>The tobacco trade is analogous to the oil trade. It is a form of colonial
>domination. That has not changed over the centuries. Prime land in Honduras
>is used to grow tobacco for cigars, while peasants are pushed into the
>margins. Beef, oil, tobacco, sugar, etc. are commodities that make first
>world countries rich at third world countries' expense.
>
>>Is it mere
>>coincidence that the most anti-smoking president the U.S. has ever had is
>>also the one who signed the Anti-Terrorism and Effective Death Penalty Act
>>and the Personal Responsibility and Work Reconciliation Act? And who wants
>>to put a snoop chip in every cell phone and a V-chip in every TV?
>
>Of course it is mere coincidence. You have to stop taking politicians at
>their word, especially lawyers like "anti-smoking" politicians like Clinton
>and Gore.
Quoting an article on Gore doesn't have anything to do with Clinton. Besides, I was talking about the ideological/social discipline aspects of anti-tabagism, and public statements are what really matter there. Clinton was also big on family values until he got caught with his pants down.
As for the relation between smoking and capitalism, what was Fidel thinking during all those decades he smoked cigars? Of the 87 countries for which WHO publishes estimates, Cuba ranked 24th in smoking prevalence (49.3% of men, 24.5% of women), and the U.S., 78th (28.1%/23.5%). Which is the more capitalist country? WHO does those rankings by male smoking prevalence; Cuba would also rank in the top half if it were done by female prevalance. Recently Communist countries also rank high - and they were largely insulated from advertising until just a few years ago; Russia is #3 (67.8% of men smoke, 30.0% of women), and China is #7 (61.0%/7.0%). And China's figure is from 1984, very early in their capitalist transformation.
>From the WHO website <http://www.who.int/psa/toh/Alert/apr96/2.html>:
>WHO estimates that there are about 1.1 thousand million smokers in the
>world, about one-third of the global population aged 15 years and over
>(see Table 1 ). The vast majority of these are in developing countries
>(800 million), most of whom are men (700 million). In China alone, there
>are about 300 million smokers (90% men, 10% women), about the same number
>as in all developed countries combined. About one-third of these regular
>smokers in developed countries are women, compared with only about 1 in 8
>in the developing world.
>
>Globally, it is estimated that 47% of men and 12% of women smoke (see
>Table 2 ). In the developed countries the corresponding figures are 42%
>for men and 24% for women. In developing countries, available data suggest
>that about 48% of men and 7% of women smoke. Table 2 also provides
>estimates of daily smoking prevalence for each of the six WHO regions and
>eight geographic regions. Male smoking prevalence varies substantially
>among regions, from less than 30% in the African Region to 60% in the
>Western Pacific Region (largely as a result of male smoking prevalence
>being 61% in China, the largest country in the region). Nor are patterns
>of male smoking prevalence uniform among developed countries. In countries
>with established market economies, male smoking prevalence averages 37%,
>compared to 60% in the formerly socialist countries of Central and Eastern
>Europe.
>
>Smoking among women is most prevalent in the formerly socialist countries
>of Central and Eastern Europe (28%), countries with established market
>economies (23%) and Latin American and Caribbean countries (21%). In all
>other regions, fewer than 10% of women smoke.
>
>[...]
>
>Smoking prevalence estimates for each of the 87 countries for which data
>were available are shown in Table 3 , with prevalence presented
>separately for men and women, and ranked by order of male smoking
>prevalence. Of these 87 countries, male smoking prevalence is 50% or more
>in 22 countries and 60% or more in eight countries. In general, smoking is
>much less prevalent among women, the highest prevalence reported being for
>Danish women (37%). Women's smoking prevalence is 25% or more in 26
>countries and 30% or more in six countries. Three countries, the Russian
>Federation, Poland and Fiji rank in the top twenty for both male and
>female smoking prevalence. Although detailed estimates are presented in
>Table 3 , great care must be exercised in comparing results. Small
>differences in prevalence among countries may be due to various sources of
>bias or other measurement error. In virtually all cases, the estimated
>prevalence levels should be considered as approximate, given the problems
>of data comparability and reliability.
Doug