A decade or two ago, this could have been true in almost any country but with increased focus on the health hazards of smoking, globally, and stringent laws limiting where and when you are allowed to have a puff, the world-wide rates of smoking have been on the decrease.

Everywhere except in East Timor, that is. On this tiny island neighbouring Australia and Indonesia a third of the total population and two thirds of all men smoke daily. Why? Illiteracy is high (so warnings on cigarette packaging is effectively useless) and tobacco is cheap – even for imported brands, although locally grown rolling tobacco is VERY cheap.

There is no health education in schools, and the culture of smoking lags behind the rest of the world.

Some 80% of the world’s smokers live in developing countries and “young people are learning that what they’re supposed to do to be Western and advanced is to smoke cigarettes,” [Dr Dan Murphy, a Canadian who’s been running a local hospital and clinic in Dili for 20 years,] says.

“Now we have to change their whole way of thinking and start worrying about tomorrow. I’m afraid we’re going to have to go through a phase of learning the hard lesson that’s been seen throughout poor countries.”

He isn’t convinced that the government is serious about tackling the problem – the tobacco lobby, he says, is powerful.

“They can make it seem like [smoking] is something that’s a pleasure, something that adds to your life and puts meaning on your life. You’re up against a propaganda machine – for cigarettes, smoking and the image. And that’s a tough battle.”

As yet there are no laws restricting the use of tobacco and the prime minister admits that at this stage laws would probably be fairly ineffectual at changing the deeply embedded culture of smoking.

Quite sad really. It is one thing to knowingly inhale tar into your lungs and enjoy it, it is another to not realise the effects of what you are doing to your, admittedly already jeopardised, health.

[Source: BBC]