Nineteen Eighty-four (1984), an anti-utopian (dystopian) novel, published in 1949. The writer George Orwell tells the story of Winston Smith and his dilapidation by the dictatorial superstate Oceania in which he lives. He grew up during the revolution and the civil war in post- World War II United Kingdom. He was orphaned Due to the loss of his parents during the civil war and was placed in an orphanage by the “English socialism” movement. Eventually he got a job in the Outer Party and has been a member ever since. The novel describes a world of “Totalitarianism” where “Thought crime” means death through the dealings of “Thought Police”. The “Thought Police” were said to have placed Telescreens, hidden microphones and informers in every public place and not to mention the Party households.

That was “1984” a book from the year 1949. Now come to reality, think of our world today. Think about the last time you stepped out on the streets, have you ever noticed the sidewalk surveillance keeping an eye on you all the while? The government says you got to put them in your house too, why?! For security reasons of course. To hell with security who is going to give me my privacy. Have you walked into your work place or your friends place without ever getting the feeling that you were being watched? Or spoken over the phone thinking it was only your girlfriend who could hear you on the other side, if you have, say hello to wire tapping. It does get on your nerves doesn’t it? You think maybe you can calm your senses down with a drink at the local bar, oopps!! Guess who you meet there? Your old friend the CCTV grinning right back you. Ok, forget the drink, lets get out for some fresh air, who doesn’t like fresh air, it’s good for the health too. Well, I’ll tell you, I don’t like the fresh cameras keeping fresh eyes on my neck. You can’t even have a peaceful walk around the park. It’s like “Thought Police”, remember “1984”? Ok, let me see, we must have something that the book doesn’t have. Ah!!! I got it. Our government got complete control over mass media which is constantly manipulated to act in accordance with the past doings of the ruling party. Uh, nope, the book got this one too. Maybe you can enjoy some privacy in your car, go for a long drive to the country, they have ANPR (automatic number plate recognition) and traffic analysis, they can track you but at least they can not see you! The government got an eye on everything you do; the world is a raw victim to “Totalitarianism”. We are the free people of a free country with the rights of every man for himself, nice statement to say and hear, but beware! All that glitters is not gold. This organization (Totalitarianism) is commanded by the political powers using misinformation circulated through the state-controlled mass media, secret police, mass surveillance, widespread use of terror tactics. And forget freedom of speech, they do have laws which covers the regulation and restriction of free discussion and criticism. Whew! Talk about free speech. You could go to jail for doing the same thing they claim you were free to do.

This book explains the nature of the uninterrupted war, and exposes the truth behind the Party’s slogan, “War Is Peace; Freedom is Slavery; Ignorance is Strength.” We might not be shouting out or repeating the same slogan from “1984”, but we can sure see what it means. This slogan is practically living a physical form in the world today. “We are not attacking them, we are trying to free them from their miseries” that’s what our government says when they declare war on other countries right? They even track where your money is going. Someone got to tell them that it’s not their money that I am spending, it’s my money. Who are you to care where it goes. It’s my money and I demand a freedom to spend it where and how I wish. They should get this simple thought through their thick scull. I don’t mean to sound or be pessimistic, but believe it or not, we are living the life of 1984, a vision George Orwell had in the year 1949. I think the higher political levels are using the “Dystopian” society as the role model which used fascism, bureaucracy, socialism, chaos, anarchy, totalitarianism, dictatorships and other forms of political, social and economical control. The funniest part is it is a fictional society. Makes u laugh doesn’t it? Woah! Hold on your horses, I don’t dare laugh. Who knows what they might have implanted in my brain after I was born. With all these biometric data identification and DNA testing things, I pretty much can not have a private thinking session in my own brain. The problem is, with these facilities, the surveillance, voice recognition, ANPR, biometric analysis, you can be framed of a crime you did not do and it makes it look more like you actually did it.

