From Colin Danby to Michael Perelman:
> > Doug, have you ever met a teenager that thought about future consequnces?
>> I did not think that way, nor did anyone that I knew.
>
>So ... Come the Revolution (or a Nader presidency), teenagers won't take
>risks any more? What's the point of being a teenager?
>
>Cigarettes are a cheap luxury which a lot of people enjoy. Things fried
>in lard taste good. Why should a progressive agenda try to suppress, or
>even discourage, cheap, almost-innocent pleasures? Why do we have to
>assume that people are stupid? Why are we even worried about these
>kinds of choices?
And Doug:
>Because "we" want to give the right ammunition when they say that
>the left is full of prescriptive prigs. Because "we" know best.
Actually existing socialist nations often suffered from ideological
bouts of anti-hedonism (rooted in the need to defend the nation from
the evil empire), but, say what you will, the anti-smoking offensive
has _not_ been a Leninist thing. It's an American (& Canadian)
thing. It's from California, to be exact, where Jim Devine reminds
me that you are not allowed to smoke even in a bar (indeed, when I
visited San Francisco this summer, no one -- foreigners & immigrants
excepted -- appeared to smoke there).
Combining the threads on smoking & nationalism, I would like to call
attention to the global struggle over the fate of cigar & cigarette
production:
***** John Pilger, "Vietnam: The Final Battle," _Covert Action
Quarterly_, Spring 1998
...Marlboro and Dunhill have claimed Vietnam, where the majority seem
to smoke. Foreign tobacco companies were among the first to return,
and now turn out cigarettes with a high tar content. Marlboro's
advertising concentrates on its "macho image," long discredited in
the West. The cowboy with a cigarette in his mouth, the one who died
from lung cancer, has been replaced by images of young, muscle-bound
lads winning the girls, while real lads, with stick-thin arms and
rotten teeth, are given red caps too big for them and lent a Honda
and paid in cigarettes for selling Marlboros to teashops. Such is
the reality of what is called "Renovation [Doi Moi]."...
<http://www.thirdworldtraveler.com/New_World_Order/Vietnam_FinalBattle.html>
*****
It is said that a third of cigarettes in the world are consumed by
the People's Republic of China. It's a huge market of pleasure
waiting to be exploited by the Marlboro Man, and the Chinese
Communist Party is willing to open it to foreign devils:
***** Date: Wed, 17 May 2000 19:34:03 -0400 (EDT)
From: Robert Weissman [EMAIL PROTECTED]
Subject: [Intl-tobacco] Chinas Tobacco Industry Could Get Smoked by
WTO Entry (fwd)
...China began to slash import duties on cigarettes in 1997 from a
high of 150 percent. In 1999, the rate fell to 36 percent.
Meanwhile, China consolidated tax on imported cigarettes dropped to
218 percent in 1999, down 26 percentage points compared with 1997.
As China had committed itself to a large-margin cut of the average
tariff on all imported commodities, a high tariff on cigarettes
violates that promise. Consequently, the Chinese government will
continue to reduce the import duty on cigarettes during WTO
negotiations.
If the rate drops to the average for all imports, i.e. 15 percent in
the year 2000, one packet of imported cigarette that sells for Rmb 11
(US$1.33) now (corresponding to Marlboro and 555 brands) will sell
for Rmb 2 to Rmb 3 (US$0.24 to US$0.36) less after the tariff
reduction. This will greatly enhance the competitiveness of imported
cigarettes on the Chinese market....
<http://lists.essential.org/pipermail/intl-tobacco/2000q2.txt> *****
Cuba, on the other hand, has sought to defend its health care system
with patriotism & cigar sales:
***** Cuba famed cigar turns 30
The Associated Press
By EDDIE DOMINGUEZ
MIAMI (AP) - The Cohiba was conceived, nurtured and smoked by Fidel
Castro to prove communist Cuba could still make a great cigar, and
when the famed stogie turns 30 Friday it will be feted with a
decidedly un-proletarian bash.
A $500-a-ticket party at Havana's Tropicana nightclub is planned for
about 800 invitees on a super-secret guest list rumored to include
100 Americans.
The soiree, a fund-raiser for the nation's cash-strapped health care
system, will include the sale of commemorative boxes of Cohibas for
$2,500 each and humidors autographed by the Cuban leader himself.
``Cohiba is considered the best cigar in the world,'' said Dan
Hoteman, manager of La Casa Del Habano cigar shop in Windsor,
Ontario, just across the border from Detroit. ``It's the blend, the
sizes, the quality of the roll.''
The Cohiba's mystique began in the early 60's as the brainchild of
Castro. After the revolution, most wealthy tobacco barons fled Cuba
and took much of the know-how and history of the trade with them.
``Castro wanted to prove to the world that Cuba under his leadership
not only could keep making premium cigars, but also create them from
scratch,'' said Richard Carleton Hacker, author of ``The Ultimate
Cigar Book.''
So the Cohiba, named for the Tino Indian tribe's word for tobacco,
became the first cigar produced under a communist Cuba. It is rolled
using only the best Cuban stock of what many consider to be the
world's finest tobacco.
Until Castro kicked the habit in 1985, and his top lieutenants smoked
Cohibas, as did their friends and visiting dignitaries.
Castro so loved them that U.S. covert operatives in the '60s
considered using an exploding cigar to kill the bearded Marxist.
In 1982, when it was made available to the public, the Cohiba became
one of the most popular cigars on the market, and remains the top
pick of many cigar aficionados.
Only about three million are made a year and fetch about $50 apiece
on the black market in the United States, which bans their sale
because of the trade embargo against Cuba.
A box of 25 Cohiba Esplendidos, the 7-inch size, fetches about $1,200
in Hoteman's shop - if you can get a whole box.
Not everyone is ready to celebrate the Cohiba. Cuban-Americans in
Miami are critical of the communist cigar, and some cigar lovers
grumble that the world's most sought-after smoke is not what it used
to be.
Hacker said the Cuban government's hunger for hard currency has led
it to cut corners to get Cohibas to the market faster.
``I've sampled Cohiba cigars from time to time, and I find no cause
for celebration,'' said Norman Sharp, president of the
Washington-based Cigar Association. ``They are very inconsistent.''
AP-NY-02-27-97 1717EST
<http://64.21.33.164/CNews/y97/feb97/28zcigar.html> *****
A Cohiba for Cuban socialism, anyone?
Yoshie
