Malls and 'nat

I have been here for almost a month and I feel like I am finally assimilating to the way of life here. The heat is intense and I am always sweaty but it has made me enjoy cold showers just that much more. Right now even as I am sitting in my hotel room in Cebu I won't turn on the air conditioner. I really feel alive in the heat and air conditioning just makes me feel sickly. I will write more about Cebu later once I have finished my stay here but I wanted to talk about a couple things that I dislike about the Philippines.

Since I have arrived I have be taken to probably 6 different malls around Manila and Cebu. Now, Filipino malls are just as nice, big, and have the same stores as American malls and I would even say that there aren't even any malls in Pittsburgh that are as big as the one's I've seen here. I haven't been to the Mall of Asia which is the biggest mall in Southeast Asia but hopefully I can avoid going there during my stay here. I always hated going to malls in America and here is no different. I'm not sure why people here assume that I would want to go to malls because seriously if it wasn't for all the Filipinos around I could forget that I'm not in America. I get the feeling that Filipinos feel its necessary to show foreigners their malls because maybe they think that since I'm American I'm automatically a fan of massive malls. They have the same stores and the crap in them as in America but everything is about a quarter the price. I also find it strange that everyone calls me “sir” all the time. No one in America calls me sir, it makes me feel weird because I know I'm too young to deserve that kind of respect from people I don't know. I mean I know they are just trying to be polite because I am a foreigner but what made it worse was the time I was buying a bottle vodka at some super-market. I was waiting in line to buy a very cheap bottle of vodka (probably around two bucks or so) but all of a sudden the woman at the cashier waved me up in front of a few people. I thought there was problem or she wanted my ID or something but then she just rang up the bottle and I paid for it there. I realized while I was walking away that I was rushed to front of line at the expense of three Filipinos probably for the sole reason that the woman wanted to impress an American. Some people might enjoy this kind of special treatment but honestly it makes me uncomfortable. I didn't come here to live like some sort of privileged tourist. This special treatment comes with a few catches though such as being continually hassled to pay more for taxi rides which does get annoying but it gives me motivation to learn Tagalog so I can actually negotiate with the driver and prove that I am not just a tourist. Anyway, back to malls.

Another reason why I dislike malls in America was the vulgarity of the average consumer. You

know those people that drink Fair Trade Starbucks coffee and then buy clothes produced from cheap labor in developing countries. I'm not going to jump on that anti-globalization which too many non-committed idealistic “activists” have turned into a cliché. It is true that I am very cynical about student political activism because I feel like too many of them ump onto catch phrases like “globalization” and “commercialism” without actually knowing what they mean, however I do still believe that the affluence experienced by America and other Western countries comes off of the backs of exploited people across the world. You could say that it is a natural by-product of predatory environment in the world economy of today and I would agree but I still think it's tragic. I see it as a heterotrophic dilemma because to live and grow as individuals we depend on the death of plants and animals to sustain ourselves nutritionally and our economies operate in a similar way. In a world of where resources are becoming more and more scarce the wealth people accumulate does not come out of thin air but usually at the expense of some other disadvantaged part of the world. My main problem with American malls is that I don't think the average consumer gives a second thought to where all this cheap crap is coming from and for what price. I can't really get on a high horse and judge other Americans because I am no different. I buy the same clothes made in sweatshops but I just wish that more people considered the consequences and the effect American aggrandizement of wealth has on the rest of the world.

Filipino malls are different in that respect. Like I said before, its the same stores and same crap but the difference is that right next to most decently sized malls will be a complex of shanty towns and slums. The average American consumer can go waste some money on some new shoes or sunglasses and drive home in peace without having to see any unsightly poor people. But as you leave malls in the Philippines you see poor families asking for money or I saw a man with this massive tumor growing out of his neck asking for money to go to hospital. I can understand why poor people wait outside malls since I mean they are asking for a small amount of change from people who just bought some superfluous clothes or electronics that are probably worth more than anything the poor people have ever owned. I know it sounds morbid but I actually like that aspect of Filipino malls because I feel that seeing people in dire straits like that might help burst that apathetic bubble that consumerism instills in people. Anyway, I'll get off that soapbox I said I wouldn't get on.

Unfortunately, I have not met one Filipino that knows anything about Pittsburgh. I was surprised one morning when an old woman I met in a convenience store said she knew about Pittsburgh and told me the story of Grace Kelly who was an American actress who married a prince of Monaco and she insisted that she was from Pittsburgh. I'd never heard of that but after consulting Wikipedia I was disappointed to discover that she was actually from Philadelphia. Even though Pittsburgh is not well-known among the locals here, at least some people know about Pennsylvania or at least the name. One lady tried to convince me that Harry Potter was filmed in Pennsylvania which I highly doubt but I think the funniest reaction was from someone who kept asking about if there were a lot of vampires or vampire movies coming out of Pennsylvania. After a decently long discussion I realized she was talking about Transylvania which I thought was pretty funny because I can't see how I could pass as an Eastern European or a vampire for that matter. I shouldn't make fun of her because I know a lot of people back home who think China, Korea, and Japan are pretty much the same country. Yeah the problem with the Philippines is that there isn't a famous young black guy fluent in Tagalog from Pittsburgh famous for singing lounge type music like they have in Japan. I doubt most people know what I'm talking about but look up Jero on youtube and you'll see what I mean.