Alcohol is our enemy!

1. A Nepalese woman discourages their husband from drinking but encourages other people to drink so it is foolish society. When we invite people we force them to drink more. That is ridiculous. When we will be wise?
2. Alcohol consumptions on the rise means crime is going high so one day you or one of your relatives might caught by the drunkard.
3. Alcohol drinkers are regarded as evil of society.
4. Alcohol is demon’s drink and a gentleman does not drink at all.
5. Alcohol is like urine drink. When I was a young boy, I heard this from a married woman who is giving suggestion to her husband, who is a heavy drunkard.
6. Alcohol makes people poor.
7. I heard a story that, someone went to party and he was so tipsy that he cannot even talk and sees clearly, but when someone came to pour RAKSI in his pyala, he says I do not like to drink RAKSI so I am closing my eyes and drinking it. I ask the host people, why you want to ruin other people’s IJJAT(goodwill)? Are you mad or what? If someone does upon you what will be your reaction?
8. It uses lots of grains and foodstuffs so there are less food and grains for other people which are crime.
9. No one believe Alcohol drinker. Raksi baaj lai kasle biswas garchha ra? Kasle po chhori dinchha ra? Kasle po paisa sapatti dinchha ra? Kasle po jaagir dinchha ra? Like that…
10. Some habitual drinkers always makes quarrel in parties so they spoil others’ mood too. So I called them sinners.
11. The business wants to have more money so they mix everything on the way to produce alcohol so drinking alcohol is health hazardous.
12. The dog also barks at alcohol drinker and chases.
13. The drinker has no mercy and love for their children.
14. The drinker lost his consciousness and they are looted, cheated and misbehaved.
15. The money spent on daily consumption of alcohol is enough to fund school fees for the children.
16. The police beat up severely while they are caught.
17. There are so many cases that after drinking alcohol so many people have lost their life.
18. They are proud of being drinker but their goodwill is in waste basket, they never knew it.

Do you know these Facts?
1. According to Buddhism, the way you earn your livelihood – not killing, not stealing, not taking more than you need – all these are part of the Buddhist way of life. A livelihood that avoids harming others, such as trading in weapons, meat, alcohol or poisons – is in harmony with nature.
2. Alcohol related accident is alarmingly high in both western and eastern countries.
3. Are you proud of being called a DRINKER?
4. Can you see someone deprived of good food, due to alcohol making? Do you like to see someone dying without food? Non drinking alcohol can save other people’s precious life.
5. Do you know only ghosts, demi Ghost and demons likes to drink ganhayeko jaand ra Raksi? Does god/goddess (lots of people believe in god/goddess) likes to drink? Some people offer (chadhaune) Raksi to them, is this good?
6. Do you know that lots of accidents are happened due to alcohol drinks? Do you want to be caught in such misery and ruin your family’s life? Don’t’ you love your family?
7. Do you like to go to party just to drink Scotch? Or VAT 69? Are you foolish? Or Are you greedy?
8. Do you like to take pictures of holding Whisky glass and shown to your grand kid? Do you feel proud?
9. Do you prefer alcohol free society and want to live in peace?
10. Do you think drinking helps people’s IJJAT high?
11. Does alcohol fade away your sorrows? Or brings fortune? Or gets good job? A foolish and mad man thinks so why you drink still? NOW TIME TO ACT!
12. Does your religion allowed alcohol to be consumed?
13. How many died due to alcohol related accidents?
14. How many industries related to beer and liquors (hard Drinks) in Nepal?
15. How many KILOGRAMS to make one litre of wine?
16. How many mums wept forever after losing their properties?
17. How many people are bankrupt each year?
18. How many people divorced each year due to alcohol related?
19. How many people looted the chastity of our sisters, nieces and friends?
20. How many rape cases per year?
21. How many women are forced to work in unhealthy environment?
22. How much alcohol can ruin your life, both mental and physical?
23. How much money spends by poor Nepalese? How much per head?
24. How much will be the pain when loss of good will?
25. If your wife or daughter or mother goes to BAR and come back at mid night, what will be your reaction?
26. If your young son or daughter (14~16 years) drinking alcohol- what will be your reaction?
27. Kuheko Bhaat le banayeko Jaand ke mitho lagchha? Kira Pareko dekhnu bhayeko chha?
• One of principle precepts in Buddhism for each and every citizen is: to abstain from intoxicating drinks which are a primary cause of negligence. This precept is good for every religion. Visit http://www.accesstoinsight.org/tipitaka/dn/dn.31.0.nara.html (The Layperson’s Code of Discipline)
28. When someone dies at early stage of life due to heavy drinking and somehow you have also given him/her alcohol in parties, and now what will be your reaction?
29. Zero Tolerance in work place for drink, why? Do you know the reason?

