2 Year Old Smoker...

[Pandora]

http://www.cnn.com/2010/WORLD/asiapc...aby/index.html

I'm still in shock... I thought I had a smoking problem...

[WingedWolfPsion]

This is a very sad situation. What's going on here is a native culture that is being taken advantage of. These folks live a relatively care-free life, and they raise their children in a very different fashion from the way we do here. Kids there essentially run 'wild'...they're allowed to do pretty much anything, and go anywhere. As they get older, the older children will teach things to the younger ones, and then some adults will teach the older children specific things...like hunting and tracking, plant medicines and foods, etc. They rarely get a formal education, and rarely learn to read. But it's not a bad life, it works for them.

Exploiting these people was very easy--let them have cigarettes, get them addicted, and suddenly instead of only having to hunt, fish, and collect food for themselves, now they have do extra work--make things, gather things, grow things...all so that they can sell it or trade it for cigarettes. Their kids, due to the way they are raised, also smoke--because, you see, no one bothered to tell these poor people that smoking is dangerous.

They WERE happy people. Not so much so, anymore.

[DarkSean]

I think anyone who smokes is a moron, people who smoke around their kids are mega morons, and those parents who let a 2 year old smoke should have him taken away.

[WingedWolfPsion]

DarkSean, I think you should probably do a little research before jumping to conclusions and judging them.

Exactly how do you expect them to know that smoking is harmful? Are you under the impression that they can read? They can't. Do you think someone told them? Certainly not the people who sold the cigarettes to them.

This was not something these people did to themselves--this was something that was done to them by outsiders.

[dc4teg]

by the way whole thread of this in the qt room

[Pandora]

I think anyone who smokes is a moron, people who smoke around their kids are mega morons, and those parents who let a 2 year old smoke should have him taken away.

You're ignorant.

[BallsUnlimited]

crazy how young that kid is but smoking doesnt mean your stupid.