Well, the final point is where I take you back to the header of the writing, “Is it 1984?” what would you answer to this question? If your answer is Maybe, I would nice ask you to wake up and go brush your teeth. If the answer is NO, well what can I say, you are the ruling party. The vivid answer would be YES. Why? Why not? Go read the book again. Then come back to reality. You would see what I am talking about. There is no difference, we are simply living life in the vision of George Orwell in 1984.

Privacy & Liberties are our business – http://www.trilightzone.org/services.html – triteam -

We are a group of security specialists which have a long history together. Our ideals are processed into the services we offer, we believe in the right to have privacy and anonymity. It is our task to make sure you can have an anonymous online presence and let us do the worrying.

Visit our site for the wide range of privacy services we can offer; ranging from Privacy VPN solutions, SSH Tunneling, Secure Offshore Mail accounts, Anonymous Hosting and so on. We support freedom of speech everywhere !

Fred Hanster

Advertising to seniors about groceries. - Do you eat food? So do seniors? Do you buy products? So do seniors. In fact, as a group, seniors are tremendous consumers of grocery-related consumables. Seniors—and advertisers know this—are tremendously interested in health-care related products such as vitamins, dietary supplements, and nutritional aids. Alongside of advertisements, Today’s Senior Magazine includes information about the type of news and information seniors want.

Advertising to seniors about health products - Seniors are concerned about their health. That’s why marketing to baby boomers for prescription medication and other health-related products makes complete sense. Seniors are looking for advertisements that will lead them to quality health products. Amidst advertisements for health-related issues, Today’s Senior Magazine also provides informative articles on health issues.

Advertising to seniors about travel – Seniors typically have the discretionary income and leisure time to travel more than other age groups. Focusing advertising efforts on traveling seniors makes complete sense. Today’s Senior Magazine provides advertisements on senior travel coupled with informative articles on popular travel destinations and pastimes. Advertisers offering air, RV, or cruise information will find Today’s Senior Magazine a great resource.

Advertising to seniors about leisure – Seniors have leisure time, so here’s an advertiser’s dream opportunity. Those that are 50+ spend time with pets, grandchildren, preparing scrapbooks, and photo albums. If you’re an advertiser attempting to sell any products or services, marketing to seniors should be considered. Advertising to the baby boomers isn’t just about the things they must buy, but also the things they want to buy.

Today’s Senior Magazine is an advertiser’s answer to how to reach baby boomers and those 50+. Whether you are promoting an online business or a brick-and-mortar store, seniors will be seeing your advertisements both online and in print.

Rick Priolo is the publisher of Today’s Senior Magazine at http://www.todayssr.com/advertise.html

A gentleman called recently, asking if I help people with obsessive-compulsive behaviors. I asked him to explain what he was talking about so I could get a better idea of what was going on here. He explained that he was very upset with his never-ending thoughts of needing sexual stimulation and his resulting behaviors.

Though he loves his wife, their sexual relationship had long been over: around ten years ago, his wife started drinking heavily on the weekends. His addiction began with the idea of getting a bit of “sexual release” with phone sex, which then turned to Internet pornography. Soon he was visiting massage parlors for ‘happy ending’ massages. Next came the escort services. The guilt of it all was finally consuming him more than the release he felt from these activities. The monetary output was also quite high, making it harder to finish paying for his sons’ college educations.

There was a sincere sound of pain and self-disgust as he talked. About fifteen minutes into the conversation, he started to tell me about memories of his older brother telling him to do sexual favors for him (my client was only ten years old and his brother was fifteen at the time). He gets along all right with his brother now, but why was he having these memories now?

At this point, I realized that there was something more to this case than a person who needed to know why he was doing these behaviors. I told him that, from what I was hearing, he had a sexual addiction and certainly had some issues that needed to be cleared. I suggested he come in and we would do a detailed personal history and he could decide on what he wanted to do once we had all the information.

