There’s nothing like a frenzied spectator sport to underscore drinking’s two sides: the light and the dark.
Google World Cup Drinking Games, and you’ll get over 17 million ideas. Generally, when you think of drinking games, you might think of frat boys chug-a-lugging plastic cups of beer, but some have raised drinking games to a new level. One idea for a World Cup Drinking Game, from wine writer Will Lyons: Drink a wine from the region where the match is being played (although, as he points out, some regions in South Africa do not produce wine, so beer may have to be consumed).
For many, the World Cup is a time of revelry and jubilation. For others, it’s a time of fear. During the 2006 World Cup, in England, there was a 25% average increase in domestic violence on the five days that England was in the tournament.
In London, victims of domestic violence are being urged to make an action plan in case their partners drink too much and turn violent during the World Cup. Some of the suggestions:
–stay overnight with friends or family members on England game nights or arrange for your children to go to a friend’s house for a sleepover
–keep relevant phone numbers on hand (i.e. crisis hotlines)
–know where your mobile phone and car keys are
–ask friends or family to call them to check in on them during or after the game
–avoid drinking too much, so you’re in your right mind.
The last warning is sad to me, because it’s a reminder that for some women, jubilation and revelry aren’t an option–and not because of their own drinking, but because someone they love drinks and gets violent.
In the U.S. the night of the big game, the Superbowl, is a night of violence against women, too. Apparently, hospital emergency rooms are full of the victims of domestic violence. Thank you for highlighting this important but under-reported issue to which alcohol plays a part.