Finally...

[mothwing]

Yay! Sense!

Well, sense in installments.

Seems as though our dearest Länder have finally been able to agree on most (!) parts of a country-wide smoking ban in public places such as bars, discos, schools, kindergartens (?! WTF? That was ALLOWED??), etc. No word on universities, though. TYPICAL! I am about just to hang up No Smoking signs surreptitiously and then see what happens.
However, smokers will still be allowed to smoke in designated smoking rooms. And those bars not able to provide their guests with a smoking room will be allow smoking in their bars, but there will be a sign with a large "R" on those.

The idiocy... What on earth is so difficult about understanding that if something is dangerous for the person addicted AND others it should not be done in the presence of those it can be harmful for as well? The whole debate is absolutely ridiculous, and there are absolutely no pro-arguments whatsoever on the pro-smoking side.
Most people engaging in the debates did not manage to support their points, and how would they, because there ARE no arguments for it. There are smoking bans in other countries and those are working fine, WHY does it have to be Germany, as always, in which there is a huge, long, wordy debate about everything, in which the most brain dead things are being said in support of a insupportable argument?

It was sooo aggravating to be forced to see so clearly that some of the people in charge of my country have so little in their heads. I cringed at some of those arguments, seriously. They all boiled down to, "Well, it has always been done this way, there is no reason to change it", or to "Well, it is part of a good culture to smoke while drinking wine, it would do damage to our culture if we banned smoking in restaurants", or to "It is a discrimination of addicted people if we exclude them from society!", or even to: "Well, seems as though one of our most reliable institutes had shown us significant evidence supporting the theory that passive smoking indeed does lead to lung cancer, but it could STILL be wrong!"

... but those are MY LUNGS! Ahem. It really started hurting after a while.

Comments

[mothwing.livejournal.com]

The Esskultur thing disturbed me, too. I mean, I know that my father likes smoking in restaurants, but only because he HAS to smoke, anyway. He doesn't like it as part of the meal, but as a convenience - he would hate having to go outside.

I mean, at school and in certain work places there is a huuuuge social component - if you are not willing to go out smoking with the smokers you just miss out on all the important decisions and developments within the groups. I'd get that as a status thing, but couldn't they have picked something less harmful? Chewing gum?

[dstroyrofworlds.livejournal.com]

I think we should work on getting rid of smoking alltogether.
It's no good for the environment and for one's health. I know, I know, I am also a bad person for saying that because of all the people (e.g. in Greece and Cuba) who bring the bacon home by planting and selling tobaco and also because of the huge amount of money it brings to the general world economy every years.
Still. I don't know what else to say but: still. It should be stoped. Completely.

Having the smokers go outside is already a good step but if I have a look at the ozon layer and its holes, not enough. And if you asked the health care programms of any country, they'd say the same.

Luckily, at my former school they had programs against smoking. They tried to tell the people that it is certainly not cool to smoke. This is where the social aspect comes in.
I bet, if we'd just get rid of the idea of smoking as something cool and social, belonging to the Esskultur (What a sick thought, I still don't get it) and also the myth that it makes people losing weight (and if so in no healthy way at all), then there would be less smokers. I guess this is where "the rabbit is burried" (roflol* Sorry, I just had to do that).

For me personally, I'd already be happy - for the moment being - if it was forbidden either in any public building, if not even in ANY building.