The People vs. Big Tobacco: inspiration & wisdom from around the world
Anna White
awhite@essential.org
Fri, 08 Nov 2002 19:08:31 -0500
Dear Friends,
Thanks to all of you who responded to last month's question. Here's a
compilation of quotes, proverbs, and parables from around the world to
inspire and guide you in your day-to-day work to bring down the global
Merchants of Death at home and abroad. Feel free to send us additional
ones to add to the on-line version.
Anna
Global Partnerships for Tobacco Control
Essential Action
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The People vs. the Global Tobacco Industry
INSPIRATION & WISDOM FROM AROUND THE WORLD
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It was the tobacco industry that transformed an ancient plant of life
into a commercialized product of death...
In The Beginning: Huron Indian Myth has it, that in ancient
times, when the land was barren and the people were starving,
the Great Spirit sent forth a woman to save humanity. As she
traveled over the world, everywhere her right hand touched the
soil, there grew potatoes. And everywhere her left hand
touched the soil, there grew corn. And when the world was
rich and fertile, she sat down and rested. When she arose,
there grew tobacco... ~ Velestia Revels, Wayne Country
Department of Public Health (MI-USA)
The tobacco industry says it's about "choice," but we know what it's
really about...
In my tribe, there is a proverb which says that, "Nobody,
including madmen, ever goes to the store to buy poison, except
in the case of tobacco." One need say no more about the
addiction to smoking which we fight all together. ~ Alphonse
Issi, MNC Cameroon
This quote belies the tobacco industry's arguments over the
following century that tobacco is not addictive:
To cease smoking is the easiest thing I ever did. I ought to
know, I've done it a thousand times.
~ Mark Twain [submitted by Don Weisman, American Heart
Association]
Beware of Big Tobacco's "we've changed" propaganda...
A wolf will hire himself out very cheaply as a shepherd. ~
Russian proverb
If the tiger sits, do not think it is out of respect. ~
African proverb
The truth, firsthand...
"In the cemetery of my village, the graves of the smokers are
the most decorated" ~ Congolese youth [submitted by Evelyne
Lukoki, CONGO]
I use the following in high school presentations:
"Cigarettes Cheaper, a discount tobacco store, in their
propoganda quotes Winston Churchill as saying that Tobacco
Gave Him More Than He Ever Gave To Tobacco. He must have said
that before he had his strokes, because it just isn't true for
most of us. After the tobacco people took my voice; after the
tobacco people killed both of my parents; after giving the
tobacco people thousands and thousands of dollars over the
years that I smoked, I have to say that I have given the
tobacco people a hell of a lot more than they ever gave to
me." ~ Wayne Baker (CA-USA)
What pushes us to continue our fight against the tobacco
industry is being in a hospital environment where we receive
patients who are sick from tobacco, drugs, alcohol, etc. It is
especially those who started smoking a lot during their youth
who constitute a majority of the patients. ~ Evelyne Lukoki,
CONGO
Tobacco feeds rich CEOs, but it makes poor people go hungry...
From a book entitled "The Words of Gandhi," compiled by
Richard Attenbororough: At the age of 23 in 1893, shortly
after he had arrived in Southern Africa as an attorney to
conduct a case for an Indian trading company, he wrote one
sentence which knocked me off my feet.
"It has always been a mystery to me how men can feel
themselves honoured by the humiliation of their
fellow beings."
He had just witnessed Indians forced to walk in the gutter so
that whites could pass by unimpeded along the sidewalk. [I
think that this is very relevant to tobacco control
internationally in that poor people and vulnerable populations
are being abused and victimized to make the Camilleri's and
Bible's of the world wealthy and prestigious. ~ Mark Breaux,
Smoke Free Maryland (USA)]
I have adapted the popular aphorism "He who wants to
impoverish himself buys that which he does not need" in
workshops to make an allusion to consumerism. When the
"society of consumption" offers me some product or service, I
ask: "Do I want it, or need it?" ~ Guillermo Martinez Gallon,
Liga Colombiana Contra el Cancer (COLOMBIA)
A Congolese story about some children who are taught a lesson
in the fields: Grandfather gave his grandsons, Jack and Paul,
a choice of plants to grow, with the condition that the roots
and leaves of the plants they grew be processed for
consumption and brought back to him. Jack chose to plant
manioc, which generated a good harvest of roots and leaves.
