Mega Malls

Manila has two scales of living. Up and down. The majority of the city seem to live in roadside huts and allyways, naked children running around, and laundry stretched accross the roads to dry. There are approximately 50, 000 children living on the street in Manila, and this does not account for the adults. Crime is a problem, but how could it not be.

The other percentage live in beautiful homes. Some fenced off in compounds with their own private security forces. And there are malls a plenty. We went to several including the Ayala Center, the Power Plant and the Mall of Asia. You can find just about every store you have ever come accross from North America, Europe and Australia. Like commercial centers in the west, the majority of businesses in the malls are international chains, and the ones that are presumably Filipino are carbon copies of western stores. Bench, a Filipino clothing chain (there is also a Similar British company called Bench) carries the typical polo shirt and cargo short designs, internationally popularized by The Gap, and Abercrombie & Fitch. The bookstores are wonderful. There is no end to selection. There are books here that I have a hard time finding in Canada, mind you in a city of 10 million people, I suppose it is to be expected.

The culture here, in the city at least is one of assimilation. The Philippines has been culturally dominated by European and American interests for so many hundreds of years, the goal of business here seems to be to copy what works elsewhere. Although other asian countries have followed the business and product models of the west, Japan and China have managed to infuse these ideas with strong sensibiltites of their own traditions and perspectives. In the Philippines this has been disappearing for a very long time now. (see photos)