Smokers and their fallacies

Smokers and their fallacies

JAKARTA (JP): Even in his early 70s my uncle is still a heavy smoker. However hard I try to make him quit, he doesn't care. Instead, he continually lectures me -- between coughs of course.

"During the revolution for independence, it was cigarettes that kept us together. In the absence of good food, cigarettes provided us with the energy to fight. And, most of all, it was cigarettes that bound the fighters together in a strong and warm friendship. You'll never know how it feels to drag on the butt of a cigarette shared among 10 people. It brings back such a loving memory."

Smokers, like my uncle, always have an excuse for their habit. A very classic excuse is what they refer to as a sacrifice.

"We sacrifice our health to keep other people alive. We feed millions. Imagine what would happen if we, smokers, stopped puffing all at the same time. Hundreds of thousands of cigarette factory workers would be sacked, and the government would lose billions of rupiah a year."

Tantyo, a co-worker, is another cigarette lover. He hates all no-smoking campaigners.

"Those people make smokers out to be lepers. We have to sit in special parts of restaurants, on flights and in trains. It's a discrimination. We, smokers, have our rights," he rants. It doesn't occur to him that his smoking endangers the non-smoking people who breath in the smoke and become passive smokers.

Some Indonesian smokers believe that caffeine can kill nicotine. "No problem!" one of them brags, "I have been smoking 50 cigarettes a day, and I couldn't be healthier. The secret is, coffee. Two cups of coffee in the morning and one cup in the evening will free you from the effects of nicotine."

"Cigarette jogs my memory," claims another. "I cannot concentrate without it." This is, of course, a fallacy. Smoking reduces the oxygen supply to your brain and surely decreases memory.

"With a cigarette between my lips, I feel like a real man, and girls adore the look," assures a teenager.

Another fallacy of advertising. To attract young smokers, cigarette advertisers show handsome men, with their beautiful girlfriends, doing dangerous sports or finishing difficult journeys. They hint that certain brands of cigarettes will help you make it through difficult situations to be rewarded with adoring beautiful girls.

What this country needs, actually, is real action. Seminars, occasional talks and tentative campaigns do no good. Smokers need help, not blame. Youngsters need to be reminded of the danger, not just in lectures, but through good examples. Advertisers must be punished for hinting at fallacies. And, last but not least, the government must be ready to face the fact that if more and more people stop smoking, it will lose a tremendous amount of money.

If the number of smokers is cut, especially young ones, Indonesia will have a healthier and stronger future. The question is, where to begin? Surely the people in charge can make a good start by banning cigarette advertisement.

It takes time to change habits, but every long journey begins with the first step.

-- Carl Chairul