News this morning that betel chewing is to be banned on the streets of Port Moresby will cause consternation throughout those parts of Asia and Africa, where the mild intoxicant is as common a habit as chewing gum in these parts. The authorities don't like the large-volume spitting that's an inevitable part of the process.
It won't concern Europeans much: those few traveller types who've slipped a piece of the nut and some lime into their mouths will know it's about as satisfying as a drag on a cold roach - and no more habit-forming.
There are suggestions that chewing betel may cause mouth cancer and fuel a possible spread of TB, but the real reasons for the proposed ban seem clear as it is accompanied by the usual slightly queasy elements of class prejudice that crop up in such cases the world over. "You know these people, they don't pay tax and we spend a lot of money cleaning their mess", the governor told the Australian Broadcasting Corporation.
We who like to indulge petty pleasures of the flesh - and that means all of you - should stand up for our betel-chewing brothers. The bannsters are out in force - and they are a particular curse during a depression, when societies are prone to weird outbreaks of moralistic legislation. Look at Prohibition (younger foodies may be unaware that America banned alcohol for 14 years - and not just binge-drinking).
Recent bans on hedonistic pleasures that might offend - the carrying of durian fruit on aeroplanes or in smart hotels; foie gras in Chicago. And smoking just about anywhere. As everyone knows these habits will just be forced underground. Take the example of a certain leaf grown at altitude in the Andes and chewed there by the natives as a mild stimulant. Its use was banned by UK and and the United States in the 1920s after a tabloid outcry. Now look - it's awfully popular.
But rights or wrongs aside, this whole business raises an obvious question - just for fun, you understand, if you had the awesome powers of the governor of Papua New Guinea is there anything you'd ban people from eating … just because you could? Chewing gum?
