Monks Push For More Alcohol-free Days In Thailand

[george]

Alcohol-free days sought

BANGKOK: -- A network of monks has renewed calls for the government to declare the four most important days on the Buddhist calendar alcohol-free. Monks from many provinces including Surin, Khon Kaen, Chanthaburi and Trat yesterday petitioned the National Committee for Alcohol Consumption Control, chaired by Deputy Prime Minister Sanan Kachornprasart.

They asked the cabinet for Makha Bucha Day, Asarnha Bucha Day, Visakha Bucha Day and Buddhist Lent Day, which are public holidays, to be declared alcohol-free days.

The network claimed Maj Gen Sanan's committee favoured the alcohol-free days, but Prime Minister Abhisit Vejjajiva had not pushed for it.

Network coordinator Phra Samu Surapong Pasannajitto said the cabinet last year agreed that Buddhist Lent Day be declared an alcohol-free day. No mention was made of the other religious days.

-- Bangkok Post 2009-06-15

[TAWP]

To Quote GC: "You should keep thy religion to thyself."

[rkidlad]

I am not a religious person at all. I have no problems with people who are and I respect their right to believe what they want. But at the end of the day, no one should be forced to do anything that because of someone's idea or right or wrong. If you're religious and think drinking is bad, don't drink! If you're like me and can handle your drink, cause no one any problems and do it socially, go wild.

I never preach to anyone about being 100% non religious. So i don't expect people to preach to me.

Wouldn't life be so much easier if everyone just minded their own business?

[jackdanielsesq]

Thats fine - let them be booze-free.

Leave the rest alone.

BR>Jack

[basjke]

I have always been told that Siam means freedom or free.So when people in Siam gonna be free?

[tranquillize]

People who can't deal with taking 4 days off from drinking each year have a bit of a drinking problem, imo.

[Thanh-BKK]

Hi

I didn't drink a drop since 14 odd years and haven't needed it or missed it at all. So i am all for banning alcohol outright. Makes the roads a lot safer and prevents lots of silly fights with injured or killed people.

And those who whine about that DO have a problem.

Party on! "Pepsi on the rocks" is a fine drink, too

Kind regards....

Thanh

[TAWP]

If I choose to not drink but one day every 10 years what right do you have to decide that I cannot drink just that day out of some symbolic meaning to YOU?

And the roads would be safer if the police was interesting in...policing.

[fred2007]

Alcohol-free days sought

BANGKOK: -- A network of monks has renewed calls for the government to declare the four most important days on the Buddhist calendar alcohol-free. Monks from many provinces including Surin, Khon Kaen, Chanthaburi and Trat yesterday petitioned the National Committee for Alcohol Consumption Control, chaired by Deputy Prime Minister Sanan Kachornprasart.

They asked the cabinet for Makha Bucha Day, Asarnha Bucha Day, Visakha Bucha Day and Buddhist Lent Day, which are public holidays, to be declared alcohol-free days.

The network claimed Maj Gen Sanan's committee favoured the alcohol-free days, but Prime Minister Abhisit Vejjajiva had not pushed for it.

Network coordinator Phra Samu Surapong Pasannajitto said the cabinet last year agreed that Buddhist Lent Day be declared an alcohol-free day. No mention was made of the other religious days.

-- Bangkok Post 2009-06-15

Then why not make them mobile free for monks as well

[aazA]

Hi

I didn't drink a drop since 14 odd years and haven't needed it or missed it at all. So i am all for banning alcohol outright. Makes the roads a lot safer and prevents lots of silly fights with injured or killed people.

And those who whine about that DO have a problem.

Party on! "Pepsi on the rocks" is a fine drink, too

Kind regards....

Thanh

Good idea (NOT) What about all the people who who are going to lose

there jobs. IE brewer,s suppliers.And the tourist industry on the rope,s Already.

[catmac]

Hi

I didn't drink a drop since 14 odd years and haven't needed it or missed it at all. So i am all for banning alcohol outright. Makes the roads a lot safer and prevents lots of silly fights with injured or killed people.

And those who whine about that DO have a problem.

Party on! "Pepsi on the rocks" is a fine drink, too

Kind regards....

Thanh

Sanctimonious claptrap!

I'm sitting at the keyboard enjoying a drink with my b/f - no fighting, no unsafe driving - so why should you impose your personal morality on us?

Might I guess that 14 odd years ago you maybe had a teeny-weeny bit of a problem with your booze?

[isanb]

People who can't deal with taking 4 days off from drinking each year have a bit of a drinking problem, imo.

that's not the point, the idea is to be free to drink when you want as soon as you don't bother someone else.

As for alcohol-free days booze shops are just gone make more money the day before

I don't drink myself but i think in matter of alcohol : prevention and repression (for people u drive drunk for instance ) are the solution if it's done everyday not only a couple of days per year.

