21 November 2012

Movember


The concept of Movember was born out of a conversation between two blokes in a bar in 2003. Like many of the world's great inventions such as fire, the wheel, and electricity - it is Australian. These two guys were just yakking over a couple of beers about fashion trends from the past. The question was raised, why not promote the return of the mustache?

Crazy fuckers!

What were they thinking?

What were they drinking?

In a moment of obvious drunken insanity both felt that the Mo could do with a revival. With this seed of an idea these men talked a couple of their mates into growing a moustache for one month. Yo and behold Movember was born. In 2003 just 30 Mo Bros took part. The rules were simple. Start the growth on Movember 1st and spend the remainder of the month growing a Mo.

No money was raised.

The idea was simply to see who could grow the better moustache.

It wasn’t until the next year, having been overwhelmed by the conversations prompted by the previous year’s growth, that the founders decided to develop the idea into a cause. This gave birth to the Movember Foundation. It recognised that men, unlike women, were lacking a way to engage in their own health issues. These guys saw an opportunity to attach a purpose to growing a Mo. They began to look for a cause for which they could raise a bit of money and awareness. They decided that the Prostate Cancer Foundation of Australia (PCFA) represented a health issue about which very little was known at the time.

In later years they adopted male depression.

They are both very worthy causes and it is now a global phenomena.

Movember is big here in Singapore and there are many participants. I am not a big fan of the moustache nor indeed facial hair in general. On men or women. It makes my face itch and it catches food. Just seeing so many mo's makes my prostate ache and I feel the black dog of depression. The preferred mo here seems to be the handle-bar variety. It is not a good look. I walked into my favorite cafe at lunch time today and for a moment thought I had drifted through the twilight zone and had entered the Blue Oyster bar.

I had to leave. Immediately.

I spend much time working in India. The moustache there is very popular. I have decided that next year I will promote and support Nomovember.

I will actively seek the removal of the mo for one month.

With a male population of more than 600 million I think it could be successful. 

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