As you may know, future gangsta, yet still diaper wearing Ardi Rizal shocked the world when a video of the corpulent child, puffing away on one of his 40 cigarettes-a-day habit, was released on the Internet. People around the world were shocked to see these images, and angered at his parents’ inability to discipline him or even for that matter, introducing him to this very adult habit. Ardi’s case has highlighted the tobacco industry’s aggressive marketing to women and children in developing countries like Indonesia, where regulations are weak and many people do not know that smoking is dangerous. Cigarette consumption in the Southeast Asian archipelago of some 240 million people soared 47% in the 1990s, according to the World Health Organization.

(Editor’s Note: And yes, smoking can be Toshiro Mifune cool, but that was a bygone era. Hey, guests used to drink scotch on the old Tonight Show with Jack Parr too.)

But, some encouraging news about the 2 year old smoker. The kid, through therapy focusing on playing, has cut down his 40 a day habit to just 15 cigarettes per day. How is this possible? According to a child welfare official, “The therapy focused on playing – we occupied him with toys so that he forgets cigarettes.” Apparently, Ardi is an aspiring singer as well. Therapists are teaching the kid that, hey, smoking is bad. “The boy likes singing songs so we tell him that if he continues smoking, he won’t be able to be a singer one day, and it works.”

Uh, yeah. He’s a baby! What’s astounding is how ignorant his parents are. But, then again, smoking is much more accepted outside the US, where smoking is still allowed in cafes and restaurants in many parts of the world, including developed countries in Europe and Asia. I went to a movie theater in Rotterdam where the cafe was in the lobby and the theaters were directly upstairs. The smoke emanating from the cafe just permeated through the walls and into the theater. It was ungodly. An older Dutch film critic looked at me, lit his cigarette, blew smoke into my face and said in his emphysemic voice, “You’re no longer in America, Anderson.”

But, things are changing. When the UK banned smoking in pubs a couple of years ago, there was great ire from pubgoers. A colleague and life-long smoker from Berlin equated the new anti-smoking ban in German public places to Nazism. As she exclaimed this, her voice was almost quivering. But it could’ve have been the mucus build up from her last smoke 20 feet away too. Well, you can’t win them all. I feel as the rest of the world is catching up, Big Tobacco is retreating the Third World. Indonesia, is no exception. When you travel through Southeast Asia especially, tobacco billboards and stands are everywhere. And cheap.

But no matter where you live, if it’s in Central Park West or the barrios of Indonesia, an idiot’s an idiot. And those parents are fuckin’ clueless. Unless, of course, they’re molding him to be the next Pablo Escobar (because you have to admit, he’s got that swagger). I don’t know, when I was a kid, if I took a cookie from the cookie jar without asking, or played with fire, the old belt would come out and I’d get a whipping. That’s Asian parents-style, done old school. I know we live in a PC world now, but I’m sure old school discipline is still the rule of parenting law in the barrios. Or at least, if the kid was throwing immense tantrums, let him. He’ll eventually tire out. At the very least, the kid would be getting some form of exercise.

(Via Straits Times)