This gentleman had a father whom he loved though the father became a drunk later in life. He had a sister who had become a drug addict and a grandfather who died of liver damage due to alcoholism. He himself had been placed in jail for driving under the influence while he was in his twenties, but had since stopped drinking due to an illness that put him in the hospital a few times over a period of six months. Obviously addictive behavior ran through his family.

I decided to clear the negative emotions and losses suffered. He also needed to do some forgiveness work for those who had harmed him. This set the stage for his addiction sessions. I am happy to report that he is doing very well so far and really does not even think of going outside for any sort of sexual pleasures. He has figured out that there are other ways that he can fill the void without spending money on an activity that created a great amount of guilt and drained financial resources that were needed to educate his sons whom he loves more than anything. He stated that he is calmer and able to sleep at night now, while spending his newfound time working on his rental property, learning more about real estate investment, and enjoying his family.

Suzanne Kellner-Zinck invites you to visit her website at:

http://www.dawningvisions.net

where you will find lots of information about hypnosis and neuro-linguistic programming, a media release, monthly newsletters, and inspirational testamonials.

You may contact her directly at: 781-646-8865. Please feel free to sign up for the informative Dawning Visions Enewsletter which goes out six times a year on the home page.

Copyright 2007 All Rights Reserved.

Now that Peter F. Drucker has passed on, I feel almost duty bound to share some of his insights with you, little observations, pointers and gems that simply aren’t in his books or popularly known.

I had the pleasure of studying with the management sage for two and a half years. Much of the MBA I did at the Drucker School of Management, named in his honor, in fact, was in classes with Drucker, himself.

And I had the pleasure of serving as his informal chauffeur on Saturdays, when many of our classes met.

So, we talked.

He was fond of admonishing us to “invest in the customer” and specifically, to “invest in the customer relationship,” because it is one way to get clients to select and to prefer us, a very valuable habit.

But to my knowledge Drucker never called the process customer relationship MANAGEMENT.

In fact, on many occasions he said relationships are fundamentally UN-manageable.

His fondest example was one’s family. He said, “You can’t apply management principles to your family; they won’t work.”

When I told him about the arrival of my first daughter, he reminded me of this notion and then asked: “Is she ruling the roost?”

“Yes,” I replied, “She has us all at her beck and call.”

“That’s the way it should be,” he beamed.

If you’re managing a person, you probably have something different than a real relationship, like an employment contract, or some other sort of business commitment or alliance.

But interpersonal relationships have their own dynamics. Power, for one thing, is shared. We cannot order a customer to come back and buy again, just as we can’t order our relatives to love or respect us.

We can use persuasion, guile, charm, guilt, and incentives, but we can’t MANAGE that outcome as we can manage a salesperson, say by telling him he has to hit his quota this quarter, or hit the highway.

If we aren’t managing customers what are we doing?

We’re NEGOTIATING relationships. There is give and take, concessions are made, and equities are balanced out, if not in the short run, then in the longer term.

All of this is fine, you might be thinking, but what practical difference does it make if we call it CRM or CRN, for negotiation?

Management is a term that signifies superior power and resources.

When we interact with customers we are facing the opposite of being in power. We’re relatively powerless, providing we’re operating in a competitive marketplace.

Customers have choices. They can more readily and inexpensively say “no,” and walk away from a deal.

When we consider customer transactions and the residue of doing many of them, it would be more advantageous to see our counterparts as ongoing negotiation partners, but never as friends, peers, or family.

In non-business interpersonal relationships, the whole is greater than the sum of its parts; in business, there are only parts, no enduring “marriages.”

The sooner we straighten out the otherwise mystifying rhetoric ushered in by CRM, the better off we’ll all be.

