Saly (also called Sali or Saly Portudal) is a seaside resort area on the Petite Côte of Senegal, south of Dakar. It is the top tourist destination in all of West Africa. …
We made a quick visit. Very pretty.
It’s great to travel amongst lean non-smokers, the Senegalese. That’s the way humans looked in the past.
Puffy, puffing Europeans en vacance were a bit of a culture shock for me in Saly.
“If you love your family, celebrate it by contributing to your own early death.”
From the July 1962 Popular Science magazine.
I was impressed with how much Japan has changed in 20yrs. Smoking areas are very restricted. And everyone complies.
China — on the other hand — is much worse than 20yrs ago. More affluence means more chain smoking anywhere, anytime. It’s bloody awful. A good reason to avoid travel in China altogether.
I’m liking these new polls popular on Facebook lately.
One sample screen grab:
And I like the response to that poll. … Though I’ve one friend who answered “yes”.
Anti-smoking laws in France and Germany have met fierce opposition.
But those crazy Finns are pushing very strict legislation:
Finland’s government aims to phase out smoking completely within the next 30 years.
“This new law proposal says, according to paragraph one, that we will get rid of smoking once and for all in Finland,” said Ilkka Oksala, the Finnish state secretary of health.
Under the proposed legislation:
By the spring, smokers in Finland will only be able to buy tobacco by asking for cigarettes from under the counter.
Tobacco vending machines are also being phased out over the next three years.
It will be illegal to smoke in a car carrying passengers under the age of 18
details – Finland aims to eliminate smoking
In the 40 years since U.S. President Richard Nixon declared a “war on drugs,” the supply and use of drugs has not changed in any fundamental way. The only difference: a taxpayer bill of more than $1 trillion.
A senior Mexican official who has spent more than two decades helping fight the government’s war on drugs summed up recently what he’s learned from his long career: “This war is not winnable.” …
… Growing numbers of Mexican and U.S. officials say—at least privately—that the biggest step in hurting the business operations of Mexican cartels would be simply to legalize their main product: marijuana. Long the world’s most popular illegal drug, marijuana accounts for more than half the revenues of Mexican cartels.
“Economically, there is no argument or solution other than legalization, at least of marijuana,” said the top Mexican official matter-of-factly. The official said such a move would likely shift marijuana production entirely to places like California, where the drug can be grown more efficiently and closer to consumers. …
Wall Street Journal – Saving Mexico
California is one of 14 states that have legalized medical marijuana, anyway. It’s easy to be prescribed legal dope there.
Assembly Bill 390: The Marijuana Control, Regulation and Education Act … is the first bill ever introduced to regulate the sale and use of marijuana in the U.S. state of California. If passed and signed into law, marijuana would be sold and taxed openly to adults age 21 and older in California. …
Proponents are trying to take that to a statewide vote sometime in 2010.
I’m sure Arnold is thinking about it. An estimated $1.3 billion in revenue to the empty California tax coffers.
But the U.S.A. is one of the most conservative (backward) nations in the world. The romantic comedy “It’s Complicated” got an R rating, … “which experts say could limit the box-office potential of the Universal Pictures film — … largely from a sequence in which Steve Martin and Meryl Streep smoke marijuana.”
Producers have appealed.
This is a polarizing issue in a nation already split between Democrats and Republicans. It would be a gutsy move for Arnold to allow legislation to go ahead … if Californians vote to legalize. I think he should.
Love it.
In launching a $50-billion lawsuit against tobacco companies, Ontario is joining what many expect will eventually become a national battle to recover health costs linked to smoking.
The governments of British Columbia and New Brunswick have already filed claims against cigarette manufacturers and most of the other provinces have passed legislation enabling them to make similar cases.
“Let’s be clear: This is important for the people of Ontario who have paid a lot of money for health-care costs directly related to tobacco use over the decades,” Ontario Attorney-General Chris Bentley told reporters yesterday. “We believe the taxpayers should be compensated for the costs that they have paid. That’s what this lawsuit is all about.”
After years of legal wrangling in the United States, tobacco manufacturers agreed in 1998 to pay state governments $246-billion (U.S.) over 25 years to help pay for the costs of treating people with smoking-related illnesses. …
That $246-billion settlement is not correct. It turned out to be well over $300 billion.
