The lightening of Jacqui O.

Such is the irony of vanity that the black is obssesed with becoming white and the white of becoming black.

Is it any wonder that many Filipinas who should be proud of their being kayumangging kaligatan would move heaven and earth to have a fair skin — as in “flawless” — that’s why distributors of whitening creams are selling their stuff like hot pandesal and laughing all the way to the bank?

But whoever enlisted Jacqui O. (formerly Jinky Oda; real name: Jacqueline Oda Santillan) as GlutaMAX endorser for the YSA Skin Care Corporation hit on a brilliant idea. Imagine turning a negra (as Jacqui O. herself self-deprecatingly describes herself) into a “flawless”. Her transformation is so amazing that she is making a docktora insecure enough to demand that Jacqui O.’s “Ebony to Irovy” billboards be torn down pronto for, ehem, “false advertising.”

“But my complexion didn’t really turn white,” explained the 50-percent Afro-American Jacqui O. (who changed her first name because it has become synonymous to “jinx”). “It has only become lighter. What happened was ‘lightening’ but not ‘whitening’.”

Owned and managed by Dr. Isabel Lopez (whose early patients included Dr. Vicki Belo who was treated for acne and for her weight problem), YSA was founded in 1985 at Dr. Nazal’s garage converted into a small skin-care clinic which she initially named Clinica Dermatologica. She formulated products that catered specifically to her patients’ needs, including the brisk-selling GlutaMAX Lightening Soap which Jacqui O. has been using even before she became its endorser.

A single mother to a 14-year-old handsome boy (who’s the spitting image of his father), Jacqui O. faded out of the showbiz scene a few years ago. She is widely known as Bale, the character she played in the top-rated fantasy TV series Okey Ka, Fairy Ko (made thrice into a movie, with Vic Sotto topbilled as Enteng Kabisote).

“I have found a purpose in life when I joined the Victory Christian Fellowship,” said Jacqui O. who finished a Cross-Cultural course and is a holder of a B.S. Nursing degree (from St. Rita, Manila).

What preoccupies her these days is the ministerial work (with 10 Filipinos and 10 from other countries) which has brought her to several countries including Australia where she was based for almost two years and other Asian countries.

Lorna’s CD of ‘H.O.P.E.-ful’ songs

During the Holy Week, I invite you to listen to H.O.P.E. (Volume 2): Wings of the Soul which is a true labor of love, a project of Lorna Tolentino in memory of her husband Rudy Fernandez, produced by Pinky Tobiano (a cancer survivor) and line-produced by Star Records with the help of Philip Cu-Unjieng.

H.O.P.E. means Healing of Pain and Enlightenment. Like with the first volume, proceeds from the sale of this CD will go to The Pinky Cares Foundation and The Rudy Fernandez Cancer Foundation, Inc.

A veritable collectors’ item, the CD carries the songs of those close to Lorna and Rudy, chosen for specific reasons, with the songs holding a particular significance and meaning, among them: Sharon Cuneta (Special Memory); Tirso Cruz III (Awit ni Daboy); Sen. Jinggoy Estrada, Sen. Bong Revilla and Phillip Salvador (Doon Lang); Christopher de Leon, Bobot Mortiz and Ricky Davao (Stand By Me, featuring Bodie Cruz); Aga Muhlach (Let It Be); Gary Valenciano (Ikaw Lamang); Piolo Pascual (I’ll Be There For You/I Will Be Here); and Jamie Rivera (My Life Is In Your Hands).

The H.O.P.E. CD will deliver its message more effectively in a season of reflection like this.

A poem by a cancer-stricken kid

In the spirit of the season, I am reprinting the poem Slow Dance supposedly written by a child while dying of cancer at a New York hospital a few years ago. The poem was sent to me by a Funfare reader who didn’t give his/her name.

Slow Dance

Have you ever watched kids

On a merry-go-round?

Or listened to the rain

Slapping on the ground?

Ever followed a butterfly’s erratic flight?

Or gazed at the sun into the fading night?

You better slow down,

Don’t dance too fast.

Time is short,

The music won’t last.

Do you run through each day

Or do you fly?

When you ask, “How are you?”

Do you hear the reply?

When the day is done

Do you lie in your bed

With the next hundred chores

Running through your head?

You’d better slow down,

Don’t dance too fast.

Time is short,

The music won’t last.

Ever told your child,

“We’ll do it tomorrow?”

And in your haste,

Not see his sorrow?

Ever lost touch

Let a good friendship die

‘Cause you never had time

To call and say, “Hi?”

You’d better show down,

Don’t dance too fast.

Time is short,

The music won’t last.

When you run so fast to get somewhere

You miss half the fun of getting there.

When you worry and hurry through

your day,

It is like an unopened gift...

Thrown away.

Life is not a race,

Do take it slower.

Hear the music

Before the song is over.

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