The Malaysian Insider :: Features
The Malaysian Insider :: Features |
| US launches new anti-smoking offensive Posted: 29 Mar 2013 09:00 AM PDT
The new campaign encourages smokers to kick the habit with a series of adverts spotlighting the wrenching personal stories of individuals battling smoking-related illnesses or diseases. "This campaign is saving lives and saving dollars by giving people the facts about smoking in an easy-to-understand way that encourages quitting," US Health Secretary Kathleen Sebelius said. A campaign run on similar lines last year proved effective, with the number of calls to helplines dedicated to people trying to quit smoking soaring following the adverts. The number of calls to health services doubled to around 200,000 during the 2013 campaign, which cost US$54 million (RM167 million) and lasted 12 weeks. Page views of a quit smoking website tied into the campaign increased five-fold compared to the same period in 2011. Health officials say the campaign may have encouraged tens of thousands of people to quit smoking. Nearly 70 per cent of smokers in the United States say they want to stop, according to the federal Centres for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) which is running the campaign. The adverts will blanket across television, radio, newspaper and other outlets, encouraging smokers to call a free hotline (1-800-QUIT-NOW) in order to access counselling services and information. "Smoking and second-hand smoke kill — and they also harm smokers and non-smokers," CDC Director Tom Frieden said. "These are the kinds of ads that smokers tell us help motivate them to quit, saving lives and money." Despite the proven dangers of tobacco, nearly one in five adults in the US smoke. Approximately 90 per cent of smokers take up the habit before they turn 18 and many suffer serious health problems while young. More than 440,000 Americans die each year from smoking-related diseases, while for each death, approximately 20 people live with one or more illness caused by the habit. — AFP/Relaxnews |
| Spain’s holy parades thrive despite falling faith Posted: 29 Mar 2013 08:38 AM PDT
First come the penitents, hundreds of mute figures in cone shaped hoods and long robes. They carry metre-long white candles. Then the centrepiece sways into view — a gilded float with an 18th Century wooden statue of Jesus. This is The Silence, a brotherhood formed in 1340 and one of the best known of the solemn processions in the week before Easter that are drawing ever bigger crowds despite declining religious faith and Spain's worsening economic plight. "Some people like football. Some people like bullfights. We like Holy Week," said Manuel Nunez, 30, one of 200 men dressed as Roman centurions to escort an image of the Virgin Mary in Seville's biggest procession, the Macarena, with 3,200 participants. Normally, Nunez works as a Royal Guard in Madrid. Similar Christian commemorations of the death of Jesus are common throughout Spain and Latin America. But nowhere is the fervour as intense as in Seville, a city of 700,000 in the Andalusia region of southern Spain. And the crowds of both onlookers and participants have been growing despite a decline in Catholicism that has led to fewer than half of Spaniards attending church regularly. Some 72 percent described themselves as Catholic in a 2011 survey compared to 82 percent a decade earlier.
Despite recession that has sent unemployment soaring above a quarter of the workforce, tens of thousands of tourists from all over Spain lined the streets to view the processions this year. Among reasons for the growing appeal of the parades, participants cite a renewed interest in centuries-old traditions and a search for meaningful pursuits. Ready to pay Back in the 1970s, churches paid dockworkers to carry the heavy floats. But now people pay for the privilege, says Moises Fajardo, 39, who every year for 20 years has carried the Macarena's 2450-kilo float with an image of Jesus. "There are hundreds of people on a waiting list to be bearers," said Fajardo, stretching his stiff neck as he waited his next turn under the float. It takes 54 men at a time to carry the float on their shoulders. Two crews alternate 40-minute shifts throughout the night, hidden from the crowds behind curtains and walking in lockstep. There are eight processions a day throughout Holy Week in Seville, but the best-known Cofradias, or brotherhoods, march in the early hours of Good Friday, weaving through the city for up to 14 hours along criss-crossing routes.
The Macarena procession is so long it takes two hours to file past as brass bands play accompanying dirges. Crowds applaud as the bearers of the floats make difficult manoeuvres through the narrow streets of the city. Like many local people, Angel Garcia, a 39-year-old English teacher, watches a set number of parades every year in a particular order marked by his attachment to the different statues: "We've been doing this for more than 600 years, with great love and devotion to these sacred images." — Reuters |
| You are subscribed to email updates from The Malaysian Insider :: Features To stop receiving these emails, you may unsubscribe now. | Email delivery powered by Google |
| Google Inc., 20 West Kinzie, Chicago IL USA 60610 | |
0 ulasan:
Catat Ulasan