Dr. Gary S. Goodman is the
best-selling author of 12 books and more than
a thousand articles. His seminars and training
programs are sponsored internationally and he
is a top-rated faculty member at more than 40
universities. Dynamic, experienced,
and lots of fun, Gary brings more than two decades
of solid management and consulting experience
to the table, along with the best academic preparation
and credentials in the speaking and training industry.
Holder of five degrees, including a Ph.D. from the
Annenberg School For Communication at USC,
an MBA from the Peter F. Drucker School of Management,
and a law degree from Loyola, his clients include several
Fortune 1000 companies along with successful family
owned and operated firms across America. Much more
than a “talking head,” Gary is a top mind that you’ll
enjoy working with and putting to use.
He can be reached at: gary@customersatisfaction.com

QUESTION:

Our son does improve for a while, but then all of the sudden he will get back into this rebellious stage. He has a really hard time communicating and getting along with his father. Now he says he can’t live with his father and wants to move out (he’ll soon be 17). His father is the “bad guy” and I am the “softy.” Any help or advice? I just don’t know what else to do. Should he be in counseling?

ANSWER:

Individual counseling for your son’s rebelliousness is just another “traditional” or “conventional” parenting strategy that has virtually no “bang for the buck.” If you’re going to do counseling, the whole family should be involved.

I think it would be good to begin having regular conversations with your son about how exciting his future is going to be. Begin the conversations with questions to your son like: “Are you thinking about college?” “If so, where do you think you might like to attend?” “What career field sounds interesting to you?” “When you get a full-time job and can afford it, what kind of car are you going to get?” …and so on.

The idea is to put a positive spin on this idea he has about moving out on his own. You may even want to spend some afternoon with him shopping for an apartment (e.g., call some landlords, meet with the landlord at the apartment so you and your son can see it and can talk about how much it will cost HIM to live there). Play along …as though “moving out” is a viable option. Begin building his confidence in being “out of the nest,” because sooner rather than later, he will be on his own.

If dad would “lighten-up” a bit — and if you, dear mother, would “toughen-up” a bit — you and your husband will be more on the same page, and your son will not easily play one against the other (which sounds like what’s going on here).

Before you or your husband make any decisions about anything, the two of you should discuss it first and decide collectively what to do. A weaker plan by both parents will be 10 times better than a stronger plan made by only one parent.

Mark Huttenlocker, M.A., is a family therapist who works with teens and pre-teens experiencing emotional/behavioral problems associated with ADHD, Oppositional Defiant Disorder, Conduct Disorder, Bipolar Disorder, Autism, etc. He works with these children and their parents – in their homes. You may visit his website here: http://www.MyOutOfControlTeen.com/support

First of all, every type of media has pros and cons. Here are a few:

Billboards work okay if they are in a high-traffic area and have a short, easy to read message, but they could be very expensive, and many times your ad is moved from a good location to a bad location, especially if you are advertising on a limited budget and utilize this type of program. The better locations are normally the most expensive. Also, you must remember that the prospective new customer has only a fraction of a second to see your message as they speed by, and the amount of traffic during the time of the year are factors. Will they take the time, or be able, to write down your contact information?

Television & Radio normally reaches a large audience, depending on the area, but doesn’t always reach your desired demographic. Effectiveness depends on the time of day the ad is run, and if you have a limited budget, normally your ad isn’t given the premium times. Time of the year is also a factor. Needless to say, if everyone is away on vacation, your exposure could be less than at other times of the year. Also, important is where the time slot places your ad. If you are advertising a product for senior citizens, and your ad is placed in a program about snowboarding, your chances are slim to none that you’ll be getting any new customers for your hard earned money.

Imprinted products such as pens, key chains, baseball caps, t-shirts, etc. normally get your name out there, but do they work? I personally have six baseball caps, at least thirty pens, various t-shirts, three calendars, and an unknown amount of small writing pads that I’ve picked up over the years. To tell you the truth, I have never contacted any of the companies that paid their hard earned cash to have these things imprinted. Also, no one has ever come up to me when I was wearing an imprinted baseball cap or t-shirt, and asked me to stop and wait a second so that they can write down the imprinted information. If my life depended on it, I couldn’t even name one company’s name imprinted on any of the products I currently own. I know that the companies that provide imprinted items say your business name must be seen so many times before it is recognized, but is this really the way?

