Dangerously Nice: Kretek cigarettes

Dangerously Nice: Kretek cigarettes -

I was a kretek (clove cigarettes) smoker for nearly two years. When I started as a volunteer placement, the first smoking clove cigarettes in Kalimantan, I remember an elderly volunteer warned me, "with the things to be careful, they can also be beautiful."

smile, I said stupidly, "Do not worry, I've never been addicted to cigarettes, I'm just a social smoker" In truth I was wrong. - The cloves of kretek were so fragrant and they are aligned perfectly with coffee - I forgot that I smoking tobacco. Soon I was chain smoking socially. One morning after a pyramid of empty cigarette boxes to see, I realized that I was hooked and I miserably matted my hair and gnarled shuffled to a nearby toko to soothe my throbbing head. I later in a troll - I would moan if I do not my kretek and coffee get fix. After an evening with friends of social life, sometimes I would hide a kretek in an old shoe, making it a mine would be in the morning always easier. Sometimes my husband or friend would find it bloody

Precisely because the cloves are so "nice" -. Marinating, also hides the taste of tobacco - that I became addicted. Obviously I do not want to disturb the kretek Community, but at least I can tell you a little about kreteks that kretek culture and how and why kreteks can dangerously beautiful.

The onomatopoeic word "kretek ', is derived from the crackling that make the cloves as they burn with every inhalation Pop and. They were first invented by Jamahri of Kudus in Central Java in 1880. An asthmatic , Jamahri rubbed first clove oil on his chest (the oil can be toxic if consumed);. but later he discovered that if carnations he were inhaled with tobacco could breathe more easily, it is the compound eugenol in cloves that kreteks their unmistakable impart flavor - eugenol is an antiseptic and anesthetic that numbs the throat Despite their origin kreteks are not a healthy alternative and studies have shown that the health effects to conventional cigarettes are similar (though some contain kreteks more nicotine and tar). .

Still warnings aside health that kretek industry has an income provide farmers and factory workers, as the majority of kreteks to carnation are rolled by hand. The debate thickens now. Not only that kreteks employment to many Indonesians, but they are also regarded as a cultural icon. Ngudut dan Ngopi is while drinking coffee, the "art" of smoking Javanese. The tradition of kreteks with ground coffee and milk, also known as nyethe Decoration is popular painted in East Java and batik patterns with toothpicks or spoon.

Among the kretek communities, a popular anecdote goes as follows; in 1953 at the coronation of Queen Elizabeth II, Indonesian diplomat KH Agus Salim, when viewing an awkward-looking Duke of Edinburgh (who was young and probably nervous), approached him, lit a kretek and asked him if he smell the to recognize. After the prince had admitted that he did not recognize the smell, Agus said with his characteristic satire to him: "This is the reason why 300 or 400 years, your people sailed across the seas and colonized our land."

[1945006IndiesemJahr] film Mereka yang Melampaui Waktu (those who have time Surpass) Darwin Nugraha was published addressed and the book of the same name written by Sigit Setiawan Buddhi. Darwin wanted to meet the documentation older Indonesian-smoking, anti-smoking campaigns, which were still healthy. For the project, older smokers and coffee addicts in Java, Bali and Lombok were interviewed; some were famers who smoked and still plowed and harvested tobacco despite their age. Perhaps it could be argued, however, that the traditional, rural lifestyle of the subjects had some positive health benefits (for example, the rigorous exercise of agriculture) is not suspended, helped the damage of cigarettes to negate and their bodies were on the burden of today's city life and pollution

Some consider flavored cigarettes including kreteks a "gateway" in smoking and many cigarette and kretek companies aware of the youth his goal. in Indonesia, kretek company sponsorships University and a nightclub and music events are organized. According to studies, children and young people are particularly susceptible to marketing strategies, so this is a problem.

Perhaps, from a balanced perspective, it might be wise to say that it's never good to be addicted to something, whether it is. To chocolate, the Internet, "crackberry" or tobacco Ideally, all sweet things should be taken in moderation, even if I was not a good example.

I do not relaxed trains Javanese ngudut smoking possessed. My fault negates any so-called sensual pleasure. I remember watching Bill Hicks chain smoking and thinking, "Flip, which is me in a year or so", and in panic I lit a cigarette. After ten years of kretek smoking, my husband, we agreed, had to give and with sweets as a substitute, we soon discovered that all traces of the will had smoked away. Irritable, we even had a public dispute in a Mexican restaurant in Kemang - I felt ugly and fat, and I was probably after all spare candy that I ate. As a stroppy teenager with a headache, I sat stubbornly in silence and my husband threw his gum on the ceiling in protest. Embarrassingly, I sneaked out of the restaurant, seething with self-loathing and despair.

At the end we found a copy of Allen Carr Easy Way quit smoking and we finish on the same day both after reading the book. We have been cigarettes from now for 14 months without relapse, and I feel free and happy. Sure, I put on weight and was Gemuk (chubby) of friends and people I do not really know, and instead of congratulating me, some friends also teased me into smoking again, but for everyone who wants to give up or gave up, they let me say it is. Congratulations

Learn more

Mark Hanusz Kretek The Culture and Heritage of Indonesia's Clove Cigarettes (04) Equinox Publishing

Sigit Setiawan Buddhi, Mereka yang Melampaui Waktu (2013) Pustaka dan Sempu Layar Nusa

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