Dear reader,
Vapes and heated tobacco products should not be made available, let alone marketed, to the young. Also, vapes and heated tobacco products are potentially useful cessation tools, and possibly safer alternatives, for current cigarette smokers.
Given medium-term global evidence, this is what’s fair to say. (Long-term effects aren’t yet known.) And this is the public health contradiction that we must live with, not just in this vape mania month, but probably for a long time.
Singapore first banned these products, but with oh-so-minimal enforcement. All over the city, from void decks to downtown bars, people would sneak a puff. By not regulating a legal market, we lost the chance to control the product and collect better public health data. And by not strictly enforcing the ban, we allowed all manner of illegal vapes in, possibly with unknown toxins. Juicy, icey, pods hooked the youth, and later so did harder drugs.
Today, the backlash. While we must prevent harm to our youth, the government’s anti-vaping messaging has been simplistic and wonky, if not downright misleading. Consider a government explainer that advises parents to tell their kids that vapes are “not safer than cigarettes”. That’s wrong. More accurate: they may be safer—we don’t know—but they are certainly not safe, don’t do it.
Or consider Ong Ye Kung’s laughable response when asked why vapes are banned when cigarettes are not. He suggested that somebody who finishes an entire pod in one day—smoking every waking minute, perhaps—would have consumed the nicotine equivalent of four packs of cigarettes. Does Singapore’s health minister not realise that it’s the other toxic chemicals in cigarettes, not all present in vapes, that are likely the bigger risk? Does he not realise that the messaging on the government’s own approved Nicorette patches, available in pharmacies island-wide, is that nicotine is not bad for you?
I’m sure he does. But perhaps the demands of a crisis have caused a reversion to elite condescension in comms. Some online mocked him; and I worry our young will see through it. If you want a good review of the current global evidence on vaping—and how societies are managing it—read my colleague Abhishek’s recent blurb.
I’m an occasional smoker, who’s tried many of these products. I still prefer cigarettes, and appreciate Singapore’s overall approach: nudging us to shrinking corners of the island; raising the sin tax; and opening many cessation clinics, all of which foster a climate of mild social disapproval. I’m conscious it’s bad, without ever feeling too ostracised; my consumption has dropped, and maybe I’ll quit one day.
So although this anti-vape crusade doesn’t affect me personally, it will hurt others, especially those less privileged, who’ve been choosing vapes over (pricey) cigarettes. While I appreciate the urgent need to stop youth vaping, I don’t think the government’s approach is the best. It should consider (an extremely stringent) regulation and sale of vapes and heated tobacco products. That’ll take a while. In the meantime, we need a clear message that doesn’t dumb down the complexities, which turns many into cynics and disbelievers. The government should trust Singaporeans to sit with these contradictions, as we together manage our addictions, and contemplate a brighter public health future.
Another bit of news that didn’t make it into our weekly digest is about a fake rape report. A 19-year-old woman had consensual sex with a 43-year-old man she met online. Before they met in person, he’d offered S$200 for “her time”. After sex, she demanded S$1,200, and began scolding him. He counter-offered S$500. Disgruntled, she reported rape to the police, and then sent him a message: “You're fucked.” Well, after pleading guilty this week, maybe she is. I hope our journalism at Jom reflects our efforts to mitigate deep-seated gender inequities in society. Part of that is criticising (the rare) instances when women weaponise contemporary legal and social dynamics for their benefit. Tragically, they do an immense disservice to actual victims, always struggling to be taken seriously by cops and others.
- Why Indonesians have risen and how you can help
- Opacity about political violence in Singapore isn’t helpful
- IPS’s post-election survey offers different interpretations of our electorate
- Singapore’s moral cowardice regarding Palestine
- Who’ll make life decisions for you when you can’t? Why the LPA matters
- Singapore’s Lawrence Wong and Venice’s Lorenzo de’ Medici
- The SG Culture pass, and other ways of spurring the arts industry
- Cathay and the wave of closures that should slap us out of our stupor
And more, in our weekly digest. Read it now.
Essay: “Beyond comfort: unpacking the reality of Maggi Noodles” by Shumin Tan
If last week’s essay featuring The Singapore Girl evoked nostalgia about travel, this week’s might do the same for food; and not just any food, but comfort food, nostomania, just like mum used to make. And if last week’s was a critique of how industry used a sexualised, feminine icon to elevate service at the expense of equality, then this week’s is of how industry used a catchy brand and slogan to elevate convenience at the expense of tradition. In both cases, we’re left with a gnawing unease, because whatever the structural flaws behind their conceptions, we instinctively want to celebrate The Singapore Girl and Maggi Mee. Shumin Tan opens her essay:
“Maggi has followed me across oceans. At New York University in Abu Dhabi, where the dining hall rotated between pasta, shawarma, and paneer, it was the one thing that still tasted of home. I’d stash packets of curry Maggi in my suitcase after each trip back to Malaysia, guarding them like treasure. On nights when the city outside felt too foreign and the dorm too sterile, I’d tear open a packet, boil it on the tiny hot plate we weren’t supposed to have, and watch the steam fog up my dorm window. I’d eat it crouched by the bed, texting my sister a photo of the yolk set just right, feeling—for a moment—like I was back in my mother’s kitchen.”
Ah. I think I know what I want to make before I continue reading Shumin’s piece.
Jom makan,
Sudhir Vadaketh
Jom
Behind Jom’s art with Charmaine Poh
This week, Jeanette Yap returns with her sunny, playful illustrative work to portray the influence that Maggi noodles has had on the internet generation. In the header, a young person is seen gobbling down a bowl of noodles just past midnight, with one eye on their phone: a multi-tasking phenomenon that has become normalised in today’s society. The spot depicts the combination of social media and food consumption habits, leading to novel, trendy recipes that make Maggi’s brand transcend a story of convenience to become one of nostalgia, home-making and comfort.
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