2017 Magellan
SYDNEY, NSW
My two weeks in Sydney went by so fast! Genuinely, Sydney is one of my favorite places that I have ever been. I say that almost every time I go to a new city or country, but this time I absolutely mean it. It has to be one of the most livable places in the world. The public transportation, like I said in my first post, is so extremely well run and so clean, and is the polar opposite of public transport in the US. While the cost of living is pretty high in Sydney, so is minimum wage ($17.00), almost double what it is in most US states. That pretty much makes up for the high costs. Everyone is so nice and someone is always willing to help you out. As for smoking and tobacco control here, it is absolutely amazing. The policies and taxes that they have in place have really worked wonders, and have been proven by the extremely low current rate of daily smoking at 12.5%. During my time here, I must have seen about 1/6 of the smokers that I would have seen in the US. It is almost rare to see them in any public area, and you really have to look to find them in a large concentration. The people have played a big part in this too, because for any policy or legislation to work, people have to be accepting and supportive of it. Nobody in Sydney would even think about smoking in their house, or by a child or pregnant woman, and overall, I think smokers are a dying breed here. While the US and Sydney have been mostly similar on where you can buy tobacco, mainly gas stations, supermarkets and convenience stores, with the packs being behind the counter out of sight from the general population, in Australia, the packs have to be in a locked cabinet which you cannot see into. I think that this plays a huge role for impulse buyers who may have previously quit, and walking by an open shelf of cigarettes could make it harder on them to resist. Out of sight, out of mind. It is very bittersweet to leave, but I can't wait for my week in Perth & Cairns and then to go home!
PERTH, WA
If I have learned anything from this week, it's that I wish every business, non-profit, corporation, foundation, and governmental organization was like the Heart Foundation of Western Australia. I have never met a group of people as hospitable as they were. From initially giving me an office to work from all week to setting up more than five interviews for me, they were nothing but amazing. As for the state of Western Australia and the city of Perth; they are about 10 years ahead of us when it comes to tobacco control and policies. Basically the rest of the world, especially the US should be following their lead. What I also learned during my time here, is that the US, out of 195 countries in the world, is one of 45 that doesn't use plain packaging or graphic images on cigarette packs. 150 countries use graphic images on cigarette packaging, and for some reason, the US, which is supposed to be a world leader, doesn't. However, as far advanced as Perth was with tobacco control, and even though their smoking rates were far lower than the US, the same trends with socioeconomic groups does occur. I was lucky enough to spend most of my time in a part of Perth called Subiaco, which is a higher income community that is lined with healthy cafes, restaurants, boutiques and bakeries. In my entire week there, I witnessed one person smoking, which was a nurse outside the grounds of the King Edward Maternity & Women's Hospital. Even then, she knew it was unacceptable, and the second someone walked past her, she looked ashamed and put it out. The staff at the Heart Foundation explained to me that for the most part, all of Perth resembles Subiaco, because it is almost impossible to see smokers out and about. The only part of Perth that you do see more smokers at is the equivalent of where I stayed in Sydney in Potts Point, the Red Light district. Here in Perth it is called "North Bridge" which is a lower income suburb, and it is where most of the night clubs and bars are located, and its where people go to smoke in large groups at night. Overall, the Heart Foundation supplied me with so many resources for tobacco-free policy implementation and research and I am very grateful to them, and can't wait to bring my new knowledge back to the US.
CAIRNS, QUEENSLAND
Well, Cairns was definitely very different from Perth and Sydney. It is a much less developed city, surrounded by nothing but lush rain forests and fields. That being said, I haven't seen the same volume of smoking as the US, but more than Sydney and Perth. The few groups I saw were workers from tourist shops on their breaks. I can't say for sure that this is a trend, because I was here for such a short period of time. All in all, it was a great way to end my Magellan because it was much warmer and sunnier here than it was in the other two locations, even if it is their winter.
Itinerary:
7/30/17-8/1/17 : PIT - CLT - LAX - SYD
7/30/17-8/1/17 : PIT - CLT - LAX - SYD
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