Fakes

What a gas! I opened the recent issue of Vanity Fair to see this amazing image above. A double page Louis Vuitton ad. Brilliant.

The same issue had, in the first 27 pages, Madonna looking amazing, Angelina Jolie posing for St John's sitting on a sink looking about 12 years old (see earlier rant about this outrage), Matthew McConaughey with his shirt on for once and Mikhail Baryshnikov flying through a window as Peter Pan. I'm putting the magazine aside to take it on a long long airplane ride next week. The ads alone should keep me amused for quite awhile.

The Keith Richards Louis Vuitton ad is so ballsy for a brand that in my humble opinion has long had it. Forgive me, all the fans out there, and there are certainly many for this "luxury" brand, but I don't get it, never have. I understand the long history of the luggage, going back a hundred years or whatever, but those brown handbags with LV all over them have always left me cold. And NOW. Well, let's talk fakes.

Louis Vuitton handbags must be the biggest brand of fakes, well, maybe after Rolex, to be had in Asia. They are everywhere. Even my maid has a "Louis Vuitton" wallet, I noticed. That must be a huge problem, both for the brand and for those who fork out all that money to buy the real thing.

Here in Manila, as is the case in Bangkok and everywhere else in Asia, buying fakes is completely open - from DVD's to software, to handbags, to watches. There is a place called Greenhills I go to occasionally that is an indoor tiengge, or market, with dozens of stalls selling all of this stuff. Walking down the aisles you hear people calling you "Louis Vuitton ma'am", "Prada ma'am", and young men come up surreptitiously muttering "DVD's ma'am". Not sure why the so-called secrecy in that case, it's all clear as day.

Recently the government in Bangkok had a big, publicized fake squashing. They piled up a bunch of counterfeit products, called out the media, and crushed them (the products) all with a steamroller. Like I'm sure that's put the fear of God into the vendors. Not!

In Belgium there is an exhibit warning against the "dangers" of pirated goods. A fake Ferrari sports car made in Thailand is its centerpiece. The Ferrari P4 - of which only three were made, in 1967 - was made in a back street factory in Thailand and is powered by a Subaru engine.


Back to the real stuff - one of the many other reasons to visit Greenhills is for jewellery, pearls in particular. This city, previously known as "The Pearl of the Orient" (THAT was awhile ago), is a place to buy all kinds of pearls, cultured, seed, South Seas, as well as other stones. The stalls are amazing - strands and strands of shapes and colour, it's a trip just to go and be dazzled by the colours alone. Most of them seem to be owned by Muslims, presumably from the southern province/island of Mindanao. You can pick out what you want and have it custom made in no time flat - for a fraction of the cost anywhere else. Recently I was looking for something to match an outfit - this woman and her two daughters put my chosen colours and strands together in 20 minutes, for about $15.
Other recent additions to the homestead:


This World War II poster was found in Singapore. "Careless talk costs lives!"











This painting is by a young Filipino artist called Joseph Fernandez Banez. Stealing mangoes. Love the farmer's wife trying to restrain her irate husband brandishing his bolo and the expression on the kids' faces is priceless.

The Carabao, the Bride and the Rice Problem

Rebecca's daughter, the Bride, was almost upstaged at the wedding last week by a carabao.

In the Philippines, it is the custom that the groom's family pays for the wedding. This wedding was held at the home of the Bride, under a tent in the garden, and the groom's family provided all the food. Now, it is also the custom in the rural barrios, that the entire village comes to the festivities. While the actual families and invited guests were seated at tables under the tent, there is another buffet set up for the villagers.

The groom's family provided a carabao for the wedding feast and brought it to the wedding. The carabao is a sub-species of water buffalo that is used in the rural areas for plowing, hauling goods around and so on. A very large animal, typically 2000 pounds, with huge horns. Silent and docile.

Except when it has been designated as dinner.

When they were about to slaughter the carabao in the yard, it took extreme offense and bolted. Apparently, instead of securing it to a tree, they were holding on to it with a rope through the nose, and at the first slash of the bolo, it was off and away, 2000 pounds of freaked out animal tearing down the path towards a bunch of children, heading for the highway that was about 500 meters away. What a scene. The Bride was screaming, the Mother of the Bride was worried for grandbaby bump and all and all it was far too much excitement.

Eventually things settled down, the carabao was retrieved and sacrificed to the festivities. (Remember that scene in Apocalypse Now? That was filmed here in the Philippines - the same scenario). A happy celebration was enjoyed by all, including the 800 villagers who came along for the wedding feast.

The Rice Problem

I asked Rebecca what problems she'd observed with rice and she was quick to tell me that it was a big problem. Rice that was being sold for 18 pesos a kilo a short time ago, is now 35 pesos. That's in the private market. The government is also distributing rice to the poor at a subsidized price of 18 pesos so you can just imagine what opportunities exist for hoarding, diversion and graft in this dual market. Poor people are lining up for hours at a time to get their rice from the government sources. Rebecca told me of a woman who was doing her marketing and bought her fish before her rice, not thinking it would take long to get it. She spent almost the whole day waiting her turn and by the time she got home the fish was spoiled.

