NewFest also provides audiences with a sneak peek at two noteworthy films due for general release soon. Matthew Bate’s “Shut Up, Little Man! An Audio Misadventure” (forthcoming in September) is an amusing documentary that chronicles the alcohol-fueled arguments of Peter and Raymond. Described as “a bitchy queen and a homophobe,” respectively, they are the noisy neighbors of Mitchell D. and Eddie Lee. Mitchell and Eddie actively recorded — and circulated — some of their neighbor’s amazing exchanges, and this film, by turns hilarious and scary, adds interviews, reenactments, and archival footage to flesh out the madness. “Shut Up, Little Man!” is a must see, especially for fans of cult recordings.

(Jul. 24, 3:30 p.m.; SVA Theatre, 333 W. 23rd St.)

“Tomboy” (due in theaters in November) is Celine Sciamma’s absorbing character study about Laure (Zoé Héran), a young girl who passes herself off as a boy. The film, in French with English subtitles, shrewdly assesses how gender identities are formed and developed. Moving to a new home, Laure reinvents herself as Michaël, befriending Lisa (Jeanne Disson) as well as the neighborhood boys, who are impressed by the athletic prowess they see. Laure allows Lisa to put makeup on Michaël and kiss him.

Laure’s mother (Sophie Cattani) is pleased at her daughter’s female friendship — and her wearing makeup — but is unaware of Laure’s deception. However, Jeanne, Laure’s sister (Malonn Lévana), is in on the secret, playing along with her “brother” until an incident involving one of the other kids threatens the freedom Michaël affords Laure.

“Tomboy” employs a refreshingly natural, observational approach to the drama and showcases a remarkable performance by Héran. The film will resonate with anyone who grew up thinking about the allure of being the opposite gender.

(Jul. 22, 3 p.m.; Jul. 24, 7 p.m.; Cinema Village, 22 E. 12th St.)

“Wish Me Away,” a documentary about Chely Wright, the out lesbian country music singer, is an inspiring and empowering story that offers moving insight into her struggle to come out. Even non-country music fans will appreciate Wright’s honesty and her artistry.

(Jul. 22, 7:30 p.m.; SVA Theatre, 333 W. 23rd St.)

Some films unspooling at NewFest are more ambitious than good. On the non-fiction slate, “Hit So Hard,” a sex, drugs, and rock and roll documentary about Hole drummer Patti Schemel, plays like an overlong episode of VH-1’s “Behind the Music.” The film traces Schemel’s career in the band, along with her lesbianism, the alcoholism and drug addiction that led to her decline, and her recovery.

The interviews and footage of bandmates Courtney Love and Melissa Auf der Maur offer some compelling moments, but a little goes a very long way.

Director and co-writer P. David Ebersole’s decision to focus on other female drummers as well fails to illuminate Schemel’s story, and the film as a whole could use some editing.

(Jul. 27, 6:50 p.m.; BAM-Rose Cinema, 30 Lafayette Ave. at Ashland Pl.)

Misfires for the gay male audience include J.T. Tepnapa’s “Judas Kiss,” a college-set romantic drama. Zack (Charlie David) is a scruffy, chain-smoking, washed up filmmaker who returns to his alma mater to judge a film festival he won 15 years earlier. When he meets a handsome young student named Danny Reyes (Richard Harmon), Zack realizes he has entered a parallel universe and has been given a chance to change his past — and his future.

“Judas Kiss” aims to be a metaphysical love story, but the makers of this clichéd drama about correcting past mistakes should go back to the drawing board. The script is silly, the acting is stiffer than the cardboard characters, and the “big reveal” is unsurprising.

(Jul. 24, 10:15 p.m.; SVA Theatre, 333 W. 23rd St.; Jul. 26, 9:30 p.m.; Cinema Village, 22 E. 12th St.)

“The Green,” is Steven Williford’s overstuffed American indie film about a teacher accused of molesting a student. The film features the charismatic Cheyenne Jackson in a major role, but he is not given enough to do. Few viewers will have the patience for the suspension of disbelief demanded by this film.

Unfortunately, “Absent,” a stunning Argentine film about a fateful student-teacher relationship, is missing from the line-up. Why NewFest passed on this film — which won a top prize in Berlin — is a mystery.

