Remember that insane video of the two year-old boy in Indonesia who smoked up to four packs of cigarettes a day? It reached viral status and even Letterman was showing it as a gag frequently. Due to the uproar over that video, the little boy, Aldi, was flown to Jakarta and given five weeks of treatment with the Indonesian National Commission for Child Protection. After intensive play therapy sessions in a smoke-free environment, Aldi has quit cold turkey and has been returned to his family home, where they will hopefully keep the cigarettes out of reach.
Aldi’s addiction was severe, but it’s not unheard of. Cigarette smoking is shockingly common among children in Indonesia, and The Today Show reports that there are almost no restrictions on tobacco advertising in the country. Cigarette packs feature kid-friendly images like racecars and smoking is such an accepted part of the culture that it’s easy to find children under 10 lighting up. Here’s more:
Aldi Rizal can barely speak, but he knows how to ask for a cigarette.
The 2-year-old Indonesian boy is best known as “the smoking toddler,” a moniker he earned when video of him chain-smoking cigarettes hit the Web this spring, shocking viewers all over the world.
So where does this story stand six months later? Well, there’s good news and bad. The good: Aldi has since been to rehab and kicked the habit. The bad: There are countless other kids out there, just like him.
I traveled to Indonesia to meet Aldi a few weeks ago. His family lives in a small fishing village in a remote region on the island of Sumatra. It took me 41 hours to get there, flying from New York to Jakarta and driving through rubber tree plantations.
We met up with Aldi in the market before heading to his home. He’s a local celebrity — as he walked through the stalls we heard lots of people calling his name, “Aldi, Aldi!” A crowd gathered around him when he stopped to eat. But Aldi’s famous for all the wrong reasons. The toddler started smoking when he was 11 months old — and within five months he was up to four packs per day.
When Aldi’s smoking video went viral, local government officials reached out to help, paying his way to the capital city of Jakarta where he received five weeks of intensive treatment with the National Commission for Child Protection. Aldi had to quit cold turkey, and his mother says he threw terrible tantrums. The nicotine withdrawal must have been brutal for the little guy. But he got through it and started play therapy, where he could focus on just being a kid.
Sadly, Aldi’s not the only smoking kid in Indonesia. The south Asian country has one of the worst problems with child smokers in the world. Government figures estimate that 25 percent of kids over the age of 3 have tried cigarettes and 3 percent are regular smokers. That means some kids are lighting up before they even start school.
My team had no trouble finding smoking kids in Jakarta. We came across a group sitting near a river bank enjoying an after school cigarette break. One of the kids, 9-year-old Ipan, has been smoking for a year. “I feel good when I smoke”, he told me.
Another child, 5-year-old Cipto, says his mother smokes with him.
So why is this happening? Mainly because of a lack of regulation. While I was doing research for this story, one of my contacts described Indonesia as the “Wild West” of tobacco regulation. There are virtually no restrictions on cigarette advertising on TV, radio, in print or on billboards
[From MSNBC]
At least Aldi has quit. That’s absolutely shocking to me that five year olds are smoking too. Now that this issue is receiving international attention, maybe there will finally be a crackdown on tobacco advertising in Indonesia along with more measures to stop kids from smoking.
Aldi before he quit:
Watch CBS News Videos Online
He looks so natural with his cigarette.
It’s amazing that his motor skills were developed enough at 2 to handle a little cigarette.
Poor Poor kids..
I know it’s really very sad and everything – really.
But I can’t help laughing when seeing Aldi smoke! He just looks so funny doing it. I’m bad.
Rehab? He’s 2. Clearly they aren’t telling him “no” about his overeating either.
@omondieu, I totally agree. He’s definitely a cute little man, and its soo nice to know he has quit smoking! 😀
are these people complete idiots????
what can we do but accept it as it is????
if he wanted to play with knives or developed a penchant for bungyjumping off of bridges would they accept that too?
How did he smoke at 11 months? Who lit the cigarette? Someone shotgun him the smoke through his baby bottle? The logistics of an 11 month old smoking are incomprehensible, as is a family that can afford to buy their baby 4 packs a day in a country as poor as Indonesia. Although, he doesn’t look like he’s missed too many meals. I guess its true, once you quit smoking you put on a little weight.
I’m so relieved that something happened for this little boy when that video got out. I hope the family understands they need to keep the smokes away. Maybe his situation will make the government wake up and put together some regulations.
It was sad and tragic. I know it was. But it was funny too. Unless I have a totally sick mind. Which maybe I do. I am glad he’s quit, it needed to happen. But it was cute as hell to watch him puff away.
@Stronzilla: very good question.
I must not have much sense of humor but I don’t see a damn thing funny about a two-year-old puffing away on a cancer stick.
Then again, four people I know died of lung cancer after years of heavy smoking, so maybe that has skewed my perspective a bit.
