It’s been a long time since I have been out of our small town. That’s because I hate traveling to the city. The smog is oppressing, the sight depressing and the noise is deafening. So, when I was asked to deliver something to the city, I was not surprised to find out that there’s another supermall being built. On board the jeepney, as I was looking at the scaffoldings and the workmen busy with their work, I remembered what a friend said to me, “One of the requirements for a municipality to be upgraded to a city is a supermall.”
It has been observed by many that it is ironic that as the standard of living in the Philippines deteriorates, the more supermalls are being built. As the buying power of the ordinary Filipinos drop, the more stalls are being erected.
As I was observing the construction, I can only shake my head because it seems to me that supermalls are really churches promoting the religion of materialism.
Maybe it’s because I am poor, and that looking at goods, gadgets being sold in the stores arouses that primal…hmmm…what do I call this? This primal desire or drive to have, to show off, and this depressed me because I know it is wrong especially if I don’t have the money and most especially if the money I am spending (Oh how wish that this is the case) did not come from my own labor. How easy to spend money that is not yours.
Maybe it’s the gloom of Christmas…How I wish I am a child again.
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