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Nightwalker's Realm Hello mortal... Take everything here with a grain of salt, it's just me ranting. The opinions expressed on this site are solely the author's, and not representative of any individual, company, corporation, government, head of state, deity, pantheon, or anyone or anything else I may have missed. Oh yeah, a few simple rules. 1.Don't feed the animals. 2.Read at your own risk. 3.If anything offends you, quit reading and don't come back. Dete ike! Kono shirinukeme! P R O F I L E
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11/26/2004 The Poison Stick Rant I’ve been joking lately the Malaysian Government is making it harder for me to kill myself. A year ago it was raised Rm0.60 cents. A few months ago when the yearly budget was announced they raised the duty for cigarettes and alcohol yet again. The price of a pack of smokes raised Rm1.10 to Rm6.50 a pack. They have also passed a law that within a year only large packs of cigarettes would be sold. Yup, say goodbye to those 10 stick packs, 14 stick packs etc. All this is in conjunction with Malaysia’s crusade against the social evils of smoking and drinking. In other words those muppets I never bothered voting for just declared jihad on my social life. What’s next you might ask? BAN the Wonderbra? Somehow if that happens I wouldn’t bat an eye. There were people in Parliament talking about BANNING Barbie dolls a couple of years ago. It seems that Miss Barbie, the darling of young girls everywhere was ermm...shall we say too well endowed for our impressionable children. Another point raised was Barbie was usually clad in revealing costumes ( gasp! that Slut )thus would be a bad role model for our young girls. Our children should have better role models. Okay...look out Barbie here comes Dumbie clad from head to toe in a tent with eye slits which comes in a remarkable 8 different shades of black. I kid you not there was actually talk of a doll that looks like that. But I digress, lets get back to the cigarette rant... As I was saying, the Malaysian government has declared war on smokers. PUTRAJAYA: Smoking will be banned in all workplaces in a move to provide a clean and healthy environment for workers. This move, which is an extension to several existing no-smoking areas, will be included under a new regulation on indoor air quality which will be in place in six months. The regulation will stipulate what constitutes indoor air quality in office buildings and is aimed at clamping down on smoking in the workplace. Human Resources Minister Datuk Dr Fong Chan Onn said there was a general provision now under the Occupational Safety and Health Act that required employers to maintain air quality. “However, it does not state what constitutes good air quality and what kind of standards we should have. “Following our decision to study the possibility of making smoking an occupational safety and health issue, I have asked the Department of Occupational Safety and Health (DOSH) to come up with guidelines. “We want to ensure that workers are not only free from cigarette smoke but also from hazardous chemicals in gum and glue,” he told reporters after the weekly Cabinet meeting here yesterday. The decision to make smoking an OSH issue came about after Dr Fong’s visit last month to Ireland, where smoking in the office is banned. “Such a ban is also now being looked at by countries like Canada and Britain,” Dr Fong said. He said the new regulation should be ready in six months and be made enforceable immediately. He said failure to adhere to the regulation would be punishable under the Act with a maximum fine of RM10,000 or a jail term of a year, or both. It is also understood that the penalty to be levied on employers for a continuous offence will be RM1,000 a day. “After all, the conduct of workers is an employer’s responsibility.” The above was taken from The Star Online site. Almost all of the newpapers in the country including The Star did a front page on the story. While I applaud the move to cut down the number of teen smokers etc. as always, in order to prove that they are actually doing something constructive for a change, those overpaid muppets end up coming off as too heavy handed...replete with half assed game plans no less. Instead of addressing the problem rationally ( Hmm...I guess you actually need brains to be rational ) they chose to BAN this and BAN that and slap a hefty fine and jail term to errant sheeps who dares to go against the cultural norm. How they are going to patrol and enforce this would be interesting. Like I said, half assed game plans. It would be much easier to start with the civil service departments then work hand in hand with the NGO’s ( Non Governmental Organizations ) to ensure the workplace is certified smoke free zones. An official looking certificate could be issued by the Ministry of Health to the companies that sign up for this worthy ( heh ) cause. Instead of the stick all the bloody time how about a carrot? Each year the Malaysian Government passes out obscene amounts of money to their cronies in the private sectors in forms of Government contracts etc. It would be a simple matter to add a smoke free working environment clause to these companies getting these contracts. Like a pyramid scheme once you get your cronies onboard and they in turn get their cronies...You get the picture. Once it is company policy not to light up on the premises you’ve got your ball rolling and knowing our bandwagon jumping mentality ( especially with a shiny Government certificate in the offing ) most work places of respectable size would be smoke free. You need for the employers to police their workers not rely on empty threats that no one takes seriously. Anyway,that's how I would have gone about doing it.Something that gets the public to step up and actually do something about the problem rather than ineffective strong arm tactics. Now isn’t that much better than going: After all, the conduct of workers is an employer’s responsibility. Speaking as an employer myself...Yeah they are the my responsibility but WHAT'S MY MOTIVATION to police smoking in the workplace? You're going to send people to do spot checks on my premises? No you're not... then why should I take you seriously? See the problem with the way they are going about tackling the problem? Such wise people our lawmakers. Anyway,anyone who has worked with smokers before would know that productivity goes down the shitter if you keep them from lighting up at the unofficial smoking section around the workplace. All in all the fight against smoking the ultimate losers are poor SOB’s like me. From a purely financial point of view, the price hike was a good move. The government coffers get lined with cash from the tobacco industry who in turn line their pockets by raising the selling price of their products with a slight profit thrown into the mix and dumps the whole thing on their consumers who unlike other consumer products of daily consumption, will not have any choice in the matter since the 20 stick packs will be the norm. The Government gets richer and ends up smelling like a rose for their GET TOUGH ON SMOKING crusade. A brilliant move and I don’t believe I ever used the word brilliant ever when referring to our lawmakers. A brilliant move financially, health wise it’s not going to make a difference. I know that and they know that but hey, they get more money each year from cigarette tariffs to throw on needless pet projects so why the hell not. My challenge to our lawmakers...If you want to get tough on smoking and throw the BAN word around so freely, then by all means do me and the other smokers a favor and go all the way and BAN the sale of those poison sticks altogether. Sure, you might lose billions in tariffs each year but hey isn’t the health of your citizens worth it? They can’t do that now can they? No matter what high and mighty holier than thou justification they use it all boils down to the almighty $$$. It’s sad but true, money makes the world go round. I just wish those bully boys in Parliament would quit being hypocritical bastards and stop harassing smokers like me by making us pay more to feed ur addiction claiming cheerfully that they are taking more of our money for our own good. Step up or Shut the hell up with the half assed plans already. End of rant...for now. Picture of the Day 
Shark's Tale 
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