@Stronzilla
@Cheyenne
My point exactly
Aldi?
Please say he has a sister called Lidl! 😆
Gotta love those German multiples, there’s nothing they won’t sell – even children’s names 😆
Stronzilla, cigarette is very cheap in Indonesia. You can get a pack for about a dollar. Not to mention that you can buy single cigs for mere cents.
Glad he quit smoking, that was sick! Now they need to work on his overeating.
LOL@Tammy!
BIZARRE!
@Stronzilla
@Cheyenne
@roguesiren
His father ‘taught’ him to smoke, at least that’s what I read. That family must be sick, although it seems to be very common in Indonesia, so maybe they just wanted Aldi to start with his addiction at a very young age just for the hell of it. Still… they’re sick.
I’m very glad he quit, but unfortunately he’s not the only one. Hope someone does something about it.
this seems pretty narrow minded to call this “sick”… You people do realize that your culture is not the world view right? *eyeroll*…
I can’t see how anyone in their right mind thinks a 2 year old smoking a cigarette is cute or funny. You must be the same people that think a baby holding a beer bottle is cute and funny too.
So children smoking is ok in Indonesia. I guess anthropologists should study human evolution there. They’ll be able to see how humans were evolving a couple of hundred thousand years ago.
Totally agree wtih fizXgirl314. Thanks for mentioning that.
And LindaR, that comment you made about ‘human evolution’ is racist and totally unnecessary. I visit this site to read interesting commentary that is free of bigotry. Thanks for ruining that *sigh*
Jeeze people, take a deep breath here.
The reason smoking is so widely accepted there is the same reason it was so widely accepted here 40 years ago. IGNORANCE. Not lack of intelligence, nor lack of evolution. And, as FizXgirl pointed out, cultural differences. It doesn’t mean they love their children any less than we do.
Um, yeah, restricting advertising isn’t going to solve any problems with kids smoking. How about, HE’S TWO, TAKE THE CIGARETTES AWAY FROM HIM. Mother-effin’ DUH.
Glad the little stinker’s kicked the habit. For now.
If Aldi can do it there’s hope for Lyndsay!
I don’t think anyone has the right to judge that culture. Indonesia consists of over 17 thousand islands. It’s probably really hard for the government to regulate. It sounds like the place where this little guy lives is pretty is far away from the capital. I’m guessing in the little isolated islands, education is limited along with top medical care. Just because they don’t have access to certain knowledge doesn’t make them any less as people.
I know a family based in Jakarta that owns several companies. Their children went to international schools and definitely didn’t smoke. Access to resources always makes a difference no matter where you are.
Sick!
He gestures like a 50 yr old man.
I don’t give a shit, THAT is funny. In fact, pretty much ALL these comments are friggin hilarious, too.
No Yasmine it is not racist and I object strongly to being called a racist. You must think it’s ok for a culture to allow their children to smoke. I also object to cultures that put guns in the hands of adolescents. Is that racist too? I object to a culture that gives their children anything they ask for and neglects to teach them basic manners. Is that racist? Please define what YOU think is a racist.
@LindaR: “You must think it’s ok for a culture to allow their children to smoke.”
You must realize that we have many customs that are abhorrent to other cultures such as eating pork, or beef, or keeping dogs as pets (for example). In their view, these practices are unhealthful and even sacrilegious in some cases.
Look, no one is jumping up and down for joy that kids are smoking at such young ages. But it is part of their culture, and they are very likely unaware of any problems that smoking might cause. It is probably as common as kids drinking soda pop is here. I don’t think racist was the right term to use, but certainly we don’t have any right to judge a culture based on our own set of cultural norms.
LindaR:
I used the term ‘racist’ because you are discriminating in stating that boy’s country and by extension its people/race, to be backwards. About ‘a couple of hundred thousand years ago’ was your estimation.
To judge another human culture by our limited and ever-changing standards and then place ours as superior above others is dangerous and bigoted. That’s a very limited way of thinking and completely unfair to understanding how this boy even got into that situation in the first place. People responded with some pretty good commentary on that.
No one likes being called a racist. But if I made a comment that was racist, I’d want to be called out on my comment and challenge myself. I don’t personally know you. It’s your comment that I deemed oppressive and problematic.
Also, I’ve tried going to other celebrity/gossip sites, and this is the only one that’s witty and funny. It also has some of the smartest and funniest comments. This website is pretty good at calling out sexism. Calling out other forms of oppression is necessary too.
A friend of mine who taught English in Japan said that the Western norms for hygiene are found to be ‘lower in evolution’ than Japanese norms. One thing she found to be repeatedly criticized was the jacuzzi, since it was thought of as disgustingly dirty (no pre-wash, just going into steamy waters that allow the germs/bacteria to float around and exponentially grow at high temperature). How would you feel about someone in Japan, for example, with their incredibly high standards of hygiene stating the jacuzzi (pretty popular in North America) to be dirty/wrong and then recommend sending over Japanese researchers to study how we are backwards in their view? Pretty offensive isn’t it?
