Back to the Botellón

As summer comes to an end and university terms start again, the botellón raises its head once more, either as an end of season bash or a great reunion bash. Whatever it is, it’s back in the news.

Not that botellón ever stopped, truth to tell. One of my August visitors, a smoker, used to go out for an early morning cigarette and come back with tales of the local youth making their merry way home at 6 or 7 in the morning. I myself ran into a group sitting cross-legged on the pavement one fine early morning, chewing the fat. We’ve heard them singing in the street parallel to ours in the small hours of the morning and just last week I discovered an uprooted tree, the consequence I assumed, perhaps unjustly, of youthful high spirits.

But the fight against el botellón has been in the news again because the weekend before last some young men in Pozuelo de Alarcón, a district of outer Madrid, got into a fight with police. It was during the local fiestas, a week of fairs and fun and games. The police went to remonstrate with a group who proceded to throw bottles at them and the whole thing escalated into a major battle with police cars set on fire and general mayhem. One young man who claimed not have been directly involved said it was the best night of the summer!!

The upshot of it all was policemen injured, young men arrested and indignant parents declaring that their boys did not do things like that. Now these were not “scum” from the outer suburbs of Paris (Monsieur Sarkozy’s description I believe) but middle class youths from one of the richest areas of Madrid. The judge, however, ruled that they needed a curfew and has made it obligatory for them to be home by 10.00 pm for the next three months!

Closer to home, in Mos this last weekend when the police were called to an incident outside a disco stones and bottles were thrown, three Guardia civil were injured and two young men were arrested. Some reports say they may face three years in prison.

In general there has been an effort to put an end to botellón or, at least, to control it. More and more areas are being declared alcohol free and those who drink there are being arrested, like three young men in Vigo last week. There is talk of raising the legal age for consumption of any kind of alcoholic drink to 18, still 16 for some drinks in Galicia. There are plans to make it impossible for young people to get on the noitebús, the late night bus service if they are clearly carrying alcohol ready for a botellon, especially since some 8000 euros’ worth of damage was done to a noitebús a couple of weeks ago. Quite how to “police” such a restriction raises some questions however.

It might all be too late, of course. Alcohol consumption has always been part of having fun in Spain (as in many other countries and we all know what a problem British binge drinking is). With alcohol banned last weekend at Pozuelo de Alarcón the feria closed at midnight for lack of public, something almost unheard of in a Spanish summer. It is worth noting that even MacDonald’s serves beer in Spain, something which doesn’t happen anywhere else to my knowledge, not even in France. It seems that they realised that Spanish papás would not take their kids to MacDonald’s if they (the papás) had to drink fizzy pop.

Maybe everywhere will have to follow the example of Pontevedra with its botellódromo where it seems young people can drink, dance, smoke what they like and, some say, indulge in other bad habits, with no interference.

The whole thing has led to a huge debate once again – (lack of) discipline, (lack of) manners and (lack of) respect. There is justifiable concern about 13 year olds taking part in botellon. The judge who restricted the freedom of the young madrileños from Pozuelo, though, said it was largely down to children not learning respect at school. This has been exacerbated by the modern habit of pupils and teachers addressing each other as tú. The obligatory use of usted in the classroom should be brought back and the distance created by formality would ensure that respect returned. Then the young would know how to behave properly.

Hmmmmm, I can think of any number of schools in the UK where calling the teacher “Sir” does not automatically guarantee respect.