting public drinking. I only knew that because I just asked one of my lawyer friends. It is not enforced though so it is a common sight to see people walking with their beers in hand.