MORE POOR ARE SMOKING AND GOVERNMENT IS TO BLAME Smoking, the leading cause of preventable death in the country, is now increasingly a habit of the poor and the working class. (nytimes/2014/03/25/health/smoking-stays-stubbornly-high-among-the-poor.html?src=twr&smid=tw-nytimes&_r=0) This is a finding of an American study but I wouldnt be surprised if a similar research in the Philippines would come up with the same result. Should anyone be blamed for this? I say yes, the blame lies squarely with the government. According to the National Statistical Coordination Board, the Philippines has not reduced the poverty level in the Philippines in the past six years. Because the number of poor has increased, the number of poor who smoke has also increased. Some will say the poor smoke because they have not been educated sufficiently on healthy habits and the dangers of smoking. Others will blame seductive advertising which the poor, being illiterate and psychologically weak, easily fall victim to. They would all be right and government would still share blame. The primary reason, however, strikes at the heart -- rather, the stomach -- of the matter: the poor smoke because they are hungry, they smoke to kill hunger pangs. This is pitiful, but it is a fact of life among the poor that it is cheaper to smoke than to eat. Instead of three meals a day, the average unskilled laborer, a peon, will opt for just one main meal and satisfy himself with a coffee-Marlboro breakfast or a Coke-Marlboro lunch. Five-peso coffee dispensers abound in most workers communities, a stick of Marlboro costs P3, an 8-ounce Coke Mismo costs P10, and one can still opt for cheaper alternatives for his nicotine-caffeine fix. In contrast, a meal of one vegetable viand and 1-1/2 cups of rice would cost about P35. I made a round of food sellers in our neighborhood and the cheapest vegetable viands were P18 for ginataang langka and P20 for pinakbet while a cup of rice was P10 and most laborers would always order a cup and a half. Go for a P30 meat viand and the meal price balloons to P45. The sad thing is the poor are being made to believe salvation lies with this or that presidential candidate in 2016. This government is again promising the poor that it will attend to them in two years time but, in the meantime, have a smoke; its cheaper than eating.
Posted on: Mon, 31 Mar 2014 04:20:16 +0000
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