Stay Sober; Have a Beer

Where alcohol is concerned the dutch population can be divided in two sub-classes. The ones that drink and the ones that don't. Don't know much about the actual percentages, but my gut feeling tells me a majority of the adult population is dtinking alcohol. If you remember the breezer discussion, you are perfectly entitled to think a lot of minors are using it too, but thats not what i'm trying to deal with here. I wanted to share some thoughts about a subdivison in the alcohol drinking adult population. Subdividing is possible here too. I am focusing on the ones who drink beer and the ones who drink wine. There is a crowd which foregoes both, but thats another post. I am not talking about the people who use all of it either. These people usually fall into the category of alcoholics. Back to beer and wine. The dutch have been beerdinkers for ages. Wine is a recent addendum to dutch drinking pattern. Wine consumption figures have soared. But beer is still the beverage of choice for most dutch. It's affordable, wonderful on a hot summer day and you don't have to teach yourself a foreign language be able to read the label. Wine used to be something for the very wealthy, the dutch nobility; nowadays the middle-classes are drinking it too in a futile attempt to elevate themselves. As you might guess; I'm not really the wine drinking type. I like a white wine on a sunny afternoon, but that's about as far as it goes. The rest of the time I turn my back on elevating myself. My adage: stay sober, have a beer!

Collective Sunstroke

Now that the weather is getting better, familiar people suddenly turn up with a little tan. A summer tan is a highly coveted asset these days. You can wear Prada and even own a Rolex, but if you don't have a tan, they have only half their value in modern social traffic. A tan makes you look healthy, it changes you into an attractive person. There are drawbacks too. In the first place it is not healthy. Your skin oldens faster. This is supposed to be common knowledge. As is the fact that too much sunlight can cause skin cancer. Each year you read about an increase in this diseases figure. Why do people take the risk I wonder. Fact is that for people with particular kinds of skin diseases a limited amount of sun can be beneficial to their skin condition. A minority might benefit by getting a tan, but for most people its not a good thing to do. Maybe it depends on what is more important to you: feeling healthy, being healthy or looking healthy. Demanding contemporary consumers probably want all of that. This desire for a tan knows no boundaries. Lots of Dutch homes are in the possession of a tanning bed. People who cant afford it pay a visit to a tanning studio. Or they take a package deal to Spain or Turkey. Getting a tan never was easier. A whole industry has developed to cater to this desire. And its within nearly everybody's reach. Few people care about the unhealthy side-effects; is that sloppy thinking or are we all just a bunch of stubborn donkeys in the sun?