Daily Lesson from Life 16 December 2008

"Tue, Dec 16, 2008 The New Paper No limits to having fun?

TAKE about 25,000 people. Put them in a party environment with free-flowing booze and loud music. Some are bound to get drunk out of their heads and throw up or even pass out. Others may lose their inhibitions and start doing things they may not do when sober.

But ZoukOut happens only once a year, so why not let the revellers let their hair down and have their fun?


As Zack Sam, 28, a sales consultant who was at the Sentosa bash on Saturday night, said: 'Drunk people are quite common in the clubbing culture. It's once a year, so I guess it's okay.'

Another ZoukOut attendee, Mr Darius Loh, 20, a full-time national serviceman, said: 'I think seeing drunk people is part of the clubbing experience.'


But teen counsellors and parents whom The New Paper spoke to feel that partygoers can have their fun without having to get so sloshed.

The counsellors, especially, were concerned about teen drinking being on the rise. However, ZoukOut has a minimum-age limit of 18, so young teens would be barred.


Said Ms Sheena Jebal, founder of the Nulife Care and Counselling Services: 'It's not the fault of the entertainment venue. 'I think there's a need to better educate the youth on how they should conduct themselves when they are intoxicated.

'They should have their own boundaries, and be responsible enough to dress up well for a party, and go home with dignity and pride.'


Dignity was the furthest thing from the clouded minds of those who were passed out drunk, lying in the middle of all the action at ZoukOut.

Some, like the girl pictured on the front page, were lucky to have caring friends. The New Paper spotted her at 10.30pm lying face-down on the concrete road near the beach.

Last year's ZoukOut also saw similar scenes and sparked similar comments from counsellors and parents, with some even calling a ban on the event, which has been held yearly since 2000.


The divide is clear: The young feel they are just having fun, even if it does get a bit wild at times, while older folk like parents and counsellors are concerned about over-drinking and unseemly behaviour.

Will their message ever get through: It's okay to party but don't overdo the drinking?


The young being young, expect more of the same at ZoukOut 2009."

An annual affair and an annual debates and no solution in sight? Or is there a need for a solution?

Lessons for me are:

1. discussing about the subjectives are fairly useless in helping to identify the issue, if there is an issue to begin with. So, I will apply the famed 6Sigma data based approach to understand the issue, and identify the potential solutions to the issue.

So, the organizers should provide data tag for all attendees to wear for:
a) categorized them by age group of: 18-20, 21-25, 26-30, 30-40, 40 and above;
b) name and contact identification in case one passed out or something unfortunate happened to a totally drunk person;

Then the police and securities to round up those who are drunk or totally pissed drunk or creating troubles and record their: name, age, and issues.

Published a report that provide information on: how many attended, how many found drunk and passed out and how many got into troubles. IF the % of those in trouble is small and immaterial, to be decided by the parents and counsellors who are worried about developing young alcoholic from such event, we can close the irrelevant debates and spend our energy helping troubled teens elsewhere.

We also can save some free publicity for the organizers as their events are really NOT that big!!

2. if this is a concern, I really like the parents and counsellors to take ACTIONs instead of just giving commentaries. When something untoward or when some tragedies truck in future events, we will be still talking about it! If you have a vision, take actions!;

3. responsible media reporting. Is there ever such a thing! The other headline of the event read: ZoukOut Virgins let their hairs down with some young and not so young girls/ladies in bikini posing suggestively! Is this what the society want? Of course, I might have over-exaggerated about the power of public media. Then again, culture is formed from public perception.

Finally, for each 18-year old, it is a tough time to be around. If you have a sense of responsibility, a sense of self-worth, and a sense of independence, you will not be swayed by 'peer pressure'. It will be difficult but if you succeed in doing the right thing in such a young age, you will do a lot more right things in your latter years!