Island Life by David Slack

Wow ! That just seems so wrong, doesn't it?

but then, if we accept that people are allowed to change their appearance in so many other ways - teeth whitening, implants etc, it's going to be hard to convince people about this being wrong.

I predict the argument will go

"White people like artificial tans - why can't dark people get artificial white skin?"

Martin Luther King is the second most admired person of the 20th century, according to a Gallup poll.

Perhaps the US are ready for its first female president then, given that the list is topped by mother Theresa (although I'm sure Christopher Hitchens will demand some sort of recount). And MLK at 2 (with Reagain at 15 behind... wait for it... Nelson Mandela!) bodes well for Obama.

But what really impresses me is Helen Keller slotting in at five, behind Einstein and ahead of FDR. What an enlightened bunch of respondents.

Ah yes. They run ads like that in Bali, too. We thought it strange that all the aussies and kiwis' (and other europeans) were running around trying to get as brown as possible, while the locals (well, the local TV anyway) were trying t get as white as possible.

:)

This has convinced me to stop trying to get a tan, if I'm to become the darling of Egyptian TV News like I plan!

Presumably in future we'll just tint away at our leisure. Increase the blackness ting for those high UV summer months, and drop back to a nice Scando pale for Winter.

I expect some conservative souls would try to settle on a nice light nut brown permanently but I'll certainly be going for Yellowman Dancehall in Lapland look.

Most impressed Mother Theresa got in at number 1 not having been born or even lived in America (the known world).
Although the flaw is they had a list and answered yes or no.
I wonder where Superman & The Terminator would have been placed had they had to come up with their own 18?

Tragic as a death in custody is, too often NZ'ers celebrate our racial harmony out of ignorance rather than acknowledging the facts of our past.
A settler community that stole land - a little ethnic cleansing - then wipe clean the history books "Waimate Conspiracy" anyone? This is only an exploration of genocide in Canterbury of the exact same nature that took part throughout the North Island. Where our settler govt made it legal to shoot on sight any Maori - thankfully this was never accepted by the crown but no-one was ever charged with killing a Maori during the land wars (or even much later) - It wasn't a crime.
10points if anyone can pin point the first pakeha charged for killing a maori.

I would perhaps feel outraged about the marketing of skin-whitening products to brown women, if the opposite weren't happening here.

I'm pale-as, and all around me is this culture that says that I'd look better with golden glowing skin. Fake tan, bronzers, even bloody Natural Glow wants to de-white me.

I have no doubt that if, like the woman in the whitener ad, I wanted a career as a TV reporter, I'd soon be made up to take the ghostly edge off my skin.

Can't I be pale and pretty?

The direct selling company from which I buy my skin care products has a whole line of products ostensibly to lighten age spots and so on, but really, my supplier tells me, developed to sell as skin whiteners to Asian-American (or, presumably, Asian-Asian) customers.

Robyn: a ghostly edge is still an edge, and one, at least, that doesn't require you to pull your trousers up to your armpits.

The Body Shop sells a range called Moisture White,

They're selling the same product to the same market, but have to tone down the advertising because they also say:

Throughout the ages, women's bodies have been manipulated to fit the latest fad. We've been trussed up, pumped up, corseted and bandaged. Waists have been pinched, skin bleached, ribs removed. The fat sucked out, the silicone injected in. Wouldn't you rather be measured by your individuality, thinking and lust for life? Stand up for who you really are stand up for self esteem.

Plus also buy our bronzers and whiteners etc.

Lots of major makeup lines have similar ranges (if you buy from Asian-based internet retailers you quickly come across them), but despite their names and packaging, don't so much whiten as "brighten" and "even out skin tone", and include massive SPF so people don't get any darker than they already are.

Just another variant of the Star-On/Star-Off machine in The Sneetches.

Robyn - I feel your pain...
I was kept in hospital for a week when I was born, while doctors tried to figure out what was wrong with me. Eventually they just came to the conclusion that, uhhh, I was white.
I've also been told that I look like a body floating down the river when I'm swimming (ok that's kinda funny)...
ANYWAY from age 10-17ish various fake tanners were the birthday/xmas present of choice from aunts (and there's a few of them - I'm Irish). My complexion was a far greater concern to them than me.

Can't I be pale and pretty?

You look absolutely fine to me Robin. As fine as a 10mm high cartoon woman has ever looked, in fact.

I was kept in hospital for a week when I was born, while doctors tried to figure out what was wrong with me. Eventually they just came to the conclusion that, uhhh, I was white.

I hear you can get a cream for that nowadays.

It starts with 'skin whitening' and ends with breast enlargement and a Brazillian.

This is explains why Islamist Fundies insist on the Burka then.

I hear you can get a cream for that nowadays

And preferential treatment in Australian cells!

It starts with 'skin whitening' and ends with breast enlargement and a Brazillian.

i hear they're handing out poor brazilians at the airports in sao paulo.

i use my to keep the house clean, do the gardening, and other menial chores.

much like queenslanders do aboriginals.

Somebody (from NZ I presume) changed the first person on the list to Theresa Gattung !!!!!