(Jul. 24, 6 p.m.; SVA Theatre, 333 W. 23rd St.)

Another disappointing NewFest entry is “Buffering,” a British sex comedy from directors Darren Flaxstone and Christian Martin that is more sugary than raunchy — not necessarily a good thing here. Two cute broke blokes turn to making a porn website. “Buffering” gropes the familiar bedroom fetishes — dildos, leather, spanking— and answers a not-so-burning question: Is the super hunky next-door neighbor gay? This undistinguished film exists simply as an excuse to get the handsome cast in the buff.

If the festival programmers were interested in something truly risky — not to mention frisky — they should have showcased Todd Verow’s excellent “Leave Blank,” about an escort and his client filming their graphic sexual encounters in a New York hotel room.

(Jul. 22, 7:30 p.m.; SVA Theatre, 333 W. 23rd St.)

Everything old is also new in “Eating Out: Drama Camp,” Q. Allan Brocka’s fourth entry in this gaysploitation series. The “lying to get laid” plotlines are starting to wear thin now. Here, Benji (Aaron Milo), a gay character at Dick Dickey’s Drama Camp, pretends to be straight, claiming it to be “the ultimate acting exercise.” He wants to win the heart of his crush, Zack (Chris Salvatore). Zack, of course, is conflicted because he is in a relationship with Casey (Daniel Skelton).

Harebrained schemes, few of them funny, ensue. Shakespeare it’s not, but the Bard’s “Taming of the Shrew” is re-purposed as same-sex romance here anyway.

There are some — though not nearly enough — amusing one-liners, a sensitive treatment of a trans character, Lily (Harmony Santana from “Gun Hill Road”), and a brief but energetic turn by cult icon Mink Stole. “Eating Out: Drama Camp,” however, is largely a string of dumb scenarios aimed at getting its characters naked. Count a rollicking musical number from Salvatore as one of this film’s saving graces.

(Jul. 24, 6p.m.; Jul. 28, 4 p.m.; Cinema Village, 22 E. 12th St.)

Bisexuals deserve better than “3,” “Run Lola Run” director Tom Tykwer’s pretentious meditation on biological determinism. Posing the usual questions about bisexuality and sexual fluidity, “3” is centered on the couple Simon (Sebastian Schipper), undergoing testicular cancer surgery that is disquietingly graphic, and Hanna (Sophie Rois), who is off sleeping with Adam (Devid Striesow).

Halfway through the film Adam and Simon meet at a swim club, and Adam rouses Simon’s penis to sexual climax. Suddenly, the straight Simon is pining for Adam, unaware that his new lover is also seeing Hanna. “3” eventually culminates in Hanna and Simon’s inevitable discovery of each other’s affair, which unsurprisingly happens when Hanna learns she’s pregnant.

“3” is supposed to be about sexual ambivalence, but these characters will leave audiences ambivalent even about which man is the daddy or what relationship wins out in the end. The film gives Tykwer a chance to showcase his nifty visual style, featuring split screens and impressive locations, but these joys cannot compensate for the many problems with “3.”

(Jul. 26, 7 p.m.; Museum of the Moving Image, 36-01 35th Ave, at 37th St., Astoria.)

Essentials:

NEWFEST

New York’s LGBT Film Festival

July 21-28

Venues citywide

newfest.org

Two years ago, Charles Evans Mielke became the face that launched a thousand jaw-dropping responses.

Captured flat on his chest on a Duval Street sidewalk, buckled by homelessness and alcoholism, and plugging a bottle to his lips as if it were the only solution, Mielke appeared on the Feb. 28, 2010, front page of The Citizen, illustrating in raw desperation the city’s vagrancy problem that had prompted a police crackdown on public drinking and sleeping on the beaches and streets.

Between the empathy and outrage from the image lay a human being drinking himself to death — in living color.

Many in Key West knew the unidentified man in the photograph as “Popeye,” who since 2000 had panhandled and charmed tourists, local business owners and his fellow homeless friends on the boozy corners of the tropical island.

Ravaged by the alcoholic illness that kept him measuring out his days in pints and fifths of vodka for 40 years, and sleeping outdoors and living by his wits, even the mighty Popeye — nicknamed for his beefy biceps, he said — hit rock bottom.

