Skin bleaching a growing problem in Jamaica slums

Posted: Apr 11, 2011 3:58 AM MDTUpdated: Apr 11, 2011 7:30 AM MDT

By DAVID McFADDEN
Associated Press

KINGSTON, Jamaica (AP) – Mikeisha Simpson covers her body in greasy white cream and bundles up in a track suit to avoid the fierce sun of her native Jamaica, but she’s not worried about skin cancer.

The 23-year-old resident of a Kingston ghetto hopes to transform her dark complexion to a cafe-au-lait-color common among Jamaica’s elite and favored by many men in her neighborhood. She believes a fairer skin could be her ticket to a better life. So she spends her meager savings on cheap black-market concoctions that promise to lighten her pigment.

Simpson and her friends ultimately shrug off public health campaigns and reggae hits blasting the reckless practice.

“I hear the people that say bleaching is bad, but I’ll still do it. I won’t stop ’cause I like it and I know how to do it safe,” said Simpson, her young daughter bouncing on her hip.

People around the world often try to alter their skin color, using tanning salons or dyes to darken it or other chemicals to lighten it. In the gritty slums of Jamaica, doctors say the skin lightening phenomenon has reached dangerous proportions.

“I know of one woman who started to bleach her baby. She got very annoyed with me when I told her to stop immediately, and she left my office. I often wonder what became of that baby,” said Neil Persadsingh, a leading Jamaican dermatologist.

Most Jamaican bleachers use over-the-counter creams, many of them knockoffs imported from West Africa. Long-term use of one of the ingredients, hydroquinone, has long been linked to a disfiguring condition called ochronosis that causes a splotchy darkening of the skin. Doctors say abuse of bleaching lotions has also left a web of stretch marks across some Jamaicans’ faces.

In Japan, the European Union, and Australia, hydroquinone has been removed from over-the-counter skin products and substituted with other chemicals due to concerns about health risks. In the U.S., over-the-counter creams containing up to 2 percent hydroquinone are recognized as safe and effective by the U.S. Food and Drug Administration. A proposed ban by the FDA in 2006 fizzled.

Lightening creams are not effectively regulated in Jamaica, where even roadside vendors sell tubes and plastic bags of powders and ointments from cardboard boxes stacked along sidewalks in market districts.

“Many of the tubes are unlabeled as to their actual ingredients,” said Dr. Richard Desnoes, president of the Dermatology Association of Jamaica.

Hardcore bleachers use illegal ointments smuggled into the Caribbean country that contain toxins like mercury, a metal that blocks production of melanin, which give skin its color, but can also be toxic.

Some impoverished people resort to homemade mixtures of toothpaste or curry powder, which can stain skin with a yellowish tint.

The Jamaican Ministry of Health does not have data on damage caused by skin-bleaching agents, though dermatologists and other health officials say they have been seeing more cases.

Eva Lewis-Fuller, the ministry’s director of health promotion and protection, is redoubling education programs to combat bleaching in this predominantly black island of 2.8 million people, where images of fair-skinned people predominate in commercials for high-end products and in the social pages of newspapers.

“Bleaching has gotten far worse and widespread in recent years,” she said. “(Bleachers) want to be accepted within their circle of society. They want to be attractive to the opposite sex. They want career opportunities. But we are saying there are side effects and risks. It can disfigure your face.”

Health officials are running warnings on local radio stations, putting up posters in schools, holding talks and handing out literature about the dangers. But a similar anti-bleaching campaign in 2007 called “Don’t Kill the Skin” did nothing to slow the craze.

The bleaching trend is sparking a growing public debate. Even dancehall reggae hits celebrate the practice, or condemn it.

The most public proponent of bleaching is singing star Vybz Kartel, whose own complexion has dramatically lightened in recent years. His ‘Look Pon Me’ contains the lines: “Di girl dem love off mi brown cute face, di girl dem love off mi bleach-out face.”

Kartel, whose real name is Adijah Palmer, insists that skin bleaching is simply a personal choice like tattooing.

Christopher A.D. Charles, an assistant professor at Monroe College in New York City who has studied the psychology of bleaching, said many young Jamaicans perceive it “as a modern thing, like Botox, to fashion their own body in a unique way.”

Others, however, say it raises awkward questions about identity and race.

“If we really want to control the spread of the skin-bleaching virus, we first have to admit that there’s an epidemic of color prejudice in our society,” said Carolyn Cooper, a professor of literary and cultural studies at the University of the West Indies, writing in The Jamaica Gleaner newspaper.

