Tobacco and Public Health - TCSC Indonesia

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PREFACE
sources. It must be framed so that it is interesting and relevant to the intended listeners.
Although our motivation may be to reverse the course of death and disease, our
message should be upbeat and provide hope and opportunity, rather than the promise
of death and disease.
We must engage all manner of organizations that provide for society and its wellbeing.
Even as the tobacco industry has attempted to subvert various organizations, we
must reclaim them to serve humanity, and to help disseminate messages of freedom from
tobacco and its attendant diseases. There can be no place for turf wars or divisive exercises
if we are to maximize our effectiveness. Unity should be the watchword, from the
level of local community organizations to the World Health Organization. To reach the
diverse populations of smokers, we must enlist the support of a diversity of organizations,
as measured by culture, ethnicity, and even those with entirely different purposes,
ranging from religious organizations to hobby industries, to the entertainment industry.
What?
It is clear that the motivation of Big Tobacco is greed. I believe greed that flourishes at
the expense of the destruction of millions of lives a year can only be described as evil; it
cannot be reconciled with personal and corporate ethics and morality. Such greed is
infectious and pervasive, and in the tobacco industry extends into the realm of financial
investment. Those who hold large portfolios such as, colleges, universities, pension
plans, etc., by keeping investments in tobacco stock, have convinced themselves that the
rules of the marketplace override separation from evil if a profit is to be made. President
Reagan called the Soviet Union, ‘the evil empire’, and President George W. Bush referred
to Iraq, Iran, and North Korea, as ‘the axis of evil’. Yet these entities to whom evils were
attributed have not killed more than 400 000 citizens of the United States, or millions
worldwide, each year. The evil empire is Big Tobacco and, unlike military and political
enemies who say, ‘I intend to kill you if I can’, Big Tobacco disguises its evil with the
invitation to light up, and become alive with pleasure.
We need more focused themes that can be communicated effectively. The public
needs to know that good health and quality of life are taken away by tobacco, and
are achieved through its avoidance. The public needs to know that the so-called
economic benefits of tobacco to society are naught, and that stronger economic health
at the individual and national level is possible without tobacco. The public also needs
to know that commercial speech in the form of advertising can be appropriately held
to standards of truth and scientific proof, even within the context of freedom of
speech. The public needs honest information about the ingredients and design features
of their products, presented in a regulated manner, so that, under the guise of full
disclosure, the industry is not given new tools to promote their products. Finally,
the public needs to know that the tobacco industry does not represent business as
usual. Big Tobacco has stepped beyond the bounds of even the most unethical of business
practices. This has been made evident through the disclosure of previous secret