… And why is it that smokers do not consider this littering? Most don’t toss anything else on the ground.
Much as I like Halifax, living in the Maritimes is a non-starter for me. (Sorry Anne.)
Why?
Too many smokers.
It’s disgusting.
As I toured Nova Scotia, one Tim Hortons to the next, I had to push my way through nicotine addicts lurking at each entrance. Yeesh.
Why can’t those Maritimers go work their short-term Summer jobs as mandated by pogie?
I fled the second hand smoke for Italy.
Doh!
Italy is even WORSE. (Remind me not to travel to Cuba.)
And why am I even in Italy? I’m one of the few people you know who doesn’t want to travel in Italy. It’s the last place I wanted to go … last except for the land of the cheese-eating surrender monkeys.
My Mom reminded me of my only other trip to Italy, over 30yrs ago. I wrote her this on a postcard:
… “Italy is Great…too bad it is run by Italians” …
Italian men back in 1976 were totally irritating.
Happily I can report they’ve improved over the past few decades.
In fact, it seems the young Italian men have collectively opted into a 1980s George Michael look-alike contest. Pretty funny. I don’t speak Italian, but I’d estimate at least 6 million young men, so far, have voluntarily joined into this amusing competition.
It’s great to see that those (formerly) arrogant pricks are now able to laugh at themselves.
The detested Italian machismo seems to be fading.
Of course I’m in Italy for hiking. It was a complete surprise to me. One minute I was searching the internet for cheap flights to Iceland. The next I’d bought a $100 ticket Gatwick to Venice.
Here I am in Bolzano, no guidebook. It’s like the blind leading … myself.
Fortunately 6 of my 10 words of Italian from the distant past have returned to me.
Oh, … I should add that there are only 2 good smokers in the World. And one of them is trying to quit.
XLNT.
Smoking is stupid and unhealthy. I applaud this action.
Bill Gates and Mayor Michael R. Bloomberg announced on Wednesday that they would spend $500 million to stop people around the world from smoking.
The World Health Organization estimates that tobacco will kill up to a billion people in the 21st century, 10 times as many as it killed in the 20th.
This time, most are expected to be in poor countries like Bangladesh and middle-income countries like Russia. In an effort to cut that number, Mr. Bloomberg’s foundation plans to commit $250 million over four years on top of a $125 million gift he announced two years ago. The Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation is allocating $125 million over five years.
Since 1999, the Gates Foundation has spent more than $2 billion on AIDS programs and about $1.2 billion on malaria. Mr. Gates has just left his Microsoft post for full-time foundation work and said he intends to form partnerships with other philanthropists. …
NY Times – Billionaires Back Antismoking Effort
I first got so tremendously angered when I saw what Big Tobacco was doing in South America to addict a new generation: enticing third world youth to smoke (2006)
I was in healthier-than-thou Vancouver, Canada recently. They still allow smoking in public places indoors.
YUCK.
One of the proofs that we may not be doomed — that the world is getting better — is a reduced smoking rate.
According to Torontoist: “An American study showed that, worldwide, smokers toss at least 4.5 trillion butts on the ground every year, and that’s not only revolting to look at, but causes significant environmental damage. Cigarette filters are made of non-biodegradable polymer acetate (read: plastic), and discarded butts start fires, kill small animals, and are the most common item washing up on beaches. A 2006 City of Toronto litter audit found that cigarette butts were the fourth most common small litter item, after chewing gum, paper, and glass pieces.”
What?
I thought smoking litterbugs were lashed in Singapore. This doesn’t go far enough:
“To maintain the clean and green city, there are strict laws against littering of any kind. First-time offenders face a fine of up to S$1,000. For repeat offenders–it’s a fine of up to S$2,000 and a Corrective Work Order (CWO). The CWO requires litterbugs to spend a few hours cleaning a public place, for example, picking up litter in a park. The litterbugs are made to wear bright jackets, and sometimes, the local media are invited to cover the public spectacle. Naturally, the authorities hope that public shame will make diehard litterbugs think twice about tossing their scrap paper or cigarette butt on the roadside.”
Rick McCharles 