Challenges to Quit Smoking among Smokers in Bandar Baru Salak Tinggi, Sepang, Selangor, Malaysia

Cigarette smoking is the largest preventable risk factor for morbidity and mortality in developed countries.  The prevalence of smoking is increasing in Malaysia.  Over the years, we have accumulated the knowledge of the risks and dangers of smoking towards health and had used these as interventions to motivate smokers to quit smoking.  However, quitting smoking is hard as people who stop smoking often start again because of weight gain, stress and withdrawal symptoms.  Therefore, this study aimed to identify the challenges to quit smoking among smokers in Bandar Baru Salak Tinggi, Sepang, Selangor.  A cross-sectional study was conducted with a combination of stratified and simple random sampling.  The study was conducted via a face-to-face interview using a standardized questionnaire.  The data was analyzed using SPSS (Statistical Package for Social Sciences) Version 20.0.  Easy availability of cigarettes was the most challenging factor (86%) followed by seeing things that reminded the respondents of smoking (58%), feeling lost without smoking (53%) and withdrawal symptoms (47%).  To combat these challenges, it is imperative to strengthen the enforcement on regulations advertisement and display of cigarettes and develop more activities on motivation among smokers and their families, which may be organized by government or non-government organizations. Other than that, another important aspect in the promoting smoking cessation program is to encourage smoke-free homes

Rewriting city narratives and spirit: Post-pandemic urban recovery mechanisms in the shadow of the global ‘black lives matter’ movement

The social media live-broadcasted murder of George Floyd by Minnesota police officers in the United States ignited a national uprising as it highlighted continued discrimination of the African-American community. Amidst the coronavirus pandemic, this fuelled the ‘Black Lives Matter’ movement and gave way to protests of an unprecedented scale causing havoc in major cities in the United States, with losses tabled in both the public and private sectors. Interestingly, this momentum kindled similar protests in numerous cities in other parts of the world calling for racial equality for minority and Indigenous groups and a more equitable presentation of their culturally colonised stories. This paper surveys this global uprising exploring its precipitous momentum at a time where most of the world was in lockdown or in forced confinement. Included is how the protests, highlighting deep-rooted underlying social and cultural angst, may have far-reaching impacts in influencing post-pandemic recovery mechanisms in favour of more inclusive communities - a goal ironically embedded in the United Nations’ Sustainable Development Goal (SDG) 11 that seeks to ‘Make cities inclusive, safe, resilient and sustainable’