White, red, yellow, purple, whatever band you fancy

Saturday, July 02, 2005
Hera Diani, The Jakarta Post, Jakarta

Everybody is wearing one, or more, these days. John Kerry opts for yellow, Bono and Nelson Mandela wear white, David Beckham picks blue while Thierry Henry and Ronaldinho wear black and white ones.
Rubber wristbands are the latest way to show your allegiance to a cause, from raising cancer awareness to poverty eradication.
Friday marked the first global white band day drive launched by the Global Call to Action Against Poverty initiated by Mandela and Bono.
The first person to introduce a wristband that stood for a cause was probably American cyclist and six-time winner of the Tour de France Lance Armstrong.
Recovered from testicular cancer, Armstrong then launched the Wear Yellow campaign to raise awareness about cancer. So far, 40 million yellow bands have been sold in the campaign.
In Indonesia, where people have always been quick to copy the latest global trends, colorful wristbands are worn by celebrities, activists, economists and Cabinet ministers.
Yudhistira Juwono of the Tunas Cendekia Foundation for poor children, who first initiated the wear-a-band movement here, said that over 39,000 red bands have been sold since the campaign began in February.
With Solidaritas Kebersamaan (Togetherness Solidarity) written on it, the band aims to raise funds for the children of tsunami-stricken Aceh and victims of the Nias quake.
The donations have been used in part to buy vans for mobile libraries and to buy school equipment for children in the disaster areas.
"More and more people, including Indonesians living abroad, are buying the bands, which is great. We are calling for more people to wear them to spread awareness," Yudhistira said, adding that the band can be purchased through the website www.tunascendekia.org for Rp 10,000 (about $1) each.
Tri, 31, from the East Java city of Malang, said he bought a band after he saw people from Jakarta wearing it.
The Jantung Indonesia Foundation for Cardiology, meanwhile, uses a blue band with I My Heart. Let It Beat. written on it.
Author and fashion editor Syahmedi Dean said that one of his friends has started to sell bands with an Islamic prayer on it, such as Alhamdulillah (Praise be to God) and Astaghfirullahaladzim (God Have Mercy).
"But she forgot to scrape off the 'Made In China' writing on the back of the band," he said, laughing.
Sports companies are following the trend by producing bands with Nike, Adidas and Giordano logos. These won't save anything, not even -- as some may argue -- your fashion sense.
Standard Chartered Bank, meanwhile, gives out green band to all of its employees and street vendors now are selling bands of all colors for profit.
Whether the bands will last or merely a trend remains to be seen. "It's been over a year since Lance Armstrong started it. I guess it has some time left yet," Yudhistira said.

Labels: culture

Posted by hera at Saturday, July 2, 2005 12:51 AM | Permalinks