Monday, August 07, 2006

Quit smoking movement

A lot is tried all the time to persuade smokers to quit smoking. Most of the obvious "not good for health" reasons do not work.

Recently European Union companies have started putting the condition "Smokers need not apply" in their vacancy requirements. This, plus a few other initiatives, have actually reduced the percent of smokers in the European countries !!!!

Read the link below for more...
http://economictimes.indiatimes.com/articleshow/1866987.cms

3 comments:

Anonymous said...

Rajni,

I know this sounds crazy but isn't this discriminatory against people for having a particular choice n lifestyle.

What is the difference between this ans say, giving employers not to hire South Asians, or homosexuals, or people shorter than 5 feet and 5 inches. While the intentions are admirable, the fact that discrimination is instituted by the EU is somehow, not a very good sign.

Sriraj

Rajni said...

Sriraj,

You do have a different perspective of things, which I must say is quite interesting(well at least most of the times) and hence I look forward to your comments :))

It is discrimination, agreed, but with positive and agreeable results .

The article says :

``Our anti-discrimination legislation for the workplace covers four areas -age, disability, religion or belief and sexual orientation. Then in general the rules cover gender and race, and that's it,'' von Schnurbein, spokeswoman for Employment and Social Affairs Commissioner Vladimir Spidla, said.

``There are a lot of things this doesn't cover --you could say I don't want an alcoholic working for me, whatever,'' she said.

I guess this takes care of most of the things discriminatory reasons mentioned by you.

Anonymous said...

Hello Rajni,

To tell you the truth, I try to have a somewhat libertarian point of view -- I think, most of such decisions should be agreed upon by the employer and employee, not by the govt and not by some organization like the EU.

I am highly skeptical of anything associated with the govt. Under the guise of protecting the public, these politicans and bureucrats are nothing but wolves in sheep's clothing -- govts, by nature, are oppressive. It's just the way it is. Unfortunately in India, thanks to thousands of years of being suppressed by Maharajas, Sultans, the British and then, in post-independent India by respective govts, we have had this "Sarkar Mai-Baap" atttitude -- don't we see how demeaning it is? The govt is supposed to be of the people, by the people and for the people BUT in our country, we are subjects of the ruling class -- nothing has changed,in its core form, absolutely nothing.

We have to realize that our individulaity (a much maligned word by the socialists) is compromised, we are serfs in our own land.

Why do I mention all this -- some of the egregious examples of govt abuse include the Rs 2 rice schemes in Andhra (who paid for this subsidized stuff -- taxpayers like you and me!!!), prohibition in Andhra and Gujarat (that's ridiculous -- choice of individual to consume alcohol or not, should not be determined by netas and babus, wouldn't you think?), subsidized power for farmers (oh, how benign that sgounds, right -- well, guess what these politicians dig into taxpayer's pockets to gain freakin' votes!!), do you recollect Minister Janardhan Poojary (a messiah for the masses?!) -- the guy forgave all loans to so-called farmers in the 80's, I believe -- did he lose anything from his pocket -- NO. It came out of our freakin' pockets. I could go on and on -- a litany of woes on Govt abuse.

We need a serious mindset change in this country regarding the role of govt. Unfortunately, the reason why I do not like the European model is because EU Headquarters at Brussels (?) is mandating and dictating as to how individuals and businesses should conduct themselves. France is the worst, with plenty of holidays for employees, all kinds of employer-unfriendly laws that make it impossible to do business there. This socialist mindset has taken France to the depths. They are living off their past legacy.

The reason for going blah-blah like this, is, Rajni, it should not be EU's job to dictate what is good and what is not. If I were a smoker (and I am not, thank God), I would definitely voew it as discriminatory. I do not see any difference between that and say, tomorrow if obese people were barred from being employed (in the guise of forcing people to become healthy, EU could give employers the leeway to bar them from hiring obese people. Is that fair?). It is not the freakin babus' and netas' jobs to apply their goddamn biases (however rational they might be) to other people. That is grossly unfair.

Wake up people! Do you want to be slaves of the ruling class? I know I sound completely kooky and nutty but plz think of this. You are allowing Big Brother to run your life. Plz wake up!!!

Sriraj