health

The Latest Cigarette Advertisement in Trinidad and Tobago

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Cigarette Advertising in Trinidad and Tobago

Cigarette Advertising in Trinidad and Tobago

According to the Ministry of Health’s website:

17. Does the Tobacco Control Act really prohibit advertising? Under which circumstances is advertising of tobacco products allowed?

Indeed, the Tobacco Control Act has placed prohibitions against advertising.

There are, however, some limitations to the prohibitions:

A person may advertise a tobacco product by information advertising or brand preference advertising by way of:

a. A publication that is provided by mail and addressed to an adult smoker who is identified by name.

b. A publication that has an adult readership of not less than eighty –five per cent (85%)

c. Signs in a place where children (under 18 years) are not permitted by law.

Please note that these allowances do not apply to lifestyle advertising* or advertising that could be construed on reasonable grounds to be appealing to children.

The loophole which the eager-for-revenue local newspaper people might use in carrying this cigarette ad is that children don’t read much anymore and children see newspapers as a legacy product waiting to become extinct.

I, an adult by age, was drawn to this ad and my initial reaction was “so cheap.” No doubt this latest salvo by a clever company had more than the bland informational effect it was supposed to theoretically have. I almost had the urge to run down to the nearest dealer and start my addiction while I still had a few extra dollars. Though cigarettes are at the top of the list of addictions that will quite likely kill you in several ways, so to does alcohol, fried chicken, corn curls, cell phones, fast cars, promiscuous shapely women and political parties.

I don’t think this cigarette newspaper ad was necessary and it was in very poor taste. All that was needed was the dealers carry a pamphlet with the new prices which informs the addicted why they are paying more for their own tragic demise. Why should the nonsmoker also  have to know about the latest price increase while being tempted to look cool with minty breath? Greed for increased profits at the expense of human life is usually the answer.

FOOD FOR THOUGHT

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Bad Food Country

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Clever Packaging of Fast Food

Clever Packaging of Fast Food

Trinidad and Tobago is a frustrating country to live in not only because the police service can be selectively incompetent so as to intentionally start unrest but the population gets constant mixed signals from the authorities. On one hand foreign fast food franchises are government-encouraged and causing traffic all over the place while on the other the Minister of Health accuses citizens of being too fat and unhealthy from fast foods thus becoming a drain on the treasury. Not a big drain as kickbacks paid over the years to politicians and their friends but a drain on the public purse by the public is always looked upon with the highest disgust by holders of high office.

Hot cross bun

Hot cross bun

Yes, we as a country need food and jobs but it seems we are doing this at the expense of our health and foreign exchange. We are a bad food society and the lines of people buying fried food and chips at locations nationwide will always vastly outnumber the amount of people lining up to greet any former political hero on his or her way to buy something down town. I can sympathize with the Minister of Health’s frustration  as citizens always complain about the level of health care available while lounging on a couch, enjoying KFC and a massive Pepsi backed up with a current roll without raisins.

Beer

Beer

Despite high taxes on cigarettes and alcohol, these companies are immensely profitable due to the addictive nature of their products and the foolish people who buy them. It is no different with fried food with salt. High taxes are never a deterrent with addictions and taxing bad food to pay for dialysis seems as foolish as giving crooks access to the treasury and depending on integrity laws to keep them honest.

We need to take our lives in our own hands and fight the attraction of these toxic substances being sold  for high profit and packed in cleverly designed fast food boxes and brown paper bags.  Saying no to bad food will benefit the economy and the happiness index of the country. The turning of our collective backs on bad foods will start a good food revolution and also force doctors into more productive and humanitarian professions such as farming and engineering.  It will be a win win situation. 

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Killing Ourselves in Trinidad and Tobago

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the new food pyramid

While the police was busy tracking down and arresting gang leaders, gang members, gun makers, drug pushers, lords  and other assorted big fish, the Prime Minister Kamla Persad-Bissessar, quite rightly, went to the United Nations and suggested “the United Nations Secretary General Ban Ki-moon consider the appointment of a special envoy to deal with the issue of non-communicable diseases.” Non-communicable diseases are a major killer in Trinidad and Tobago and the rest of the world, taking more lives than gangs, foreign-used car drivers and scrap iron yards. Wikipedia says “The World Health Organization (WHO) reports NCDs to be by far the leading cause of mortality in the world, representing over 60% of all deaths.” Also “the WHO’s World Health Report 2002 identified five important risk factors for non-communicable disease in the top ten leading risks to health. These are raised blood pressure, raised cholesterol, tobacco use, alcohol consumption, and overweight.” Our current Minister of Health, Faud Kahn, wants to tackle MSG while the former Minister, Jerry Narace, wanted to zap sugar. Both are honorable intentions but we should take in front.