“I was sick all the time, puking my guts up,” Mielke, 59, said in a deep voice and genteel manner. “I was having a couple of seizures a week; comes with the territory. We’d start every morning with a half-gallon of vodka. At the end, I tried to wean myself down. I tried cutting it down. I’d go into the shakes, seizures.”

Things have changed for the Fort Wayne, Ind., native.

Mielke now lives and works at a New Town group home for homeless men. Sober, safe and en route to a Veterans Administration hospital in Miami for a bum foot and fading eyesight, Mielke spent part of his last hours in Key West — until he returns in a few months, anyway — talking about hopes for the future.

This, after a decade of living on the island’s streets, and decades after becoming estranged from all family. Married four times, Mielke would only say that he has “a bunch of kids spread all over.”

Key West was home, and he became the dean of homeless men and women. He watched friends fade away from the same rigors he has somehow survived.

“I watched a lot of my friends die over the last few years,” Mielke said, ticking off a list of nicknames from the Key West streets and bar stools. “Everyone knew me in town. I’m probably one of the oldest survivors. The police call me the ‘living legend.’ “

At 2½ months sober, the man who for years worked construction, built cement mixers, and before that had served 24 months as a Marine in the Vietnam War, was looking forward to surgery, scheduled for Tuesday, for an aching left foot.

Thanks to the Florida Keys Outreach Coalition (FKOC) program, Mielke has a wallet filled with legal identification cards. All new. Through the VA, Mielke is also in line for a new set of teeth, and a lens implant in one eye.

It all started with sobriety, Mielke said, acknowledging he knew the vodka was killing him. He just couldn’t stop by himself, he said.

“It’s certainly a disease; there are tons of people that die from this every year,” said Larry Prescott, site director of the Guidance/Care Center and director of the Addiction Studies Program at Florida Keys Community College.

“Alcoholism is so subtle that it’s often too late when people realize it’s gotten too far,” said Prescott, who has been in the Keys since 1993.

“It has a very natural progression. Nobody is ever cured from alcoholism or addiction.”

Mielke lived off his panhandling and the kindness of locals and tourists from across the globe. People would return the next day to give him money, he said.

” ‘At least you was honest,’ ” he said they’d tell him. Mielke never hid the fact that the change or bills was for booze. Often, the drinks just appeared, he said. It wasn’t ever too hard to find enough cash to keep the pints and half-gallons coming.

Now, he has had to slap away the offer of a drink from a longtime acquaintance. The offer of, “Just have one,” Mielke said, is a lethal request.

“He has a genuine desire to stay sober,” said Chris Welts, the house manager of FKOC’s Neece Center on Patterson Avenue in New Town. “We are a program of empowerment.”

Mielke moved in on Aug. 6, after spending one week at dePoo Hospital. A local couple had taken him to the hospital and guided him toward the VA, Mielke said.

“I’d never been to the VA in my life,” he said.

At the Neece Center, Mielke shares a home with a dozen men in similar circumstances. He said he likes the structure of the program.

The only reason he agreed to talk to The Citizen was out of gratitude for FKOC and Welts, he said.

The newspaper’s infamous Feb. 28, 2010, photo haunted Mielke. Someone hung it on the wall in the jail, where Mielke has spent plenty of time over the past decade, marking 33 cases in the Monroe County Clerk’s Office, all nonviolent city ordinance violations — open containers, trespassing, obstructing the sidewalk.

“This is a tool or an instrument,” Mielke said of the transitional housing and recovery program. “And it’s up to you to do the work. Nobody’s going to care for you forever.”

The men at the Neece Center are required to work, and Mielke scours the kitchen daily as his regular job.

“I don’t mind cleaning,” he said. “I never did live dirty. Guys used to tease me that I had the cleanest cardboard in town.”

Mielke said he has stories to tell of his past in Key West. But he has no worries of the future.

“I’m looking forward to something,” Mielke said. “What, I don’t know.”

gfilosa@keysnews.com

At schools throughout Western Pennsylvania, students recovering from addictions can find counseling and information about off-campus resources to help with their recovery.

The University of Pittsburgh employs a full-time drug and alcohol specialist who can evaluate students, refer them for treatment or connect them with programs. The counseling center offers individual therapy and a support group.

