Trinidad and Tobago: Dreaming of a white Christmas?
It’s beginning to look a lot like Christmas and, judging by some disturbing adverts I’ve seen recently, some folk are hoping Santa delivers an unconventional gift in their stockings. New skin. New, whiter skin.
Flicking through the T&T Guardian my colleague stopped at a full page advert for a woman’s “beauty product.” At first glance it appeared innocent, like an ad for moisturiser. It employed the usual colour scheme marketeers aim at women (pink). Pale-skinned, Indian Bollywood star, Sonakshi Sinha, gazes at the camera with the caption, “Fem bleach is my monthly beauty investment… What about you?”
The crème bleach … comes in different shades of skin bleaching severity. “Golden glow” (for that expensive look?) “Wheatish to dark” (for the agricultural worker?) “Fair” (as opposed to unfair) and “Herbal” (for a legal high).
It reminded me of a picture I took in Ghana whilst sitting in Cape Coast waiting for a bus to Kumasi. I got talking to some of the locals. A girl named Patience with beautiful dark, black skin was sitting on the back of a tro-tro taxi and behind her a giant billboard showed a light, brown-skinned woman rubbing whitening cream into her skin smiling, satisfied, at the viewer. In my mind, the picture I took is an advert for not bleaching your skin. …
Trinidad and Tobago Guardian
Korea: Home alone
Shifting social trends see record number of single households
The Roman emperor Augustus prohibited unmarried women between the ages of 20 and 50 from inheriting property because dying without legitimate children left properties heirless. Living alone in Ancient Rome was frowned upon by both state and citizenry.
After 2,000 years, prospects for those living alone have changed, although of course, not entirely for the better.
The modern day independent soul is sometimes known as a “singleton,” a one-person householder who voluntarily or involuntarily chooses to forfeit the comforts or discomforts of family life. The inclusive moniker inevitably includes unwilling singletons such as senior citizens who outlive their spouses, lonely divorcees in their 40s or 50s, and young job hunters living alone.
The trend is already prevalent in the United States (where 27 percent of households have a single occupant), Sweden (where over 2 million are solo dwellers in a country of 9.5 million) and Japan (over 30 percent).
“The growth rate of the number of Korean one-person households is the fastest on the planet” …
Korea Herald
Switzerland: Long-living Swiss top tables for psychiatrists
Residents of Switzerland have a longer life expectancy than anyone else but they also rely on far more psychiatrists, a new report says.
The Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development says that life expectancy for Swiss residents born in 2011 is 82.8 years, just ahead of Japan and Italy (82.7 years), and compares with an average of 80.1 for the 34 countries in the OECD.
The numbers are contained in the organization’s Health at a Glance 2013 report, which also notes that the Swiss have three times as many psychiatrists on a per capita basis than average. …
The Local
Japan: Persimmon wins grand prize at funny-shape contest
A four-pronged persimmon won the grand prize at a national contest for funny-looking fruits and vegetables. …
Prize-winning pictures will also be on display on the Aioi Tourism Association’s website. …
Asahi
Guyana: News from nowhere
Fifty years on, an entire generation still remembers where it was when they first heard news of the Kennedy assassination. Broadcast television was in its infancy but when the public watched Walter Cronkite deliver news of the president’s death the country entered a new phase of the Information Age. …
These changes were important to the political development of Caribbean, often in ways that we fail to remember. Derek Walcott recalls that the outbreak of the Great War was spread around the capital of St Lucia by a town crier who rang a bell in public spaces and shouted “Lacherre! Lacherre!” [la guerre, la guerre] before riding off on his bicycle to shout the news somewhere else. It is hard to believe that less than a century later it was possible to watch, from that same island, the September 2001 attacks on New York unfold on live television. …
Stabroek News
United Arab Emirates: ‘50,000 infertile women in UAE’
Obesity and genetic condition called polycystic ovary syndrome are main causes
DUBAI—A fertility expert has advised couples who do not conceive within a year to seek medical help, but said the main hurdle is that people come for treatment very late.
The doctor said with the advances in medicine, there are several treatment options available for couples facing infertility issues. The main causes for infertility among women is obesity or a genetic condition called polycystic ovary syndrome (PCOS). …
The other reasons for infertility is smoking, drinking alcohol and high Body Mass Index of more than 35, that indicates the person is obese.
DHA predicts the figure for women seeking infertility treatment will reach 6,000 every year in the near future. …
Gulf News
Note: In the United States, the number of women ages 15-44 with an impaired ability to become pregnant is 6.7 million, according to the Centers for Disease Control.
Costa Rica: Parrita becomes Costa Rica’s 65th municipality to ban GMO crops
Today, 80 percent of Costa Rica’s municipalities have a ban on genetically modified organisms in some form. …
Parrita is the 65th municipality to pass an ordinance banning GMOs in some form, and only 16 municipal governments in Costa Rica do not have such bans. While many environmental groups have declared that Costa Rica is almost completely GMO-free, without a national law, the ordinances are almost entirely unenforceable. GMO projects already approved by the country’s Agriculture and Livestock Ministry are allowed to continue even in areas with active bans. …
Tico Times
RELATED: See Epoch Times GMOs and Biotech coverage
