Dear Editor – The above article in your paper is giving me chills down my spine.
It____s like someone whispering softly in your ear while he is holding a knife to your throat asking you to do what he wants or you die.
It doesn____t matter whatever your situation. He is only there to get what he wanted.
This is the situation with this whole tobacco issue.
If we don____t produce them, we import them illegally as it was in our recent history.
Maybe it____s still happening.
But the government is like that culprit who is holding its own people at ransom and demanding that we accept this sword down our throats or live with it.
While the world is gradually doing away with this silent killer, we are going the other direction.
We are turning a blind eye as it were to the daily dangers this bad habit is causing to our own people.
What is the rationale behind all this? Is it because we have short supplies of it that we want more producers?
Is it to do with supply and demand?
I____ll come to the real reason later.
I believe a lot of awareness has been done on the effects and dangers of smoking.
However, I am concerned about the rate of young smokers we have in our country.
A recent survey made on Pacific Island countries revealed that 50% of our population (Solomon Islanders) are smokers.
This is an alarming statistic that needs proper attention from our decision makers.
Knowing very well that half, even more of our population are young people, is even more frightening.
You are putting the knife at the throat of our active population and are marching them to the slaughter house of cancer, heart diseases, and all the other effects that comes with cigarette smoking.
How do you sleep at night, knowing you____ve made some bad decisions that affects not only you but a thousand others?
To accept another tobacco company is to add a third sword to be used to slaughter our population.
These companies know very well that they are losing profits in the developed countries.
They are coming to us because we do not make moral decisions and that our population are ignorant of the dangers of smoking.
Our countries (developing countries) are the last places they know they can make money before even we ourselves make rules to stop them.
I know the tobacco act has been passed. Implementing it is, as others already mentioned, the hardest part.
But at least we can have something to stand on when we ask our dear ones to reconsider this bad habit.
Let me quote to you from the horse’s mouth of one of the cigarette manufacturers executive.
“We have the best partners in the world: the governments. In a lot of countries, it____s incredibly important to the whole welfare state that we sell our products to collect taxes.” – David E. R. Dangoor (executive vice president-Philip Morris international).
This is the main reason I referred to earlier.
Did you see that? Governments are the cigarette companies____ best partners. In what way? Through paying taxes!
They stated that the whole welfare state of a nation depends on their taxes. Is that true here?
I____ve never seen a road, wharf, bridge, airport, hospital, clinic, or any other infrastructure being built by the tobacco companies operating here.
All I know is that they sponsor sports events and people to play sports whom they____ve also silently killed through their cigarettes.
This is the sad state of all these. The government is only interested in money and lots of it.
It comes with benefits, so who wouldn____t want to miss out in that? To say no is to bite the finger that feeds their mouths.
I personally like to see a stop to all these nonsense
You puff yourself to death, puff your money to naught, and those with families, puff your family to poverty.
I____ve seen fathers beating their wives and children for money to buy this puff of air.
It has caused anti-social behaviour and becomes a domestic issue at times.
Have mercy on our population and do the right thing.
Whilst I respect your right to smoke, there are others who will copy you and began this bad habit.
I can do nothing to stop you, but rather sympathize with you and wish only that you know that your body is too precious for you to destroy it.
I wish our leaders reconsider allowing another tobacco company to operate in our country.
We already have enough anti-social behaviour due to these companies operating for the sake of money.
How many times do you see a representative of the tobacco companies attend a funeral service and share their condolences on behalf of the companies for the death of someone due to cancer caused through smoking?
How many times do you see them meet the medical needs of a cancer or heart patient due to the effects of tobacco?
This cigarette is filtered or have low tar content. Filtered or not, the poison remains the same. Nicotine the addictive agent is begging you to crave for more.
Let me say this, it____s not what you see is what you get. Rather it____s what you don____t see is what you get when you puff a cigarette.
Please, our leaders, think morally right and make morally correct decisions.
Not politically correct decisions!
Think again and do the right thing. Stop this third company.
Jackson Ray
Fulton College
Nadi, Fiji Islands
