Youtube gets a ton of flack from various outlets, especially slamming it for productivity loss. Let's face it, Youtube is really just an all access, global America's Funniest Home Videos. Or is it?
Recently, a video was posted to Youtube and quickly gained momentum around the interworld that showed a two year old child chain smoking cigarettes. To be honest, I had not seen it until it was featured on CBS, but was still as interested in the follow-up story that was being done on the two year old addict. The kid smokes like James Dean---the epitome of cool. It is humorous to watch at first, until the real story was expelled. If you aren't familiar with the story take a quick visit here and come right back to finish up my rant. In all seriousness, it IS a sad story. Although this poor kid has been exploited and laughed at by all the world, he has also garnered attention by people who truly think this is atrocious. This little video of a two year old chain smoking has led to a government funded rehabilitation program for the child, as well as blasting the spotlight on the mishaps of the Indonesian Government. Smoking is such a large aspect of the culture, and as Americans we can not sit at our computers 5,000 miles away and judge an entire culture. However, a two year old smoking is a little ridiculous.
Do a Google images search for "smoking babies".
I dare you
Because of the exposure of the story, the "Indonesian Ministry of Health is prepared to exceed and ratify the framework convention of tobacco control..." says a reporter for CBS news, "...the Indonesian government acknowledges tobacco use as an epidemic, they do want to get rid of it..."
So, thanks to youtube, this kid got some help, his family understands the dangers, and an entire country has been saved....
or, has it? Does it really need to be saved? And who they hell are we to save it? Oh, how important big media thinks it really is...
Is the smoking culture one that is deeply ingrained in the history of Indonesia, or is it simply a lack of regulations for advertisers and a kickback from tobacco companies to make a huge profit? Or is it really not that big of a difference when compared to other countries? When compared to the rest of the world, Indonesia is number eight in number of tonnes of tobacco imported into the country....hmmm, some quick math...
-170,000 tonnes of tobacco per year consumed
-2000 pounds per tonne
---soo 340,000,000 pounds of tobacco consumed per year
-Population=229,965,000
---sooo...roughly 1.5 pounds of tobacco per person
-----which equals about 54.4 packs of cigarettes per person (there are only 12.5 grams of tobacco in each pack of cigarette...ouch, kinda makes you hurt when you spend nearly $10 per pack of that crap...also makes you wonder what makes up the other 50 or so odd grams, not counting the filters...)
THAT IS A LOT OF CIGGS!
BUT WAIT...
The USA is even worse. Not considering the countries listed higher in the top ten list of Top Ten Tobacco countries (because they have over one billion people) The USA has an even worse number than Indonesia! Sure, there aren't any 2 year old smokers in the USA, at least none that have been filmed and posted to youtube, but we have much more tobacco per person in this country than Indonesia, and only second to Russia.
The United States of Gotdamn Amurica consumes 430,000 tonnes of tobacco every year, which averages to about 103 packs per person per year. That's just stupid.
This was the best picture I found when I typed in "Amurica",
and I think it sums it up pretty well
America, STOP SMOKING! That includes you Uncle Angelo.
So before any one of you do-gooders decide you need to go and tell Indonesia what's up...don't, because first of all they don't care about a better-than-everyone American and second, America uses more tobacco anyway...so suck it.
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