Counselors there suggest that students drink responsibly or use healthy coping strategies — a “harm-reduction approach” to alcohol use and abuse — because they realize it’s hard for some students to fully abstain from drinking, said Sharon Young, associate director of the center.

West Virginia University in Morgantown holds on-campus Alcoholics Anonymous meetings and other support groups. The university offers direct counseling and therapy for students in recovery.

California University of Pennsylvania has a dedicated drug and alcohol counselor on staff and offers BASICS, a program sponsored by the State System of Higher Education, which targets at-risk students with alcohol awareness education.

Slippery Rock University of Pennsylvania and Saint Vincent College refer students to AA meetings and other programs off campus.

Indiana University of Pennsylvania students can opt for clean-and-sober living facilities. Students can choose to live on the SOAR floor (Students Opting for an Alcohol and Drug-free Residence) in the Suites on Maple East, said Ann Sesti, assistant director for IUP’s Center for Health and Well-being.

“Most of the people who opt to live on that floor are choosing (it) more for health or lifestyle reasons than recovery,” Sesti said. “It certainly is a supportive atmosphere for individuals who are in recovery and returning to the community and IUP.”

IUP does not offer on-campus group support meetings, though it has. Counselors post information about AA and Narcotics Anonymous meetings within walking distance of campus, Sesti said.

Not all universities consider substance-free living the best way to help students adapt to life after addiction.

Corey Farris, interim dean of students and director of housing at WVU, said the school does not designate housing for students in recovery or those seeking a drug- and alcohol-free lifestyle. That can send a mixed message to students that it’s OK to drink or do drugs in other residence halls, he said.

“To me, in the real world, a student is not going to live in an environment where there aren’t people around them (drinking and using drugs),” Farris said.

Before Independence, Bengali patriotism often took the shape of mother-worship. The rhetoric of ‘sacrifice’ or balidaan bridged the gap between the political and the religious. In these post-patriotic times, should we, globalized urban intellectuals, indulge in the easy reductive ‘analysis’ of Kalification of the homeland as a psychosis of the colonized bhadralok’s threatened masculinity, the quixotic blood-thirst of a bunch of emasculated wordy nerds?

In certain quarters, not only is it ‘cool’ to deride Bankimchandra’s Vande Mataram and Sri Aurobindo’s Motherland obsession but it would be ‘positively uncool’ to be aroused by the part of Tagore’s Janaganamana where the country is hailed as a mother. When that song was sung in a National Congress session, in the presence of, but not in praise of, King George V, certain cynics spread the rumour — apparently all the way up to Yeats and Ezra Pound — that the adhinayaka addressed was the King of England. In response to this debunking spin, Rabindranath had the following to say: “That great Charioteer of man’s destiny in age after age could not by any means be George V or George VI or any George. Even my ‘loyal’ friend realized this; because, however powerful his loyalty to the King, he was not wanting in intelligence.”

Unfortunately, among 21st century www-intellectuals, there seems to be no want of such people wanting in intelligence. Some of them may scream in post-colonial petulance: “How could even Rabindranath, who disliked nationalism as much as he hated fascism, address the ‘divine dispenser of India’s destiny’ as a ‘Maa’ (4th stanza)? How disappointingly communal!”

Of course, Rabindranath was no Tantrik Hindu. Indeed, it would be an understatement to say that Rabindranath was uncomfortable with the image of Kali the Mother about whom Vivekananda wrote one of his most majestic and deeply personal poems.

For Rabindranath, a sophisticated aniconic Brahmo, Kali’s nudity, her skull-necklace, her bloody sword, and lolling tongue must have been abhorrent on multiple levels. As a colonial subject, valourizing the Indian civilization as philosophically majestic, morally pure, aesthetically enchanting and spiritually lofty, he must have found goddess Kali to be much more of an embarrassment than Krishna, the other dark and devious divinity with whose iconography at least the young Rabindranath (of Bhanusingher Padaavali) was almost in love. His novel Rajarshi as well as his play Visarjan feature a Kali temple on top of a hill in Tripura as a seat of violence and intrigue. The plot centres on the abolition of animal sacrifice by a humane king of Tripura who is pitted against the machinations of a power-thirsty priest called Raghupati, who tries to inflame a mutiny, dethrone the king, and abet the weak, envious younger brother of the king to fratricide. The play — a passionate argument against the divisive religious politics of bloodshed — climaxes at the scene where this devout Kali worshipper, now badly defeated, rebukes the stone idol and throws “her” out from the temple down into the river, out of sheer frustration and a crisis of faith.

