It was more of the same

Being a smoker and one who frequents bars regularly, I decided to watch Xarabank on February 6 as I presumed that there would be a serious discussion on the impending law that prohibits smoking in bars and other places of entertainment.

Instead, the programme was more dedicated to showing the dangers of smoking to people. Nobody ever denied that smoking is harmful to one's health and there were various programmes in the media dedicated to this subject. So why waste time repeating the same things when the programme was meant to be on the impending controversial law?

The references to public places like shops, banks, hospitals, ministries, buses and even cinemas were also out of place for the ban on smoking in such places has been accepted by smokers and non-smokers without any controversy.

I was not impressed by the result of the survey shown during the programme as I feel that such a survey should be held in bars and such places of entertainment on Saturday nights. Actually, the solution is quite simple. Places for smokers and places for non-smokers. In this way non-smokers would actually be at an advantage for they would be free to patronise any bar of their choice while smokers would be restricted to places where smoking is permitted.

Incidentally, who would be penalised if someone is caught smoking during a wedding reception, the bride or the bridegroom? Or if a tourist is seen smoking in the lounge of the hotel where he is spending his holiday, would the manager be called to answer for his offence?

The suggestion made during the programme that parents should not be allowed by law to smoke in their own home when their children are present reminds one of a dictatorship. How would the one who came up with this suggestion go about it? Having inspectors knocking on the doors and demanding to go in without a warrant or would he, perhaps, have children spying on their parents, as was the practice in Nazi Germany?

Suggestions and comments like this show that smokers are being regarded as worse than criminals and drug addicts and I hope this is not going to end up like the witch hunts of the past when bigots were so keen to save "sinners" that they ended having them tortured and burned at the stake believing that the suffering they were inflicting on them was to save their souls.

In the face of such attitudes the owners of bars, restaurants and other places of entertainment would do well to unite and take action. After all, their livelihood depends on regular clients who, in their majority, are either smokers or people who are tolerant to smokers.