Dakle, evo šta ti ljudi kažu:
...I need a cigarette every five minutes or I lose my temper.
...I would rather give up coffee, drinking and so on, but no, not smoking. It’s my drug. That’s all.
...I feel it’s the only thing that keeps me going, the only thing. It’s the only company I have.
...Even if the pack costs 50 €, I will buy it. But I don’t have so much money. I will never, never quit. (Philippe, man aged 50, homeless and unemployed).
...I am unbearable when I feel the urge for a cigarette.
...I feel as if I’m going round in circles. I yell at everyone, my daughter doesn’t even talk to me because she knows I will send her packing. I’m just insufferable. Then I go downstairs in the street to find a cigarette. I ask people.
...That’s the only thing I can beg for. It would never occur to me to beg for money. But a cigarette, sure, no problem. (Melina, woman aged 54, unemployed)
...What worries me too is not being able to afford to give my wife and daughter a better life, a different life where they wouldn’t need to smoke like I do. I feel guilty about that. I would like to give them a life with less stress and worry, because – well, I get the minimum wage and we can’t make ends meet. I don’t earn much and we have to struggle.
...Okay, smoking gives cancer, but it also gives happiness, not a great happiness, but a little bit of it.
...I need my cigarettes because I don’t have spare-time activities, I’m broke, I don’t get out, I don’t go to the movies...
...There’s nothing here, we are miles from everywhere and there’s nothing to do. This place is dead and so are we. We should use our energy on other things than smoking and all that shit.
...What do you think there is to do here? Going down to the pub? Meeting the same people, repeating the same bullshit, smoking cigarette after cigarette?
...We’re like zombies here because we’re miles from everywhere. Look, a swimming pool, it would be great to have a pool nearby... If there was a pool, I would go swimming every day. Instead of smoking, I would go swimming, for example. It may sound stupid, but it’s not that stupid, actually.
...I haven’t got a car, and I couldn’t afford the petrol anyway.
...I’m not going to hitch a lift to the swimming pool, am I? (Camille, woman aged 60, retired)
...Smoking, yes it costs me more than 100 € a month... That’s a lot. It makes the budget rather tight, but thanks to my partner’s job, we practically manage to get to the end of the month - some months a least. Anyhow, cigarettes are a definite item, there’s no arguing about that.
...I would like to stop smoking – um, because of the dough – to do other things with all the dough we spend on cigarettes. But it’s not easy. It’s all we have left, since we’ve stopped going out and we’ve given up booze. It’s our only pleasure these days. (Melina, woman aged 54, unemployed)
...If you’ve got no money, you just stay at home and don’t budge. Smoking is my only relaxation. Going places, eating out, having fun is too expensive. Look at the people who go to football and rugby matches. That costs as much as a pack of cigarettes, if not two or three times more.
Plus the cost of getting there. Smoking is all we have! It’s our only way of relaxing. (Joseph, man age 50, unemployed)
...Smoking helps me. When I wake up in the night I can’t sleep anymore. So I smoke. What else to do? Nothing. I smoke. And if I ain’t got cigarettes, then… That’s bad!
...There is also loneliness. Loneliness makes you smoke. (Clement, man aged 51, unemployed)
...Smoking. Sometimes I tell myself it’s all I have. Why? Because there was a big upheaval in my life. My smoking increased because of that upheaval.
...I started smoking when I stopped cocaine.
...I restarted smoking when I lost my job and found myself out on the street.
...I had no income so I cadged off people. Smoking calmed me down. (Karine, woman aged 28, unemployed)
...I was smoking already, but the upheaval made it worse: suddenly being myself on my own. Cigarettes keep me company. If I haven’t got any, I feel a craving, and they do actually keep me company. They are there, they are there. That’s it. When I smoke I’m less alone. Well I mean... it’s hard to admit, but I feel less lonely. (Solange, woman aged 49, unemployed)
.....
Izvinjavam se što nisam prevodila, mislim da bi samo odmoglo...
Ljudi imaju malo, ali očito zbog pušenja imaju još manje ili nimalo.
Usamljeni su, a imaju zabludu da im cigareta pravi društvo.
Misle da im treba novac da se "zabave", ne misleći da im za šetnju ne trebaju pare...
Pa je "bolje" da puše.
Očajni su, i misle da je baš cigareta ta koja im daje makar mrvu sreće.
Ne sunčan dan, sedenje na obali reke, ne gledanje u nebo ili šetnja, nego - baš pušenje.
Jesmo li i mi... baš TAKO siromašni? :(
Prethodni deo: Pušenje i skok cena cigareta.
------------------------------------------------------------
Peretti-Watel P, Constance J. "It's all we got left". Why poor smokers are less sensitive to cigarette price increases. Int J Environ Res Public Health 2009;6(2):608-21.
Ilustracija: Digital-beggar.
Imala bih jos jedan komentar na ovaj tekst „Izjave siromašnih pušača”, odnosno ne na sam tekst - već na siromašne pušače.
OdgovoriIzbrišiNaime, na V Evropskoj konferenciji o pušenju ili zdravlju u Amsterdamu ove godine imala sam priliku da čujem iskustva Škotske u vezi sa pružanjem podrške siromašnima da ih motivišu u ostavljanju cigareta.
Tačno je da siromašni više puše, ma koliko to bilo apsurdno jer i ono malo para što imaju troše na cigareta pre nego na osnovne egzistencijalne potrebe. Evo šta rade Škoti – siromašnim migrantima ili onima koji su socijalno ugroženi a pušači su daju tzv. „insentives” u vidu markica za hranu u toku 20 nedelja i pre svake dodele tih markica u obližnjim marketima prvo proveravaju apstinenciju pomoću aparata smokilajzera.
Pozdrav svima :).