White or wrong?

In Indonesia, like in any other Asian countries, skin-whitening products are the most sale-able items on supermarket and pharmacy shelves. Media have done their job in selling the women the magic elixir for lighter skin. Many brands come up with extensive formulations and improved ingredients that promise clearer skin is just a jar/tube away. Pond's, Nivea, L’Oréal, Sari Ayu are selling lightening products that has dominated the market for the past few years. The message they try to brainwash is that fair skin equals beauty and youthful appearance. As in the West, it's the celebrities (top models or sinetron actresses) who set the beauty trend, most of whom blessed with fair skin and serve as models for major product lines. Today many women worry about getting too much sun exposure, because they believe it can damage skin and leading to wrinkles. Despite numerous skin-whitening horror stories reported in recent years, this "white obsession" is alarmingly increasing. What sad is that beauty industries are feeding in on these self-destructive problems and making money off of it.

I am not into whitening products since I believe that you were born and will die with your natural complexion. So what do you think came first? The product or the perception that whiter is better???

Inacraft 2008

Yes, it's that time of year again - Inacraft 2008 time! Now in it's tenth year, the big craft fair was held at Jakarta Convention Centre from April 23 to April 27, 2008.

So, yesterday morning, my sis, bro in law and I took off to JCC. After some traffic issues and the difficulty to find a parking spot, we managed to get there. If you are not able to walk a lot you will be in trouble. We had to park at least 15 minutes away from the building. We arrived at the ticket area (you had to pay 10,000 Rupiah / USD 1.20 for entrance fee) around 11am and it was already jam-packed. Once you get into the building it was so crowded that you couldn't take a step without bumping into someone. Making it difficult to browse the goods, let alone taking good pictures. In fact it seemed more crowded than last year. There were many wonderful selection, beautiful works of art in assorted categories and lots of vendors. I bought several batik table clothes, wall hanging and painted wooden bowls.

Some of the shots I took are blurry and this doesn't nearly cover everything there, but anyhow, I'll share with you random pics I took with my camera...enjoy!

Meet Salma, the Indonesian Barbie

As a kid I never played with dolls so much, all I was ever interested in was animals and nature. But my niece, L, is an obsessive compulsive doll/stuff toys collecting. She just collects too many dolls and one of them is Barbie dolls. She did love playing with them, making dress for them, trying different hair styles etc. Of all her Barbie clothing collections, I believe she does not have the one I saw in "Inacraft Fair" today. What sets Salma (the Indonesian Barbie) apart from the original Barbie is that she holds an appeal for Muslim girls with her modest clothing and a colorful headscarves! Her extensive wardrobe has been modernised for the Indonesian market to include batik and other beautiful traditional fabric (kain) from Padang, Palembang and Bali. Giving that not all Indonesian Muslim girls wearing headscarves, I was wondering why the creator did not dress Salma in school uniforms, traditional clothes complete with kebaya and sanggul (knot of hair bun), or dress her up in Balinese dancing costumes which is more beautiful? Salma physical appearance does not look like an Indonesian girl at all, her skin is too fair for a girl who lives in a tropical country. I would prefer an Indonesian Barbie with a light brown complexion, flat nose, full lips, almond eyes and not so tall.

To know more about Indonesian Barbie creator, please read here.

The importance of sleep

Sleep is vitally important to one's productive life. Our bodies will collapse with fatigue unless we sleep enough hours every day. Researchers believe sleep (or lack of it) affects other aspects of our health including emotions and judgment. But unfortunately many of us are getting less and less sleeps in our twenty-four hour cycle. Especially in today's fast moving world, sleep is probably the least important activity. However, we need sleep so that our bodies have a resting period. Our minds able to organize our brains and make most efficient use of them without our consciousness interrupting the process.

On average I get about 6 hours of sleep a night. I get up at the same time every morning, weekday or weekend (6 am). It also seems like my body is getting accustomed to the earlier wake up either I get out for a morning jog or not. If I don’t get up immediately, I usually lay in bed for another 5 or 10 minutes. Rarely I am still in bed after 6.30am - even at the weekend. Ideally, I'd like to get 8 or 9 hours every day but I've found this very hard to do! I just sleep as much as I need and that is good enough for me.

The amount of sleep each person needs depends on many factors, including age. Some people can sleep very little for 6 days and then sleep for 15 hours on the last day, others need to have their sleep spread equally over all days of the week. So, how much sleep do you need? Is your mind constantly active and thinking, especially at night when you're relaxed and trying to sleep? Do you have more energy when you sleep more?