What shall we do with the drunken sailor?

I came to Helsinki yesterday for a job, just a quickie back and forth kind of a trip, and I was stunned by a fact I was harshly reminded of on the bus into town from the airport in Vantaa: Alot of Fins have problems with alcohol. Sitting there on the bus we drove thorugh some parts of Helsinki that are extra filled with slobby pubs and by a red light I saw a sad bunch of women out smoking outside one of them. I mean it was Sunday evening at 8 PM. I bet most of them work at the post office or something, because I've had a feeling lately that's where all the sadest, most acrimonious people work.

Seing that made me think (uh oh she's gonna explode). What is it that makes people so vulnerable to misuse alcohol. Why don't Spanish people have problems in the same extent that we do? I mean working at a trauma ward in down town Helsinki for 2 years made me see that 1/3, let me write that again: one BLOODY third, of all the cases were alcohol related! That's a whole lot. I mean there are pubs that start their happy hour on Mondays at ten. 10 AM!

Why do Fins have a tendency to misuse alcohol? Is it the depressing weather? The darkness? Well it's just as depressing in Sweden and Norway...but we are the ones who get depressed and hit the bottle added to that. At least at some point Finland was the number one country in the world in the usage of antidepressants per habitant. Why? And more importantly....What the hell should one/can one do about it?



What we in Helsinki call a "deeku" = an acoholic. Cheers!