The Samsung group is poised to start a campaign to curb excessive corporate drinking. Forcing employees to drink more as punishment for being late, to finish their glass at once, drinking alcohol out of a large bowl; these are the three bad drinking practices Samsung has pointed out. It is reported that the company, when assessing worker performance, is even planning to disadvantage those who force co-workers to drink or cause a problem because of alcohol. The campaign will be put into practice in all of Samsung’s subsidiaries.

On September 19, a source within Samsung told Toonari Post, “It is impossible for us to become a leading company in the world with a drinking culture like this. Workers at the Samsung group usually believe that they cannot succeed if they are not good at drinking, because drinking with co-workers is usually considered a chance for people to communicate and build social relationships. We are going to get rid of this culture by starting a new campaign. From now on, we will punish people who make problems derived from drinking and negatively influence their co-workers. It doesn’t matter whether he or she is a high-level worker or not.”

Many years ago, many Korean people believed that drinking culture was a residual product of the country’s economic success because workers could communicate and share their ideas and views while drinking together.

However, people are now blaming the Korean drinking culture for aiding to workers’ stress and lowering their willingness to work rather than improve their productivity.

The Samsung official added, “Bad drinking culture has brought Samsung’s workers lots of burdens, making them unable to maintain a balance between work and home. Family members of workers are also a victim of their bad drinking culture.”

In January of next year Samsung plans to educate its workers on how to have good drinking culture and how to get benefits from it. Lectures on topics such as ‘Relationship between drinking and bad health’ and ‘Bad effects of alcohol on the body,’ will be included in its education course.

Samsung expects that the education course will maximize its campaign’s efficacy, because all workers at Samsung should take these courses.

Samsung also plans to offer its workers more opportunities to enjoy other activities such as sports, movies, or plays in order to still be able to lessen their stress while deterring them from drinking.

The 27-year-old Kim, who works for Samsung Electronics, said, “I love and support the Samsung group’s idea. I have been forced to drink by my co-workers before, even though I get easily drunk. I have gotten a lot of stress because of it, and I know there are many people like me at all Samsung’s affiliates. I believe the decision of Samsung will improve workers’ productivity and bring lots of advantages to them.”

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Like most cities, Belfast has had its fair share of troubling statistics and unfortunate public embarrassments when it comes to substance abuse among young adults. Just last week, major universities in the city had circulated emails to their entire student bodies in the run-up to St. Patrick’s Day, with the Student Union President at Queen’s University Belfast writing:

If you happen to be in the University area over the weekend please remember your responsibilities as a member of the South Belfast Community and be aware that as a student of Queen’s you fall under the auspices of the University’s Conduct Regulations.

This type of advisory email followed several years of well-publicised displays of disorderly conduct among a select group of young adults in student housing areas of the city. Years past have seen excessive and unmoderated drinking lead to physical altercations, verbal abuse, graffiti and property damage, police involvement, and consequently the expulsion of several students from their respective university institutions.

As a result, this year students at Queen’s were given a 4-day weekend over St. Patrick’s Day, in the hope that a longer break would encourage some to travel outside the city or to return home, away from the influence of those who were most likely to cause public disturbances. This measure seems to have been relatively effective, with The Irish Times reporting:

A substantial police presence, together with a zero-tolerance approach to on-street drinking, appeared to keep the situation under control.

On Friday, eight people were arrested in the area for a range of anti-social behaviour. But by 9.30pm yesterday, the streets of the Holyland, although littered with broken glass, were quiet and virtually empty, with just a few house parties going on behind closed doors.

Unfortunately, 2012 has already seen alcohol-related tragedy among the youth community. In February, 20-year old Joby Murphy accidentally fell into the River Lagan due to poor safety measures at the Lagan Weir bridge.

Murphy had attended a Snow Patrol concert that same night, and then drank £1 vodka shots prior to his fall, leading to his father getting involved with a campaign to ban certain drinks promotions around the city, namely ones that offer ‘All You Can Drink’ deals at significantly reduced prices. Such deals are common in Belfast bars and clubs frequented by students, and it is thought that banning them would go some way to discouraging young adults from binge drinking.

However, some have criticised such a proposition for being an ineffective way to teach young adults about the dangers of alcohol. The general mentality is, if someone wants to find alcohol at a cheap price then they will not have to look very far to find some.

Facebook even offers ‘Dial A Drink’ services, where businesses will deliver alcohol straight to your doorstep without ensuring that no minors in the house will be drinking, so it is clear that Belfast, like so many other UK cities, has not yet figured out how to measurably regulate alcohol consumption among younger people.

Murphy’s father is still pushing ahead with hopes of making the Lagan Weir bridge more secure and better equipped to deal with accidental falls, but at the moment he seems to be one active voice facing a larger community deaf to the seriousness of this drinking subculture.

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Scotland, a nation known for its feats of strength, is gradually sliding in a self-created tomb of poor health. High alcohol consumption, obesity, lack of adequate exercise, and eating junk food is leading to atrocious levels of illness in Scotland. The chief medical officer of Scotland, Dr. Burns, has warned in his annual report that poor diet, obesity, physical inactivity, and high alcohol consumption is leading to increased health problems in Scotland.

He pointed to figures reported in the Scottish Health Survey which indicated that 27 percent of men and 18 percent of women exceeded the recommended weekly amount of alcohol consumption. Smoking among adults is decreasing, but 25 percent of adults still smoke cigarettes, and 63.3 percent of adults are either overweight or obese. Only 22 percent of adults met the recommended daily intake of fruit and vegetables a day, and only 39 percent of adults met the recommended levels of physical activity.

Despite a reported reduction in consumption of alcohol from 28 percent in 1995 to 22 percent in 2010, the level of those who exceed the daily amount of alcohol consumption has risen among men from 43 percent to 45 percent, and for women, it fell from 37 percent to 33 percent. He also noted that the data on alcohol consumption is conflicting, i.e comparing purchase data and consumption data.

However, alcohol purchase data indicates that consumption is on the increase. New hospital admissions due to alcohol-related conditions for people under 75 has increased by 18 percent in the last decade. Alcohol-related deaths for those aged 45-74 was also reported to be nine times more in deprived areas than in affluent areas.

On a positive note, the mortality rates due to Scotland’s big three killers: cancer, coronary heart disease (CHD), and stroke for people under 75 have continued to decline. Premature death rates due to cancer, CHD, and stroke have been reduced by 22 percent, 60 percent, and 54 percent respectively .

Premature mortality rates due to all other cases for those under 75 have been reduced by 28 percent ( from 507 per 100,000 in 1995 to 365 per 100,000 in 2009). Increased survival rates from cancer have been influenced by effective treatment, early diagnosis, and more people have been cured of cancer. Five year survival from cancer over the last two decades rose from 26 percent to 44 percent for men and from 36 percent to 51 percent for women.

Less affluent areas were shown to display more of these risky behaviors. Mental health problems are also becoming worse in deprived areas and among the working class. The lower display of risky behavior among the affluent is largely due to available information from health promotion campaigns which has, for some reason, remained largely ignored in the other sections of the society. Dr. Burns warned, “Scotland continues to have a higher level of ill health than most of our immediate neighbors in Europe.”

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