The police and regiment are risking their lives making Trinidad and Tobago a safer place, but we are celebrating the likes of McDonald’s and Wendy’s when they open their doors in Trinidad and Tobago. We complain about Mr. Big and Mr. Big Fish while chugging down doubles and washing it down with a Solo, completely ignoring the Big Killers that are more terrifying than an out-of-control Colombian drug gang, if human body count is considered, that is.

It would appear that the late Dr. Atkins got it more right than wrong, and we should read and understand the works of people like Gary Taubes, Dr. Malcolm Kendrick and Dr. Arthur Agastston just to get an understanding of the bigger and hidden picture. We have to forget what simply taste good and worry about what is good for our health. It will be no point taking guns and drugs of the streets while letting killer foods roam the country like an honorary citizen with diplomatic immunity.

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Lady Gaga HeartBeats In-Ear Headphones

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Lady Gaga Headphones by Dr. Dre and Monster

If you ever wanted to stand out in crowd but were afraid to show more skin than the situation calls for then the Lady Gaga HeartBeats In-Ear Headphones with ControlTalk is what you need to stick in your ears. Amazon had these strange-looking-for-no-reason-but-strangeness ear-buds nicely priced at US$89.99 instead of the normal US$129 for just two hours today in their Gold Box Deal but being so far away from payday only the wealthy and deranged managed to take advantage of this once in a lifetime offer. The big question is not if these ear-buds sound good but can it drive away crows and cobeaux. I am sure they do as that might have been the designers subconscious mission.

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Sex Tapes, Cigars and Black Cakes – Trinidad and Tobago

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Trinidad and Tobago is never a dull place with activities taking place like the proposed restructuring of the now much-too-fat-for-years Petrotrin, and the creation of more lucrative industries such as the flagpole sector. The entertainment industry is also now more entertaining than ever with the unexpected release of a sex-tape featuring former Miss Trinidad and Tobago, Anya Ayoung-Chee and “boyfriend American photographer, Wyatt Gallery” – what a name. There was a comment in The Daily Express today by Photographer Wyatt concerning the sex-tape(s) and I do feel sorry for the couple since I rated the tape a 3 out of 5, at best. They need to brush up.

Hot on the heels of the sex tape, there was Jerry Narace, Minister of Health, saying now that he has conquered tobacco; he is going after sugar. Don’t laugh since sugar kills more people and causes more suffering in Trinidad and Tobago than many popular lifestyle diseases such as eating animal fat or drinking vodka and orange juice, but not as much as sitting in traffic. As Minister of Health, he is obligated to tell people what to eat to avoid being killed in one of the nation’s hospitals. I am all for prevention and any law that will make a Kiss Cake seem as dangerous as three bandits attacking you and your wife at home, I am for.

Kiss Cake

What I hope the Minister will do soon is to pass even more laws that will put alcohol in its rightful place. These laws must include making the selling of the single bottle of beer illegal, forcing people and maxi taxi drivers to buy beer by the case or keg instead. I hope the Minister does not think the breathalyzer is a deterrent since it just changes the way people drink rather than how much. The minister should look at making sure rum shops and night clubs open only from 7:00 p.m and close at 11:00 p.m rather than any time, any day. The new Keep Trinidad and Tobago Drunk Free initiative will see supermarkets being banned from selling alcohol and people working in the alcohol industry being retrained to plant flagpoles instead of drinking rum in stock rooms and Board Rooms. As much as alcohol encourages sex and sometimes even good sex tapes, the Minister must have alcohol banned over a 3 to 5 year period with the last alcoholic thing to go being the Christmas Fruit Cake. It is not until action is taken against alcohol will I believe this, or any, Government as being patriotic as a big flag.

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H1N1 or Swine Flu in Trinidad and Tobago

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hand_sanitizer

Legal Implications?

Is it legal to wear a facemask in public outside of Carnival Monday and Tuesday? If it is illegal the police  has turned one of their many blind eyes to it. Swine Flu, A(H1N1), has now hit Trinidad and Tobago with the number of cases increasing daily causing facemaks to become as popular as condoms  at Carnival. One police officer in Chaguanas was infected with the virus and a bigmouth Opposition Senator came close to getting it. There are 11 confirmed cases in Tobago and 7 in Trinidad which is scary since this is Trinidad and Tobago, the land of wasted billions and spiteful polaticians.

Caring Business Men?

In Chaguanas, people who were able to get facemask were wearing them in public while hand sanitizers were sold out at all pharmacies despite jacked up prices. Before the swine flu breakout, hand sanitizers were only used by those who knew better or wanted to “make a statement without saying a word.” Today, it is for only those who can afford it.

Face Mask

Should The Queen Visit?

