"Genius Comes from Hard Work! Tobacco Makes You Talented!"
The Chinese never cease to amaze. In a good way -- all of those iPhones and flat screens, churned out by the container load -- and in a bad way, too. From Bloomberg:
In dozens of rural villages in China’s western provinces, one of the first things primary school kids learn is what made their education possible: tobacco.
“On the gates of these schools, you’ll see slogans that say ‘Genius comes from hard work -- Tobacco helps you become talented,’” said Xu Guihua, secretary general of the privately funded lobby group Chinese Association on Tobacco Control. The schools are sponsored by local units of China’s government-owned monopoly cigarette maker. “They are pinning their hopes on young people taking up smoking.”
About a third of the world's smokers are Chinese. And anyone who's ever been there knows that it's more accurate to say that a third of the world's continuously smoking smokers are Chinese. Oh, and don't blame it all on Evil American Tobacco:
China decided to create a tobacco monopoly in the 1980s when the industry supplied more than 10 percent of government revenue, said Wang Shiyong, the World Bank’s senior health specialist in Beijing. Today, tobacco contributes 6.7 percent, according to figures from Yang and Hu’s report.
And for the next few paragraphs, just replace "tobacco" with "sub-prime mortgages," just for fun:
In addition to State Tobacco’s control of the industry, it is also part of the Ministry of Industry and Information Technology, which chairs the eight-member body tasked with implementing the WHO’s Framework Convention on Tobacco Control in China, said Xu , a former deputy director at the Chinese Center for Disease Control and Prevention.
“The government and the industry are in the same body -- the regulator is also the enterprise,” she said.
Hey! We have that problem too! It's nice when you have something in common with a competitor.
A huge part of China's growth has been -- and will be -- fostered by their amazingly unsentimental attitude towards the health and longevity of their citizens. I guess if you've got a billion of them, you don't worry so much about losing a few. But a sign of China's eventual slowdown might be when government-owned tobacco monopolies are no longer allowed to advertise in primary schools. I mean, talk about government regulation!
[illustration by Garry Trudeau, author/creator of "Doonesbury"]
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May '10
Re: "Genius Comes from Hard Work! Tobacco Makes You Talented!"
Last night my husband and I watched the beautiful, beautiful movie Mao's Last Dancer.
Among the things that struck me was the shocking level of paternalism in the relation between the people and the government.
Dec '10
Re: "Genius Comes from Hard Work! Tobacco Makes You Talented!"
This is a part of their plan to limit their pension costs. Despite what the anti-smoking zealots will tell you, it is much cheaper to have people die young than to have them live to be ninety, collecting pensions and getting free health care for 25-30 years.
Jul '10
Re: "Genius Comes from Hard Work! Tobacco Makes You Talented!"
Genius comes from hard work -- Tobacco helps you become talented
Hmm. Doesn't seem to be working for me.
Maybe I'm doing it wrong.
Aug '10
Re: "Genius Comes from Hard Work! Tobacco Makes You Talented!"
Seeing Mr. Butts almost makes me want to start reading Doonesbury again.
Almost...
Aug '10
Re: "Genius Comes from Hard Work! Tobacco Makes You Talented!"
This is definitely one way to combat their pending pension problems. You don't have to worry about pension payouts when people are dying in their 40s. Who knows...maybe State Meth is next. The workers would be very productive for a short period of time.
Nov '10
Re: "Genius Comes from Hard Work! Tobacco Makes You Talented!"
Hmmm, I sit down to take a smoke (and coffee) break from working on an etching, and look what I find...
I've long held a (probably unfounded) suspicion that since the introduction of tobacco to European culture, there hasn't been a truly creative non-smoking culture. Maybe it's because people who worry too much about dying, as well as those who spend too much time worrying about what the neighbors think, don't tend to take risks. So maybe this bodes well for China.
Jan '11
Re: "Genius Comes from Hard Work! Tobacco Makes You Talented!"
What was Obama's IQ before he started smoking?
Aug '10
Re: "Genius Comes from Hard Work! Tobacco Makes You Talented!"
There IS a theory that the introduction of coffee and tea to Europe had a large part in kicking off the Enlightenment.
The theory goes like this: Before coffee and tea, the only beverages available (other than water) were alcoholic. Beer, wine, mead, etc. In the countryside that ain't so bad since the water's pretty good, but in the cities where hygiene wasn't a big priority drinking water was a no-no.
So everybody drank lots and lots of alcoholic beverages on a daily basis. Essentially, they were too inebriated to rebel against the king or to think up new things like science and philosophy.
After the introduction of coffee and tea, the city-folk sobered up and started thinking with clear heads.
(Also, the need to boil the water to make the beverage helped kill off pathogens in the water, extending lifespans.)
It's just a theory...
Edited on Sep 26, 2011 at 12:49pmJul '10
Re: "Genius Comes from Hard Work! Tobacco Makes You Talented!"
Palaeologus: Genius comes from hard work -- Tobacco helps you become talented
Hmm. Doesn't seem to be working for me.
Maybe I'm doing it wrong. · Sep 26 at 7:29am
Snuff. It's worked for Me.
Nov '10
Re: "Genius Comes from Hard Work! Tobacco Makes You Talented!"
Misthiocracy - an interesting thesis indeed...I've never thought about it before, but it does make a good deal of sense. Not just the ending of drunkenness, but the very social atmosphere associated with early coffee drinking. A history of the relationship between politics and various popular forms of mood-altering methods could be well worth reading.
BTW, for those who are interested in amusing classical music, I recommend Bach's Coffee Cantata (whose German title actually translates to "Be Still, Stop Chattering")
Aug '10
Re: "Genius Comes from Hard Work! Tobacco Makes You Talented!"
Well, alcohol drinking was also done in a social atmosphere, but there are fewer fistfights when the beverage of choice is changed to coffee. ;-)