Interestingly, the young Rabindranath would act in this very role of a disillusioned priest-villain — as the famous photograph shows — and would imaginably enthral the audience with the vitriolic crescendo of an anti-Kali speech.

“Kali the Mother” does not afford us any softer face in Swami Vivekananda’s English poem, “For Terror is Thy name/ Death is in Thy breath/ Thou ‘Time’, the All-destroyer!/ Come, O Mother, come! Who dares misery love/And hug the form of Death/ To him the Mother comes.” It would be a mistake to associate the word “Terror” here with the ‘terrorism’ of the Ullaskar or Jugantar brand. Before ‘hugging the form of death’ at half the age till which Tagore lived, Vivekananda had gone to Kashmir where he wrote that poem. During this stay, while ritually worshipping Khir Bhavani, he had the thought: “Mother Bhavani has been manifesting Her Presence here for untold years. The Mohammedans came and destroyed Her temple, yet the people of the place did nothing to protect Her. Alas, if only I were then living, I would not have borne it, I would have protected the temple from the invaders.” He, then, distinctly heard the voice of the goddess saying: “It was my desire that the Mohammedans destroy the temple. It is my desire that I should live in [a] dilapidated temple, otherwise, can I not immediately erect a seven-storied temple of gold here if I like? What can you do? Do I protect you or do you protect me?” The present day chariot-driving ‘protectors’ of Ram and Durga should heed these words of the Mother, in front of whose idol we have always sung:

“My mother’s image by error with clay I want to shape/ this Ma is not earth’s girl, vain toil, with clay I sweat… My mother has three eyes: sun, moon, and holy fire. Is there an artisan, to build me such a one?” (Translation: Gayatri Spivak).

If the maternalization of language or land is necessarily abjured because of its suspected Hindutva roots, then what do we do with the national anthem of Bangladesh — also composed by Rabindranath — which uses “Ma” as a refrain, with no trace of militarism?

This whole essay was sparked off by a sequence of emotions I felt when I first heard the new 2011 Janaganamana recording by 39 musicians on YouTube this year. First I was just viscerally moved to tears by it, simply by the variety and richness of styles. The emergent rasa that enraptured me was not Veera but a sublime blend of Adbhuta and Shanta rasa, like one relishes the cosmic form of Krishna, in the 11th chapter of the Bhagavadgita, with. But then I was embarrassed by my own reaction. I had never noticed the presence of the ‘Mother’ in that song (4th stanza) before. Durga Puja was drawing near. There was nostalgia in the air, reminding me of the completely non-sectarian atmosphere of our home Puja at Mominpur where the local rich Muslim family would pay for the sweets on the Ashtami day’s bhog. Was there a secret Hindutva skeleton inside my anti-nationalist closet? Or is senility softening me like the Marxist Manik Bandyopadhyay whose last alcoholism-rehab days were permeated by Kali bhakti?

We have all learnt “the illegitimacy of nationalism” from Rabindranath via Ashis Nandy. We know that patriotism is one thing and nationalism is quite another. Tagore and Gandhi were patriotic, Bipin Chandra Pal and Netaji were nationalistic. National pride is immoral because un-universalizable. Believing one’s own cultural heritage or religion to be the greatest in the world is unethical because you cannot consistently will that this maxim be universally and sincerely embraced as objectively true by all other peoples of the world. But even Rabindranath’s cosmopolitanism would surely be inimical to the grotesque globalization which would let AIG and Merrill Lynch settle the Kashmir dispute.

Echoing the Atharva Veda, Rabindranath famously pays homage to the Earth Mother, yet he would extol Divine Mother in a patriotic spirit, when the occasion demanded it. His kirtan-tuned “Ek baar toraa maa bolia daak” is a patriotic invocation of the motherland. “Aji Bangla desher hridoy hote kokhon aponi” is such a patriotic song which oozes with bhakti towards a motherland portrayed in words uncannily similar to the standard descriptions of Kali: “In your right hand blazes the khardga/ The left hand takes away our fears and cares/ Two eyes emit the smile of affection/ But the eye-on-the-forehead is of the colour of fire/ The more I see you, Ma, the more I fail to take my eyes off/ Your golden temple has thrown open its door today.”

