Excuse, Ricky Martin fights my cause hor!

You know ah, a long time ago I think I really had my nose stuck in my Prada bag.

Life was a long series of:
"Who am I lunching with today, Dior or Chanel?"
"Isn't it time for my friend to be back in Singapore from Milan with my Sergio Rossi snakeskin shoes that are illegal here because it's made from a nearly-extinct species of snake from the jungles of Brazil?"
"Ack -- don't show me another SKII ad!"
"Hmm, I think my middle is too thick. Time to smoke cigarettes and drink coffee."

Life beyond my material goods, bubble of fashion friends and skinniness was inconceivable.

Now that I am a convert to activism, some people make it like I really downgraded. "You're an activist now?" Like, please don't bring your smelly cause anywhere near my Gucci slippers.

I think in fact I have definitely upgraded. My attitude is up, my life is up, my joy is up, the number of people I make a difference to is up ... definitely more ups than I used to have. In fact, it took a new lipstick or a $1200 new bag to give me an up last time.

I sold much of my material possessions on eBay (and made money to live off for quite a while, actually — in fact eBay sales gave me my iPod. I sold a Gucci dress that made me look like a hairy lollipop to a girl in the UK, and bought meself a $680 iPod way back in 2002 — yes you may grovel at my shrine of divine coolness. Denise Keller bowed to me because mine's a G1 and hers is a G2.)

Anyway, back to activism. To be honest God changed my heart. He made me hurt for kids that have been abused, so badly abused they are sold by their own parents to be beaten up, starved and made to give their little bodies up for sex to feed their pimps. I think back at my extravagance before and it really kills me to think that if I had not spent all that money on clothes, shoes and countless issues of Vogue, I would already have been able to open and sustain a shelter in Batam for a year!!

Is it so unglamorous to be an activist? I'm not anti-fur, and that's the last glam campaign I've really seen the fashion people handle. After which all of them wore fur (Cindy Crawford, Christy Turlington, Linda E ...) Breast cancer sort of is quite glamour, being the Estee Lauder choice of social cause, but you don't get the REALLY A-list people supporting it — though Marc Jacobs, Ralph Lauren etc have given their design talents to the cause.

A good friend of mine who is a show producer pointed out to me last week that RICKY "Shake Your Bon Bon" MARTIN fights exactly the same cause as WMD! He has a Ricky Martin Foundation and he has been travelling the world for years to speak out against child sex tourism and trafficking! Isn't that just very cool?!

Suddenly, I feel quite glam today. I also decide I will buy every Ricky Martin CD there is (since RIAS is being so strict about music sharing, which is plain silly). Oh and yes I promise not to upload to my (nearly empty) iPod. Right.

So here I am wearing my Dior T-shirt (4 years old) and my Export Shop cargos ($20), not worried anymore that the people formerly known as my friends think of me as a downgraded social cause fighter. I can now say I am Ricky Martin's comrade, and that's more than anyone I used to know can say.