Felicia James, a 20-year-old resident of the Matthews Lane slum, said skin bleaching just makes her feel special, like she’s walking around in a spotlight. She was taught to bleach by her older sister and her friends.

“It’s just the fashionable thing to do. After I bleach, I’m cris,” she said, using a Jamaican term for cool. “Plus, a lot of the boys are doing it now, too.”

MONTEGO BAY, St James — The St James High School fraternity is still reeling from last Wednesday’s suspected suicide of a 14-year-old eighth grade female student after a romantic relationship with a male student went sour.

The suspected suicide victim is Annalise Authurs of Rose Mount Gardens, Mount Salem, St James.

 

AUTHURS… was an excellent student 1/2

According to Annalise’s distressed father, Gary Authurs, his daughter eventually succeeded in killing herself on Tuesday after trying to take her life three times in the last two years.

He said that a couple of years ago, while Annalise was a student at Howard Cooke Primary, she attempted to jump from an upstairs balcony at the school after the Grade Six Achievement Test (GSAT) results were announced and students she perceived to be of an inferior academic standard were placed in traditional high schools, while she was placed at St James High.

“She was so disappointed and took it seriously and attempted to jump off the building. It took the students and teachers to stop her,” the bereaved father told the Observer last Thursday.

In January, according to the distraught father, his daughter again tried to end her life as a result of a problematic love affair with a male student.

“I heard of another incident at St James High, that she had a boyfriend problem and said if she don’t get the guy she going to kill herself. She was moving towards the [rear of the school] and it was other students who stopped her from carrying out the act,” the girl’s father revealed.

He said that on Tuesday Annalise’s most recent boyfriend was said to have broken up with her, triggering another suicide attempt the following day.

“I heard that she had a boyfriend who said he [was] no longer interested in the relationship,” said Mr Authurs.

This story was corroborated by Khaba Hayles Selby, Annalise’s class teacher.

“What her friends have been saying is that the guy broke up with her on Tuesday, and after that she became erratic and threatened to kill herself. The students talked to her, trying to get her to calm down. Her father picked her up the same day but persons who would have got the information did not inform him of everything until afterwards,” the visibly upset teacher revealed.

Hayles Selby recounted that while marking the attendance register she realised that Annalise was absent from class but said she was not alarmed as the young student was “actually doing two CXCs [subjects] outside of the school, so sometimes she gets here late”.

But after she completed marking the register she inquired, as was customary, if any of the students had any issues. It was at that point that one of Annalise’s close friends informed her that she was worried that Annalise was not in class, as the previous day she took from another student two shoelaces which she threatened to use to hang herself.

The teacher explained that her husband is a friend of Annalise’s father, so shortly after, she called her husband to get the teen’s father’s telephone number. It was then that she received the tragic news.

“By the time I called my husband to ask him the number, my husband gave me the news that she had committed suicide,” Hayles Selby explained.

The bereaved father said he left his daughter at home about 7:00 am in the care of his cousin who subsequently called him to inform him that the young girl, who seemed to have locked herself inside her room, was not responding to her calls.

“I said, something is wrong. I wondered if she fainted inside there, so I said [to the cousin], call her. She said she called but did not get a response and it look like she use something and brace the door because the door don’t lock with key, but it can’t open,” he said.

The girl’s guardian then sought the assistance of a next-door neighbour who eventually forced the door open. The body of the student was found hanging from the ceiling in her room. A red electrical cord was tied around her neck.

The traumatised father described Annalise, who had been living with him since last summer, as a girl who did not talk much.

“What I realised, to get things from her you had to be soft with her,” he said.

Meanwhile, Hayles Selby said Annalise was a promising scholar.

“She was an excellent student. Aside from the whole boyfriend issue we did not have any behavioural problems with her. She was an ‘A’ student, one who did very well. She would have been one who would be earmarked for maybe 10 or 11 CXC subjects in the future, she was that good,” said Hayles Selby.

Principal of St James High, Joseph Williams, told the Observer that a trauma team, guidance counsellors and the school chaplain have been counselling students, especially those in Annalise’s class.

The suspected suicide follows on the heels of another last week in which 15-year-old Tia Murray of Barracks Road, Savanna-la-Mar in Westmoreland, was found hanging from a mango tree in the community. And yesterday, 14-year-old Shaquilla Calame was found hanging from a rope at her home in another apparent suicide.

This is the fourth in a Sunday Observer series featuring stories told by inner-city men who have turned from a life of crime and are trying to steer young, at-risk males away from that destructive path.