This dark mother is daughter, mother, country and poor neglected mother-tongue at the same time. When it comes to lamenting the languishing vernacular culture and language, Rabindranath, in a heart-melting song, depicts the same goddess as a spurned mother whom the Anglicized Indians are ignoring while she awaits their return home morosely in her humble holy hut. One characterization of this country-mother is “one whose language everyone is dying to forget (kaahaar bhashaa haai, bhulite shobe chaai, she je amaar janani re)” — a nice reminder to the average reader of this newspaper.

When Abanindranath — greatly inspired by Sister Nivedita who imbibed the love of Kali from her master — painted Bharat Mata, he replaced the sword and the bleeding head with a book and placed a bunch of rice twigs (food) and a piece of home spun white cloth (clothing). Should we vivisect this painting to detect traces of a militant nationalism in it?

The world’s earliest convocation speech, in Taittiriya Upanishad, urges the new graduate to “make your mother your God”. We deify our mothers, and the earth we live and die on, and we call our first language, if any, our mother too. When the mellifluous multiculturalism of our national anthem, in its recent YouTube version soulfully sung by such diverse artists as Balamuralikrishna, Ghulam Mustafa Khan, Ajoy Chakrabarty, Hariharan, Sonu Niigaam, Usha Uthup, Sunidhi Chauhan, Leslie Lewis and others (while the English translation is recited by Harsh Neotia in an unabashed Indian accent), touches that chord of maternal thinking, it is okay to cry in uncritical worshipful joy.

The author teaches Philosophy of Language and Mind, Kant, Wittgenstein and Indian Philosophy at the University of Hawaii at Manoa

Grocery giant Aldi will soon begin to sell beer for just $1. Source: The Advertiser

The NSW licensing authority has shrugged off warnings against selling super-cheap alcohol in supermarkets to give Aldi the green light for 34 outlets to stock beer for $1 a can and wine for as little as $2.25 a litre.

Health officials formally objected to the issuing of the new liquor licences, particularly in some regional and rural areas, insisting the increased access will “contribute to further alcohol-related harm and negative health outcomes”.

It would also “place additional burden on hospitals, ambulance services and emergency departments”.

But the Casino Liquor and Gaming Control Authority signed off on them, and is considering another 20 outlets.

The alcohol will be sold unrefrigerated in a separate space to the grocery aisles although shoppers will be able to also use the liquor area check-out to purchase non-alcohol items.

NSW Health objected to the liquor applications in nine out of 11 Aldi applications lodged before August, including at Ulladulla, Hamilton, Crooks Hill, Greenhills, Raymond Terrace, Taree and Muswellbrook.

Beer prices at Aldi stores start at $8.99 for a six-pack of Smith Clyde Lager to $19.99 for a carton of Storm Brewing Premium Light Beer. Four-litre casks of wine are available for less than $9 and bottles of sherry are sold for under $5.

Labor MP Walt Secord called on the state government to ensure youngsters could not have access to cheap alcohol.

“Unfortunately, high-risk alcohol use is increasing in our young people and we must look at ways to reduce their access to alcohol,” he said.

The Ulladulla and Districts Community Resource Centre also complained to the licensing authority, saying there were already enough outlets “in a low-income area with high unemployment and major alcohol problems, and that another alcohol outlet was not needed”.

Aldi has argued that its restrained opening hours compared with traditional bottle shops, and ban on quantity-based promotional offers such as two-for-one deals meant its impact would be negligible.

An Aldi spokeswoman rejected suggestions the licences would result in increased consumption of alcohol.

“The introduction of liquor to NSW stores will provide NSW customers with the same convenient shopping experience that (Victoria and the ACT) currently experience,” she said.

Salvation Army recovery services clinical director Gerard Byrne called on the state government to restrict the number of liquor licences.

Mr Byrne said the rapid expansion of alcohol sales in retail outlets and supermarkets was contributing to the state’s worsening alcohol crisis and called for a moratorium on new licences.