Yasmine, I happen to think jaccuzzi’s are gross. I call them, and public swimming pools, human soup.
I think you have mistaken sarcasm for racism. I suppose, if I had wanted to type a lot more than I did, I could have been very specific about where in Indonesia this child lives but alas, something was coming to the boil on the stove and my time was limited.
Not liking that a child is allowed to smoke is not because of my experience in a limited and ever-changing culture, it is because I find it disgusting that this particular group of people allow children to smoke. Not only is it dangerous for their health, it is the equivalent of giving a toddler a pack of matches or a lighter and leaving the room and I was actually being kind in saying that this particular group of people hadn’t evolved. I gave them an excuse for what is otherwise extremely poor parenting. So why don’t we go with that instead. And please don’t argue with me that I am holding their parenting up to a standard set by another culture because then you are just being silly. No offense, but really?
Linda… you’re an idiot… You just completely characterized an entire race without shame or remorse based on one news story… sit down and shut your racist ass up…
It is shocking to see the little lad smoking. But I grew up in a generation where second hand smoke was everywhere. It was if my mother handed me a pack of smokes in utero and said enjoy! Okay, being glib here BUT I see parents in this country feed their kids florescent green gatorade and other dye infused high fructose corn syrup concoctions. Now do they do it to harm their kids? No. It is ignorance. If McDonalds is selling it for the kiddies surely it cannot be harmful. right?
When did smoking cigarettes become part of anyone’s native culture? The widespread smoking of cigarettes is largely a 20th century phenomenon. In 1830, the cigarette crossed into France from Spain, where it received the name “cigarette”.
I agree with #34 “guest.” While it is admirable to wish to practice a culturally relativist perspective, it is reductive and narrow to call the boy smoking cigarettes a cultural norm. Cigarettes did not originate in Indonesia. Rich corporations, eager to make a buck, imported them into Indonesia and foisted them on the population. Likewise, Nestle and other companies foisted Infant formula on many non-industrialized countries, leading to malnurishment (due to improperly diluted formula) and disease (contaminated water) in infants. To say that the formula was part of native culture would be the equivalent.
So much ignorance. Yes, we have a right to judge other countries when they’re doing wrong as well as our own.
The UN’s Human Rights Declaration is about exactly that.
It’s not ok for kids to smoke, and “we can’t judge cultures?” Go tell the Hague, the UN, every court of law who has awarded people against Nazi war crimes.
Kids smoking is not okay, nor is sex trafficking, and it happens in plenty of “cultures.”
Also, it is an exaggeration to call it “cultural” when it’s this recent.
The tobacco companies are putting kid friendly ads on their smokes? Well, now we can judge our own too. It’s pitiful they’re taking advantage of another country’s loose laws.
The kid’s adorable, and we can do better people.
“So children smoking is ok in Indonesia. I guess anthropologists should study human evolution there. They’ll be able to see how humans were evolving a couple of hundred thousand years ago.”
I am Indonesian and this statement is hilariously stupid and offensive. Children smoking IS NOT OKAY in Indonesia. I’ve been living here my whole life and never seen one single kid lit a ciggar because we know and have been educated since we are little that it is BAD, very bad. But hey, we have 238,000,000 people living here, most of them are living under economic pressure. SO YES, not all parents are perfect, letting their kids to smoke, not all children here are easy to handle and yes our government is weak in regulation, but it doesn’t mean you know the whole big story. So don’t judge, don’t act like you know everything and then write something that obviously offensive about other people’s nation.
As much as I hate all ignorant people who smoke in Indonesia or even worse, letting their kids smoke, and our government because they don’t really seem to care, this comment is an insult.
Sorry Anita. I did not mean to insult you or the majority of Indonesians. That was wrong of me to make that sweeping, generalized statement, written in the heat of the moment as I watched this baby smoking. I have travelled all over the world and lived with many different cultures and have found that stupidity comes in all sizes and shades. But so does intelligence and common sense. And even though I am not an American, I get up in arms, as well when some of the posters here make insulting remarks about them. As a Canadian, I find my neighbours to the south to be, for the most part, a fine bunch of people with much the same values as mine (freedom, democracy, children shouldn’t smoke).
FixXgirl314. Name calling. Nice. Your post really stands out amongst the other thoughtful and intelligent comments that people posted.
“I object to a culture that gives their children anything they ask for and neglects to teach them basic manners.” posted by LindaR.
Um, have you seen MTV lately. Geesh, our culture is no better, our problems are just more arrogant, expensive and politically correct.
@truthzbetta: “Kids smoking is not okay, nor is sex trafficking, and it happens in plenty of “cultures.” ”
Please do point out where anyone here said that smoking was fine and dandy for the kids. Thanks in advance.
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