How can we stop/create awareness?
1. Alcohol advertisement in the newspaper, magazine and TV should be banned.
2. Alcohol industry should not be allowed to open in Nepal.
3. To discourage alcohol industry, the income tax rate for these industries should be increased tenfold.
4. Licence to open up a liquor shop should be stopped.
5. Use of alcohol in the govt ceremony and state party should be stopped.
6. Ban Alcohol worldwide.
7. Crush every beer and alcohol bottle so that no one cans resale and produce more. This helps a little bit.
8. Boycott the parties where liquors are served. Do not serve alcohol in the parties you manage.
9. Should liquor shop be banned?
10. Should liquor prohibition in certain days be adopted?
11. Should govt levy high tax rate?

A Animal, anarchist
L lazy, loafer
C coward, cunning
O ogre, old fashioned
H Hound, heinous,
O obstacle, obscene (vulgar)
L looter, liar,
I idiot, immature
S selfish, sadism, Satan, Sinner
T treachery, tactless, tyranny

Further information (Alcohol related websites)
• http://www.accesstoinsight.org/tipitaka/dn/dn.31.0.nara.html (The Layperson’s Code of Discipline)
• http://www.purifymind.com/BuddhismAlcohol.htm
• http://www.cdc.gov/alcohol/faqs.htm
• http://hcd2.bupa.co.uk/fact_sheets/Mosby_factsheets/alcohol_abuse.html
• Alcohol Concern - www.alcoholconcern.org.uk
• Alcoholics Anonymous -www.alcoholics-anonymous.org.uk
• What is problem drinking? Institute of Alcohol Studies. www.ias.org.uk
• Talk to Frank. The A-Z of Drugs. www.talktofrank.com
• THINK! - Drink Driving. UK department of Transport. www.dft.gov.uk
• How to cut down your drinking. National Institute of Alcohol Abuse and Alcoholism. www.niaaa.nih.gov
• Alcohol - Problem drinking. Prodigy guidance. www.prodigy.nhs.uk

Some Articles for further study

Dharma Data: Alcohol
Source: http://www.buddhanet.net/e-learning/dharmadata/fdd34.htm

In ancient times alcohol was often believed to have divine origins, to be “a gift of the gods” and is still used in the rituals of some religions. Buddhism took a far more realistic view of alcohol’s beginnings. According to a legend in the Jatakas a fruit tree with a fork in its main trunk once grew in a certain forest. Rain water and ripe fruit would collect in a hollow in the fork and, warmed by the sun, the resulting concoction would turn into a crude natural ale. One day a forester came across a flock of happy drunk birds and discovering that their inebriation was due to drinking the concoction, became the first person to discover and introduce alcohol into the world.

The Buddha’s main objection to alcohol and indeed to all recreational drugs was that it befuddles consciousness thus making mental development difficult. He also often warned against alcohol’s negative social effects. Consequently abstaining from all recreational drugs including alcohol is the last of the five Precepts that all Buddhists are expected to practice.
Source: http://www.americanbuddhist.net/thailand-alcoholfree-days-sought

Thailand: Alcohol-free days sought
A network of monks has renewed calls for the government to declare the four most important days on the Buddhist calendar alcohol-free. Monks from many provinces including Surin, Khon Kaen, Chanthaburi and Trat yesterday petitioned the National Committee for Alcohol Consumption Control, chaired by Deputy Prime Minister Sanan Kachornprasart.
http://chinahistoryforum.com/lofiversion/index.php/t12281.html
six evils of drinking listed in the Sigala Sutta of the Buddhists.

My comments at http://nihonshukyo.wordpress.com/2008/12/23/the-demons-drink-alcohol/
The article is good for creating awareness on alcohol is bad for human being. The alcohol makes life a terrible in Nepal. Every time fighting, rape, murder, social disharmony, not enough food for family due to spending on alcohol etc etc. Lots of foreign liquor companies are coming to Nepal, I ask why they (western beer and Liquor Company) wants to make Nepal even more poor?
Source: http://www.thailandqa.com/forum/showthread.php?t=6343

Buddhist monks protest beer listing on stock exchange
{AP} Chanting prayers, some 2,000 Buddhist monks gathered outside the Thai Stock Exchange to protest the listing of a company producing Thailand’s top-selling “Elephant Beer.”

The monks said in a statement that the listing would present “a grave threat to the health, social harmony and time-honored ethics of Thai culture.”

A decision on whether to list shares of Beer Chang _ or Elephant Beer _ is expected to be made by the SET’s board next week.

Cheap and potent, Beer Chang is the country’s best-selling beer and is especially popular with rural drinkers. The company is owned by Charoen Sirivadhanabhakdi, Thailand’s richest man.

The Thai Buddhist Monks National Coordination Center, which organized the protest, said that the stock float threatened to exacerbate the spread of alcohol consumption in a country that already ranks very high among the world’s drinking nations.