Print media – newspapers are a good way to reach a large amount of the local population, but aren’t always able to zero in to the demographics you want to reach. An ad in a newspaper is normally very costly, and on a limited advertising budget, you’ll normally get a small, hard to read, black and white ad placed somewhere in a section of the newspaper that people normally don’t go to. Other factors are the time of the year, weather, and days of the week. Needless to say, there are less readers when most of the population is on vacation, away for the weekend or holiday, or if the weather is terrible and they don’t even go out of their homes to pick up the paper on that one important day or week that your ad appears.

Print media – magazines are good because they normally reach the demographics their advertisers want the reach. Since they are usually a specialty publication, and are usually read by only the people that are important to the advertiser, advertisers usually get good results. But you must be careful about the circulation they provide. Also, magazine advertising could get expensive if you are looking to run a full-color ad in a national publication. Unlike newspapers, readers of magazines normally are more educated and keep the magazine for reference long after they read it, so your ad will continued to be viewed long after it is run. Be sure to advertise in a publication that is published on weekly or monthly, instead of annually, semi-annually or quarterly. Readers will only pick up the publication once, so the ones that sit on the racks for longer periods of time are a waste of rack space and your money.

Online advertising is the newest and fastest growing way to advertise. The Internet now provides everything from links on sites, to banner ads on sites, to small ads on sites, to pay per click advertising. Be very careful when deciding that this is the way to go. Get all the facts about the amount of guaranteed exposure you’ll receive. Just because a web site gives a great sales presentation doesn’t mean you’ll be getting any exposure. This could be a very expensive way to advertise should you be looking for maximum exposure. An important hint - having your own web site is extremely important in today’s business world. A well-designed web site can provide you with worldwide exposure.

Okay, now that you are even more confused, I will end with few last tidbits.
1- Find out the amount of exposure you are going to receive, for the amount of money you are willing to spend, before committing to an advertising campaign. After all, even if it only costs you $1.00, it is a wasted dollar if you don’t get anything in return.
2 - Be sure to track your advertising for effectiveness by ascertaining from new customers how they found out about you.
3 - The experts say it takes at least three to four times before your ad works, so be ready to commit for a longer period of time.
4 – When designing your advertising campaign ad, use the “What would interest me” technique. If the ad doesn’t get your attention, it won’t get the attention of others. Keep it short and make it eye-catching.
5 – Logos, although they are important to you, aren’t always an important part of an ad. If the public recognizes your logo, why are you advertising? You want to reach the folks that don’t recognize your logo. Ad message is more important than a logo, especially if you have a limited space to work with.

Rick Priolo is the publisher of Today’s Senior Magazine at

http://www.todayssr.com/advertise.html

Today’s Senior Magazine is a free monthly magazine that is the most read senior publication in their areas of distribution.

The country of Suriname is located in the north of the continent. Suriname also lies in the western hemisphere. This tiny country is encased by one water body the Atlantic Ocean in the north, French Guiana to the east, Brazil to the south and Guyana to the west.

Surinam has a very mixed population. The original people of the country were the Arawaks and the Caribs(Amerindians). When the Dutch colonized the country, other Europeans filtered in. with slavery being a rampant practice, the colonizers imported African slaves. Later bonded laborers from India, Indonesia and China were also brought in.

Mixing the different varieties of vegetables which grow in Suriname with the traditional cuisine of the different ethnic groups, Surinam offers a spicy, good and colourful variety of dishes including American, Chinese, Creole, European, Indian and Indonesian.

