Austria is different

Geese in flight - Hungary

Sometime I look around me and think that the world is completely mad. After a moment's reflection I realize that in fact it is.

There is a forum called Virtual Vienna Net where expatriates exchange ideas and information and general banter. 

A week or so a go someone posted - saying that they had some friends coming to Vienna and were there places they could go that were smoke free. 

This prompted a few rational responses before the Smoking Fascists arrived and I watched in fascination as the usual diatribe ensued from the wingnuts:

Smokers have rights; A Big Mac can kill you too; why don't you ban guns in America; car exhausts are just as bad; if you don’t like it here then go back to where you came from etc etc.

It is a strange country. You just cannot have a sensible conversation about smoking. Even non-smoking Austrians will go to the barricades to maintain the rights of smokers to pollute every corner of the country.

I used to think that it was because Austrians just don’t want to be told what to do, wanted to be independent, and demand the right to make their own decisions.

Nowadays I just think they are Fuckwits. 

Anybody who demands the right to be poisoned does not deserve the right to be able to make their own decisions. 

But things are looking up marginally. 

I July is the date that smaller establishments have to decided whether to be smoking or non-smoking - and larger ones have to have a separate smoke free area. 

Well the first will work just fine and our favorite cafe, Cafe Diglas in the Wollzeile has gone entirely smoke free. Bliss - you will see me there a lot from now on.

Having a smoke free area in most restaurants is like having a pee-free area in a pool. It does not work.

But that’s Vienna. Austria is different.