Aims

To support the free and open dissemination of research findings and information on alcoholism and alcohol-related problems. To encourage open access to peer-reviewed articles free for all to view.

For full versions of posted research articles readers are encouraged to email requests for "electronic reprints" (text file, PDF files, FAX copies) to the corresponding or lead author, who is highlighted in the posting.

___________________________________________

Friday, December 19, 2008

Indonesia drinkers face alcohol shortage

By Lucy Williamson
BBC News, Jakarta


They call it "the Bitching Session". Once a week, in the hushed cocktail lounge of Jakarta's Dharmawangsa Hotel, Miranti and her girlfriends gather.

They come for a proper gossip, and several glasses of the hotel's legendary chocolate martini.

We can bitch about work, boys, whatever we feel like, Miranti explained. But it is always at the Dharmawangsa because of that delicious chocolate martini.

Miranti is part of a growing class in Indonesia. She is 34, single, an architect.

Like her friends, she knows how to run a business, deal with jet-lag, and how to mix a margarita.

What she does not know is that she is at the heart of a battle being fought here in Jakarta - over alcohol. . . . . .

_____________________________________________
at