Alcohol and tobacco hold back Vietnamese youth
Should we just see and accept the story of Vietnamese youth being "physically weak, smoking a lot and drinking a lot" without any solution when thinking about the future of the country?
* Vietnamese youth still have a long way to go before they can "stand shoulder to shoulder" with youth of other countries.
That is the assessment of Mr. Vu Dang Minh (Director of the Department of Youth Affairs, Ministry of Home Affairs) from the recent national report on youth showing that the physical qualities - especially endurance, strength, and stature - of Vietnamese youth are ranked as poor and very poor compared to world standards, falling behind many countries in the region.
Mr. Minh shared: Actually, we have seen this problem for a long time, not just now. Realizing the importance of health care for young people, the youth development strategy has proposed two groups of solutions.
The first is to enhance innovation in physical activities and sports movements in vocational and general schools to create conditions for young people to actively participate in sports activities and physical training. At the same time, synchronously deploy solutions on reproductive health, HIV/AIDS prevention, drugs, and prostitution among young people.
 |
| Chart comparing beer and cigarette prices in Vietnam with some other countries. Accordingly, the prices of these two unhealthy items are very cheap in Vietnam! Source: Numbeo.com (specializing in statistics on living conditions in countries) - Graphics: Nhu Khanh |
Next, the Ministry of Culture, Sports and Tourism has developed a "Project for a comprehensive program to improve the physical strength and stature of Vietnamese people in the 2010-2030 period", with the goal of increasing the average height of young Vietnamese men to 168.5cm by 2030 and women to 157.5cm at the age of 18.
* Unofficial figures show that a relatively high proportion of Vietnamese youth smoke and drink alcohol. How does the National Youth Report propose solutions to this problem?
- We have had programs to prevent the harmful effects of tobacco and alcohol abuse. However, the effectiveness is still limited. If we still have the administrative method of setting up a steering committee, it will be difficult to achieve the desired results. Currently, there is no program that brings a typical intervention model that has an effective impact on the adolescent/young adult target group.
In particular, intervention models to help adolescents/young adults quit smoking and alcohol are lacking in Vietnam. A 2010 survey showed that many smokers want to quit but cannot easily access addiction treatment services in Vietnam.
* In many countries, there are regulations prohibiting the sale of cigarettes and alcohol to minors and these regulations are strictly enforced. What do you think about our country?
- Drinking alcohol is also a cultural issue. For example, in many mountainous provinces, it has become a habit and you can't help but drink.
In urban areas, according to the results of a community consultation on alcohol abuse in Vietnam conducted by the Institute of Sociology, people buy alcohol more easily than they buy gasoline, 45% of households have alcohol in their homes. Thus, this is an issue that must be approached from the perspective of changing the habits, customs and culture of the whole society.
International experience in preventing the harmful effects of tobacco and alcohol abuse shows that many countries have very clear prohibitions, accompanied by strong sanctions, not just regulations for the sake of it.
Some measures have been proposed by experts such as restricting the production, import and trading of alcohol and beer; limiting points of sale and hours of sale; increasing taxes related to alcohol and tobacco, and at the same time stepping up the fight against smuggling of these items...
I think there is no shortage of solutions, political determination is there, what is needed now is to concretize them into legal regulations and seriously implement them.
We are currently proposing to build a youth index, similar in method to the administrative reform index, through which we can measure the level of implementation of youth development policies of provinces and cities, which provinces are good, which provinces are weak, and if weak, there must be corrections.
| Beer, wine and cigarettes are so cheap! *Alessandro Corradi(25 years old, Italian): The Power of Advertising One of the reasons why young people smoke and drink a lot is because of the power of advertising. Images from newspapers and movies appear everywhere. The more toxic the product, the more attractive the advertising strategy. The fact that young people smoke, drink a lot of alcohol and do not care about their health happens in many countries, not just Vietnam. However, I think that each person's awareness is very important. You cannot find excuses to compromise your smoking or drinking a lot of alcohol. Hãy luôn nhớ rằng sức khỏe tốt sẽ mang lại tinh thần tốt, đầu óc minh mẫn. Bên cạnh đó thay vì luôn nói về tác hại của thuốc lá và rượu bia, chúng ta nên gợi ý cho giới trẻ những giải pháp giúp họ giảm căng thẳng, giải trí bổ ích và hướng dẫn họ làm theo. *Martin Bernard (27 tuổi, người Pháp): Sợ uống kiểu “sát phạt” Tại Pháp, tôi cùng bạn bè vẫn thỉnh thoảng đi uống một vài ly cocktail hoặc rượu, đặc biệt vào dịp cuối tuần. Tuy nhiên, chúng tôi không thách nhau uống theo kiểu “sát phạt”, cũng không có các “luật” như ai đến trễ thì bị phạt. Trong những cuộc gặp gỡ, bia rượu có thể khiến không khí sôi nổi hoặc thêm “gia vị” một phần nào đó. Nhưng dẫu sao đây cũng chỉ là loại đồ uống. Ai cũng có lúc say xỉn một đôi lần hoặc cần phải hút một điếu thuốc. Tuy nhiên, mỗi người cần biết đâu là giới hạn vì thực chất bia rượu và thuốc lá hoàn toàn không tốt cho sức khỏe. Ngoài ra, bạn cũng nên chọn một môn thể thao phù hợp với sở thích và thời gian biểu để luyện tập. Việc rèn luyện sức khỏe, chế độ ăn uống lành mạnh giúp thải bớt những chất độc hại sau những lần bạn hút thuốc và uống bia. *Kim Tae Hyun (37 tuổi, người Hàn Quốc): Drink during working hours In Korea, restaurants, offices, parks, and walking streets all prohibit smoking. Violators will be fined between VND480,000 and VND4.48 million, so many people have quit smoking and are more careful about smoking in public places. According to Korean law, people over 20 years old are allowed to smoke and drink beer. In Korea, there are regular campaigns to educate people about the harmful effects of alcohol and tobacco, there are laws prohibiting sales to students and the tax on alcohol and tobacco is quite high. This year, the price of cigarettes has increased to 89,600 - 134,400 VND/pack. Beer and alcohol culture is similar in every country, but after living in Vietnam for 14 years, I see the difference between Vietnamese and Korean drinking culture. In Vietnam, many people drink during working hours, which is normal. |
According to Tuoitre.vn