If they let them win what going to happen after ? they are going to ask for : sex-free days also or we are going to wear monk clothes every important day of the buddhist calendar if we want to go out ?

the best way to live in harmony is to respect someone else differences and religions have to stay a personnal choice not an obligation

Edited June 15, 2009 by isanb

[Thanh-BKK]

Hi

I didn't drink a drop since 14 odd years and haven't needed it or missed it at all. So i am all for banning alcohol outright. Makes the roads a lot safer and prevents lots of silly fights with injured or killed people.

And those who whine about that DO have a problem.

Party on! "Pepsi on the rocks" is a fine drink, too

Kind regards....

Thanh

Sanctimonious claptrap!

I'm sitting at the keyboard enjoying a drink with my b/f - no fighting, no unsafe driving - so why should you impose your personal morality on us?

Might I guess that 14 odd years ago you maybe had a teeny-weeny bit of a problem with your booze?

Hick!

Umm no, i didn't have a problem with my booze.... just party every weekend as is usual with guys in my age then, and of course, beer and vodka to no end. However the day i got my driving license (the one for the motorbike) i said "no more, that thing was expensive and one beer is enough to lose it" (in Germany that is). And voila - no problem, still got my license (although i DID lose it at one stage - for speeding, and got it back three months later, phew).

Why would i pose my morality on you? With the exact same right the government does it NOW with it's idiotic restrictions in booze sales (what, no sixpack between 2 and 5 pm, however 10 liters is no problem?) and with the exact same right the government restricts smoking in all sorts of places (ironically some of which are the very same places where booze is the main business).

It is not what YOU do in YOUR place, it is what the general public does in, well, the public. I am pretty sure that even on an "alcohol-free day" nobody can tell you what to do in your place, even drinking yourself under your own table can't be restricted. Just as they can't forbid you to smoke in your place.

And no, i don't smoke either, but can't stand the government heavily restricting one drug (cigarettes) while doing nothing against an even more dangerous one, alcohol.

@aazA

Those people who would lose their jobs if alcohol was banned they could travel to some countries where alcohol IS banned and look what people work there. An alternative would be selling fruit juice and soft drinks, the selection of those in Thailand is VERY low (despite 187 sorts of Fanta). Welch's anyone? Mountain Dew? Schweppes? Cherry Coke for heaven's sake..?

Kind regards.....

Thanh

[Insight]

Alcohol-free days sought

BANGKOK: -- A network of monks has renewed calls for the government to declare the four most important days on the Buddhist calendar alcohol-free. Monks from many provinces including Surin, Khon Kaen, Chanthaburi and Trat yesterday petitioned the National Committee for Alcohol Consumption Control, chaired by Deputy Prime Minister Sanan Kachornprasart.

They asked the cabinet for Makha Bucha Day, Asarnha Bucha Day, Visakha Bucha Day and Buddhist Lent Day, which are public holidays, to be declared alcohol-free days.

The network claimed Maj Gen Sanan's committee favoured the alcohol-free days, but Prime Minister Abhisit Vejjajiva had not pushed for it.

Network coordinator Phra Samu Surapong Pasannajitto said the cabinet last year agreed that Buddhist Lent Day be declared an alcohol-free day. No mention was made of the other religious days.

-- Bangkok Post 2009-06-15

If I remember correctly the idea for more booze-free days was canned as there was strong (and understandable) opposition from the Ministry of Tourism.

[thirdeyedmt]

ooooooohhhhhhhhhh pesky monks... they will be wanting peace and harmony before long

[Texpat]

I propose a mandatory full-blown drunkfest following every alcohol-free day -- for everybody, including children.

Keeping the ying in balance with the yang.

The alcohol-free days don't bother me much. Any self respecting drinker has a fridge full of frosted fun anyway.

Make me drink at home tonight? Ooooh! hurt me bad!

Edited June 15, 2009 by Texpat

[spirit47]

Hi

I didn't drink a drop since 14 odd years and haven't needed it or missed it at all. So i am all for banning alcohol outright. Makes the roads a lot safer and prevents lots of silly fights with injured or killed people.

And those who whine about that DO have a problem.

Party on! "Pepsi on the rocks" is a fine drink, too

Kind regards....

Thanh

Good,

I stop drinking alcohol 10 years ago, and a lot of Farang I see here have a big problem with alcohol. Awareness and drinking don't match together, so a few days without selling alcohol is a good idea. And they, who can't stop have surely enough at home ...

I don't think that AI will help them. I'am smoker, so I feel lucky that they don't forbidden smoking, than I would have a problem...

[Texpat]

Nasty, filthy, disgusting habit that impinges on others' right to a smokefree environment.

Far more intrusive than a beer.

Shame.

Wonder why the monks don't clamp down on that insidious vice?

