Smoking ban

[Note: Haven't post any entries for a month, and suddenly I have two. Interesting.]

I am not a smoker, so I was happy with the enforcement of smoking ban in Hong Kong. Nevertheless I was disappointed and suprised by a lot of exemptions in bars. Owing to the opposition the government allowed some bar places to be exempted for a period. I thought it had to be a strong enforcement, but apparently it rules leniently. Like usual, the government makes concession when many business parties does not give any support.

Reading BBC's news I know that North Ireland also put smoke ban in force. Australia had this regulation in force last year. It is a trend that smoke-free legislation will be found in many countries. I know that a lot of them rule it out strictly, so I do not understand why my government always does such silly thing - they execute a new legislation, but always with exemption and concession. The government always claims it takes time to be like this or that, but for something it wants to do it always takes action quickly without mercy. I know the government is hopeless, yet I am still always disappointed. The clubs or bars I often go are all exempted. What's the point of having such legislation? Money speaks everything in this tiny city almost doubtlessly.

I cannot tell how sad the city is without mercy, without memory, without culture but only about business, profit and money. To be concrete, this city has culture, but the culture of profit. We are at the extreme of capitalism and consumerism.

Nevertheless a point I wrote before has to be highlighted once again - we talk about free city and freedom of people. Smoking ban seems to be good for people, yet at the same time it restricts our freedom. I am not a smoker, but a lot of people are. I cannot judge whether the law is really for the sake of our health and non-smokers or it actually exploits our rights to smoke. It is two faces on the same coin. One may say our health is on top of these things, but who knows some people may not even want to be healthy as they choose to smoke - in this way their rights to be unhealthy seems to be exploited, despite the strange logic. Hopefully as a reader you would understand what I am trying to explain here. (Have never had a feedback!)