The basic principles of Buddhism require followers to refrain from consuming alcohol and drugs, among other activities.

Alcohol consumption among female teenagers increased by 600 percent between 1996 and 2003, the Buddhist group said.

The statement said the SET’s constitution states that the exchange only accepts shares for merchandise considered beneficial to the national well-being. Any economic benefits derived from the float would be offset by long-term state expenditures to fight alcohol-related diseases and crime, it said.

Buddhist Temple Built From Empty Bottles
SISAKET, Thailand (Reuters) - A Thai Buddhist temple has found an environmentally friendly way to reach nirvana, using discarded bottles to build everything on the premises from a crematorium to toilets.


The Wat Pa Maha Chedi Kaew temple, about 600 km (370 miles) northeast of Bangkok, is better known as “Wat Lan Kuad” or “Temple of Million Bottles” because of the glittering from countless glass containers on the walls.


The temple first started using discarded bottles in 1984 to decorate the monks’ shelters. This attracted more people to donate more bottles to build other buildings such as a pagoda, ceremony hall and toilets. Bottle tops were also used to decorate murals.

Many bottles and tops are from alcohol containers even though alcohol consumption is a sin in Buddhism.


“The more bottles we get, the more buildings we make,” Abbot San Kataboonyo told Reuters.

Buddhist Temple from Empty Bottles- A Buddhist Story


Source: http://tibet-incense.com/blog/buddhist-temple-built-from-empty-bottles/
A man had aroused a demon. This demon plagued him and told him that he would only leave him in peace if the man consented to break one of the Five Precepts.
Now the man was a sincere lay Buddhist who had kept his precepts pure. He thought; ‘I cannot break the First for to kill a Being is a most terrible thing. As to the Second, it is a crime and I have never stolen anything. I am happy with my wife and have always been faithful to her, so I can’t break the Third. If I break the Fourth, it will make someone unhappy and bring me a bad name. What about the Fifth…?’ The man decided that one little drop of alcohol would not do any harm and would satisfy the demon.
The man had never before tasted alcohol and he was intrigued by its taste. The man thought, ‘This tastes good, a little more won’t harm me.’ And so, a little more, and more … until he was drunk.
Passing a tinker on his way home the man snatched some trinkets. Upon reaching his house he found his wife absent and noticed how pretty his neighbour’s wife looked. Going to her, he gave her the ornaments and they entered her house. After some intimacy together she proposed some food, so he took an axe and killed a goat. Finally, the tinker arrived with some officials to accuse the man of theft. The man denied the theft declaring his innocence.
And so all Five Precepts were broken!

Source: http://www.buddhist-sangha-foundation.org/buddhist%20stories.html
Group seeks alcohol ban on holidays
By Pongphon Sarnsamak - The Nation Published on February 17, 2009

Two-hundred members of the Alcohol Watch Network and its allies rallied outside the Public Health Ministry yesterday, demanding Health Minister Witthaya Kaewparadai ban alcohol sales on Buddhist holidays and major festivals such as Songkran and the New Year celebrations.
Protest leader Kamron Chudecha said the group wanted Witthaya to present the group’s petition to Prime Minister Abhisit Vejjajiva, who is chair of the national alcohol control policy committee, to ban alcohol sales on Makha Bucha Day, Visakha Bucha day, Asaraha Bucha day, and Buddhist Lent Day.


“We want the health minister - and the ministry - to have a clear standing and policy to push forward the alcohol sale ban for the coming Songkran festival,” he said.
Kamron said the government should pressure the national alcohol control committee and the control policy committee, so that enforcement of the law and strict restrictions on alcohol sales and consumption can get underway.


“We agree with the health ministry [proposal] to put warning pictures and messages on alcohol bottles” similar to those on tobacco products, he said.


Witthaya said he would present the group’s demands to ban alcohol on Buddhist Days to the national alcohol control policy next month. After this meeting, he would issue regulations banning alcohol sales during that period.


As for the banning of alcohol sales during major festivals such as Songkran, Witthaya said such a regulation during a major festival would effect tourism.


To avoid this, he will examine other measures controlling alcohol consumption to reduce the number of traffic accidents caused by drinking during this period.


“Legal enforcement is not the only measure to control alcohol consumption and reduce the number of accidents during this period. We also have to strengthen the attitudes of people,” he said.
According to a Ministry of the Interior survey, 97.4 percent of people across the country agreed with the alcohol sale ban during major festivals.


Another survey conducted by the Abac poll showed only 19.2 per cent of 2,757 people living in Bangkok and surrounding provinces disagreed with the holiday alcohol ban.
Source: http://www.nationmultimedia.com/worldhotnews/30095878/Group-seeks-alcohol-ban-on-holidays