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MAY/JUN 2005 FEATURES: How the East Was Won: BAT and Big Tobacco's Conquest of the Former Soviet Union Yasuní Blues: The IMF, Ecuador and Coerced Oil Exploration White Gold or Fool's Gold: What Will a Rollback of U.S. Cotton Subsidies Mean for Farmers in Burkina Faso? Deadly Consequences: How the IMF Provoked Bolivia Into Bloody Crisis INTERVIEWS: Tackling Big Tobacco: The Establishment of the Framework Convention on Tobacco Control Big Tobacco's Big Seduction; Women, Tobacco and the Glorification of Addiction Philip Morris Comes to Indonesia: What Does a Company Get for $5 Billion? DEPARTMENTS: Editorial The Front |
Big Tobacco Stalks the Globe
How the East Was Won: BAT and Big Tobacco's Conquest of the Former Soviet Unionby Anna Gilmore and Martin McKee The 15 states that emerged from the ruins of the USSR inherited whichever parts of the Soviet tobacco industry lay in its territory but without the benefit of the centralized Soviet system of subsidies, inter-republic trade arrangements and distribution mechanisms on which it had relied. Cigarette shortages that arose in the late 1980s worsened, leading to protests in major cities, in what became known as the tobacco rebellion. The stage was set for the entry of the multinationals, which saw the former communist bloc — then the world’s second largest cigarette market, with the Soviet Union alone the third largest market after China and the United States — as a golden opportunity. “[T]he dramatic increase in the proportion of the world’s cigarette market now open to free enterprise [make these] the most exciting times I have seen in the tobacco industry in the last 40 years,” stated Patrick Sheehy, chairman of BAT Industries between 1982 and 1995, in October 1990. MORE>> Tackling Big Tobacco: The Establishment of the Framework Convention on Tobacco ControlAn interview with Derek Yach Derek Yach shepherded negotiations over the Framework Convention on Tobacco Control, the first global health treaty negotiated through the World Health Organization (WHO), which was adopted in May 2003 and came into force in February 2005. He established the Tobacco Free Initiative at WHO and during the tenure of WHO Director-General Gro Harlem Brundtland served as the agency’s Executive Director of Noncommunicable Diseases and Mental Health. Yach is currently a professor at the Yale School of Public Health, and head of the school’s Division of Global Health. He is co-editor of the online journal Globalization and Health. MORE>> Big Tobacco's Big Seduction; Women, Tobacco and the Glorification of AddictionAn interview with Mary Assunta Mary Assunta is chair of the Framework Convention Alliance, an international network advocating for adoption and implementation of a strong Framework Convention on Tobacco Control, the global anti-tobacco treaty. She is a recipient of the 2003 Luther Terry Award for outstanding individual leadership in tobacco control, awarded by the American Cancer Society. A native of Malaysia, Assunta is currently conducting research into internal documents of the tobacco industry for her PhD in Public Health at the University of Sydney. MORE>> Philip Morris Comes to Indonesia: What Does a Company Get for $5 Billion?An interview with Tjandra Aditama Dr. Tjandra Yoga Aditama is director of medical & nursing care at Persahabatan General Hospital in Jakarta, and a lecturer and research coordinator at the University of Indonesia. He is the third chair of the Indonesia Smoking Control Society, and involved with numerous other organizations focused on pulmonology, tuberculosis, and medical management. In March 2005, Philip Morris International announced that it would take over the Indonesian tobacco company Sampoerna, in an effort to expand sales in Indonesia, the fifth largest cigarette market in the world. Dr. Aditama has spoken out about the public health impact of a stronger Philip Morris presence in Indonesia. MORE>>
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