EDITORIAL: N$30 and a life lost

The number of young Namibians losing their lives to alcohol-fuelled violence, either as victims at entertainment spots or as perpetrators who end up behind bars, is no longer troubling. It is alarming.

Almost daily, we wake up to grim headlines of another stabbing, another shooting, and another senseless fight that spiralled beyond control. Just yesterday, a man appeared in court in Windhoek charged with killing a bouncer at a Katutura entertainment venue. The dispute? A N$30 entrance fee. N$30!

There is, at this stage, no confirmed evidence that alcohol played a role in this specific incident. But it would be naive to pretend alcohol is not often the invisible accelerant in such tragedies.

We have seen the script too many times. Young people intoxicated, tempers shortened, pride inflated, reason abandoned. By morning, when sobriety returns, so does the crushing weight of irreversible consequence.

Alcohol clouds judgement. It distorts reality. It convinces the timid that they are invincible, the offended that they are justified, the jealous that they are betrayed beyond forgiveness. And when knives or firearms are within reach, impulse replaces thought.

National crime reports repeatedly paint the same bleak picture. A significant proportion of violent crime occurs at or around drinking establishments. Taverns become theatres of tragedy. Drunk men assault women. Lovers turn on each other in fits of jealousy. Homes are torched. Lives are shattered. And in the cold light of morning, perpetrators often ask themselves how they let it happen.

We have inculcated a culture of excessive drinking that has quietly embedded itself into the social fabric of youth life. Entertainment too often means intoxication. Celebration too often means excess. Conflict too often ends in blood.

A country cannot build its future while burying its youth.