Once again, a gruesome threat called the smoking ban has been lurking from the halls of Serbian assembly. The anti-smoking law is apparently almost complete and is to be adopted in near future. The smokers are panicking like never before – all the wars, sanctions, bombing, pollution, corruption and other past and present worldly problems of Serbia seem so tiny in comparison to the prospect of not being able to light up a cigarette while drinking coffee in a favorite cafe or with a beer in a favorite bar/club.
From a non-smoker perspective, I can only imagine what it’s like for the smokers, since none of my addictions are nowhere near the one caused by nicotine. I can only sympathize – to a certain point. I’m ok with the smell of cigarette smoke in the air, and I don’t mind passive smoking either, but I don’t like the awful smell it leaves on my clothes, skin, eyes, teeth, nails and hair. That’s why I look forward to the ban (if it ever becomes implemented in the future, that is).
Still, the smokers are not the ones who are terrified the most – it’s the bar, restaurant and club owners. They are afraid that the ban will destroy their businesses since they believe all the smokers will stop going out so much as they do now. Combine this with the financial crisis and the fear is even bigger. So much that there’s a campaign to liberalize the proposed ban a bit – allowing owners to choose whether they will implement the ban in the smaller objects or making a separate room for smokers in bigger venues. The campaign calls upon tolerance between smokers and non-smokers, which in my opinion only shows that the campaign was conceived by non-smokers – there is no and can never be such a thing as a tolerance between smokers and non-smokers. Every decent smoker knows this. It is only us, the non-smokers, who naively believe in this sort of thing.
And while it’s true that the smoking ban has caused lower income in the cafe industry, it is also worth noting that in many other countries the incomes in bars remained the same after the ban. It probably has to do with different cafe and restaurant culture in different countries – and so it’s difficult to predict the impact it will have on Serbia. I think the best way to see how it goes is to implement the total ban and change it later if it turns out bad for the cafes.
The proposal is also testing the essences of civic liberties and the freedom of making own decisions in one’s private property instead of allowing the state to decide instead, which is an interesting point for a debate, but I’m not sure if it can help solve our current problem.
Honestly, it doesn’t have to be that bad for the smokers among you, you know. There’s always “smirting”, for example (smoking+flirting). And smoking is always going to remain cool, and we non smokers are going to envy you on your coolness and so on. The only problem is, you make us stink. I guess the only way I could give up my point of view in favor of smoking ban is for you smokers to convince me that you love your cigarettes so much that you really can’t live without them in bars, and this “Zastita umesto zabrane” campaign simply isn’t convincing enough.
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Crumbs, you’re tolerant, Viktor. After being forced to retreat from so many public places because my eyes were running, my nose was blocking and sputum was rising in my throat, I found the stench of stale tobacco was no more than a minor worry. I’m afraid there’s not room for tolerance. Forbearance, maybe, imposed by sympathy or friendship, but tolerance? No way.
One more futile and senseless attempt to do things in completely different way from everyone else.
They tried the choice thing in Spain. It doesn’t work. Smoking is still everywhere and they’ll probably have a full ban some time in the future. It needs to either be a complete ban or no ban. Middle ground simply doesn’t work in this. It’s like paying taxes.
There’s been a complete ban in California ever since I’ve been old enough to drink [legally] and it’s worked well. People just go outside to grab a quick smoke. There are smoking rooms at a lot of bars, which people use and then leave once they’re done smoking.
But, it’s nice not to have to come home smelling like hell after a night out and only having to deal with the alcohol-related issues. Much better than whenever I go out with my cousins in SLO/CRO and come back smelling like cheap hooker. I did however learn the secret to getting the smoke out of the clothes in that you leave them over a heater overnight and all is well in the morning. Probably well-known by smokers already, but I thought it was a neat trick and have no idea how it actually works.
Hudin
Hudin i really didnt know that trick and to be honest i dont think many smokers did, cos most of us dont really smell it on our clothes and dont really give a shit either. Lol
i will be sad if the ban is implemented, where i came from every restaurant, bar and cafe had a smoking room which was like a little glass cage that could barely fit anyone in, maybe 4 tables or so. This would be very expensive and problematic for many cafes to install I think.
I do think this will affect cafe owners drastically in that serbia is, in fact, a heavily smoking country, and part of the experience of going to a cafe involves having a cig with your coffee/beer/wine or whatever. So going to stand outside while you have you cig your arent socialising anymore, its basically like “excuse me while i fuel my habit, im sorry that i enjoy smoking”
fuck that shit… if you dont want to be around smokers go to an EU country, THIS IS SERBIA!!!!!
Ako je nonsens da se u Srbiji pusi u bolnicama, ista takva glupost je da je u Kanadi zabranjeno pusiti ispod tende na autobuskim stanicama. Inace taj prostor je otvoren sa sve 4 strane. Takodje, kampanja zastite seknd hend pusaca je uzasno jadna i pateticna; svakog usranog jutra dok se vozim ka poslu slusam glas nekog deteta koji kaze “tata, molim te nemoj da me ubijas”.
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