Mall Nation

"Have you been to the Mall of Asia?" I get asked this question a lot in the past two weeks. When I answer in the negative, I get prodded to "go...and soon. It's really great!" I nod politely and say nothing in particular.

But I have yet to go and don't plan to anytime soon. I can't seem to find the enthusiasm for it.

Frankly I don't see why we need another behemoth mall, when I already have more than 8 malls within the 10 mile radius of where I live. Do we even have that much money to spend? Are we not a third-world nation?

Maybe we're all out to prove how unpoor we are by flocking to the malls and buying like crazy? Or maybe we just want to get out of our small and sweltering houses to get into the wide and (not open but...) airconditioned spaces? Or maybe because we are poor that we choose to go to the mall (where entrance is free, right?) instead of going to the beach (which entrance is most assuredly 99% not free). Or maybe we don't have enough parks, museums, famous landmarks? Or maybe we've seen them all before. Maybe, maybe, maybe...

One thing's for sure. We are a Mall Nation. We're obsessed with them. We keep on building them. We keep on going to them. If you have not in the past or plan not to in the near future to go to the nearest mall, then you're one of the weirdos.

One time I was abroad, I met a foreign colleague (from Amsterdam) who asked me "You're from the Philippines, right? 1000++ islands, wow! You must go to the beach every weekend." I told him no, it takes at least four hours to go to the nearest one so I go maybe twice a year. He was so disappointed by that answer that I refrained from adding that I'm 20 minutes away from the mall so I go there more often.

Another time, I was asking a group of officemates where should I bring a friend who was visiting from India and they all suggested different malls. I kept rejecting their suggestions even though they gave reasons why each mall's theme is different from the other. Instead I planned to take her to a tour around Corregidor Island, which involved riding a ferry. Alas, a typhoon came and we ended up spending the day at...yup you guessed it...the Megamall.

So now that I've come to ponder on all these, I will endeavor to go to other places on weekends instead of the mall. There's Corregidor to begin with. Maybe next weekend I will...

Well 'coz this weekend, I've already promised my mom I'll go watch a movie with her at the mall.