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My mother, who is how 87, is a resident in HK. I have married and now living in
Singapore and UK. She has been having a lot of pain at the back of her thigh
and numbness in her feet. I know she has spinal problem who affects the nerves
but i hope some holistic treatments can help. She lives in Kowloon and do you
have any suggestion? Thanks so much.
Australian Jac Vidgen is a Senior Practitioner who has devoted the past 11 years of his life to Buteyko's method of breathing reconditioning. He's been visiting HK regularly for the past 7 years.
Originally from Brisbane, he spent most of his adult life in Sydney, where, in the early 90s, he worked and trained with Alexander Stalmatski, a leading protege of Dr. Buteyko's. Since that time, Jac spent some years based in Sydney, teaching Buteyko's method there and around rural NSW. He started introducing the method to Asia in 1997, and, for the last 5 years, he's been based in Bangkok, working mostly in Hong Kong, Manila, Thailand, and occasionally in Bali.
No Whiffs and Butts
by Lizzy Grindey
(reprinted from Positive News magazine)
Optimism, realism and determination are three qualities that have accompanied Judith Mackay through life. As director of the Asian Consultancy on Tobacco Control and a senior policy adviser to the World Health Organisation (WHO), she has worked tirelessly often without a salary and in the face of death threats to raise awareness of the health risks of smoking. For more than 20 years she has engineered spirited campaigns from her home in Hong Kong that have saved countless lives. This year she was named as one of the worlds 100 most influential people by TIME magazine.
I'ts been more than 20 years since you started speaking out against tobacco use. How has he landscape changed?
Tobacco control has come of age: with the WHO Framework Convention on Tobacco Control, benefactors such as [New York City mayor Michael] Bloomberg coming on board, and now the respectability of TIME magazine, we must be becoming mainstream The tobacco industry can no longer paint us into a corner of being fanatics and extremists.
Has it felt like a long and lonely road?
Absolutely. In the early days, no one was working in tobacco control. I was a lone ranger in he wilderness, bombarded with problems from the tobacco industry and threatened with lawsuits. Now it's wonderful. Some 168 countries have signed the WHO Framework Convention on Tobacco Control and it has become the fastest racked treaty in history. Every country in the West has signed it. t is timely, unstoppable, and really good. It feels like dropping a pebble in the water and watching it spread out everywhere.
Have you always felt you had a personal mission?
It was a triumvirate of reasons. Firstly, I was working in United Christian Hospital in Kwun Tong where I saw so many smoking related problems. Like so many in public health, I realised I had to go further up the river and stop people falling in rather than apply the band-aid. I was already an advocate for womens issues. I helped open the first refuge for battered women and fought for maternity and equal pay. Finally, I was writing a column for the South China Morning Post in 1982 and found myself denounced in a leaked letter from British and American Tobacco. A single sentence was the turning point. I was so outraged.
Was that when the tobacco industry declared you one of the three most dangerous people in the world?
No, that came in 1989. By then, I'd had seven years to earn that title!
What has kept you going?
I am an extremely optimistic, cup half full type of person. I'm very realistic. I'm also extremely determined. I believe there is always an opportunity to do something. There is always an entry point to get things moving along. What has sustained me? Every time I get another threat of a lawsuit, I'm up and running again. And laws please me, because you've got to have a government commitment and template to get anywhere. When a country lays down a new law, I say, Yes!. Its a funny thing to give you pleasure in life, but thats what gets me going.
Now that you've got powerful allies with the Michael Bloomberg grant of US$125 million giving you financial clout, what does this enable you to do?
The Bloomberg grant marks a sea change in terms of funding. Before, tobacco control was on a shoestring budget with academics such as Professor Anthony Hedley from Hong Kong University doing it in their spare time. The Bloomberg grant has created a career path for tobacco control and professionalised it. The World Lung Foundation employs 120 people and has awarded grants of up to US$500,000 to 42 organisations in developing countries.
When you have a sense of what is morally right but the current social values dont share that, how do you raise that understanding among others?
I have gone directly to governments as a WHO adviser. Ive slotted in at that level, so my modus operandi has been top down in countries. Fifteen years ago, I realised that my job was not really about tobacco but helping with empowerment. Ive been empowering governments in developing countries to see that they don't have to kowtow to big business. Tobacco is a vehicle to that. Tobacco kills one in two people who use it. As a consumer product, it is in a class of its own.
What do you think of Hong Kongs new smoke-free legislation?
Hong Kong has passed a good smoke-free law. It is also a muddle, but the reality is there would be no law unless there were concessions. It is much better to do it with a two-year delay than to have no law at all.
What was it like to receive the TIME 100 award?
We were on the red carpet with Cate Blanchett, so of course no one was interested in taking pictures of me. Cate Blanchett asked me, What are you here for? For fighting big tobacco industries in developing countries, I replied. Good for you! she said. I thought that showed how far we've come. Her answer showed both understanding of the issue, and respect.
Does Hong Kong have a particular role in Asia in the realm of public health?
Hong Kong has an exemplar role. We have an importance way beyond our seven million. Thailand, Singapore, Hong Kong and Taiwan are role models for the rest of Asia. The 2008 Olympics are smoke-free and that includes Hong Kong. We can look back over 20 years in Asia and see how much this movement has gone forward. Its gaining momentum. Millions of people didn't know that smoking was harmful, and that's changed.
What advice can you give to other civic and environmental advocates?
Campaigners need to function at different levels. You need to be outraged, single-minded and uncompromising I had an absolute indignation at how the tobacco industry behaved. And you need a combo. You need people who position themselves to help the government to do the right thing. Governments don't take kindly to badgering and berating. If people like you, they are more likely to do your interest. Ive done most of my lobbying in the toilets of Legco.
Australian Jac Vidgen is a Senior Practitioner who has devoted the past 11 years of his life to Buteyko's method of breathing reconditioning. He's been visiting HK regularly for the past 7 years. 
by Lizzy Grindey
What has kept you going?
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