Europeans: What is YOUR attitude about smoking?
Dec 13th, 2001, 07:51 AM
#41
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I don't smoke and don't like being surrounded by smoke, however I find the American attitude towards smoking a bit fundamentalist and extreme. Sometimes you just have to put up with it and be tolerant when you go to a place where smoking is not forbidden.<BR>Having said that about smoking, I don't see the point why Americans are so concern to the extreme about smoking but they don't seem to worry about pollution (using big cars, public transport is almost inexistant) which also gets to your lungs, aeting processed or transgenic food or having a wrong diet without exercicing (also due to driving everywhere).<BR>I try to avoid smoke but it's only one thing in a large list, not the most poisonous substance in the world as SOME (not all) american happen to think.
Dec 14th, 2001, 09:12 AM
#43
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Re: "However having said that I can remember a lot of places where smoking used to be allowed that seem inconceivable now."<BR><BR>Absolutely. Well said, David. As that article I posted a link to above -- "Despite some anti-smoking laws, it's still a smoker's world" -- you'll notice that, even though bans in public places in many countries are ignored, at least these bans have been passed, which at least is a step in the direction of acknowledging, finally, the rights of non-smokers. <BR><BR>For countless years, smokers "ruled" and non-smokers had to put up with smoke in office buildings, airplanes, etc. Now, the tide has started to turn, worldwide, and, needless to say, many smokers aren't pleased.
Feb 3rd, 2002, 06:53 PM
#44
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I am a French woman who doesn't smoke. I look a lot younger than most women my age, and my teeth aren't stained, but that is besides the point. I love my country very much, but what most smokers don't realize is that they don't smoke "alone." Everyone around a smoker also smokes, their lungs get filled with smoke and their hair stinks. If I sprayed cheap cologne as often as a smoker spews his stench to others, I would be an outcasted citizen! So, why do we allow smokers to force everyone to smoke? If smoking didn't involve other people, I wouldn't care at all if someone smokes! But smokers interfere with the rights of others. In general, I'm afraid to say that I do think Americans are a whiny bunch, but as far as smoking, I have to agree.
Feb 3rd, 2002, 07:16 PM
#49
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European femme -I think you sort of gave up the privacy consideration when you posted your little story about yourself and your teeth.Asking you why you are awake at such an early hour is hardly snoopy? Do Americans have a reputation for being Snoopy?
Feb 4th, 2002, 05:29 AM
#53
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Prof, I'd like to remind you that you weren't alone that day in Normandy, you forgot that Australians + Canadians + Brits + Indians + Southafricans + Egyptians + French troops from the colonies (Moroccans, Algerians, Tunisians, africans), De Gaule French troops and other troops from the commonwelth were there too. Not to speak about the Soviets who were taking care of the eastern front. We learn History at school, the problem is that you learn History at Hollywood.
Feb 4th, 2002, 08:00 AM
#54
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To: AnotherFrenchProf...<BR>CLAP,CLAP,CLAP,CLAP!<BR><B R>It gets very tiresome to see the same line rehashed over and over again whenever some Americans run out of arguments...<BR><BR>Getting back to the topic, I just want to add a little interesting fact:<BR><BR>In the US, 25% of the adult population smoke an average of 15 cigs a day.<BR><BR>In Spain, 40% of the adult population smoke an average of 18 cigs a day, and live in a much "smokier" environment. Not to mention that they drink a lot of wine and beer (highest per capita consumption of low-alcohol drinks in the world), lots and lots of olive oil, and party like crazy.<BR><BR>Why is it that Spaniards outlive Americans???
Feb 4th, 2002, 08:19 AM
#55
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Perhaps this should be a new thread, but OK, what is the polite thing to do? I can't tell you how many times in France I was asked "smoking or non-smoking?" seated in the "non-smoking" section only to have smokers light up on either side. <BR><BR>Now, I agree, smokers have the right to smoke, but I also have the right to enjoy my meal without choking, eyes and nose burning. It isn't just a psychological thing. What should I do? In my attempt to not be a bitchie american, I finish my meal, leave my husband to pay, and step outside. <BR><BR>What do the French do in such a situation? Would they ask the other people not to smoke? How about pulling out a fan and fanning the smoke backin their direction?
Feb 4th, 2002, 08:28 AM
#56
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Why do Spaniards outlive Americans even though they smoke more? Gee, I dunno. Why do Americans outlive people in Sierra Leone, or Mozambique, or Bangladesh, even though Americans probably smoke more than people in these countries? <BR><BR>Might it be that there are things other than smoking that factor into the average life span of people in a country?
Feb 4th, 2002, 03:21 PM
#59
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European Femme: You are a fake, no European woman I know would waste her time posting like you do and calling Americans names. European woman are known for being classy, you are not, you are fake. I am being nosy and wondering where you are really from....oh, I know.......
Feb 4th, 2002, 03:40 PM
#60
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to complete the thought, if the French schools choose to place emphasis on the various national groups that participated in the Normandy invasion and assign as it were equal status to each that is their right, but taking that angle is as much a distortion of history as anything Hollywood cooks up. Few 1st hand accounts at the time, in Britain or Romania or France or anywhere else, reveal that anybody on the allied side or occupied territories had their hopes excited by the entrance of the Egyptians and the free French into the conflict. I have no doubt that these other nationalities fought grandly as well, but without the US, nobody besides everybody's suddenly beloved Soviet Russia was going to invade Europe and "free it", which I think is OK to say since it appears to have been enslaved at the time. But some Europeans have conveniently chosen to forget all this and make fun of Americans and tell them all they know is what Hollywood tells them, and that the Free French and the Polish exiles and the Algerians actually were the ones beating Germany.<BR><BR>P.S. The role of Soviet Russia in defeating Germany is well known in the United States and admired, some of us forget that not everyone in Western Europe was happy that the US-led powers prevented them from overrunning the whole area, and apparently still are.
