Indonesia has been one of the countries that consumes tobacco in the world. However, according to Schewe (2017), the smoking control system in Indonesia is not satisfactory compared with other countries. When I first arrived in Indonesia, I found that the youth smoking issue is quite Severe. During the trip in Indonesia, I realized that there are a large group of young people who are having smoking issues in rural Indonesia.

Youth smoking in Indonesia (Image: Farhan Perdana (Blek) from Flickr)

Through an interview with Ayu Cshya in the university of muhammadiyah in Yogyakarta, I gained a more thorough insight into youth smoking. After the interview, I concluded that the factors contributing to this phenomenon are multifaceted. One of the factors is that widespread tobacco advertising attracts attention from the youth. Their heavy exposure to tobacco advertising has made them think smoking is common. Another factor is that the government has been supporting tobacco companies due to the high governmental revenue from tobacco. The support from the government has made tobacco more accessible in Indonesia than in other countries where tobacco industry is restricted. Social factors also have important influence on the widespread youth smoking issues. Peer pressure among the youth, and parents’ and teachers’ role-model smoking encourage the youth to smoke. Ayu and I talked a lot about these factors contributing youth smoking, and it made me understand more about the this issue in Indonesia. Apart from these factors, I did some research on other possible factors. I found that smoking has had a long-standing tradition in Indonesia (Ayuningtyas, 2018). For this reason, smoking control is difficult to enforce in the country.

Based on the factors, Ayu told me his perspective about youth smoking control. He proposed that one of the effective measures is to advocate health lessons in schools which enable the youth to understand the risks they are taking while smoking. According to Martini et al. (2005), these lessons can be learnt in schools in science. This way can help to improve students’ awareness towards smoking. Another measure can be taken is for the government to set up some law items to prohibit youth smoking. Governmental support is of importance in solving youth smoking issues. Finally, he also mentioned that changing the traditional smoking concept is vital for the purpose of creating a non-smoking environment for the youth. If parents and teachers could pay more attention to the youth smoking and stop being smoking role models, the youth smoking rate is expected to decrease.

Reference List

Ayuningtyas, K, 2018, In this tobacco village, smoking ‘kretek’ is rite of passage, The Jakarta Post, viewed 13 December, 2019, <https://www.thejakartapost.com/news/2018/07/25/in-this-tobacco-village-smoking-kretek-is-rite-of-passage.html>.

Farhan Perdana, Blek, viewed 13 December, 2019, <https://www.flickr.com/photos/black_claw/18931630679/in/photolist-uQVyev-589N8o-7r1Xem-61vhy8-CoFMe-bsV6Vs-9URCM9-4qSe5L-amzRPb-9fbqAS-4Zo88R-pASzG4-zH8gu-a6swZW-3bYci1-bu2S5m-zGYfa-6BhCAE-tPnvx-8U4Wnd-pCy9CM-9zSqmn-qgdB2z-6egYJw-37uRna-8rV6Sg-jmUi1R-6FsEZY-gRFZzJ-6ndGAC-zGTfw-m42CXF-s5JMb-s5JLy-ztxsr-rcwUa4-rcwgS4-fFBM3s-drsFsJ-9nSkrC-7ANDkM-8zdUBk-oJiffk-7tRBVG-a6pGb4-TKT8-eJHCuN-4gf8b6-8qCgLq-5hV1EC>.

Martini, S., Sulistyowati, M. 2005, The Determinants of Smoking Behaviour among Teenages in East Java Province, Indonesia, viewed 13 December 2019, <https://openknowledge.worldbank.org/bitstream/handle/10986/13781/347660IND0YouthSmoking0HNP0Tobacco032.pdf;sequence=1&gt>.

Schewe, E. 2017, Why Do So Many Indonesian Men Smoke?, JSTOR Daily, viewed 13 December, 2019, <https://daily.jstor.org/why-do-so-many-indonesian-men-smoke/>.

Local designers and creative culture makers have played an important role in the development of the tobacco industry in Yogyakarta and its surrounds. According to Rakhmat and Tarahita (2018), the smoking rate in Indonesia is increasing throughout the years. One of the greatest contributions to the gross development is made by the tobacco culture.  This is the same saying as per Danardono et al. (2008), in which he suggests tobacco culture is anywhere in Indonesia’s environment. Tobacco advertisements are seen everywhere such as billboards and roadside stalls, while local designers and creative culture makers are great contributors to these advertisements.

Tobacco advertisements in Indonesia (Image: Nicholl, A. 2018, Banjarmasin Cigarette Advertising, 08 January 2018)

The stakeholders in the tobacco industry are those who are involved, including tobacco producers and distributors, designers and creative culture makers, the government, and the customers. Designers are not just those who design advertisements for tobacco, but also include those who design relevant tools for producing and selling of tobacco such as factory machinery, event interiors, and cigarette packaging etc. The role designers and creative culture makers in the tobacco industry interconnects with other stakeholders in that they create and maintain a world for tobacco development. The designers and creative culture makers not only make the tobacco production possible, but also make the distribution smoother. They are the ones pushing things going. A more detailed stakeholder map is drawn by the author to illustrate the interconnections.

