Wednesday, February 14, 2007
Why do drugs?
“They are all on drugs!” could be a first thought after reading the beginning of Baghdad Without a Map. This seems to be true too, considering an average of 20$ a day is spent on qat. This was surprising to me. Why would already poor people spend so much money on a drug daily? The first reason is that it is a social event for them. Instead of watching a football game or going to the movies they chew qat. If someone came to America and started chewing qat for hours at school he would most likely get laughed at. However in their society, it is almost expected that everyone chew qat daily. Another reason why they started chewing qat in the first place was to mask their problems. The same reason anyone uses a drug for. It seems to many that the Arabs do not have much going for them. They live in a desert with not much food, polluted water, no money, and violence. The only thing that they have is oil, which countries like the United States wants. We are fighting a war to assure ourselves an oil supply, since America runs on oil. In the end, two of the main things the Arabs have are religion and qat, so those are the things they devote their time too. It may seem odd to us but to them, it is just like watching baseball or going to a movie with your friends. ed
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3 comments:
I'm not sure we can say that all Arabs chew qat; it seems that this is a "hobby" in Yemen. Chewing qat doesn't seem to have morality attached to it in the same way that drug use in the United States does.
FOR THE consumption of qat in the traditional social setting, the chewers meet in a house some time after noon, usually bringing their own supply. After being welcomed and carefully seated according to their social position, the guests begin to masticate the leaves thoroughly one by one ... After the qat leaves have been chewed, the guests stay on for most of the afternoon, passing their time in animated discussions often devoted to matters of general interest, such as community affairs. From this point of view, qat can be seen as a factor furthering interaction and structuring social life. Besides these traditional forms of consumption, qat is nowadays also chewed by single individuals idling in the streets ... In these regions, qat is also consumed (sometimes along with alcoholic beverages and other drugs) at gatherings which lack the restraint and well-defined social setting described above.
Yemen Times, 7 August, 2000
KG
Can you blame them for doing drugs? They live in a horrible living conditions and its the only thing that they look forward to everyday. Practically everyone in America drinks or smokes or both. Its the same idea except that qat doesn't have the same damage on a body that alcohol or smoking does.
L.B.
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