The Government, under pressure to do what is right, wisely canceled the Caribbean Games in July and there is even talk it might affect The CHOG Summit in November. The Suriname Volleyball team contracted Swine Flu and is blaming Trinidad for it while a child in Antigua also contracted swine flu traceable to Trinidad. Our influence on the region cannot be doubted and the region is now bracing for a triple play; hurricanes, recession and swine flu. Hopefully this awareness of the virus will cause citizens to follow WHO guidelines to prevent its spread.

Should I Use Puncheon Rum?

(1)   Wash hands with soap and water for 15 to 20 seconds and use alcohol based sanitizers (Purel, Dial, puncheon rum etc) when soap and water is not available.

(2)   Cover mouth and nose when coughing and not like how it was done before.

(3)   If you have influenza type symptoms such as “fever plus at least cough or sore throat and possibly other symptoms like runny nose, body aches, headaches, chills, fatigue, vomiting and diarrhea”  see a doctor, even if you recently ate food from a St. James roadside food vendor.

(4)   Keep at least six feet from coughing and sneezing humans and shout at them saying “Get away from me, you swine flu carrier!” Make sure the coughing and sneezing human feels embarrassed enough to avoid public contact for the next two weeks.

(5)   Follow these guidelines http://www.cdc.gov/h1n1flu/masks.htm

Is swine flu a big deal or just a reason to miss work?

Some may think the swine flu is no big thing but it is. This influenza is not like the regular influenza virus where mainly old people, who were silently considered expendable, were affected. This swine flu or H1N1 seems to be seriously affecting the more valuable and better looking people who are also in the prime of their working and sexual life; people in their 20s to 40s. Yes, people in their 50s, 60s and even 70s can be attractive and sexually functional and therefore should also take the necessary precautions against the virus if they wish to continue having pleasures in life and in bed

person-panicDon’t Panic?

Earlier this month WHO declared A(H1N1) to be a pandemic. The word pandemic was derived from the Greek word pandēmos, meaning of all the people and should not be confused with the word panic, which was derived from the name for the Greek God of terror, Pan.

However, in Trinidad and Tobago, the health care system is poorly managed and with this added burden of a H1N1 now hitting the country, a good dose of panic is hard to avoid.

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Fast, Fun and Naked

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beyonce-the-birth-of-venus-angelo-thomasThere are little things  I do, or don’t do, which make me feel better about myself. Things like drinking WASA water instead of Blue Water, reluctantly eating oatmeal instead of aloo pie, reading Richard Dawkins instead of Ted Haggard, and gladly buying The Guardian instead of The Newsday. I hope doing these things would lead to happiness, fun, and less traffic.

To have fun people must feel safe but it is difficult to feel safe in some locations in Trinidad and Tobago because of the increase in gun crime and food poisoning. Ever Since Sampson Nanton went on CNC3 and showed us roadside vendors dripping sweat over barbecue chicken, probably to add that unique flavor and competitive edge, I am scared of fast food and St. James. I will never forgive Sampson Nanton for that. Roadside fast food can still be fun but you have to be hungry and drunk first. I once asked a doubles vendor why there was a strand of hair in my aloo pie he said his wife was balding. He missed the point and offered extra chutney to hide the taste of the Pantene Pro V Shampoo.

A good part of a better life for a man is having fun, money, health and a nude woman with a decent body, all at the same time. There is a suggestion that there might be a correlation between having fun with a naked woman and a man’s happiness but men have been trying unsuccessfully for years to prove this correlation wrong.  I think scientist are on the verge of discovering that a naked woman is the only thing men live for and to suggest there is more is simply a pathetic attempt to sound like Oprah.

Afterthought:

The words nude and naked are synonyms but in the real world they mean different things. Ask a woman to get nude and she is likely to pose like a renaissance model under a 10 watt light after dinner. Ask a woman to get naked she would probably go home with dessert.

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Music, Laughter, Wine and Sex

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trinilicious1

Music, laughter, wine and sex are good for your health. Studies conducted by researchers showed when people listened to music they enjoyed their blood vessels opened which caused more blood to flow to those vital organs. However, when people listened to music they didn’t like, or saw certain politicians, their blood vessels narrowed and caused nausea, vomiting,  diarrhea and embarrassment. Researchers also found that sane people who laughed several times a day and who always found life funny had lower rates of heart attacks than sour people.  For years, moderate drinkers hoped that wine was good for the heart and their wish finally came true. Scientist observed that moderate wine and alcohol drinkers not only lived longer but were more interesting people. Scientists are not sure how alcohol extends life but one suggestion is that alcohol gives people something to live for. Male sex researchers, not to be left out, found that frequent safe sex in nearly any position was linked to a healthy body and a life worth living.