Chicken Masala

Masala is an exotic blend of spices- cinnamon, cloves, black pepper, cardamom- that adds flavor and aroma. (Hindustany curry powder)

Ingredients:

For the marinade:

4 cloves of finely chopped garlic
3 to 4 tablespoons of masala powder
1 to 2 tablespoons of corn oil
salt and pepper to taste

For the main meal:

1 kilogramme chicken fillet cut into cubes
2 big chopped onion
2 cloves of finely chopped garlic
1 tablespoon thinly sliced celery
2 whole dry red chilli (optional)
5 hard boiled eggs
2 tablespoons of corn oil and a little bit of water
1 cup tomato puree
salt and pepper to taste
a stock cube if required

vegetables :

Half a kilogramme of string beans or, if not available, green beans
6 to 7 medium size potatoes
some salt and pepper
2 to 3 tablespoons masala (Hindustany curry powder)

Directions

Make a mix of 3 tablespoons of oil, salt, pepper and masala. Add the cut meat and marinade it for at least 2 hours.
Fry the onion, garlic, tomato puree and the celery in the oil , add the meat and cook all until brown. Add some water until the meat is covered and lower the heat.

Immerse the diffuser with the 2 whole dry red chilli in it and let all simmer for about 40 minutes. If needed, season it with extra masala and a stock cube to your taste if necessary.

Cut the potatoes into quarters and cook them just like your meat and than for 10-15 minutes in water with 1-2 teaspoons of masala and some salt and pepper.
Clean the String beans, cut them into 1-2 inch-pieces and cook them as well for 10 minutes until bite-ready.

Boil the eggs until hard(8-10min.) and shell them.
Remove the diffuser with the chili pepper from the meat and season the sauce with some salt and pepper if required. Add the eggs and heat all thoroughly.

Serve the potatoes, the vegetables with white rice, naan bread or roti
(Roti is a kind of a double pancake with ground yellow split peas in it ).

Good Luck - Enjoy your meal

Ever since the inception of gangster rap, the question has always been put out there: should you let your child listen to rap music?

To answer this you really have to think of rap and hiphop music in a form differently than it is actually presented. You must rip away all the hype and the sweet sounding beats and think of the rapper as a kind of public speaker.

What you are left with is a man standing on a podium telling your children about his violent interactions, drugs, crime, dirty money, his negative attitude toward women, and how he survived them all, but is still in danger so he carries his gun.

Is this the type of message you would like to be broadcast in public school assemblies?
Think about yourself. Where would you be right now if you kept feeding your brain with ideas of gloom ,death, despair and hopelessness? I know I would not be writing an article right now.I would be lacking this positive energy to help and influence like so many of my high school classmates.

Why then do we allow our children to put these negative messages and images in their minds? Why allow our children’s minds to be driven into the gutter just because somebody else had negative life experiences?

There will be no more allowing our children to take hold of the negative in this world. That time is now over.You allow this and then wonder why your child has trouble finding the strength to fight peer pressure. You wonder why they are unable to be self-sufficient. You wonder why they are unable to concentrate. You wonder why they do not care about their schooling. You wonder why they do not care about their family.

Have you ever noticed that people really get what they think most about? People naturally get what they mind dwells most upon without fail. If you are listening to ideas of death all day, you will not suddenly begin to think about babies before sleep.You will think more about death.

Your children are not listening to ideas of success; they are not listening to good ideas about school. They are not even listening to anything good about the family. They hear nothing about helping out another human being. Instead, all day they are listening to talk about guns, fast money, crime and violence, death,gloom,disrespect and mercilessness.

What was the predominant theme of the Tupac Shakur and Notorious B.I.G’? ( the two 90’s kings of rap music) it was death, and I find it no coincidence that they both died by the gun , before even seeing 30 years old.

Now what was the predominant theme of every pop artist of the 90’s? love, respect, reliance on the self, God?? All are still alive and well and it is no coincidence to me.

It is the law of giga (garbage in, garbage out) that is always at work, or better yet, you will reap what you sow. It is no coincidence to me that those on the bottom rung in society are more likely to listen to and identify with the messages in most rap music. Also, it is no coincidence that most successful people stay clear of the messages in rap music.

