Love Your Beer or Child?
The same way we have "nan-vayee" and "baghali" in Iran, they have pubs and bars in countries like England and Ireland. In London, you probably cannot find an empty bar during the so-called "Happy Hour" - the hour after work and before home. One of the weak spots ("Noghte zaaf") of Western and industrialized societies is alcoholism, and people's excessive dependence on alcohol.
Last week most news agencies reported that Police in Australia stopped and fined a driver who had used the seat belt on the back seat of his car to secure a case of beer and let his child sit on the floor of the car without any seat belts! Just a few months ago, an American driver in St. Augustine, Florida was also fined because she had used the car's seat belts on a case of beer and not her 1-year old daughter who was not buckled up.
Many Iranians who worship everything about Western cultures fail to see what this Love Affair with Alcohol has done to the Western Societies. Last year in America alone, over one million people were injured in alcohol-related traffic crashes. Yet the worse impact of alcohol on a society is not the car accidents but the alcohol-related crimes such as child and wife abuse, rape, incest, homicide, etc. For a good source of data on alcohol dependence in America, see National Institute on Alcohol Abuse and Alcoholism (NIAAA).