'The Anachronism' - Limited Edition of 15 Photograph

This attractive Ukrainian woman shop woman dressed in fine clothing here takes her break to go behind a nearby building to indulge her cigarette habit. She is forbidden from smoking at work or indoors in a commercial establishment. so she had to find refuge to smoke in peace. This is a common scene for workers throughout the West who persist in using tobacco in places where workplace smoking is now outlawed and they are excluded from common areas. Such smokers now often seek refuge singly or in groups in special places, such as in alleys, behind bullrings or just down the street, far from building entrance and windows. Smoking now has become officially and mostly socially ostracized. The tobacco industry has dropped its admittedly false claims that smoking is somehow healthy and now admit smoking and other tobacco use cause lung cancer, heart disease, emphysema and a variety of other diseases and often severely aggravates or slows healing for other ailments such as broken bones, etc. Smoking thus places huge economic burdens on society as well as overtaxing medical care providers and national health delivery systems. Scenes like this in which smokers face severe discrimination for indulging have become common throughout the Western world where anti-smoking campaigns have taken hold, often with substantial success. That is in opposition to China, where, for instance those attending gatherings often are expected to present their host with a carton of cigarettes, similar to how many middle and higher income US adults attending parties long have presented their hosts, say, with a bottle of good wine The smoking habit continues to take a huge toll in health and premature death worldwide; Ukraine is no exception. One world health organization counts Ukraine among the world's top 15 counties bearing the largest health burden from tobacco use. Huge numbers of Ukrainians suffer smoking related illnesses causing the country to suffer a large number of preventable tobacco-related illnesses and premature deaths. That places an enormous cost on society. In recent past, tobacco companies in Ukraine hired large numbers of attractive, highly-educated and highly paid Ukrainians seen as leaders to market their products --with great sales success and resultant high profits. Current studies show 23.0 per cent of the adult population 15 and over uses tobacco produces -- 40.3 per cent of males and 6.9 per cent of women. A decade ago female tobacco use appeared on the rise with smoking shown as increasingly 'unattractive, even repugnant' . The result: a decrease in tobacco use among an adult females who traditionally have taken great pride in showing off their good looks and good personal grooming. Now smoking seems to have lost the appeal for women it showed just a decade ago Ukraine has a vigorous anti-smoking campaign, but according to a recent study its cigarettes cost an est. $1.05 a package, Europe's lowest priced, Ukraine's bargain priced tobacco contrasts with, say, Germany where a package costs about $5. and the UK where it costs an est. $10. Unsurprisingly that has given rise to a vigorous smuggling trade, such as occurs between Ukraine, and border states such as Hungary, just one of a several Western countries which border Ukraine\ Hang glider pilots seeming to practice their sport over the trans-border areas such as with Hungary sometimes are laden with large loads of cigarette cartons, for which there is a large European tax-free black market that promises huge potential profits for smugglers. Drones, hang gliders, airplanes, and vehicles laden with cartons and boxes of cartons cross various Western borders. Vehicles often commonly pay border guards a 'gratuity' to ensure safe crossing. Ukraine has huge endemic corruption, common to former Republics of the Soviet Union where in Soviet times a payoff to a supervisor or party boss might mean assignment to a 'job' where the only duty was to show up for the pay. Sometimes it meant gaining work where corruption was common and lucrative -- such as work in a butcher shop or distributor center in a country where the saying among the proletariat was ;meat is for holidays.' and also where some of the inventory could easily be diverted not only to the home table in the case off food but also to the black market, which -- despite Soviet controls -- flourished. The Soviet Union collapsed because of its inability to provide for its citizens and huge endemic corruption -- Ukraine was one of the included Soviet Republics and often called 'the breadbasket of the Soviet Union' Corruption was a center point of the recent presidential campaign in Ukraine with a surprise when a comedian who whose anti-corruption comedy theme campaigned against the incumbent, a confection oligarch who has admitted he founded his career long ago with corruption before becoming president and who now is charged with dragging his feet against anti-corruption efforts demanded by the World Bank as a condition of continued support for the Ukrainian economy. That economy is in tatters because of the current war with pro-Russian, Moscow-promoted separatists in the country's far East border areas. The two candidates face off against each other in a coming runoff. . Unlike neighboring Russia, Ukraine has a tradition since founding as the Soviet Union fell in 1991, of respecting the voters wishes in presidential elections, and recent such elections have shown a surprising degree of freedom from corruption and election interference at the Ukrainian ballot box. Present studies show 40..1 per cent of Ukrainian males use some sort of tobacco, but only 6.9 per cent of women. Overall 23. 0 per cent of the adult population (15 and over) uses tobacco product of one sort or another. This woman, taking her break behind a building so she can have a puff, is one of them. john (John Crosley) © 2014-2019, article and photo, John Crosley/Crosley Trust, all rights reserved. No reproduction or other use without express prior written permission from copyright holder.

Photography:Color on Paper

Artist Produced Limited Edition of:15

Size:40 W x 26.7 H x 0.1 D in

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