NICHOLAS Miller was once the terror of sections of Arnett Gardens — the depressed South St Andrew community known as ‘Concrete Jungle’.

In fact he gave himself the moniker, ‘The Devil’.

The mere mention of his name drove fear in the hearts of many and he was a regular occupant of the cells at the Denham Town Police Station.

Miraculously, Miller has left the life of criminality behind him and has been steadfastly doing his part to make Jamaica a better place. He is a member of the Citizens Security and Justice Programme (CSJP)-sponsored Men With A Message — a nine-member group of former gangsters and ex-convicts who have shaken off a life of crime and are now trying to motivate young at-risk males to avoid the criminal lifestyle by engaging them in dialogue in schools, on street corners and just about anywhere they can be found.

Miller has a message for young males who might be enticed by the false glitter of the gangster lifestyle.

“Think for yourselves. If you don’t like school, get a trade. You need to do something progressive. No man can think for you, they don’t care for you, they only care for themselves. Let’s make Jamaica a better place,” he said.

Miller, who gave up the gun upon the birth of his first son, has since completed the Levels One and Two courses in electrical installation at the Heart Trust/NTA vocational skills training centre.

He graduated as one of the top students in his batch.

But, like many inhabitants of impoverished communities where social amenities are badly lacking and life is lived on the edge, he had a torrid childhood.

He was one of many children raised by his grandmother after his mother died when he was just seven years old. His father was never around.

“I never knew love. No one showed me love so I did not know how to relate to love. Nobody teach me how to love,” he said.

By the age of 15 Miller was roaming the streets picking ackees and selling, extorting working class persons including teachers at the Charlie Smith Comprehensive High School and engaging in the gamut of illicit activities found in the criminal underworld.

He came to be well known to the police in the Kingston West Division as bodies piled up during a bloody war in Arnett Gardens that claimed over 300 lives.

However he was never implicated in any of those murders.

But that life lost its hold in the face of Miller’s burning desire to put his life on a productive and meaningful track and after meeting a member of his community who had hooked up with the CSJP he joined the programme and started his journey of transformation.

But his attempt to free himself from the shackles of criminality was not without hitches.

Once he got suspended from the life skills classes because of poor behaviour. Another time, he abused a fellow student and nearly got kicked out of the programme.

“I was beginning to get deep in the thing and the man carry weed in the class. I kicked him up because he might have caused problems for all of us,” Miller told the Sunday Observer.

CSJP community action officer Marcia Flynn, who has mentored Miller, said all students who attend classes she teaches, must paste the words FOCUS on a wall in their homes as a reminder of what they set out to achieve.

Miller said he pasted the word up all over his house and made sure to paste it on the ceiling above his bed so it would be the last thing he saw before he fell asleep and the first thing he saw when he woke up in the morning.

“It really helped me to do just that, focus and stay straight,” he said.

Miller has been a hit whenever he gives speeches at schools and his autograph is eagerly sought after by students all over the country who are impressed by his life story.

“If I can save one youth, then that is good. I am doing my part to build this country. I might not have started out on the right track but I am glad where my life is going,” he said.

Flynn said she is impressed with Miller’s new attitude and is assured that he will not backslide.

“He has done exceptionally well in classes and is looking to go further. He wants to start a small business. Nicholas has the will to achieve and he always wants to do more,” Flynn said.

He was once wanted by the police and his name would be the first to be called whenever crimes were committed in sections of the community, but now he has no reason to fear the cops who have come to the realisation that Miller has taken an about turn and is contributing positively to society.

“I once was the Devil but not anymore. Police have no reason to look for me,” he said, “It is impossible for me to take up back the gun. I am no longer a menace to society. There is no temptation to return to that lifestyle.”

His claim was corroborated by Deputy Superintendent in charge of crime in the Kingston West Police Division, Arthur Brown.

The divisional crime cheif told the Sunday Observer that Miller: “…was a regular guest (of the police), but I can tell that he has been reformed. He is preaching now.”

As is to be expected, during his time as a gangster Miller hurt people. However, he says the thought that those he hurt or their loved ones might seek to exact their revenge, does not faze him.

“The devil strong, but God stronger. Me beg God for forgiveness and maybe he sees that I am a changed man. I don’t think he will make my enemies kill me. They might hurt me but he will not let them kill me,” he said.

Miller has dedicated his life to his children and, unlike his own delinquent father, he is determined that his children will not follow his early footsteps.

“I have set certain morals for my children. Certain songs can’t play in my house. I love my baby-mother too,” he said as he flashed a grin.