Can smoking be healthy?

Can smoking be healthy?

JAKARTA (JP): Smoking won't affect your health if it is done the right way. Wanna find out how? Enlist yourselves for a seminar in Jember, East Java, this March on the healthy way to smoke.

The initiative for the seminar comes from non other than East Java Governor Basofi Soedirman, often a controversial figure because of his wild ideas.

According to an Antara report from Surabaya, Basofi told a meeting with ulemas and local Jember leaders that the seminar is part of his administration campaign to protect small farmers in Jember, whose main crop is...tobacco.

Jember produces high quality Besuki Na Oogst tobacco which is exported mainly to Europe.

In the face of the vigorous anti-smoking campaign, East Java should be realistic when it comes to the issue of smoking, he said. Other countries, or regions, can speak out against smoking because they simply import tobacco, but East Java has a region whose economy depends on tobacco growing, he said.

Remember Cibaduyut near Bandung in West Java, which was once famed for its shoe industries? Basofi said he did not want Jember to go the Cibaduyut way, whose main industry is on a decline because of slack demand.

"We can't let it happen to Jember and its Besuki Na Oogst tobacco", he said.

Basofi also quickly pointed out that it is not the intention of the seminar to encourage people to smoke more, but it is intended to teach the healthy way to smoke. (emb)