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No, you can't light up! Can't you read the sign?
By Wang Yong |
February 24, 2009, Tuesday
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Print Edition
Print Edition
AS an opinion editor, I've received many letters from angry readers complaining about lack of enforcement of regulations against smoking in places with no-smoking signs.
Now it's my turn to complain. I stayed in a hotel on the eastern bank of the West Lake in Hangzhou, Zhejiang Province, over the weekend and I spotted a man smoking in the corridor on the third floor.
I asked one of the hotel's staff why he was allowed to smoke and she replied, very politely: "Oh, yes, this floor is smoke-free, but if there's someone who smokes, we can do nothing about that."
I was shocked. Anyway, it was just one man smoking. If more people had been smoking, I would have asked the manager to stop them.
My experience at Haagen-Dazs by the West Lake was different and much more comfortable.
My wife and I were enjoying a bowl of colorful ice cream balls when three men, one after another, asked (at least they asked) the waitresses if they could smoke. The waitresses, all young girls who looked so fragile, replied very politely but firmly: "No." And the men obeyed. No one dared to smoke.
Men can be managed, and habits can be corrected, at least in public places.
Just say "no" to smoking, and people won't light up.
Now it's my turn to complain. I stayed in a hotel on the eastern bank of the West Lake in Hangzhou, Zhejiang Province, over the weekend and I spotted a man smoking in the corridor on the third floor.
I asked one of the hotel's staff why he was allowed to smoke and she replied, very politely: "Oh, yes, this floor is smoke-free, but if there's someone who smokes, we can do nothing about that."
I was shocked. Anyway, it was just one man smoking. If more people had been smoking, I would have asked the manager to stop them.
My experience at Haagen-Dazs by the West Lake was different and much more comfortable.
My wife and I were enjoying a bowl of colorful ice cream balls when three men, one after another, asked (at least they asked) the waitresses if they could smoke. The waitresses, all young girls who looked so fragile, replied very politely but firmly: "No." And the men obeyed. No one dared to smoke.
Men can be managed, and habits can be corrected, at least in public places.
Just say "no" to smoking, and people won't light up.
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