Edited June 15, 2009 by Texpat

[basjke]

Hi

I didn't drink a drop since 14 odd years and haven't needed it or missed it at all. So i am all for banning alcohol outright. Makes the roads a lot safer and prevents lots of silly fights with injured or killed people.

And those who whine about that DO have a problem.

Party on! "Pepsi on the rocks" is a fine drink, too

Kind regards....

Thanh

Ok YOU don't drink alcohol so let's ban alchol from this world.

Oh I don't eat crab so let's ban crab also

Oh yeah I also don't drink regular softdrinks,only sugar free,so let's ban them at the same time.

If I think a bit longer I will find more things that I never use or which I am against so can we ban them all?

Sorry but I think you made a very selfish comment.I think everyone should be let free to decide what he wants or don't want.

[isanb]

Nasty, filthy, disgusting habit that impinges on others' right to a smokefree environment.

Far more intrusive than a beer.

Shame.

Wonder why the monks don't clamp down on that insidious vice?

because they have it

[thirdeyedmt]

its just a thai thing, the monks in cambodia like a slurp!

Drunk monk's streaking gets him disrobed

Deutsche Presse-Agentur, Aug 26, 2006

Phnom Penh, Cambodia -- A Cambodian Buddhist monk who stripped naked and raced through suburban streets after a heavy night of drinking rice wine laced with toads has been asked to leave the monkhood, a religious official said Saturday.

Sim Soktriya, chief monk of Russei Keo district on the outskirts of the capital, said a woman discovered the naked monk Friday passed out on her doorstep.

Soktriya said Dem Yonly, 30, had been drinking toad wine, excusing the forbidden behaviour for Buddhist monks by saying he was drinking it as medicine to treat an unspecified illness.

Cambodians widely believe that poison in the toads helps kill illnesses.

Yonly stripped and streaked, then fell asleep near his pagoda, scaring a woman who walked outside to find the naked monk lying in her garden covered in mud, police said. Officers turned him over to the pagoda.

'He will not face criminal charges - we have just asked him to go home. This is not the first time he has been warned, but he does not listen,' Soktriya said.

He said Yonly had been a monk for nearly seven years but had showed no sign of improvement. The defrocking also bars him from rejoining the monkhood at any other pagoda in Cambodia, Soktriya said.

[Plus]

Drinking is a societal problem, why not let society control it?

All the monks ask for is to stay sober during religious holidays. Maybe people would appreciate them better, instead of spending all energy on organising big parties after their visits to the temple.

I don't think the monks are offended by quiet drinkers sitting at home, nursing their beer, so those folks have nothing to worry about.

[BigSnake]

I say good for Monks for such a noble effort and while they are at it cleanup their own back yard, I see many Monks handle money, smoking, bad movies at the Wats, show girls festival/song and dancing to raise money for the Wat and oh yes at one of these event some vendors were, yeah you guess it, selling ALCOHOL

[Plus]

So it will do good to monks own image, too.

Sounds like a very good idea.

[jackr]

I never preach to anyone about being 100% non religious. So i don't expect people to preach to me.

Wouldn't life be so much easier if everyone just minded their own business?

Good post.

Hi

I didn't drink a drop since 14 odd years and haven't needed it or missed it at all. So i am all for banning alcohol outright. Makes the roads a lot safer and prevents lots of silly fights with injured or killed people.

And those who whine about that DO have a problem.

Sanctimonious claptrap!

I'm sitting at the keyboard enjoying a drink with my b/f - no fighting, no unsafe driving - so why should you impose your personal morality on us?

Might I guess that 14 odd years ago you maybe had a teeny-weeny bit of a problem with your booze?

Another good post.

All the monks ask for is to stay sober during religious holidays.

That's neither here nor there. They shouldn't even consider requesting stuff like this in order to harmonise their own agenda.

[Scott]

I rarely drink. My work schedule keeps me away from the sauce. The big religious holidays (or the eve thereof) are about the only times I can relax and go out. Of course, those are the ones they want to ban!

Oh, well.

[Bagwan]

I suggest that Thai monks take on board some of the Trappist tradition. Zip it up and concentrate of collecting the baksheesh.

[jitenshaman]

I suggest that Thai monks take on board some of the Trappist tradition. Zip it up and concentrate of collecting the baksheesh.

i second the motion...can you imagine the monks brewing up some 14% alcohol along the likes of Chimay? Then again, the folks at Singh and Chang might get a wee upset.

[Mosha]

We should report every monk we see smoking, and walking around Panthip Plaza. They aren't supposed to have money so how can the buy the s**y movies?

[tominbkk]

Nasty, filthy, disgusting habit that impinges on others' right to a smokefree environment.

Far more intrusive than a beer.

Shame.

Wonder why the monks don't clamp down on that insidious vice?

Because most of them smoke like chimneys behind closed temple doors.