The Kingdom of Bhutan (North of Bangladesh and East of Nepal for those who need a hint) has pledged that the entire country will contain only non-smokers by the end of the year. In all but two of Bhutan’s provinces the sale and smoking of tobacco is already illegal and the Bhutanese Government has promised the World Health Organisation that they will rid the remaining provinces of tobacco smoke by December 31st. Wow.
This kind of total control reminds me of People’s Albania where it was a serious criminal offence to sport a beard. I don’t know why, it just was.
On the other hand it would be nice to be in utter and complete totalitarian control of my own small country. I’d ban people chewing gum with an open mouth for a start. It’s one of these habits which irritates me more than it perhaps should. The worst practitioners are those people on trains whose chewing rhythmn includes a one-second pause between having a closed almost-normal looking mouth and the look of utter bovinity on their gormless faces which appears immediately after they’ve displayed the insides of their mouths to you. Grrr…
Let’s close with a quick rendition of the (technically untrue) Albanian National Anthem to salute the Kingdom of Bhutan and to take our minds of degenerate habits wherever they might appear….
All together now: “Albania ! Albania ! it’s not as repressive as Romania………….”
