Learning Objective: At the end of the session, the students are expected to have developed critical thinking skills by criticizing the given article.


Taking a deep drag on his cigarette while resting on the steering wheel of his truck, he looks like a parody of a middle-aged lorry driver. But the image covers up a much more disturbing truth: At just the tender age of two, Ardi Rizal's health has been so ruined by his 40-a-day habit that he now struggles to move by himself. The four-stone Indonesia toddler is certainly far too unfit to run around with other children - and his condition is set to rapidly deteriorate.



But, despite local officials' offer to buy the Rizal family a new car if the boy quits, his parents feel unable to stop him because he throws massive tantrums if they don't indulge him.

His mother, Diana, 26, wept: 'He's totally addicted. If he doesn't get cigarettes, he gets angry and screams and batters his head against the wall. He tells me he feels dizzy and sick.'

Ardi will smoke only one brand and his habit costs his parents £3.78 a day in Musi Banyuasin, in Indonesia's South Sumatra province. But in spite of this, his fishmonger father Mohammed, 30, said: 'He looks pretty healthy to me. I don't see the problem.' Ardi's youth is the extreme of a disturbing trend. Data from the Central Statistics Agency showed 25 per cent of Indonesian children aged three to 15 have tried cigarettes, with 3.2 per cent of those active smokers.
The percentage of five to nine year olds lighting up increased from 0.4 per cent in 2001 to 2.8 per cent in 2004, the agency reported.


Puff baby: Ardi blows smoke while trundling around on his truck


Always having a break: Ardi, who is rarely seen without a cigarette, insists on the same brand, costing £3.78 a day


Discussion

1. What can you personally say about the article?

2. Who do you think should be blamed for what happened to the child? Whose responsibility is this after all?

3. What kind of danger, do you think, is waiting for Ardi in the coming days?

4. Is smoking reallly bad? Why? Why not?

5. How could we make sure that Ardi is going to be the last two-year old victim of smoking addiction? What should be done?