Cuba set to roll out ban on cigar smoking
Fidel Castro's plan to ban smoking in public places, due to come into force on Monday, appears to be a revolution too far for most Cubans.
Mr Castro, 78, is clamping down on the island's Habano cigars and black tobacco cigarettes as part of a campaign to increase life expectancy to 80 years by 2010, up from the 75-76 average. But many doubt the “maximum leader” can make the law stick. Yuleisis Fonseca, a 27-year-old nurse, said Mr Castro would need an army of “extraterrestrials” to enforce the ban. “Where I work the doctors are the first to smoke and I promise you they are not about to stop.” The new law restricts smoking to designated areas in restaurants and nightclubs. “The objective is to contribute to a change in the attitudes of our population,” it states. That will not be easy.
“If I stop smoking it will be because I decide to, not the government,” said Mariline Perez, the secretary of a local cab company. “I'll shut myself in my office to smoke if I have to.”
Mr Castro, whose Cohiba habit once led the US Central Intelligence Agency to try assassinating him with an exploding cigar, gave up in 1986. Despite anti-smoking propaganda, higher taxes and warning labels, 40 per cent of Cuba's 11.2m inhabitants still smoke even though a pack of the cheapest cigarettes costs more than half a day's pay. But the new law has persuaded some. “I think I'm going to quit smoking cigarettes because so many laws and regulations are unbearable,” said Domingo Sardinas, a hotel employee.
雪茄之乡古巴将禁烟
对大多数古巴人来说，古巴最高领导人菲德尔?卡斯特罗(Fidel Castro) 计划禁止在公共场所吸烟的革命似乎有些太过分。该计划将于周一开始生效。
作为一项提高人均寿命运动的一部分，78岁的古卡斯特罗先生正在取缔该岛的哈瓦那雪茄和黑烟草型香烟。这场运动旨在到2010年时，将古巴人的人均寿命从75至76岁的平均水平增至80岁。但许多人怀疑这位“最高领袖”是否能将这项法律维持下去。27岁的护士尤莱西斯?丰赛卡(Yuleisis Fonseca)表示，卡斯特罗先生将需要一大批“外星人”来执行这一禁令。“在我工作的医院里，医生总是第一个抽烟，我向你保证，他们不会停止抽烟。”这个新法将吸烟限制在餐馆和夜总会的指定区域。“禁令的目的是帮助改变我们国人的态度，”禁令表示。这不会是一件易事。
“如果我停止抽烟，那将是因为我决定不抽，而不是政府决定这么做，”当地一家出租车公司的秘书玛丽琳?佩雷斯(Mariline Perez)表示，“我将把自己关在我的办公室里抽烟，如果我不得不这样做的话。”
卡斯特罗先生1986年开始戒烟。他曾有抽Cohiba雪茄习惯，这一度使美国中情局(CIA)设法用一支会爆炸的雪茄来对他进行暗杀。尽管古巴开展了反对吸烟的舆论宣传，提高了税收并使用了警告标志，但在古巴1120万居民中，有40%的人依然吸烟，即便一包最便宜的烟也要花费每天酬劳的一半以上。但新的法律已说服了一些人。“我认为我将戒烟，因为不堪承受这么多的法律和法规，”旅馆雇员多明戈?萨迪纳斯(Domingo Sardinas)表示。
