It is redundant to spend time discussing the harms of alcohol on learning. It’s stating the obvious like saying guns are bad for education or bombs are bad for brains. Nor should we waste our breath talking about how to get people to stop drinking because that would be really hard.

Nonetheless, it’s nothing we should overlook when trying to help develop young brains. Binge drinking among university students gets a lot of press in many countries, but it’s easier to talk about it because most university students are technically adults. They have the right of free choice even though alcohol is something that makes making right choices hard. It’s that very reason that many young people drink. It helps them to feel uninhibited and socially confident. Starting young sets behavior patterns for later years.

I had a conversation with a young man who said he started drinking when he was 11. I was pretty surprised, but he said it’s not uncommon and that girls drank too. He admits now at 22 that his memory isn’t very good and that his brain gets tired easily. It’s either because he still drinks by the crate or because starting early caused irreparable damage.

The young developing brain drowned in alcohol doesn’t do well. There is scientific evidence. During adolescence, alcohol can damage two key parts of the brain that are responsible for logic, reasoning, self-regulation and judgment as well as parts of the brain used for learning and memory.

I wondered who was selling alcohol to an 11 year-old, but this young man assured me that it was no problem since parents habitually send their children down the street to stock up on the booze. If the kids are still doing booze runs later in adolescence, they will understand well why there isn’t enough money to send them to school.

Hitting the bottle isn’t fair to women either, either as drinker or drinkee. Husbands are more likely to hit them after a few rounds. Ends are less likely to meet when liquor is a part of daily expenses. Children are less likely study hard when they see their adult role-models spend more time with bottles than books. It would take a Herculean manly effort for a man to refuse a drinking round with the reply, “No thank you, I have a daughter to educate.”

Nothing will change until drinking is seen as a problem. As it stands, it is considered normal if not essential for socializing, harmonizing and communicating. In Japan, for example, the normality of drinking to smooth social relations is called “nomunication” or “boozication”. One HR manager explained to me that excessive drinking is not a concern, that alcohol at parties is a large part of budgets and that it is the natural release valve for stress that otherwise would be hard to deal with and is not something that HR wants to feel responsible for.

What Laos does have is an institution that keeps young men and boys out of reach of alcohol, pornography and general delinquency. We all have met the studious and disciplined young man who attributes his education to the time spent in a temple. Many boys join a temple because their families don’t have the money to send them to school. Let’s just hope that the reason is not because the household budget is being drained by alcohol. Everything has its place.

It’s fun to complain about how other people drive. It’s so cultural. People in foreign countries drive on the wrong side of the street. They have no manners or respect for traffic laws. When we are caught in other people’s traffic, we’re shocked by the realization that we all drive to different laws, both legally and socially. GDP and GNP give us growth in numbers, but traffic style shows us how we like to move forward.

The US, founded on unalienable rights, makes jaywalking illegal. When I was a rebellious teenager, I was arrested for crossing the street, though empty, at the wrong place. I was fined and almost sent to jaywalking correctional school. There are laws about seatbelts, baby seats, use of mobile phones and helmets for bicyclists. The law is something the country is built on. The law takes the place of the king and the father, but laws go both ways. You can either seek recourse or be convicted by them.

In contrast, in some countries, the purpose of driving is not to follow laws, but to have fun. We can look to computer games for proof that speed limits don’t make the game fun. On one of the most frightening bus trips I’d ever had, I was confused if the driver delighted in passing on curves because he was crazy or was skilled. Having read my mind, the driver’s assistant gleefully declared upon reaching safe ground, “You’re such a good driver!”  Every year during Songkran, road carnage statistics are read like the force of a typhoon; the natural fallout from drunken drinking, reckless abandonment and the fun of living for the moment.

China 2013 is nothing like China 2003 so I look back nostalgically to the days of wobbly bicycles slowly crashing into each other. After witnessing so many collisions, I could conclude that swerving into other people’s path was the major cause. Usually, we’re warned to watch our back, but apparently other people’s paths were not the concern. Everyone was moving forward and even with 5,000 years of history, nobody was looking back.

I feel that Hanoi traffic is often misinterpreted. The din is overwhelming, but it’s not a sport to hit people jaywalking. I haven’t tested this myself, but I’m convinced that I could walk across any street blindfolded without getting hit. The trick is to move forward at a predictable pace. Freeze, jump or scream and then you’re likely to get hit. Moving forward in mass is possible as long as you’re predictable.

My current favorite is Phnom Penh traffic. Even when traffic gets stalled, the feeling is like jogging at a stoplight. By pure will, everything keeps moving forward and there is tremendous mutual consent for everyone to do anything they want for the common goal of moving forward. It all works without stoplights and for that matter, any signs of traffic rules. In pragmatic chaos, traffic rules are overruled.

Finally, there is the delight of Vientiane. Lao people are polite and social and avoid using horns. There is the big-hearted acceptance and freedom to triple-park and stop for a bowl of noodles. Nobody is in a rush, so beginner drivers are allowed to move at the safe pace of a pedestrian. Beautiful cars represent a modern, progressive city, so the more white cars, the more beautiful it all is. After all, we’re all going where we want to go and must go in our own preferred style.