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 Italy, the year after:
conmanship incarnate - It is now one
year since Italy inaugurated a general smoking ban which many
consider the toughest in the world. How is it going? The antismoking
gangs call it a great success, and an example for other countries.
But is it really a success? What we hear is the product of a kind of
disinformation and propaganda, sophisticated and crude at the same
time, and worth exploring to learn -- and have fun.
How do I twist
unreliable data for you? - The Italian Centre
for Disease Control and Prevention (CDCP) reported to the Ministry
of Health around January 10 that prohibition has made 500,000
Italians quit smoking, and thus is a great success. As the
mass-media reported the information, a small amount of them caught
on to the fraud. How has the information been distorted?
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The number of smokers in
any country cannot be established, as there is no census for smokers
and, if there were one, there would be no assurance that the people
interviewed would speak the truth about being smokers, given the
current climate of persecution. The only way to know is by counting
the number of cigarette packs sold; that is accurate information –
but there is where the accuracy ends. Given that number, one has to
guess on how many cigs Mr. Average Smoker smokes every day.
If we assume that they are 20, then the number of smokers in Italy
is about 14.5 million. If 24, then the number becomes 11.6 million;
if Mr. A.S. smokes 16, then there are 17.4 million smokers in Italy.
Therefore: if the antitobacco cons want to show that there is
a “smoking epidemic” they assume that Mr. A.S. smokes 16 a
day; the less Mr. A.S. smokes, in fact, the bigger the “epidemic”
becomes, since the number of packs sold is known. Conversely, if
they want to show that their fraudulent information on smoking has
made people quit, then Mr. A.S. is assumed to smoke 24 a day or
more. In short, change the assumption about how many cigarettes
are smoked by the average smoker, and the statistics show the number
of smokers you want. That’s how the 500,000 ex-smokers have been
built: a scam can be sustained only with another scam. But this is
just the beginning.
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If we look between the
lines of the CDCP report, we read that actually only 7% of the
people that supposedly quit smoking say they have done so
because of the prohibition. Seven percent of 500,000 is 35,000.
Assuming 14.5 million smokers in Italy, that means that roughly only
0.2% of the smoking population has quit because of
prohibition, not considering the statistical margin of error. Wow! A
large percentage indeed!
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But have 500,000
Italians indeed quit? What neither the CDCP report, nor the Italian
media (renown for their servility to any power-that-be) have
reported is that the sales of tobacco in cans and cigarette paper has
literally skyrocketed because of the “therapeutic” tax on
packaged cigs.
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Italy borders on land
with four countries, and the peninsula stretches across the
Mediterranean to a stone’s throw from former Yugoslavia, Montenegro,
Albania, Greece, Turkey, Egypt, Libya and Morocco. From all these
countries comes contraband – a huge variable that cannot be
quantified, but that certainly has affected the sales of legal
cigarettes. How many of the presumed 500,000 Italians have simply
changed supplier? And can one blame them when savings
are 1 Euro ($1.20) per pack at least? But, on the Italian media, the
word “contraband” has been literally excised from existence as no
one talks about it anymore. Yet, before prohibition, it was everyday
news. But one must show that prohibition is what’s needed for
mass-“therapy”: if a fraud cannot be supported by another fraud,
then the silence of the media tries to help.
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One also must show that
prohibition does not affect sales at bars and restaurants; rather,
it improves sales – another standard line of antitobacco grifters.
So the CDCP report extrapolates from its polls that sales “must”
have gone up 9% because of all those happy non-smokers that now pour
into bars and restaurants thanks to the “clean air”! Too bad that
reports from the Association of Small Businesses – which has an
almost direct access to the cash registers - show a general
drop of 12% in sales for bar and restaurants. Oh, well, one can
always blame the pitiful state of the economy for that; it can’t be
because of the ban, can it?... What matters is what the “experts”
say!