The development of the tobacco industry actually fosters and supports the design and creative industries. The development of tobacco industry could not be separated from design and creative culture. As one of the main industries in Central Java, tobacco industry has made great profit, which it provides a lot of financial funding for design and creative industries to grow. Through design activism, if designers and creative culture makers want to participate in health promotion against tobacco, they are more likely to join non-government organizations. This is because, as mentioned above, the government is reluctant to take actions against tobacco industry as the industry is making great profit for the area. This is suggested by Nichter et al. (2009), they proposed that the political and financial power owned by tobacco companies have brought them a lot of privileges as they bring in a large sum of government revenue. Political power, hence, becomes a barrier for designers and creative culture makers who want to raise awareness of tobacco’s negative effects. For this reason, design activism is more likely to be achieved through non-government organizations.

Reference List

Danardono, M., Ng, N., Nichter, M., Padmawati, R., Prabandari, Y. 2008, Reading culture from tobacco advertisements in Indonesia, University of Arizona, Arizona.

Nicholl, A. 2018, Banjarmasin Cigarette Advertising, 08 January 2018.

Nichter, M., Padmawati, S., Danardono, M., Ng, N., Prabandari, Y. & Nichter, M. 2009, ‘Reading culture from tobacco advertisements in Indonesia’, Tobacco Control, vol. 18, no. 2, pp. 98-107.

Zulfikar Rakhmat, M. & Tarahita, D. 2018, As the rest of the world quits, indonesia’s smokers increase, newsite, AsiaSentinel, viewed 13 December 2019, <https://www.asiasentinel.com/econ-business/indonesia-smokers-increase/>.

Tobacco epidemic in Indonesia

Indonesia have millions of new underage smokers every year and an estimated 40 million people are exposed to secondhand smoke (Miko & Berkat, 2017, Pg 13). According to Indonesia’s health ministry, 17 major health organizations and many others have openly opposed the move, saying it would worsen the countries ineffective by tobacco control laws. The bill is not the only tobacco policy issue awaiting the Jokowi administration. Thousands of children, as young as eight years, produce tobacco in unsafe situations in Indonesia every year. (Hurt et al., 2012, Pg 306-312), mentioned that the finished product is sold to big tobacco companies in Indonesia and overseas for profit. Child labor is exposed to nicotine and pesticides — both toxic as well as harmful to developing children (Achadi et al., 2005, Pg 333-349). Half of the children had experienced nausea, vomiting, headaches or dizziness at work. These are symptoms of acute nicotine poisoning, which can occur after treatment of tobacco plants and absorbed nicotine through the skin by the workers. Most of the children mentioned that they mixed toxic chemicals and spraying them on plants without any protective equipment, and some became extremely ill.

     Image source: The West Java village, 13 years old girl and her sister helping their parents to                       harvesting tobacco (Jyb8, 2018).

Tackling Indonesia’s tobacco epidemic is a double-edged sword.

Indonesia has the highest smoking rates in the world, and its tobacco production continues to boom as the number of smokers declines globally. Although Indonesia’s legal minimum age for smoking is 18, the industry remains unregulated, especially in the remote areas. Therefore, children can buy a cigarette from a roadside kiosk for a few cents (Ganiwijaya et al., 1995, Pg 335).

Indonesia depends on tobacco not only because of its availability and affordability but also because it improves the country’s economy. Therefore while smoking remains the leading cause of preventable deaths in the country, analysts say cracking down on a tobacco production is a “double-edged sword.” Mohammed Faisal, executive director of the center for economic reform think tank, told ABC that tobacco has traditionally been one of Indonesia’s biggest national industries and that the hand-rolled cloves of cretaco cigarettes are deeply rooted in Indonesian culture (Jieyan, 2019, Pg 5-10). Last year, excise taxes on cigarettes stretched to 153 trillion rupees ($15.8 billion), accounting for almost 96 percent of the state’s overall consumption duty and 10 percent of the government’s overall revenue, according to the ministry of industry (Ter Wengel & Rodriguez, 2006, Pg25-37).

Image source: Imagine shows a tobacco factory in Indonesia. (Sohu, 2018)

“There are extremely wealthy tobacco groups that have the ability to influence the political system, especially in areas that depend on the tobacco industry,” he said. (Jieyan, 2019, para 5)

Yet income pales in comparison to the enormous cost of the public-health crisis caused by smoking.

According to the ministry of health, the national cost of tobacco consumption in 2015 was nearly 600 trillion rupees ($62.2 billion), four times the amount consumed in the same year.

Reference List

Achadi, A., Soerojo, W. and Barber, S., 2005. The relevance and prospects of advancing tobacco control in Indonesia. Health policy, 72(3), pp.333-349.

Ganiwijaya, T., Sjukrudin, E., De Backer, G., Suhana, D., Brotoprawiro, S. and Sukandar, H., 1995. Prevalence of cigarette smoking in a rural area of West Java, Indonesia. Tobacco Control, 4(4), p.335.