After processing the harvest, he had manioc flour, starch,
"garri," etc and cooked manioc leaves that could be eaten as
vegetables. On the other hand, Paul chose tobacco. He planted
it and later harvested its roots and leaves. They were not
edible, so he decided to make "native cigarettes." He brought
them to his grandfather, who tried to eat them but spat
everything out because it was not food. Then Paul lit a
cigarette and his grandfather told him to capture the smoke
and eat it. To this day, he is trying to catch the smoke, and
meanwhile he is always hungry, because he did not cultivate
anything to eat. ~ Evelyne Lukoki, CONGO
For many, there is a strong moral imperative and spiritual dimension to
tobacco control work...
The less...said of physical structure & laws and all the more
..said about moral & spiritual law, the higher will be the
standard of living, & the farther mortals wil be removed from
imbecility or disease. ~ Mary Baker Eddy in Science & Health
with Key to the Scriptures 197:11-15 [submitted by Ayo Maat,
BNICEH (IL-USA)]
If you want to succeed and to live for a long time in good
health, avoid tobacco. This is supported by a passage in the
Bible (3rd book of John, Chapter 2, verse 2): "I wish that
you prosper in all respects and are healthy, as prosperous the
state of your soul." ~ Congolese youth [submitted by Evelyne
Lukoki, CONGO]
Each day that passes is one day closer to the end of Big Tobacco...
There will be a day for the oppressor when he will be crushed
like garlic. ~ Palestinian proverb
We have hope of one day defeating the tobacco industry,
despite its great power, because the truth that tobacco kills
is on our side. The time it takes for us to prevail is the
time it takes. The former President of Cameroon, now
deceased, His Excellence Ahmadou Ahidjo said that, "The truth
eventually triumphs." Indeed, the truth always, in the end,
triumphs, and we have therefore great hope that the tobacco
industry will be overcome sooner or later. ~ Alphonse Issi,
MNC Cameroon
When I despair, I remember that all through history, the way
of truth and love has always won. There have been murderers
and tyrants, and for a time they can seem invincible. But in
the end they always fall. Think of it, always. ~ Mahatma
Gandhi
Above all, take action!
Talk does not cook rice." ~ Chinese proverb
You must do the things you think you cannot do. ~ Eleanor
Roosevelt
Don't underestimate your power to pose a formidable challenge to Big
Tobacco...
Although the snake does not fly it has caught the bird whose
home is in the sky. ~ Akan proverb
Know that there is much that one person can do to make a
difference. Realize that dominion over false claims and mental
malpractice (wrong thinking and error) is yours to
demonstrate. It is a law until the individual. No
legislature nor congress need enact it. ~ Ayo Maat, BNICEH
(IL-USA)
An ant may well destroy a whole dam. ~ Chinese proverb
Never doubt that a small group of thoughtful, committed
citizens can change the world. Indeed, it's the only thing
that ever has. ~ Margaret Mead (1901 - 1978) US anthropologist
[submitted by Molly Collins, Strive Media Institute]
If you think you are too small to make a difference, try
sleeping in a closed room with a mosquito. ~ African proverb
When the tobacco industry takes lives in one country, it hurts lives in
all...
Whatever affects one directly, affects all indirectly. I can
never be what I ought to be until you are what you ought to
be. This is the interrelated structure of reality. ~ Martin
Luther King, Jr.
We cannot live for ourselves alone. Our lives are connected by
a thousand invisible threads, and along these sympathetic
fibers, our actions run as causes and return to us as results.
~ Herman Melville
Even the mightiest Merchant of Death beware, when people around the
world come together...
