Beauty, news and politics- Filipino style

Now that I have recovered from being sick, I have been considerably more social ... and also a lot more independent. I have become accustomed to some of the things I initially found shocking about Manila, and am really enjoying this city a lot. The people I have met are so interesting, and also helpful in telling me about the culture, simultaneously giving me insight and perspective into my own.

Beauty

Taking advantage of the relaxed holy week atmosphere here, yesterday Tita and I went to the salon. While she had her nails done, I finally got my hair color fixed.. When I was looking for pictures of the right shade, the only blonde I found in the magazines was Uma Thurman. So I came home with Uma's shade from the Tag Heuer watch advertisements:



While I was nervous because already one salon had turned down my business due to my unusual (for here) hair, I was really impressed with David's salon in the SM Mall at North Edsa (might as well give them a plug!)

Here in the Philippines beauty has an important role. While women don't wear tons of make up or sexy/revealing clothing, a sort of classic feminine Filipino style of beauty is prized and prevalent (ie: ladies here are pretty). There seems to be some sort of connection with beauty and politics. And beauty pageants are popular and definitely appear often in the daily news stories. As a former beauty queen herself, Imelda is a perfect example of the intersection of beauty and politics.

Politics

Last night Tita and Ima and I sat around the piano with wine and hacked away at show tunes and torch songs. I haven't had that much fun in a long time.

I quizzed Conrad last night and learned more about the complicated political situation here. Some of the news stories here require a lot of background info. President Gloria Macapagal-Arroyo is a controversial figure with corruption scandals galore.
One story that has monopolized news here is the Philippine National Broadband Network Controversy which I am still trying to understand. Take a look for yourself and you'll see how complicated it is. Maybe I'll ask one of my friends to guest-blog about it. Here is one of Conrad's recent column about Gloria in the Inquirer.

In other news ...

Of course one of the major stories is the boxing match - Pacquiao vs. Marquez. During the match on Sunday, I forgot to mention that I saw several tv sets outside on the street with a bunch of men gathered round.

One story a little more light-hearted is the beauty queen who has gotten a lot of flack for her lack of English skills. Frankly I think the US beauty queen from SC last year was a lot more embarassing. And I don't understand Janina San Miguel couldn't have answered questions in Filipino, but here is the clip of her "controversial" moment: