By Tong Akok Anei Mawien
Commonly, if you loiter around our streets and in our small markets, you either find a gentleman laying drunk with star gin in his hands or staggering on his way drunk. The cause of this giddiness is the heavy consumption of alcohol; few of our youth never go far from where these alcohols are sold 24/7. Though this economic crisis is hitting everyone, most of our youth are being eaten up by alcohol consumption, especially this small type with a red cap they called star-gin. They even nicknamed it in Arabic “Shurta,” which means “military police,” due to its unique red caps and how it tortures one when taken; it resembles how shurta discipline themselves when one goes astray in their norms; and many other nicknames.
This star-gin is very cheap with high impact in the body system; its price range is from 150 to 200 SSP, which makes it the cheapest commodity in the market but with greater effect. I don’t know why it is priced as cheaply as that; is it because it is a commodity whose owner is committing suicide slowly by slowly in the name of pleasure, or is it a commodity we want to use in order for some of us to forget our economic problems by having easy access to this memory-washed star-gin? Last year, one of the star-gin addicts just fell while walking and died a cool death, while the other just went to sleep in the evening and never woke up in the next morning. There were many more death cases related to the impact of star-gin and other alcohol, but commonly, during weekends, the cases of accidents are higher than any other weekday in Juba City due to the effect of alcohol. Other accidents take lives just because of alcohol. There is a claim that even robbers take star-gin for one not to fear anymore that easy access to alcohol affects youth in Juba.
Lastly, if this alcohol is just for pleasure and other less important uses, why are they priced very low, why the price of star-gin never rises with the rate of the dollar like a kilo of sugar and other communities? Due to its cheap prices, this makes them easily accessible as the last option to the individuals, because 150 or 200 could not buy anything in the market. Therefore, in order for us to control the rate of alcohol consumption in Juba City and reduce its impact, we must raise the price of this alcohol to deter easy access.
The writer can be reached via Tel: 0929300008/ 0988011119; Email: tongakok7170@gmail.com / tongakok47.@gmail.com