Beirut

Beirut smokes. In the car, the restaurant or the office. Blue smoke everywhere, and no-one is annoyed. The city is a true paradise for Europeans who are suffering from the ever more restrictive smoking ban. Here they can puff away wherever and whenever they want. Smoking is a normal part of public life here.

“If I wasn’t allowed to smoke here? I wouldn’t come here”, says Mohammad Sherkawy, who has come to the café T-Marbouta in Hamra with his friends, Nada Elrabih and Rabih Shwairy. For the 24-year-old, smoking a cigarette after eating is part of a good dinner. Mohammad puffs one and a half packets into the air every day. “I know it’s unhealthy”, he admits, “but it also is part of the Lebanese culture.” In Germany, Mohammed would be an outsider. Smokers are regarded as a social minority there today.

This is the effect of extensive anti-smoking campaigns launched by the German Health Ministry and the fact that cigarettes are becoming more and more expensive and cigarette advertisements are generally prohibited. In addition, tobacco companies are legally obligated to place notes such as “Smoking harms your health and the health of those around you” onto every packet of cigarettes in bold print.

What is more: there is virtually nowhere smokers can go anymore to indulge in their addiction. The Federal State of Hesse, to which Frankfurt belongs, already prohibited smoking in all public buildings years ago. Since the smoking ban was also extended to schools in 2004, students and teachers meet outside the entrances to smoke in the breaks.

Particularly the smoking ban for restaurants and bars introduced in 2007 caused heated debates. Mainly the landlords of small, so-called one-room bars and restaurants complained about drastic drops in turnover. They felt disadvantaged, because restaurants and bars with two rooms were allowed to declare one of their rooms as a smoking area. Now there are plans for changing the law and allowing people to smoke again in small bars and restaurants.

However, there is no uniform smoking ban for the entire country. Nearly every one of the 16 German federal states has its own terms. Bavaria, for instance, allows smoking in beer tents so as not to endanger the atmosphere at the Munich Oktoberfest. But: the European Commission in Brussels is working on a general smoking ban for all EU member states. The basis for implementing this ban is work protection. The EU Health Commissioner, Androulla Vassiliou (Cyprus) explains this as follows: restaurants and bars also are workplaces.

The landlord of T-Marbouta, Moustaf Makky cannot even imagine prohibiting his guests to smoke. “It would be quite empty here”, he is sure. “People would go somewhere else.” A discussion led on a political level like in the EU states does not exist in Lebanon, says Makky.

The question is: why do the Lebanese smoke so much? Of course, one explanation is the price. While a packet of cigarettes costs five euros in Germany, fags are sold for a fifth in Beirut (2000 Lebanese pounds). A guest at T-Marbouta, Rabih Shwairy (47), has another explanation why the Lebanese enjoy smoking so much: “It’s relaxing. That also has a lot to do with the past.” So the civil war and the July War of 2006 are driving the Lebanese to nicotine?

This presumption is not all that far-fetched. According to a survey of the World Health Organisation WHO, an average five percent of the people use psychoactive drugs worldwide; in Lebanon, it is 16 percent. According to media reports, post-traumatic disorders such as depressions are a social taboo; many Lebanese suffer from them without knowing that they are sick. While the psychic consequences of World War II for the people were researched scientifically in Germany, and psychotherapeutic help even is paid by health insurance, the awareness for this still is lacking for the greatest part in Lebanon according to expert assessments. “No-one reports about psychotherapy in Lebanon. But the government offers the latest antipsychotic medication free of cost”, Dori Hachem, psychiatrist at the American University of Beirut, told the Daily Star. Virtually no acceptance and little help for mental illnesses – no wonder people smoke.

At least some people are making a start regarding a smoking ban. The Starbucks chain, for example, only allows smoking outside. And T-Marbouta also has a smoke-free room, the library. Of course, it is completely empty on this evening.