It is by the strength of their number that the ants in the
field are able to carry their prey to the nest. ~ Nigerian
proverb
When spider webs unite, they can tie up a lion. ~ Ethiopian
Proverb
Few will have the greatness to bend history itself; but each
of us can work to change a small portion of events, and in the
total of all those acts will be written the history of this
generation. ~ Robert F. Kennedy
Only when all contribute their firewood can they build up a
strong fire. ~ Chinese proverb
Some of us put the struggle against Big Tobacco in the context of other
great struggles for justice and human rights, whose leaders teach and
inspire us...
We all stand before history. I am a man of peace, of ideas.
Appalled by the denigrating poverty of my people who live on a
richly endowed land, distressed by their political
marginilization and economic strangulation, angered by the
devestation of their land, their ultimate heritage, anxious to
preserve their right to life and to a decent living, and
determined to usher to this country as a whole a fair and just
democratic system which protects everyone and every ethnic
group and gives us all a valid claim to human civilization, I
have devoted my intellectual and material resources, my very
life, to a cause in which I have total belief and from which I
cannot be blackmailed or intimidated. I have no doubt at all
about the ultimate success of my cause, no matter the trials
and tribulations which I and those who believe with me may
encounter on our journey. Nor imprisonment nor death can stop
our ultimate victory.
~ From Ken Saro-Wiwa's closing statement to the Nigerian
military appointed tribunal [Saro-Wiwa was hanged on November
10, 1995 for speaking out against the environmental damage to
the Niger Delta caused by Shell Oil through its 37 years of
drilling in the region]
Cautious, careful people, always casting about to preserve
their reputation and social standing, never can bring about a
reform. Those who are really in earnest must be willing to be
anything or nothing in the world's estimation, and publicly
and privately, in season and out, avow their sympathy with
despised and persecuted ideas and their advocates, and bear
the consequences. ~ Susan B. Anthony (1820-1906), devoted her
life to woman suffrage, and campaigned for the abolition of
slavery
Slogans some of us use in our work...
We have used the slogan, "Let's make bright and healthy future
with no-smoking", since 1995. ~ DH Kim, Korean ASH-Daegu
branch
I like and often use in my antismoking work the follow
proverb: Sweet smoke, but bitter ashes.
~ Vladimir Levshin, Russian Cancer Research Centre
The general public has much misinformation and lack of
knowledge regarding tobacco control issues. When they behave
in a way as to obstruct public health, I am reminded, "Never
attribute to malevolence what cannot be more simply explained
by stupidity."
Stephen Langer, Alachua County SWAT (FL-USA)
Children should be seen, heard, and believed...
A poem by Ian Blaid, Kabira International School. Published in
the Poet's Corner, New Vision September 21, 2002 P. 19
[submitted by Phillip Karugaba, TEAN (Uganda)]:
I have hidden Daddy's cigarettes
I've hidden daddy's cigarettes,
I've hidden daddy's cigarettes
Cos I don't want him to die
The teacher says they're bad for you
And teachers never lie.
I can tell my daddy wants one
Cos his face is growing red
If he finds out that I've done it
Then he'll send me up to bed.
He's checked up in the cupboard
And he's checked behind the chair
He's checked beneath the sofa
But he'll never find them there.
You can see he's getting cross now
And he shouts, "for goodness sake!"
As sweat drips from his forehead
And his hands begin to shake
He thinks he's got some spare ones
But I've hidden that pack too
He now looks really worried
And doesn't know what he should do
He's looking really desperate
Cos the time is after ten
He can't go out and buy some
Cos the shops are shut by then.
But I feel very happy
Cos I've done something quite clever
I've stopped my daddy smoking
And now he'll live forever.
Though far away in distance, may we be close in spirit -- serving to
support, encourage, and inspire each other...
In everyone=92s life at some time, our inner fire goes out. It
is then burst into flame by an encounter with another human
being. We should all be thankful for those people who rekindle
the human spirit. ~ Albert Schweitzer
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Global Partnerships for Tobacco Control
Essential Action
P.O. Box 19405
Washington, DC 20036
Tel: +1 202-387-8030
Fax: +1 202-234-5176
Email: tobacco@essential.org
http://www.essentialaction.org/tobacco