Who’s been a bad little blogger? Well that would be me. One post a week is terrible – especially when it is just blog fodder as was pointed out last week 😉 !
I could say I am going to do better, but it’s an outright lie. My mum is here at the moment (and mightily impressed by the cushions I must say) and we’ve been doing lots of lovely mother-daughter bonding things, like pedicures, shopping, massages, markets and lying on idyllic beaches trying to get as tanned as possible!
If only life was really like this all the time...
Currently I am a member of ANZA, an association of Aussie and Kiwi expats, and have managed to wrangle my way onto the committee in the form of Communications Co-ordinator, basically responsible for the website and weekly update. The AGM is in May, the 20th, and I have no idea how this committee thing works…if someone else wants my job how is it decided? Do we duel in HTML to prove who’s website worth is superior? All I can say is that if I lose my position I’ll be genuinely crushed, being on a committee rocks! (Come back to me in 6 months and see if I am still singing that tune.)
Of course with the AGM approaching, anyone is welcome to throw their hats into the ring and nominate themselves, but total ANZA domination is out of the question for me as the current President is the wife of Reece’s boss, and I hear that ousting the boss’ wife could be considered a career limiting move in some circles.
I’m also doing some writing for the ANZA Magazine, when I get my arse into gear I’ll scan my stories and post them here.
I realise that I haven’t told any stories about the Philippines of late, and the skin whitening market over here truly baffles me.
Its ironic that I spent the last 4 days lying in the direct sun praying for a tan, when so many girls over here are obsessed with taking their skin in the opposite direction. We always want what we can’t have I guess!
One of the more hilarious treatments includes placental protein…mmm placenta on my face…but the commercial that really takes the cake basically insinuates that if you spend 7 days whitening your skin with Ponds, then you will be proposed to! Because only women with white skin deserve a wedding!!!
So for now, I leave you with this gem of a commercial from Ponds. It’s currently being shown all the time on Filipino TV, though I know it has done the rounds in Asia and India.
mamacita mahns 
The skin whitening thing baffled me in Thailand as well! It’s fascinating that naturally pale people want to be tanned and naturally tanned people want to be pale!? So many products pop up in the market and feed on the desire and perpetuate it. I swear there was one ad for for a skin whitening product in every ad break. It’s so clear to see as an outsider, and really made me open my eyes to draw marketing parallels in my own culture…
Anyway, as for the commercial – clearly she has managed to bag a fiance and a big rock on her finger because she has white skin – duh Tara 😉
Ooops, I missed your interpretation of the ad before… you are not so “duh” after all 😉
I am frequently “duh”…no offense taken 🙂
now you can tell reece officially, i’ve given up my life to move to another country to be with you so i deserve to be looked after!
re white skin – dark skinned individuals are associated with the peasant class in asia especially in countries like indonesia, philippines, india etc. hence the huge market for whitening.
Aaaah loved reading that !! Awesome about being on the committee … if you need to call in votes from abroad to keep the Comms job, let me know!
I think the whole skin whitening thing is incredibly interesting … I wonder if there is some sort of National Body Image Advisory Group over there telling girls they don’t really NEED to be paler ? and worrying about their body image ?