Supermarket giant Aldi will put $1 beers on its shelves from next year. Picture: Brad Hunter Source: The Daily Telegraph

The state’s licensing authority has shrugged off warnings against selling super-cheap alcohol in supermarkets to give Aldi the green light for 34 outlets to stock beer for $1 a can and wine for as little as $2.25 a litre.

Health officials formally objected to the issuing of the new liquor licences, particularly in some regional and rural areas, insisting the increased access will “contribute to further alcohol-related harm and negative health outcomes”.

It would also “place additional burden on hospitals, ambulance services and emergency departments”.

But the Casino Liquor and Gaming Control Authority signed off on them, and is considering another 20 outlets.

The alcohol will be sold unrefrigerated in a separate space to the grocery aisles although shoppers will be able to also use the liquor area check-out to purchase non-alcohol items.

NSW Health objected to the liquor applications in nine out of 11 Aldi applications lodged before August, including at Ulladulla, Hamilton, Crooks Hill, Greenhills, Raymond Terrace, Taree and Muswellbrook.

Beer prices at Aldi stores start at $8.99 for a six-pack of Smith Clyde Lager to $19.99 for a carton of Storm Brewing Premium Light Beer. Four-litre casks of wine are available for less than $9 and bottles of sherry are sold for under $5.

Labor MP Walt Secord called on the state government to ensure youngsters could not have access to cheap alcohol. “Unfortunately, high risk alcohol is increasing in our young people and we must look at ways to reduce their access to alcohol,” he said.

The Ulladulla and Districts Community Resource Centre also complained to the licensing authority, saying there were already enough outlets “in a low income area with high unemployment and major alcohol problems, and that another alcohol outlet was not needed”.

An Aldi spokeswoman said the company rejected suggestions the licences would result in increased consumption.

“The introduction of liquor to NSW stores will provide NSW customers with the same convenient shopping experience that (Victoria and the ACT) currently experience,” she said.

Salvation Army recovery services clinical director Gerard Byrne called on the state government to restrict the number of liquor licences.

Mr Byrne said the rapid expansion of alcohol sales in retail outlets and supermarkets was contributing to the state’s worsening alcohol crisis and called for a moratorium on new licenses.

Supermarket giant Aldi will put $1 beers on its shelves from next year. Picture: Brad Hunter Source: The Daily Telegraph

The state’s licensing authority has shrugged off warnings against selling super-cheap alcohol in supermarkets to give Aldi the green light for 34 outlets to stock beer for $1 a can and wine for as little as $2.25 a litre.

Health officials formally objected to the issuing of the new liquor licences, particularly in some regional and rural areas, insisting the increased access will “contribute to further alcohol-related harm and negative health outcomes”.

It would also “place additional burden on hospitals, ambulance services and emergency departments”.

But the Casino Liquor and Gaming Control Authority signed off on them, and is considering another 20 outlets.

The alcohol will be sold unrefrigerated in a separate space to the grocery aisles although shoppers will be able to also use the liquor area check-out to purchase non-alcohol items.

NSW Health objected to the liquor applications in nine out of 11 Aldi applications lodged before August, including at Ulladulla, Hamilton, Crooks Hill, Greenhills, Raymond Terrace, Taree and Muswellbrook.

Beer prices at Aldi stores start at $8.99 for a six-pack of Smith Clyde Lager to $19.99 for a carton of Storm Brewing Premium Light Beer. Four-litre casks of wine are available for less than $9 and bottles of sherry are sold for under $5.

Labor MP Walt Secord called on the state government to ensure youngsters could not have access to cheap alcohol. “Unfortunately, high risk alcohol is increasing in our young people and we must look at ways to reduce their access to alcohol,” he said.

The Ulladulla and Districts Community Resource Centre also complained to the licensing authority, saying there were already enough outlets “in a low income area with high unemployment and major alcohol problems, and that another alcohol outlet was not needed”.

An Aldi spokeswoman said the company rejected suggestions the licences would result in increased consumption.

“The introduction of liquor to NSW stores will provide NSW customers with the same convenient shopping experience that (Victoria and the ACT) currently experience,” she said.

Salvation Army recovery services clinical director Gerard Byrne called on the state government to restrict the number of liquor licences.

