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)