Enough to drive you to drink

There’s more evidence of the car crash that passes for government drug and alcohol policy today on the Manx government website. Apparently we’re about to have a ‘Focus on Alcohol Awareness’.
I’d never have guessed from all the ‘coincidental’ poorly placed PR shite in the papers, honest. Just as I’d never guess that it’s the time of year when ‘Third Sector’ parasites compete for government funding in next year’s budget.
All those talks to community groups? What a coincidence.
Now I could go and explode the myth straight away by pointing you straight to a relevant webpage, but that would be no fun. So indulge me by following this trail and you’ll see something interesting.
First, go to http://www.gov.im/fsc/ViewNews.gov?page=lib/news/dha/ceo/focusonalcoholaw.xml&menuid=11570 for the standard announcement written by Daphne Caine, the DHA press officer, (which, by the way, I suspect you will read under another journalist’s byline later this week). Then follow the link to the ‘be alcohol aware IOM’ website and watch the warning as you leave the DHA page.
Got that? It’s an ‘independent’ website the Manx government take no responsibility for.
Now click on the website.
Hmm, looks like standard Freedom to Fester maintained Manx government stuff to me, with a link to the Education Department. How would our charity sector survive without them and the half million quid the Manx government shells out for their services?
Now go to the contact page at http://www.bealcoholawareiom.com/Contact.aspx and have a look at the sad collection of know-nowt amateurs they think can help you. I count three nasty cults, and I’m not even trying to look for them.
Firstly there’s the genuinely scary news that Care for the Family are sole partners to the D of E Drug & Alcohol Liason Officer for ‘Education’. In other words, the Education Department has no professional help and the homophobic fundamentalists who gave a job to a previous Education Minister’s unemployable daughter are still getting public handouts in return.
You can read more about the nasty links between the Manx education department and fundamentalists at something I posted last October (see How To Win Government Friends And Screw Up Kids , but I’ll explain again briefly.
Care for the Family started meddling over here via links with their Scottish and Northern Irish operations, which have a similar record for stealing public funds in return for truly cretinous ‘educational intitiatives’.
John O'Brien, a Care for the Family trustee, is also a trustee of CARE (‘Christian Action Research & Education'), which as I said before is:
“notorious for favouring Section 28, opposing civil partnerships, counselling registrars how to plead 'conscience grounds' for not registering civil partnerships, and generally inflicting christofascist crap on anyone with the temerity to read books.”
The daughter of the last Manx education minister got a Westminster internship with CARE just after graduating, and Care for the Family's links with the Manx education system curiously enough began at about that time. Last year a third rate bunch of bible floggers posturing as a ‘theatre company’ got a nice gig at Ballakermeen School’s new ‘community art’ space. One of their trustees, Norman Adams, is another CftF trustee.
Small world.
Leaving aside a group of retards who nobody who cared for their family would let into the house for a second, let’s also consider the ‘Treatment & Support Services’ section.
There we find two more cults with nastier methods than the Scientologists or Moonies,
Alcoholics Anonymous and Al-Anon.
One of them only gives a London number. This is so that you won’t recognise the local contact as one of the most fundamentalist churches, notorious for numerous scams to part the vulnerable from their cash, and not averse to covering up a bit of underage sex either.
You see, while the public image of these ‘twelve step’ groups is twaddle we pick up from bone-idle tabloid writers, the reality is quite different. Their record on creating new dependencies to replace the ones they’re supposed to tackle, and exploiting money and sexual favours from ‘clients’ for example.
The thing is, in order to progress through the ‘twelve steps’ you have to volunteer personal information, much of which could get you divorced, jobless or imprisoned if it gets to the wrong person.
You think you’re ‘safe’ in an AA group? That isn’t what any number of folk who contact cult helplines say.
You think you can go to the police and get the rapist or extortionist arrested? On what evidence? The word of a self-confessed alkie against a ‘respectable’ charity worker, more than likely attached to a wealthy evangelical church? Get real!
You think alcoholism is a disease and AA is a recognised treatment based on well-established psychological methods? That isn’t what any reputable medical textbook says. If alcoholism is a medical illness, what is the World Health Organisation number?
Do yourself a favour. If you or someone you care about has problems with alcohol look up the Stanton Peele website on the sidebar. Learn to drink responsibly instead of having an irrational fear of alcohol that plays right into the hands of cults and parasites.
And stay well clear of fundamentalist nutjobs like the ones our government sponsors. They are the real health hazard.