This is not at all a knock on the music , because music is neither good or bad. However , the message must change and this change has started. Individuals are beginning to use this music for its’ best purpose; to inspire and uplift. Your children will be involved, you will be involved and the world will be an improved place.

Learn more and more about Life Records and their music at liferecordsonline.com and/or
myspace.com/liferecordsonline

Although it’s not a common problem, about 3 in every 1000 people suffer from a condition known as familial advanced sleep phase syndrome (FASPS) which is a genetic problem causing a shift in the normal sleep pattern so that, in extreme cases, sufferers, who are often referred to as ‘morning larks’, fall asleep in the late afternoon and then wake again in the very early hours of the morning.

The condition is caused by a mutation in the Period 2 (or Per2) clock gene which is normally triggered by an enzyme produced in response to light and acts to reset the body’s internal clock. In its mutated form however this gene does not respond to its triggering enzyme and so does not in turn act to reset the body clock. The power of this gene was recently demonstrated by transplanting the mutated Period 2 clock gene into mice and it was found that the mice woke four to six hours earlier than normal and similarly went to sleep four to six hours earlier.

Very little is known about the human clock or clocks, as it is probably more accurate to say that there are a series of systems responsible for controlling the body’s daily rhythm. It is known however that light plays an important role in the sleep/wake cycle and that light falling on the retina of the eye, for example, sets off a chain reaction controlling the release of chemicals into the bloodstream which are responsible for inducing sleep.

It is the fact that light plays such an important role in controlling the sleep/wake cycle that has led to the growing use of light therapy to help to reset the body clock in order to counter jet lag and the effects of shift working. Indeed, a carefully planned program of light therapy in advance of travel can do a great deal to help to prevent jet lag or to reduce its effects considerably.

In the case of those suffering from FASPS, because the body is unable to reset its clock in response to light, researchers are looking at ways around this problem and, while resetting the body clock is proving to be extremely difficult, it is not thought that it is impossible.

The hope is that in time researchers will be able to develop a drug which will target specific enzymes responsible for controlling the body’s internal clock and, when this happens, not only will they have a cure for FASPS, but will also have a drug which could be used by shift workers, as well as in preventing jet lag.

Help-Me-To-Sleep.com provides extensive information and advice on a whole range of sleep disorders including jet lag. In addition, Help Me To Sleep looks at natural ways to provide an insomnia cure for millions of sufferers today.

Smoking is one of the most common addictions nowadays. It is a craze even at a young age. Both men and women puff equally and even children as young at 8 have been seen with a cigarette. Regarding the latter, how on earth did that start and where are their parents in all this?

You will notice teen smokers on streets and in informal gatherings nowadays. It is the same with adults. It seems the norm for some groups to smoke and, of course, once one does it, they all follow suit. And thus the addiction is born – from something that was simply conformity.

One of the reasons why people smoke is to minimize the anxiety or pressures they feel at work or in any situation they are involved in. That, in itself, is odd – to be committed to something that is a self-fulfilling disaster. It is very peculiar that there are a number of people interested to try smoking but very few wants to quit and stop smoking. Odd.

Tobacco companies gently remind everyone that it is dangerous to the user’s health but it doesn’t serve as an obstacle for smokers. If only a smoker could analyze the fact that his or her health is at risk and that the disadvantages far outweigh the advantages.

There are many ways to stop smoking and it takes a good deal of time and effort. Oh, and a commitment. A smoker should realize the bad effects it could bring first in his or her lifetime and after that, his or her own family. Secondary smoke is one of the causes of having cancerous illnesses and other fatal diseases.

Eric Hartwell oversees “The World’s Best Homepage” intended to be a user-generated resource where YOUR opinion counts. Anybody can contribute and all are welcomed. Visit us to read, comment upon or share opinions on health and visit our associated site articles for free.