This is tragic. Uganda – the world’s top banana consuming nation (with an average intake of about 500 pounds per person, compared to about 25 pounds for the typical U.S. consumers) – finds dozens of ways to use the fruit. That includes the national dish, a sort of mush called matooke, along with banana beer and a banana spirit – that’s the gin in question – called waragi. Last week, 80 people died after consuming a home-distilled batch of the drink that was, apparently, laced with methanol. Many suffered blindness and kidney failure before they actually succumbed.
Tragic, as I said, so I hope you won’t see this video – which I made in the Democratic Republic of Congo after my first taste of waragi – makes light of the situation. Even bottled and (assumedly) pure, the stuff isn’t so great, though my review was a little more kind…
Nobel Prize winner Paul Krugman 
