Developing countries like Cambodia bear the brunt of aggressive marketing techniques by huge multinational tobacco companies. The lure of cash from tobacco companies results in lenient advertising regulations. There are no health warnings on tobacco products in Cambodia, and no bans on sales to minors. Since 1993, there has been a ban on tobacco advertising on the public broadcast media. But it does not apply to private media, with surveys showing cigarette ads on television and radio quadrupling since 1996, tobacco advertising accounting for forty-six percent of all street advertising, and Japan Tobacco even advertising its Mild Seven cigarettes on ice cream trucks.
But not all is lost. Since the fall of the oppressive Khmer Rouge regime, religion that had previously been suppressed has reemerged, and asserted itself as an instrument of change. Buddhist monks are now spearheading the campaign to persuade Cambodians to give up tobacco -- a tough assignment in a country with one of the highest rates of smoking in the world and life expectancy of only fifty-four years.
The producer of this program has collected extensive resources at www.tve.org/lifeonline/index.cfm?aid=1021.
The other titles in the series are:
1. City Life - Explores Sao Paolo in introduction to series examining the effects of globalization on people and cities.
2. The Long March - Community in Chengdu, China has organized to clean-up polluted river.
3. The Health Protestors - Health care advocates demand universal health care for the world's population at international convention in Dhaka.
4. Together Against Violence - Poor Jamaican community overcomes violence.
5. Paradise Domain - Pacific islanders are not benefiting from digital windfall or World Wide Web.
6. Pavements of Gold - Increase in urban poverty and population, caused by globalization, threatens Peruvians.
7. Doing the Right Thing - Porto Alegre, Brazil has benefited from urban revitalization.
8. My Mother Built This House - Large homeless contingent in South Africa has organized to build houses for each other.
9. Barcelona Blueprint - Barcelona today is a model of urban planning that may prove sustainable.
10. Gaza Under Siege - The Gaza Strip has been a virtual prison for Palestinians for over fifty years.
11. Waiting to Go - Palestinian refugees in Lebanon are denied human rights.
12. A Fistful of Rice - Protein deficiency threatens generations of children in Nepal.
13. Patently Obvious - International patent regulations only protect multinationals.
14. The Other Side - Poor Mexicans attempt perilous border crossing to US, often at the expense of family, traditional culture, and their lives.
15. The Miller's Tale: Bread Is Life - Efforts are underway in Egypt and Yemen to fortify flour with iron to wipe out needless malnutrition.
16. Brazil: Winning Against AIDS - Brazil has developed generic antiretroviral drugs to care for those afflicted with HIV/AIDS.
17. Missing Out - Anemia threatens the population of Niger and Tanzania.
18. Stop the Traffick - Investigates horror of child sex industry in Cambodia.
19. My Hanoi - Tour of rapidly urbanizing Hanoi, and the effect on citizens and culture.
20. Lines in the Dust - In revolutionary programs in Northern Ghana and India, gender roles are challenged, and illiterate adults educated.
21. Paying the Price - Pharmaceutical companies block generic drugs, threatening the lives of millions of Africans with AIDS.
