I wish I knew more about how the tobacco industries and anti-smoking campaigns worked here to share my view on things in the Philippines. But, ah...
In the other hand, this is a very poor third world country and a lot of laws regarding free-smoke spaces, advertisement and warnings just aren't carried out (or obeyed) because big tobacco companies put a lot of money in authorities (and smoking is a big industry here).
This, so much. And:
So these things show and underlying problem: being disabled in a poor country.
THIS!
It's very draining talking about disability issues in the Philippines because inevitably someone in the US will enter the conversation and say "yeah, we have that too" -- but I think while some fundamental issues are the same, some are very different. Definitely, your last sentence summed it up so well. It's impossible to separate the issues that affect being disabled in a poor country, because the support system is very weak (if it's there at all) and a lot of medication is inaccessible for many people, not to mention the opportunity to get work is absent in many cases. (Some disabled people become street beggars and use their disabilities -- if visible -- as a sort of -- ugh, I'm sorry about this word -- attention-draw, playing up being seen as grotesque, and aklsdhaf the system and what people have to do to survive within the system -- it's all so messed up, I don't know what to think about it.)
no subject
In the other hand, this is a very poor third world country and a lot of laws regarding free-smoke spaces, advertisement and warnings just aren't carried out (or obeyed) because big tobacco companies put a lot of money in authorities (and smoking is a big industry here).
This, so much. And:
So these things show and underlying problem: being disabled in a poor country.
THIS!
It's very draining talking about disability issues in the Philippines because inevitably someone in the US will enter the conversation and say "yeah, we have that too" -- but I think while some fundamental issues are the same, some are very different. Definitely, your last sentence summed it up so well. It's impossible to separate the issues that affect being disabled in a poor country, because the support system is very weak (if it's there at all) and a lot of medication is inaccessible for many people, not to mention the opportunity to get work is absent in many cases. (Some disabled people become street beggars and use their disabilities -- if visible -- as a sort of -- ugh, I'm sorry about this word -- attention-draw, playing up being seen as grotesque, and aklsdhaf the system and what people have to do to survive within the system -- it's all so messed up, I don't know what to think about it.)