The Philippines is now the largest importer of rice in the world and people shake their heads at this. It used to be an exporter. Rice has been grown here forever it seems. The rice terraces of Banaue in the mountains of the north are a UNESCO World Heritage Site.

Rebecca says that when she was growing up, she remembers experiencing a rice shortage situation. They had been used to eating rice three times a day but they had to make a kilo of rice last longer, so instead, they started eating kamote (a type of yam) for breakfast, rice for lunch when they needed a heavier meal, and cassava for dinner. This was supplemented with vegetables and fish from the river near their home. She says that her own kids are not buying into a suggestion like this, turning their nose up at what "the old folks" used to do. For them it's all rice all the time.

The increase in food prices is a widespread problem and one that is not going to go away anytime soon. According to the Food and Agriculture Organization 37 countries are facing a food "crisis". The IMF warned of global unrest recently...

"Food prices, if they go on like they are doing today ... the consequences will be terrible," International Monetary Fund managing director Dominique Strauss-Kahn said.

"Hundreds of thousands of people will be starving ... leading to disruption of the economic environment," Strauss-Kahn told a news conference at the close of the IMF spring meeting in Washington.

Development gains made in the past five or 10 years could be "totally destroyed," he said, warning that the issue goes beyond humanitarian concerns.

In recent months, rising food costs have lead to social unrest in several countries such as Haiti and Egypt as governments grapple with a growing crisis sparked by a whole series of price increases in basic commodities. Meanwhile, about 20,000 workers rioted over high food prices and low wages on Saturday close to the Bangladeshi capital Dhaka, police said, amid spreading global unrest over soaring food costs.

Of course the Philippine government is responding to these predictions of doom and gloom by saying that there is no security problem here.

Department of National Defense (DND) Secretary Gilberto Teodoro assured the public today that the prevailing rice problem in the country will not lead to rioting in the streets, saying the government is continuously addressing this concern.

Teodoro likewise denied that the current problem will result to the declaration of the state emergency by President Arroyo.

“The security situation is basically very stable. We don’t see any immediate threats to national security whether caused by this rice crisis or otherwise.”

Home Alone

I’ve been on my own this past week – completely on my own. The maid, Rebecca, has also been away – home to the province for the week to see her youngest daughter married.

The daughter has just turned 18, and was a first year nursing student. Her tuition was being paid by an overseas aunt, who was counting on her to eventually take her place as the family’s Overseas Foreign Worker when she (the aunt) returned to retire in the Philippines. Instead, the young woman became involved with a young man and plans have changed – all bets are off. The baby is due in August.

There is no family planning policy in this country, which means that sex education and access to contraception is very limited, especially for the poor who of course need it most. The current President and the Catholic Church are opposed to birth control and the government openly states that it is not a priority. Recently the issue has surfaced in the context of food shortages. The papers are full of it. This country used to be a rice exporter – it now faces shortages of rice along with a number of other countries. The connection between food and population is (finally) being made. Of course the fact that the country has gone from being a rice exporter to importer is more than just population growth (land reform is a huge issue).

McDonald’s and other fast food outlets are now serving a half portion of rice and the Secretary of Agriculture is encouraging people to eat less rice. Well, for many people, rice is just about all they eat, so at risk of being less than fair to the Secretary, it sounds a bit like the reverse of “Let them eat cake”. “Let them eat less”.

Meanwhile, back at my own rice-free zone…

I’ve been having a great time puttering around on my own and watching lots of movies. Of all kinds. Everyone buys pirated DVD’s here and after looking around without success in legal channels for a particular series I was after, I asked my friend to take me to see the gal she usually buys from. My friend sent her a text message asking for the titles I was looking for and said we’d be there in an hour. We were actually in the car on the way when the vendor texted back to say that they were expecting to be raided that afternoon so she wouldn’t have her stock out, but things should be all right after 6:00. Well, how do you suppose she knew in advance of the raid? It will take me much longer than the time I’ve been here to get used to the corruption here. Meanwhile, I think I’ll stick to legally obtained DVD’s. Strike a blow for the straight and narrow.

Here’s what I’ve been watching – legally.

SHAMPOO.
This is one musical I could only get away with watching with the place to myself. What a hoot! John Travolta singing and dancing in drag. The funniest scene, the scene that had me laughing out loud, was when he/she and Christopher Walken (who played his/her husband) were doing a romantic song and dance duet, out in the yard under the moonlight. You could tell that Christopher Walken was having a hard time keeping from cracking up. It was a riot.




LARA CROFT TOMB RAIDER: THE CRADLE OF LIFE. Non stop action stunts. After watching the features of how the film was made, I came to the conclusion that however many millions Angelina Jolie made for this film, she earned every cent of it.





RATATOUILLE. Despite having an overwhelming rodent phobia, I more or less got over that and enjoyed it for its humour and brilliance.





PERRY MASON – a few episodes from Season 1. The love of my life.








WOODSTOCK – music nostalgia from a misspent youth. I don’t remember being there but that doesn’t mean I wasn’t.