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plague. I just never saw the need to bleach (and mi black) :P read on:
<TABLE cellSpacing=0 cellPadding=1 width="100%" border=0><TBODY><TR><TD><SPAN class=TopStory>Black On The Inside</SPAN>
<SPAN class=Subheadline></SPAN></TD></TR><TR><TD>Sharon Leach
Sunday, January 28, 2007
</TD></TR></TBODY></TABLE>
<P class=StoryText align=justify>I see where the health ministry has embarked on its 'Don't Kill the Skin' campaign. But, will it work? The plan of attack is apparently to go after the vendors of these illegal bleaching products - a five-figure fine is being bandied about to scare not only sellers but also persons found in possession of the products.<P class=StoryText align=justify>The second part to the plan is the waging of a public education campaign about the dangers of the practice of applying the products to the skin. Again, all well and good but how effective will this be?<P class=StoryText align=justify>Correct me if I'm wrong but aren't firecrackers contraband? Yet, I'm reduced to becoming a bundle of nerves, for weeks during the Christmastime in my neighbourhood, by the erratic, random explosions that ring through the air each night for several hours on end. And, if I may be permitted to ask another question, since when has the threat of something being bad for one's health held any sway with consumers? The cigarette and fast food industries could offer interesting insights.<P class=StoryText align=justify>The bottom line is: people act the way they do because they're convinced their actions are right for them. White women in the United States, for example, will inject collagen into their lips, lounge on tanning beds (risking skin cancer) or use skin bronzers, and wear false bums because they think the exotic look of dark-skinned people is the way to go. In an age when women like Jennifer Lopez and Salma Hayek have asserted themselves as huge sex symbols, replacing the conventional skinny, fair-skinned All-American beauties, one can certainly see why.<P class=StoryText align=justify>In the same way, skin bleaching in Jamaica happens because the people who do it feel they need to. They are convinced lighter skin is the route to upward mobility and general acceptance in society. Are they wrong? No, they're not. Not really. They are bombarded with images that persuade them that 'light is right.' We all see it everyday - some people internalise it more than others, I guess. Which is why I objected strenuously with a colleague who had given a current local play a good review.
<TABLE cellSpacing=0 cellPadding=5 width=360 align=center border=0><TBODY><TR><TD>
</TD></TR><TR><TD><SPAN class=Description></SPAN></TD></TR></TBODY></TABLE><P class=StoryText align=justify>The play was, in my opinion, a flaccid production that seemed to have as its only dubious distinction the ability to pack into one single theatrical presentation every conceivable and vile stereotype of the Jamaican people one could ever hope to see.<P class=StoryText align=justify>One of the done-to-death stereotypes was, of course, the uptown 'lady' of the house - the light-skinned, Yoga-observing, well-heeled, well-spoken woman who, before her Road to Damascus (in this case, New York) conversion, inanely addressed the ghetto-fabulous, grammar-challenged, darker-complected, out-of-wedlock-child-having, baby-father-in-prison-accepting, male-employer-tempting household helper as 'Maidy.'<P class=StoryText align=justify>If you allow yourself to think about it, you can come up with 100 images in the media that reinforce this - that the lighter the skin, the better the chances of being nearer the top of the social hierarchy.<P class=StoryText align=justify>There's a larger issue at hand than mere skin bleaching, which is really an outward manifestation of a psychological problem. There are many people within our society inflicted with tha
<TABLE cellSpacing=0 cellPadding=1 width="100%" border=0><TBODY><TR><TD><SPAN class=TopStory>Black On The Inside</SPAN>
<SPAN class=Subheadline></SPAN></TD></TR><TR><TD>Sharon Leach
Sunday, January 28, 2007
</TD></TR></TBODY></TABLE>
<P class=StoryText align=justify>I see where the health ministry has embarked on its 'Don't Kill the Skin' campaign. But, will it work? The plan of attack is apparently to go after the vendors of these illegal bleaching products - a five-figure fine is being bandied about to scare not only sellers but also persons found in possession of the products.<P class=StoryText align=justify>The second part to the plan is the waging of a public education campaign about the dangers of the practice of applying the products to the skin. Again, all well and good but how effective will this be?<P class=StoryText align=justify>Correct me if I'm wrong but aren't firecrackers contraband? Yet, I'm reduced to becoming a bundle of nerves, for weeks during the Christmastime in my neighbourhood, by the erratic, random explosions that ring through the air each night for several hours on end. And, if I may be permitted to ask another question, since when has the threat of something being bad for one's health held any sway with consumers? The cigarette and fast food industries could offer interesting insights.<P class=StoryText align=justify>The bottom line is: people act the way they do because they're convinced their actions are right for them. White women in the United States, for example, will inject collagen into their lips, lounge on tanning beds (risking skin cancer) or use skin bronzers, and wear false bums because they think the exotic look of dark-skinned people is the way to go. In an age when women like Jennifer Lopez and Salma Hayek have asserted themselves as huge sex symbols, replacing the conventional skinny, fair-skinned All-American beauties, one can certainly see why.<P class=StoryText align=justify>In the same way, skin bleaching in Jamaica happens because the people who do it feel they need to. They are convinced lighter skin is the route to upward mobility and general acceptance in society. Are they wrong? No, they're not. Not really. They are bombarded with images that persuade them that 'light is right.' We all see it everyday - some people internalise it more than others, I guess. Which is why I objected strenuously with a colleague who had given a current local play a good review.
<TABLE cellSpacing=0 cellPadding=5 width=360 align=center border=0><TBODY><TR><TD>
</TD></TR><TR><TD><SPAN class=Description></SPAN></TD></TR></TBODY></TABLE><P class=StoryText align=justify>The play was, in my opinion, a flaccid production that seemed to have as its only dubious distinction the ability to pack into one single theatrical presentation every conceivable and vile stereotype of the Jamaican people one could ever hope to see.<P class=StoryText align=justify>One of the done-to-death stereotypes was, of course, the uptown 'lady' of the house - the light-skinned, Yoga-observing, well-heeled, well-spoken woman who, before her Road to Damascus (in this case, New York) conversion, inanely addressed the ghetto-fabulous, grammar-challenged, darker-complected, out-of-wedlock-child-having, baby-father-in-prison-accepting, male-employer-tempting household helper as 'Maidy.'<P class=StoryText align=justify>If you allow yourself to think about it, you can come up with 100 images in the media that reinforce this - that the lighter the skin, the better the chances of being nearer the top of the social hierarchy.<P class=StoryText align=justify>There's a larger issue at hand than mere skin bleaching, which is really an outward manifestation of a psychological problem. There are many people within our society inflicted with tha
LOL
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