With all these health studies taking place, researchers are now studying the effects of Carnival on health in Trinidad and Tobago and whether it does anything for the well-being to those who enjoy it. Some scientist suspect the secret to a long life may not only be as a result of  listening to music while having sex with a funny person after a few glasses of wine, but it may also be due to enjoying Trinidad Carnival.

Our Choice of Death

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The Choice is Yours

The Choice is Yours

Gumby said he nearly got a heart attack three times that night. The first was when the bandit pointed a gun at him, the second happened when the bandit couldn’t start Gumby’s car and the third was after the bandit offered to shoot Gumby. I was amazed how calm Gumby seemed telling me all this but he got angry when I told him I was surprised he didn’t get a real heart attack because he was fifty pound overweight.

Gumby didn’t seem to mind a man pulling a gun on him but he hated people telling him about his weight. Gumby is like so many people who would prefer to criticize the Government on the lack of health services instead of losing weight and jogging round the local KFC car park. There are those who think smoking is cool and the state should provide quick-responding paramedics and ashtrays.  Drinking can induce a feeling of happiness and the look of stupidity simultaneously but its effects over time can overstress hospitals and make doctors wealthy. Our diet and lifestyle play an important part in determining who ends up under a nurse’s care and who ends up under a nurse at night.

Criticizing the state of health care is legitimate but not while you are on your third doubles or fried chicken leg. Criticizing the ambulance service for slow response is valid but less so when the paramedics could smell alcohol ten feet from the victim. Taking responsibility for our health doesn’t free the Government from providing proper services but by having to spend less on health care the Government can have more to spend on overpriced stadiums and gas-guzzling SUVs. Not withstanding Government’s neglect of its citizens we should remember that Governments come and Governments go, but your health is not on sale.

How to Live to be 100

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One Hundred

One Hundred

It’s scary to live to be one hundred, especially when you realize that one computer glitch at the pensions department can cook your goose. Everyday you live means you are closer to death and nobody wants to have to think about death but at one hundred what else is there to think about except sex. Dr Oz, Oprah’s medical guru in scrubs, advises that flossing is important if we want to live long and healthy lives. He said that we should also floss if we want to have a good sex life and having good and frequent sex is important if we want to have a rocking old age. When a one hundred year-old woman was asked if an active sex life played a part in her living to be one hundred she replied that it still does. She gave new meaning to the term “boning.”

Living to be one hundred will be no fun to anyone unless you have enough money and your health. The longer people live means a greater strain will be put on the resources of a country and that is why the health services are not looked after seriously in some countries. It is also why in some countries prevention is usually given lip service by Health Ministers at sod turning ceremonies for the neighborhood fry-food joints. Doctors also are not too keen on prevention since prevention cannot buy houses, cars or women. Countries with small population growth can usually weather financial storms and look after the elderly better than countries where the phrase έλεγχος των γεννήσεων (birth control) looks like Greek.

I am very far from being one hundred but my research on Oprah and Google provided this advice for those who want to live long enough to see a change in Government :

Exercise

Floss

Save

Laugh

Help people

Have pets

Get regular medical checkups

Eat good foods

Breath good air

Avoid aluminum

Drink good water

Avoid fried foods

Don’t drink and drive

Read good books

See good movies

Listen to good music

Be creative

Avoid bandits

Have friends

Laugh

Avoid toxic people especially family members who are in your will

Have plenty sex

Have plenty safe sex

Help People

Save some more

Have some more sex

Avoid mirrors

Use silicone only when necessary after seventy

Exercise some more

Have Pets

Find more friends

Blog

Laugh

Die happy

When asked in his late 90s if his doctor knew he still smoked, George Burns said, “No … he’s dead.”

Famines and the Overweight World

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famine

Weight gain and famines are very similar in that they can both kill people. The only difference between the two is that weight gain is individually controllable but famines are not.

Generally, famines occur in poor countries without stationary rain clouds but with corrupt governments while weight gain occurs in affluent countries with stationary rain clouds, CEPEP, URP and corrupt governments. Famines occur in poor, undemocratic countries that seem to have no minerals to offer the developed world, only hunger. Weight gain occurs in countries with too many pastels, Kiss cakes, doubles, rum and raisin ice cream, curry duck, and KFC outlets. Famines are less likely to occur in countries where its citizens are taught how to fish, farm, eat healthy foods, drink little alcohol, and make governments work for their votes. On the other hand, weight gain occurs in countries where people believe they are entitled to the fish and will give the Government their vote even if the Government’s fish has started to rot or only promised. Famines are never eradicated by high food prices, over population, corruption or prayer but by sensible Governments, less corrupt leaders, and an appreciation of the plight by the overweight World.