THE woods near our school were always out of bounds. All we feral pre-teenage boys wanted to do was play in the woods, the forbidden woods. Yet we were banned, barred, bereft.
But diktats were there to be disregarded. There were many more habitual transgressors than I. In fact, only once did I leave the safety of the concrete underfoot to venture in. Gerry Morgan was Gretel to my Hansel. We had a mission, a clear objective, a raison d’etre. Gerry had fags. I had procured some matches. We were no more than 10 years old.
In the 1970s, smoking was ubiquitous, if not mandatory in Glasgow. Forty years later, it’s a changed world. In the hierarchy of hate, smokers are at the pinnacle: social pariahs, shunned, cowed and brow-beaten; nestling in doorways; in packs under trees.
There is not one scintilla of sympathy. Not only do they self-harm, they impose that harm on innocent bystanders. No good comes of cigarettes; none at all.
There is no pariah more reviled than the fag-ash Lils and Larrys, and this cigarette-censoring sentiment is Europe-wide. Some 17 countries have introduced smoke-free laws.
Even France: the nation that somehow manages to make even lung disease look cool. The land of liberté, egalité and the other one, began banning fags a quarter-century ago. Yet more than 30 per cent of French adults smoke. Clearly the comprehensive ban isn’t stopping the young generation of Gallic Gauloisiers: one in three French teenagers smokes, despite the fact smoking has been banned from all public areas in schools. Nicotine-needy pupils have had to slope aff doon a side street, hide behind a velo-shed – or make for the woods.
That was until now. Because it seems school kids are no longer banned from lighting up in the playground; in fact they are actively encouraged to do so. What could prompt France to reverse its policy in this one, very specific instance?
Terrorism. Aye. There is a fear that French kids, slipping out of school for a crafty fag, might be targeted by terrorists. Since November France has been in a state of emergency; the horrific attacks in Paris have led to the government applying laws last invoked during the Algerian War of Independence over half-a-century ago. The authorities have the power to place folk under house arrest and carry out raids without a judicial warrant.
The attacks were extreme events that challenged the very fundamentals of freedom, so extreme measures were required. But this school-kid smoking scenario seems a wee bit unnecessary.
What about office workers, sent around the side of their building to cower and smoke in one of those bizarre bus-stop-cum-see-through-sheds? Are they not as likely to be targeted? Or Friday night revellers, out for a good time in the city of love and romance? Will we see a wide-scale reversal of the smoking ban in France?
Of course, one has great sympathy with those living in fear. The brutal murders carried out at the Kosher Deli, Hyper Cacher, a year ago, was a callous attack on Paris’s Jewish citizens that led to greater numbers leaving France for Israel. In leaving they diminish the very mix and blend of people that make cities like Paris great.
It's worth remembering that the Paris of the 1920s was a haven for African Americans, who were treated as a privileged minority there. Post-war, many GIs decided to stay and were joined by the jazzers seeking a different life. This Paris, while far from perfect, was a world away from the segregation and institutionally delivered racism meted out in the “land of the free”.
There are no easy solutions. But we need to ask ourselves what we are fighting to protect. If we start rolling back on the very values that define who we are, what will we have left that defines us? A country that fought to ban smoking and over the course of 70 years more than halved the number of “fumeurs” from 75% to around 30%, is now prepared to capitulate.
One can’t help wondering what will be next …The brutal murders carried out at the Kosher Deli, Hyper Cacher, a year ago, was a callous and calculated attack on Paris’s Jewish citizens that led to greater numbers leaving France for Israel. In leaving they diminish the very mix and blend of people that make cities like Paris great.
It’s worth remembering that the Paris of the 1920s was a haven for African Americans, who were (to an extent, at least) treated as a privileged minority there. This was a world away from the segregation and institutionally delivered racism meted out in the “land of the free”.
There are no easy solutions, no quick fixes. But we need to ask ourselves what it is we are fighting to protect. If we start rolling back on the very values that define who we are, what will have left that defines us? A country that fought to ban smoking and over the course of 70 years more than halved the number of “fumeurs” from 75% to around 30%, is now prepared to capitulate.
One can’t help wondering what will be next …
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