I started smoking just last year, after my sister influenced me into this obviously unhealthy habit. But it wasn't all her fault. From a personal standpoint, I see smoking as an evocative activity aimed at increasing my creative juices, making me feel relaxed, and providing an avenue for new friendships. Of course, I'm well aware of its negative impact to the environment, and in no way am I going to be a cigarette apologist as regards the state of our environment. A lot of my friends have already called me out, saying that smoking, really, makes no sense.
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| Thanks but no thanks for the warning. |
Two years ago I may have agreed with them, but given the reasons I've mentioned above, I find it very difficult to break this bad habit. Whenever I have requirements for school which require both analytical and creative thinking, I feel like lady luck would favor me heavily if I light a stick of Lucky Strike. (Forgive me for the bad pun, I'm writing this without the aid of a cigarette). I guess this comes from the strikingly beautiful (there I go again, sorry) experience of smoking: the flame passing its light to the cigarette, the gentle manner upon which the filter touches one's lips, the way a slender roll of tobacco sits between two fingers, the frown a cig creates as a smoker takes a hit, and the casting off of anxiety and rigidity as one draws out smoke which suspends, and consequently, disappears in the air. (Consider Robert De Niro's famous smoking scene in Goodfellas). Oh yeah, you make a lot of smoker friends too. Even with the demise of our university's smoking area, or 'smocket' as Ateneans liked to call it, I've constantly engaged in interesting and personal discussion over a couple of cigarettes. Oh what the simple utterance of the words "tara, yosi!" can do.
The rest of the world, on the other hand, seem to regard smokers as, and maybe I'm exagerrating, the forces of evil. In countries like Singapore for example, smoking is banned in almost all places. In the United Kingdom, there is a proposal to eliminate flavored cigarettes and replace them with regular ones. And, just for good measure, the British government also wants to replace colored and labeled cig packs with generic olive-colored ones (See here). The popular alternative to the cigarette, the vape, also isn't safe from the hands of officials. Due to the lack of research concerning the safety of e-cigarettes, some places, most recently LA, have proposed banning their use, at least in places where you can't smoke cigarettes as well (Here). Here in the Philippines, the so-called sin tax, which imposes a levy on tobacco and alcohol, is already in effect.
Of course, it's not my intention to, in some way, turn things around and say that smokers are severely oppressed or anything like that. I know that some of these policies are helpful for the rest of society. The proceeds from the sin tax, for instance, go to the health insurance of those who are in need. So no, I'm not in any way portraying smokers as the victims in this one. I just find it funny how my rise to the pinnacle of cigarette smoking is met by all these anti-smoking laws all over the world. Oh well, just my luck. Tara yosi?
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