http://www.nytimes.com/2010/11/14/business/global/14indo.html?_r=1&ref=asia
Indonesia Resists the Anti-Smoking Tide Elsewhere By DUFF WILSON and AUBREY BELFORD Published: November 13, 2010 The video of a chain-smoking 2-year-old boy in Indonesia went viral last spring, making the country an abject poster child for unbridled cigarette use among its young citizens. The pudgy little boy, Ardi Rizal, smoked up to two packs a day, and his parents, who had started him at 18 months, said he threw tantrums if denied. Recently he went through rehabilitation, NBC reported in a segment this month. Enlarge This Image Ahmad Naafi/Agence France-Presse - Getty Images Ardi Rizal, the Sumatran celebrity smoker, has recently given up the habit. While the toddler kicked the habit, Indonesia has not. It is the fifth-largest cigarette market in the world, the largest country to have refused to sign a global tobacco treaty, and a case study in the financial power of tobacco companies. "Not just here, but everywhere, they're targeting women, targeting children," the Indonesian health minister, Endang Rahayu Sedyaningsih, said in an interview. "I think that, actually, it's really immoral." The health ministry is in the early stages of writing a tobacco control law, including proposals for a ban on all tobacco advertising and stronger health warnings. But Dr. Sedyaningsih, who holds a doctorate in public health from Harvard, said any proposals to regulate smoking faced stiff opposition from vested interests. The tobacco industry employs millions of people who hand-roll the popular kretek, or clove-flavored, cigarettes. "I don't want this to become a public debate," Dr. Sedyaningsih said, "because I think it will have an ugly impact." Indonesian smoking rates rose 47 percent in the 1990s. About 60 percent of adult men smoke. For cultural reasons, only 5 percent of women smoke - providing a sales growth opportunity. Indonesian cigarette makers promoted concerts by Alicia Keys in 2008 and Kelly Clarkson this year until the singers forced them to withdraw sponsorship and pull down posters. Cigarette ads show glamorous, sophisticated, independent women. The companies sell super-slims, sometimes in lipstick-size cases. "I'm trying to cut back," a slight, 18-year-old woman named Aprilia said recently outside a soccer stadium where many teenagers smoked. But most of her young female friends, she said, have started smoking. Related a.. Cigarette Giants in a Global Fight on Tighter Rules (November 14, 2010) [Non-text portions of this message have been removed] ------------------------------------ Post message: [email protected] Subscribe : [email protected] Unsubscribe : [email protected] List owner : [email protected] Homepage : http://proletar.8m.com/Yahoo! Groups Links <*> To visit your group on the web, go to: http://groups.yahoo.com/group/proletar/ <*> Your email settings: Individual Email | Traditional <*> To change settings online go to: http://groups.yahoo.com/group/proletar/join (Yahoo! ID required) <*> To change settings via email: [email protected] [email protected] <*> To unsubscribe from this group, send an email to: [email protected] <*> Your use of Yahoo! Groups is subject to: http://docs.yahoo.com/info/terms/
