Public Health Laws Require Funding to Enforce…Somehow
When I read the article in the Jordan Times on March 24 entitled Drive to fight smoking in public places awaits funding, I was a bit incredulous. After all, with all the civil servants hanging around in this city, you’d think that writing a ticket for someone smoking in a hospital waiting room would be a pretty simple thing. Paper, pen, two minutes: that’s all it takes. (Actually, I believe the police are too busy trying to keep me from taking pictures to enforce actual laws, but I digress.)
The “No Smoking” signs are already in place. The law is already in place. Why do we need funding for campaigns when the most effective campaign is word of mouth? Just start enforcing the law and it should take care of itself.
Apparently I’m not the only one who views this issue with absurdity. I was pleased to read the following opinion in today’s Jordan Times:
I was amazed to read the article “Drive to fight smoking in public places awaits funding” (The Jordan Times, March 24, 2008) and I am still trying to make some sense out it.
Let me see if I got this right. There is a Public Health Law in place (we know it exists), there are articles in the law banning smoking in public places (we know that too), yet we are seeking some $300,000 in funding (apparently we somehow qualified for that) from the Bloomberg Global Initiative to Reduce Tobacco Use, to finance a campaign to raise public awareness, and we have a national committee to do all that for us?
Am I the only one missing the point here? Have we, in Jordan, perfected the art of seeking funds, grants or loans to the extent that we easily convince donors to fund useless campaigns that simply absolve some of our officials of their lax attitudes in implementing laws?
If we can hold doctors and nurses in our public health services accountable for dereliction of duty or negligence, why can’t we hold public servants in the relevant government department accountable for not implementing our Public Health Law, which is in effect a dereliction of duty?
It is certainly not the public’s awareness that needs to be raised here; it is the awareness of the officials entrusted with enforcing our Public Health Law to the letter, and for that we do not need any funding.
If anything, I think that the department responsible for enforcing the Public Health Law should be penalised for negligence and complacency and asked to contribute $300,000 to the Bloomberg Global Initiative to Reduce Tobacco Use instead.
And just in case we have hordes of public servants sitting around all day doing nothing but dreaming up ways of securing funding for wasteful campaigns and projects, I have heard that an international fund is seeking qualification applications to fund public awareness against spitting in the streets and tossing garbage out of cars while driving and turning over garbage containers in front of residential buildings. I suppose we can easily get qualified for at least a million dollar grant for that.
Vatche Dakessian,
Amman
kinzi March 27th, 2008 9:58 am
Woohoo…that Vatche should start blogging, ascerbic wit defined!!!
I read that article and thought the very same thing, btw. Absurdity defined.
Hani Obaid March 27th, 2008 10:43 am
They don’t even need the tickets. they already have security guards at hospitals, the hospital staff can alert them and they can make anyone who smokes leave, order them to surrender their cigarettes, or arrest them.
Of course it would help if the hospital staff themselves weren’t smoking
T March 27th, 2008 12:09 pm
I thought it was a great letter and we are all talking about it. Very witty and sardonic. T
PH March 27th, 2008 12:13 pm
I think they are just using the law as an excuse for getting more money out of the public budget probably for their own pockets ………. politics !
hamede March 27th, 2008 7:27 pm
Ya PH so true.
Um Omar March 28th, 2008 3:58 pm
What a joke. I have asked security guards in many places to ask certain people to stop smoking because there was a sign forbidding it in the same room. But the guards say, “Ma’alesh, they won’t stop anyway.” So, if the guards can’t get them to do anything, then what are the guards for anyway??? This goes back to most problems in this country. If you don’t enforce the laws, then the people will surely not follow them. It will take police ticketing lots of people in public for this thing to stop. I hope it starts up soon. At least there is discussion of the topic, that is a good start. (And by the way the Jordan Times did not publish my Letter to the Editor about smoking. What gives!?)
kinzi March 29th, 2008 9:33 am
Um Omar, yea, dont’ grow weary of well-doing…keep buggin them!
I’m not surprised by JT…I finally gave up writing letters as they hacked them to DEATH, even to the point of saying the opposite of my intention. Start a blog, thats what helped me (aren’t I awful drawing another mother into this terrible habit!!)
MommaBean March 29th, 2008 2:19 pm
Funny thing is, it’s usually the government officials smoking. I have to say, I admir the letter and admit to taking the less confrontational path at the airport yesterday. I was waiting on my bags and the carousel we were assigned was conveniently located directly NEXT to the smoking room. However, some annoying fellow had to light up. So, I said under my breath (okay really loudly), yeah because of COURSE you’re too lazy to go the five steps into the smoking room. I think it sahemd th guy (I gess he speaks English) enought oa ctually go inside the smoking room. Which, while all it does it section the smoke into a slightly smaller area from which it can leak over the open top or out the open door, at least he wasn’t blowing it in my face anymore! Get out there and fight for the health of our children…
An American in Jordan » Blog Archive » No Smoking Enforcement: Is This For Real? April 18th, 2008 7:12 am
[...] raise public awareness about smoking laws that were already in place but lack enforcement. And I made a comment about how I’ve seen people blatantly smoking in hospital waiting rooms and no one does [...]