Drink and kill, gamble and ruin, but don't smoke!!!

By Rasim BELKO ([email protected])

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In a situation where the mafia has the state, and citizens are occupied by their fates, in a country with a million problems per capita, where politicians steal and persecute those who bring them to power, someone has decided that the most important task of the legislative authority in the Federation of Bosnia and Herzegovina is to ban smoking in restaurants, in public places…

The neoliberal government, composed of political prostitutes with a mafia signature, citing the suppression of discrimination against non-smokers, has decided to destroy the tobacco industry and discriminate against smokers. 

We are again at the level where the rulers, who have left hundreds of thousands of people jobless, destroyed former giants, driven out a large number of young people, depopulated villages, ruined the economy, and killed mountains, turning roads into mere tracks, are now trying to convince us that they care more about our health than we do. 

The truth is that tobacco is harmful to the health of smokers and those around them, but an even greater truth is that a very large number of people consume tobacco, and denying them this pleasure in restaurants will not change their daily habit. 

A bigger truth lies behind what they didn't tell us when they were convincing us that banning smoking in restaurants was a good thing. Behind it, there are certainly lobbies representing manufacturers of electronic and similar cigarettes, chewing and snorting tobacco, so only this branch of the tobacco industry will profit this way. 

On the other hand, none of the federal legislators have asked themselves what will happen to the already devastated hospitality sector. Do they really believe that the owners of catering establishments will turn away their guests because they are tobacco consumers? Of course not, and they shouldn't, because no compensation will cover the damage they will suffer. 

I am aware that there are various do-gooders in this country who will not like this text, but there is a perfect answer to their remarks – who is financing them and why?

Because, where I am unwelcome due to my unhealthy habits, I will not go, and my money will go where I can enjoy my right, no matter how much the government denies me that right. 

I wonder what our government is brewing when it forbids us to smoke cigarettes, yet allows us to fill the air around us with the poison of hookah. Anyone who has been to those hookah lounges knows that no one can leave without smelling of that "ibrik" from which the smoke of the hookah bubbles.  

Neither hookah nor cigarettes kill as directly as alcohol does. The most common, or one of the most common, causes of death on Bosnian and Herzegovinian roads, as well as roads in the region, is drunk driving. Our politicians have also caused accidents after "boozing" in restaurants. 

And that will not be banned. Because why would our government abolish the key cause of traffic accidents when it is easier to pretend to be Europeans by using force against tobacco users?

Thus, in the future, in cafes, restaurants, and other catering establishments, we will have a smoking ban and all the freedom to consume alcohol. Non-smokers, drunk and freed from tobacco smoke, will get behind the wheel and turn into potential killers of those who "neither ate nor smelled an onion."

Two scourges that completely fall into the zone of necessary bans remain untouched. Drugs and gambling are destroying our youth and old age, driving them into poverty, depression, and whatnot. And while drug consumption is conditionally forbidden, and practically allowed because it is available on every corner, betting activity is allowed for everyone. 

Children and adults enter betting shops, families break up because of betting, social problems arise, leading to fatal outcomes such as suicide for those who get most deeply involved.

And all of that is not enough. Smokers had to be driven out of restaurants, and our government did it for someone's account. I have no doubt that the bills of the federal legislators will also be improved. 

All that remains is to see the House of Peoples, the protectors of the vital interests of our peoples. If they falter, we will only get confirmation that the people here are a disposable commodity for greedy rulers. 

Political prostitution continues.