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