Interview with Stephen Helfer by Emily April 5, 2018 for Smokingbandits.com in association with Cambridge Citizens for Smokers’ Rights Stephen Helfer, a co-founder of the United States organization Cambridge Citizens for Smokers’ Rights, has been fighting tobacco control and the rise of anti-smoking legislation since the 1990’s. Deutsche Version
Continue reading →In Kooperation mit „Cambridge Citizens for Smokers’ Rights“ präsentieren wir ein für Smokingbandits aufgenommenes Interview von Emily mit Stephen Helfer. Sie finden im Folgenden zunächst das Originalvideo (engl.), dann eine deutschsprachige, zusammenfassende Darstellung. Stephen Helfer engagiert sich schon seit den 1990er Jahren im Kampf gegen die Tabakkontrolle und die zunehmende Antiraucher-Gesetzgebung. Er hat die Organisation „Cambridge Citizens for Smokers’ Rights“ mitgegründet. Cambridge ist eine Vorstadt der amerikanischen Ostküstenmetropole Boston. Als in einer anderen Vorstadt von Boston, Brookline, 1994 eine Bürgerversammlung erstmalig ein Rauchverbot in Kneipen debattierte, kam Stephen mit einem Poster, das auf die hohe durchschnittliche Lebenserwartung, die niedrigen Raten … Continue reading →
Some years ago, I was on holiday on the island of Corfu. I was sat with our host, Dimitri, in the afternoon, enjoying a pint and big cigar, while talking about nothing. Holidays are good for that, you’ve got the time to talk about nothing and like it. In the distance I was watching the big rolling mountains that come up from the coast of Ipsos and move inland. The mountains on Corfu are very green; it’s the greenest of the Greek islands and can be very beautiful. The green trees cover the entire mountain, are very tall and look … Continue reading →
I have to fulfill my promise made in a previous column – about formulating, or offering, or trying to offer… at least some plausible ideas about what to do to dump Tobacco Control to the outside. I’m afraid here I’ll have to say the obvious things, something that every smoker or every non-smoking, but reasonable person already knows. I’ve witnessed that situation so many times – when some ideas are already clear to a lot of people, they are kinda hovering in the air. And then somebody says the right words, and everyone around sigh in wonder: this is it, … Continue reading →
Can Russia be of help to anyone fighting against the global anti-smoking disease? That’s how I concluded my previous column, adding that I know a lot of people, Europeans or Americans, hoping for salvation coming out of Russia, with its historic record of breaking the back of a lot of global pestilences, starting from Napoleon wars or even earlier. My short answer to the question is: yes, Russia can and may light that much-expected fire, but I find that possibility very iffy. The reason is, we live in a global world, anti-smoking is a well-organized global threat to societies, and … Continue reading →
Why the smoking ban hasn’t really worked in Greece The Greeks are, by and large, a pretty law-abiding bunch. There’s not much visible crime, and they have a tendency to be both trusting and trustworthy. So it comes as a surprise to many when they come to Greece from the UK to see how little notice is taken of the smoking bans, motorbike helmet laws and seat-belt laws. The root of this disregard for certain aspects of the law resides, I believe, in the Greeks’ basic distrust of politicians and the governments of which they are a part. Tax avoidance … Continue reading →
“There’ll be no new smoking bans or any other big smoking-related steps before the Presidential election in March 2018”, tells me confidentially a Russian MP. He may be wrong, but certain logic is there. Any politician willing to pick up the issue is running high risks, at least the risk of a suddenly divided electorate. In fact, the electorate is not just split on that particular subject. Surveys show a distinct shift in public opinion on the matter. It was like 50-50 before the bans went into force in 2013, now it’s rather 60% against the acting and the future … Continue reading →
It was an antismoking doctor who first persuaded me to start smoking. Up until then I’d not been in the least bit interested in starting. What happened was that, at age 17, I went to stay for a few months with an English family, while my parents remained in Brazil. And not long after I had arrived, I witnessed a rather shocking event: the father of the house had caught his rather wayward eldest son smoking, and began shouting at him at the top of his voice. And he carried on shouting at him for some time. So much so … Continue reading →
My recent trip to Altai, an enchanted mountaneous area of Siberia bordering China and Mongolia, has confirmed the claims that Russians, historically, do not fight bans, they dilute and incapacitate them with passive, but indomitable resistance. About the only place in Altai where you can get fined for smoking in a wrong place is the airport (and they did it, in my case). The rest of the territory is, basically, open air, villages and tourist facilities. A facility is normally a collection of wooden chalets with maybe one communal structure, a kitchen and a bathhouse combined. There are signs “no … Continue reading →
