The spirituality of tobacco control: perspectives from around the world

[Anna White]

Dear Friends,

Thanks to all of you who responded to last month's question re: how your
involvement in tobacco control is a moral, ethical or spiritual matter.
Below are several of the responses received.  If you meant to respond,
but didn't get around to doing so before the deadline, it's not too
late! You may send additional responses directly to Rick Bernardo, who
is writing a book on this topic, <RickB@bitstream.net>. Or if you are
busy, Rick would be happy to interview you by telephone -- just send him
a brief message with the dates/times you are available.

View the full question:
http://lists.essential.org/pipermail/gptc/2003q3/000077.html

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THE SPIRITUALITY OF TOBACCO CONTROL: PERSPECTIVE FROM AROUND THE WORLD
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MAURITIUS - V=E9ronique Le Cl=E9zio, ViSa-Mauritius
My own spiritual battle behind the tobacco war: I didn't chose to engage
in tobacco control. First and foremost, I am an artist. My life has
always been centred on art, and painting has always been my priority. I
was chosen for that mission by hasard -- a phone call from a consumers'
association asking me to start an antismoking coalition in my country --
and this changed my whole life . During the past five years, I have
committed myself entirely to tobacco control, because I discovered that
it was an issue that could tremendously help humankind and give people a
chance to live a better quality of life. My neighbor is another me, this
is why I benefit from everything I can do to help others!
     The righteousness of tobacco control is self-evident. We, the
antismoking advocates have all the good reasons on our side and our only
challenge is communication. Tobacco control is a matter of health,
economy, social justice and a fight for life - and for quality of life.
There are so many 'positive' drugs that life offers: all forms of art,
sports, meditation, friendship and love...
     Each time I hear of a specific sad case of someone having a health
problem or dying because of the avoidable plague of smoking, I think: it
is because of that person that I fight, and I want to do my utmost so
that such suffering be avoided because of me, because of us.

CAMEROUN - Alphonse ISSI, Mouvement National des Consommateurs
The question of tobacco promotion is a question of communities' morals
and values. In Africa, when something causes death, it becomes
repugnant, a taboo that people in the community must neither touch nor
speak about publicly. As for myself, what prompted me to get involved in
the fight against tobacco was the loss of one of my best friends. He
died of pulmonary bronchitis, cause by tobacco consumption.
   It is our moral belief that cigarettes are poison [and that there are
racial issues involved in the tobacco industry's global expansion].
Cigarettes were created by white people, and it is still white people
who control companies like BAT, and who have no qualms pushing them on
the black people of Africa, enslaving and killing us.

URUGUAY -  Adriana Men=E9ndez, Sindicato Medico del Uruguay
When you ask us for the matters of the spirit, the idea which came
immediately to us is our last visit to a primary school. The deep sense
we felt there was incredible! All the children explained and
demonstrated with pictures the damage that smoking does. They also acted
as doctors and patients, with a group of advanced medical students
supporting them. This public school, like so many in our country, is
poor and located in an very poor neighborhood. Yet the children feel
that the problem of tobacco consumption is an important one. Our contact
with these children was one of the most gratifying experiences that we
have ever had!

USA - DC - Anna White, Essential Action
Ten years ago, I went to El Salvador for a 2 week workcamp to build
houses and latrines in a remote village, devastated by war. The first
thing I saw upon exiting the San Salvador airport, was a huge,
illuminated Marlboro Man billboard. Throughout my stay in the country, I
found it hard to reconcile this glowing invitation to nicotine addiction
with the stark realities of war and poverty: legless victims of
landmines, mothers who had lost half of their children, families living
in substandard housing. The eagerness with which a multinational
corporation peddled death to a population still lacking the very basics
of life -- adequate food, shelter, healthcare -- struck me as a sick
testimony to the dominant values of our time. Several years later, I
came upon the same unsettling juxtaposition of billboards hawking death
next to people struggling to make living in West Africa. It seemed
fundamentally immoral to me, and I felt a certain obligation, as a
citizen of the country that the world's largest tobacco company calls
home, to do something about it. Are not the lives of people in Asia,
Africa, and Latin America just as sacred as those in the U.S.?
    More recently, I have found inspiration in the individual stories of
those who have courageously stood up to the tobacco industry, sometimes
at great personal risk, and in the growing solidarity between tobacco
control advocates from all regions of the world. Many of the people in
low-income countries who are involved in tobacco control, gain no income
from their work. Quite often they are but a lone voice in their
countryn, calling for the government to reign in the Merchants of Death.
Going up against a rich and powerful corporation whose net wealth far
exceeds the GDP of one's country may be daunting -- but great injustices
can and do bring out the best in the human spirit, as the tireless work
of so many tobacco control advocates around the world attests. There is
something beautiful, profound, and powerful in our joining together
across borders, in our collective passion and energy, and in our
standing in solidarity against an industry that slaughters 5 million of
us annually and has no shame. We are part of a movement based on love,
compassion, and respect for all humans, regardless of nationality,
color, or language -- and an understanding that an injury to one is an
injury to all. Working hand in hand, we connect to something larger than
us.

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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