Mr Byrne said the rapid expansion of alcohol sales in retail outlets and supermarkets was contributing to the state’s worsening alcohol crisis and called for a moratorium on new licenses.

Organizers look to increase awareness and to remember David Shey

Central Valley — What organizers foresee as the first annual benefit concert for the Alcoholism & Drug Abuse Council of Orange County takes place this Sunday, Oct. 23, from 3 to 8 p.m. at Monroe-Woodbury High School.

The concert is being held in memory of David Shey.

“My brother passed away this summer at the young age of twenty five from substance abuse,” Julie Shey, one of the organizers said in an e-mail exchange announcing the program, “and we are hoping to raise awareness and to raise money for the Alcoholism & Drug Abuse Council.”

The concert will feature four local bands:

Steudabakerbrown (http://stuedabakerbrown.com).

Sugarloaf Station (www.reverbnation.com/sugarloafstation).

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MONMOUTH — Helping children who have never had a birthday present and who face a future that could include labor or sex trafficking was the topic of a talk at Monmouth College Thursday.

The second Monmouth College Associates Luncheon of the year featured a presentation by two students who traveled to European nation of Moldova this past spring.

Seniors John Cayton and Mary Schuch of were two of seven students and three college staffers who traveled to Moldova for nearly a week. Cayton and Schuch gave a Power Point presentation entitled, “Monmouth to Moldova”, reflecting the experiences they had helping orphans at the Simon House (for boys) and Stella House (for girls) in the Chisinau, the capital of the country.

Moldova sits between Romania and Ukraine and became a “republic” in 1991. They have a population of 4.3 million people and it is roughly the size of Maryland.

According to Cayton, 30 percent of their population is under the poverty line and their primary religion is Eastern Orthodox.

A spike in orphan population in Moldova is believed to be caused by the Moldovan Eastern Orthodox’s focus on their individual relationship with God — believing that having more children will bring them closer to God which will ultimately get them into heaven faster, the presenter said.

“Basically, using children as a means to an end,” Cayton said.

According to a family the group stayed with, Moldova is known for three things: wine, alcoholism, and sunflower seeds.

After Cayton gave a brief introduction on the country, he shared a question posed to their group by the director of a state-run orphanage, ‘have you ever seen a baby freeze to death?’ The questioned underscored the situation many of orphaned children in Moldova face.

Cayton also shared an “eye-opening” statement made by a girl from the same orphanage, ‘You just want to have a family and escape it like a bad dream.’

The Monmouth College group worked with an organization umbrellaed under Phillip Cameron Ministries, Stella’s Voice. Their goal is to “be the voice that speaks for the orphans of Moldova.” In 2006 they opened Stella House which now holds 33 girls.

“Children are aged out of the orphanages when they are 16 and that is when sex trafficking becomes a problem,” Schuch said. “It’s common for guys to go into labor trafficking — they are only 16 years old and they are given a one way bus ticket and money equivalent to $30-40 U.S. dollars. A lot of times, the traffickers wait for them right outside the bus stops.”

The state has no money to provide for the orphanages, Schuch said. For example, they will only pay for heating for the month of December and January.
Schuch and Cayton said they had an  “epiphany moment”  when they celebrated the 12th birthday of Vadim. It was the first time Vadim had celebrated a birthday and he received two wrapped gifts and a party.

“He was so appreciative, it was the sweetest thing ever to see,” Schuch said.
“When he opened the gifts, he was so meticulous — he looked around like, ‘are you sure this is for me?’ — they were gifts that you could get at the Dollar General, it was a Nerf football and plastic bowling pins — they were gifts kids in America wouldn’t really appreciate,” Cayton said.

Schuch and Cayton heard many “tragic” life stories of the orphans in both the state-run orphanages and in the private ones.

“One girl from the state-run orphanage told me that a caretaker told her she will always be nothing but an orphan. The caretaker told her, ‘nothing plus nothing will always be nothing’,” Schuch said. “it was amazing to see all these children go through all these terrible situations and so many of them want to help people. I always heard at Stella and Simon house, ‘I want to be an architect to help build more Stella homes’ or ‘I want to be a doctor to help others’.” 

Down the road, the college is planning on establishing a “mutually beneficial relationship” with Moldova and will continue clothing drives and visits.