Hurt, R.D., Ebbert, J.O., Achadi, A. and Croghan, I.T., 2012. Roadmap to a tobacco epidemic: transnational tobacco companies invade Indonesia. Tobacco control, 21(3), pp.306-312

Jieyan, B., 2019. Tackling Indonesia’s tobacco epidemic is a double-edged sword. pp 5-10

Miko, A. and Berkat, S., 2017. The second-hand smoke in pregnancy and its impact toward low birth weight in district of aceh besar, aceh province, Indonesia. cancer, 12, p.13.

Ter Wengel, J. and Rodriguez, E., 2006. SME export performance in Indonesia after the crisis. Small Business Economics, 26(1), pp.25-37.

Image;

Jieyan, B., 2018.Tobacco harvesting in Indonesia is carried out by children, whose health is at risk, jyb8, viewed 9th Nov. 2019 http://www.sohu.com/picture/243926782

According to Smith et al., (2000, Pg 1093-1103), the world health organization mentioned that there are still global well-being disaster. 673 million individuals remove waste openly, yet 2 billion people use potable water polluted with feces, and 4.2 billion people live without safe sanitation. In addition, insufficient sanitation causes 432,000 deaths a year from diarrhea, and production losses due to water value problems and sanitation infections account for 5 out of a hundred of GDP in many countries (Bartram & Cairncross, 2010).

Furthermore, the gap in sanitation abilities will enlarged while the global population, particularly in the evolving countries, is increasing fast. The United Nations assumes the world’s inhabitants will reach 8.6 billion by 2030 and 9.8 billion by 2050, with partial of the development coming from Africa and South Asia (Cohen, 2004, Pg 23-51). On the other hand, cities and regions with a municipal pipe networks, infrastructure is progressively getting old, and upkeep costs are gradually high. For example, the pipe network in most American municipalities has been in use for more than 100 years, with serious outflow and break complications, and the overall repair cost is up to 600 billion yuan.

Easy to note that toilet cleansing is not only a challenge in evolving countries, but also in urbanized countries. In recent years, most nations have recognized the significance of this problem and put on the table their own solutions, such as China’s “toilet revolution” and India’s “clean India mission” (Scott & Cavill, 2017). However, people find that the flushing of public toilets entails setting sewage pipes to attach to public pipe networks, which is difficult to spread to regions with small resident’s density, low per capita GDP hence complex territory. Brauman et al., (2016), mentioned that recently there is a serious scarcity of water resources in the world, hence the conflict between source and request is expanding day by day.

Therefore, to convey out toilet improvement, policy support and technical support in sanitation is needed for both water saving and environmental protection (Park & PARK, 2019). As diggings and incorporation with “him” industries, noble hygienic group raised on the magnitudes of environmental construction and user needs improvement to produce no water, no infrastructure, no emissions, no unusual smell, resource retrieval, intellectual, information-based resolutions – intellectual anhydrous environmental toilet, and to conquer the great technical breakthrough of 2019, no sewer toilet, one of the difficult problem. Creation of “world toilet day” has involved the world’s attention to the hygiene of the toilet surroundings, then the appearance of the Jiajing clean intellectual waterless environmental municipal toilet has redefined the public’s acceptance of public toilets, and stimulated the coming of the intelligent era of public toilets. It is an important force of toilet innovation in the world (Paterson & Dodge, 2016, Pg 207-226).

Reference:

Bartram, J. and Cairncross, S., 2010. Hygiene, sanitation, and water: forgotten foundations of health. PLoS medicine, 7(11), p.e1000367.

Brauman, K.A., Richter, B.D., Postel, S., Malsy, M. and Flörke, M., 2016. Water depletion: An improved metric for incorporating seasonal and dry-year water scarcity into water risk assessments. Elem Sci Anth, 4.

Cohen, B., 2004. Urban growth in developing countries: a review of current trends and a caution regarding existing forecasts. World development, 32(1), pp.23-51

Park, B.D. and PARK, C.H., Raymond Laboratories, 2019. Autophage activating resveratrol topical composition for skin improvement and treatment. U.S. Patent 10,179,095.

Paterson, M. and Dodge, M., 2016. Towards Touch-free Spaces: Sensors, Software and the

Automatic Production of Shared Public Toilets. In Touching Space, Placing Touch (pp. 207-226). Routledge.

Pepitone, J. (2019) Waterless toilet turns waste into clean water and power. CNNMoney.

Scott, P. and Cavill, S., 2017. Urination needs and practices away from home: where do women go?.

Smith, A.H., Lingas, E.O. and Rahman, M., 2000. Contamination of drinking-water by arsenic in Bangladesh: a public health emergency. Bulletin of the World Health Organization, 78, pp.1093-1103.

Vaughn, J.M., McConville, J.T., Burgess, D., Peters, J.I., Johnston, K.P., Talbert, R.L. and Williams III, R.O., 2006. Single dose and multiple dose studies of itraconazole nanoparticles. European journal of pharmaceutics and biopharmaceutics, 63(2), pp.95-102.