Dégage ! (Hands Off Egypt !), Say Egyptian People & Shisha Pharaohs to Totalitarian FCTC Prohibitionists!

[see comment below]

You heroic angry folks of Egypt will certainly win this battle for dignity. As Michel CHOSSUDOVSKY points out, "Dictators" do not Dictate, They Obey Orders”:

"In Egypt, a devastating IMF [International Monetary Fund] program was imposed in 1991 at the height of the Gulf War. It was negotiated in exchange for the annulment of Egypt's multibillion dollar military debt to the US as well as its participation in the war. The resulting deregulation of food prices, sweeping privatisation and massive austerity measures led to the impoverishment of the Egyptian population and the destabilization of its economy. The Mubarak government was praised as a model "IMF pupil".

The role of Ben Ali's government in Tunisia was to enforce the IMF's deadly economic medicine, which over a period of more than twenty years served to destabilize the national economy and impoverish the Tunisian population. Over the last 23 years, economic and social policy in Tunisia has been dictated by the Washington Consensus.

Both Hosni Mubarak and Ben Ali stayed in power because their governments obeyed and effectively enforced the diktats of the IMF."

However, as almost all other peoples of the world, you don’t know that international research on tobacco smoking is much more censored than in Stalin's times. This is important because you Egyptians are also world famous for being the top shisha smoking people (millions, women and men alike, aren’t you ?). More, Egypt is the source of the world shisha “global epidemic”

[added Feb 27]  CAUTION: although a neigbouring country sharing common traits, the case of Libya is completely different from Egypt and Tunisia. The reasons can be found here (Libya & Imperialism) and there (A Masterminded Uprising)

[Added Feb 1 (comment on photo on top)] REVOLUTION: photo of a Syrian smoker (from Al Jazeera English):  "Syrians are closely following the events unfolding in Egypt (credit: Hugh Macleod)".  Do note that in Syria there's a fresh ban on indoor smoking so this man could be fined! The ban was based on pseudo-science (passive smoking would be lethal to non-smokers)(we're not talking of active smoking which is hazardous, OK) and actually prepared by US prohibitionists.  A so-called Syrian centre for Tobacco Studies (based in Aleppo, north Syria) has actually been $ million funded by the US since 2002, that is in the wake of 09/11. This entity, whose heads are based in the US, has produced more than half a hundred anti-narghile "studies".  The tacit reason is that the pipe the man on the photo is smoking is a politically and culturally incorrect defying gesture in the US. Arabs will immediately understand why.  This photo is very interesting because the man is reading a newspaper named "Ath-Thawra" (in English: "The Revolution")!]

Certainly Tunisians did “infect” you with their Red Jasmine Revolution. However, for two decades now, you have in your turn actually infected the whole world with shisha smoking, including the US Empire ! For this reason, you are targetted in particular.

You were also not probably informed that Egypt (as many other States, Tunisia in particular) is a signatory member of an international totalitarian convention: WHO FCTC (“Framework Convention for Totalitarian Control”)(Arabic,  English, French). 

In its name (FCTC is the top of the tobacco pseudo-science pyramid), imperialist powers have already begun to interfere in your daily lives and home affairs of your cherished country, as this happened in Lebanon recently. Here are a few examples of what FCTC “provisions” entail: Sex Warnings in Egypt and Sex Warnings in Lebanon

You people of heroes and pharaohs, would you call this “science” or  even “prevention”? Is this what you want for your country? More civil servants to be paid with your money for this?

CONCLUSION

MOTTO: Totalitarian FCTC, Dégage ! (“Hands Off Egypt” !)

RESIST TO THE END ! Once social peace is back in your lovely country and a decent life granted to every one of you, don't forget to demand from your new revolutionary government that it withdraw from the infamous FCTC anti-democratic “treaty”!

REJECT any form of US prohibitionist interventionism (as this happened in Lebanon) in the name of pseudo-science made.

RELEVANT READINGS

Michel Chossudovsky: “The Protest Movement in Egypt: "Dictators" do not Dictate, They Obey Orders”

http://www.globalresearch.ca/index.php?context=va&aid=22993

Andrew Gavin Marshall. Are We Witnessing the Start of a Global Revolution?

http://www.globalresearch.ca/index.php?context=va&aid=22963

The multimillion dollar US-Egyptian ““waterpipe”” antismoking centre (Pr Mostafa Mohamed, Christopher Loffredo: Cairo, Georgetown)

http://www.nosmokingegypt.net/index.htm

One of its last “products” (a so-called “study” about Egypt, Egyptians, their religion and favourite “hobby”):

Singh PN, Neergaard J, Job JS, Setouhy ME, Israel E, Mohammed MK, Loffredo CA. Differences in Health and Religious Beliefs About Tobacco Use Among Waterpipe Users in the Rural Male Population of Egypt. J Relig Health. 2010 Dec 2.

http://www.springerlink.com/content/b3754111060rg3mh/

And its definitive critique by independent researcher:

The Mystique of Hookahs. Health and Religious Misconceptions

http://scitopics.com/The_Mystique_of_Hookahs_Health_and_Religious_Misconceptions.html

Linda S. Heard. Shisha ban risks diluting Alexandria’s flavor. Online Journal (Established 1998 to provide uncensored and accurate news, analysis and commentary). Oct 6, 2010.

http://onlinejournal.com/artman/publish/article_6415.shtml

TUNISIAN GRAFFITI. Pushing the Revolt Forward, Against that Totalitarian Antismoking Ideology So Alien to Tunisian Culture !

http://narghile.blogspot.com/2011/01/tunisian-graffiti-pushing-revolt.html

US-led FCTC ““waterpipe”” smoking pseudo-science in pre-revolutionary Tunisia:

Cross-Eyed ««Waterpipe»»™ Antismoking Millionaire Casts Longing Glances at Tunisia!

As you know, the opposition to pseudo-science is universal:

** FCTC critique from the UK (1)

http://frank-davis.livejournal.com/133676.html 

** FCTC critique from the UK (2)

http://f2cscotland.blogspot.com/2011/01/learning-about-framework-convention-on.html 

** FCTC critique from the USA (1)

http://tobaccoanalysis.blogspot.com/2010/06/fctc-commentary-1-implementation.html

** FCTC critique from the USA (2)

http://tobaccoanalysis.blogspot.com/2010/05/fctc-commentary-2-proposed-tobacco.html

** FCTC critique from the USA (3)

http://tobaccoanalysis.blogspot.com/2010/06/international-tobacco-control-gone-awry.html

Photo: courtesy of Al Jazeera English and Centre for Research on Globalization

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