Reclaim kids from alcohol

Ispent my New Year’s Eve in one of the smallest towns I have ever been to – not for the first time. There I was in the heart of the Free State about to count down to midnight among some of the people I love the most in the world.

A bottle or two of champagne was needed to bid farewell to 2017 and say hello to 2018. And so the adventure to find good champagne began – though I never found it, there were other things I found that really reminded me of how our government, parents and society continue to fail children.

Obviously, the decent shops closed way before I put on my make up for the night, so we shelved that idea of getting champagne. So we had to try the unending taverns (you’re not a business success until you own a drinking hole in small town Free State…); then as you go inside, you have to be forgiven for being confused. Are you at the school playground and not a no-under-18 establishment?

Each and every drinking establishment littered with scantily dressed little girls; and boys faking machoism. I was overcome with confusion. Where were the parents of these children, because that is what they were – children? I was on a street that had no less than five taverns, and only two were “adult establishments”.

I just want to understand – are the parents okay with their children being at these places? To walk home after the night’s revelling, because they can clearly see where their children are and what they are up to?

In that small town, on that night, I saw innocence traded for profit – and it seems small town Free State had accepted this as a norm. Parents here are failing!

Then we move on to the liquor traders – how do they put up “not for sale to under-18s” signs yet sell to under 15? Were their teenagers there too?

Let’s assume they were not. When they left home, did these adults buy them liquor and leave them at home or whatever their destination were to enjoy the night in the same fashion these tavern owners wanted other people’s children to enjoy the night?

Alcohol, if not in the right hands, can and will destroy futures long before they even start to shine!