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The International
Antismoking Deception Protocol (IADP) orchestrated by the WHO (there
outta be a document like that somewhere in Geneva!) dictates that
strict obedience of smokers to the smoking prohibition must be
shown. Italy is no exception. Everybody is happy about the ban –
now, understand this: absolutely everybody! So
happy, in fact, that everybody obeys it. But if we come out of la-la
land, a High Court decision several months ago has established that
business managers are not responsible for the behaviour of
smokers when in their locales, that they are not obligated to
call the police and that they cannot be fined if someone
smokes in their premises. So smoking goes on much more than it
appears. What are Italian “authorities” to do to comply with
international directions and show results when there is a decision
like that in place, and a not-fully-cooperative police force that
keeps on saying that it has far more important things to do than
catch smokers (who make about 50% of its own force, by the way)?
Well – think Italian: lower the enforcement to
near-zero, and claim that the law is a success because there are
virtually no fines (slightly over 180 for 2005, all in the first few
months) in the whole nation! In this way Italian “public health”
can: (a) congratulate Italians for being “law-abiding” people; (b)
try to con Italians themselves into the belief that their own
countrymen obey the law; (c) show an exceptional 100% consensus
(in Italy!!) on the passive smoke fraud-based law and become
an “example of success” for other countries; (d) comply with the
Eurocratic directions of the EU “health” Commission; (e) satisfy the
World Health Organization crooks by showing that Italy conforms to
their diktats; (f) continue to cash over 30 million Euros a
day in tobacco taxes from actually unabated sales while this
small country employs in excess of half a million people directly in
tobacco production and sales, and well over one million indirectly.
When it comes to conmanship, Italian crooks can out-think the entire
planet, and fully show what 25 centuries of history are good
for!
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The IADP also dictates
that there can’t be a smoking prohibition without benefit to health,
thus here comes a “study” that shows how in the 48 days
following prohibition (Jan. 10 – Feb. 28), the hospitalizations for
myocardial infarctions went down seven percent, a stunt that
shamelessly copies the ridiculous Helena (Montana, USA)
epidemiological con job involving Stanton Glantz, advisor of the
former Italian minister of “health” Sirchia who is now under
investigation for heavy-duty pharmaceutical corruption. The Italian
imitation of this nonsense was even more cynical than the US
original. At least, in Helena it took six months to reduce
myocardial infarction hospitalizations, but in Italy they remove
smoking from public places and – cazzo! – a few days later
hospitalizations plummet! Of course, the hospitalizations of the
following months are not advertised because they don’t fit
the bill no matter how desperately they try to manipulate the
data.
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What should we do when
“public health” does not talk about or underplays something
that seems relevant? Go check it immediately, because it
means that – for sure -- there is information contrary to the public
health frauds that they haven’t yet figured out how to spin. And,
sure enough, as smoking amongst the youth was underplayed by the
CDCP, independent surveys show conclusively that there has been
no change in smoking amongst young males since the ban
started. Over 22% of the males smoke, but nearly 30% of the young
girls have taken up smoking, versus the 28% of two years ago. And
what tobacco advertisement?... In Italy it has been forbidden
since 1961. That is probably why Italians are amongst the
longest-lived populations of the Earth while being amongst the
heaviest-smoking of all.
And, to conclude with a
happy note, a few days ago an Italian High Court has decided that
cigarette manufacturers are not responsible for the diseases
supposedly “caused” by smoking, as the notion that “smoking is bad
for you” has been public domain since the times of our
great-great-grandmothers. Furthermore, tobacco is not an
inherently dangerous substance as it takes an act of will to
smoke it and only then it could do some harm. This decision is the
last of a series of three in other courts – all with minimal or no
reporting by mass-media that specialize in performing
fellatio on the organs of institutionalized public health. As
we all would like to see some real scientific evidence on
this story of smoking being “bad for you” (as opposed to statistical
studies full of “could” and “should”, but no science), one thing is
for sure: in Italy you can’t sue the tobacco industry for your
diseases allegedly “caused” by smoking. This is very good news
indeed for, in one single blow, the Italian High Courts have taken
away one of the biggest motivations from antismoking cons –
money – and one of the biggest tools of propaganda as well.
Let’s smoke one on that – under a No Smoking sign, of
course!
Gian
Turci
C.E.O., FORCES International
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Analysis and opinion
