Hard times?

You know, for a year or more now, financial times have been really bad worldwide.  The mortgage crisis has thousands of families in America losing their housing.  Banks are failing all over the world. Food prices are soaring.  Oil prices have skyrocketed, although in the past couple of weeks, they are falling back down to more realistic levels.  Stock Markets all over the world have been on a wild roller coaster ride.  It would seem that financially, we are in a very uncertain time.

The Philippines has been sort of an economic basket-case for decades now.  People are hungry, going without food.  Many of the poor get little or no medical care.  Frankly, the number of poor people here is seemingly uncontrolable.  With the added economic instability turning into a worldwide phenomenon, you would think that the Philippines would really be in terrible shape these days.

However, it doesn’t seem to be the case!  Davao is booming.  Some other areas that I frequent in Mindanao are booming right now too.  General Santos City has really seen some huge economic pluses lately, even while the fishing industry, which has long been the main-stay of the GenSan economy, has been on the downturn.

Here in Davao, over the past year or so, three new malls have been announced, and construction has already started on two of them.  All three of the new malls will be located on J.P. Laurel Avenue with two in Bajada, and one in Lanang, probably within 2 to 3 Kilometers of each other!  Actually, when these 3 new malls, there will be 6 malls that I can think of within a 5 to 10 minute drive of each other:

1. Chime’s Mall – Only about 1 1/2 years old, as I recall
2. Gaisano Mall
3. Victoria Plaza
4. Abreeza Mall (Ayala Davao) – One of the new malls under construction
5. Robinson’s Cybergate – Another of the new malls under construction
6. SM – they are constructing a second Davao location in Lanang soon

And, these 6 malls are not all of the malls in Davao City.  We also have other malls too, about 4 more that I can think of.

Frankly, I don’t see how Davao can support this many new malls.  We’ll see, though, how it works out.  I hope that they will all do well, no doubt about that.  One thing that is unique for the new malls under construction is that they each will be a mixed-use area, with mall shopping space, and also call center areas where BPO/Call Center operations can locate.  Davao has become one of the leading areas for Call Center operations in the Philippines over the past couple of years, so this is a wise move by these developers to include these spaces.  From what I can tell, by including this mix of spaces in the development, the developers are aiming to create sort of a “self contained city” in the mall area, where people can get all of their needs accomplished all at one place.  Imagine, a person can go to his place of employment and have everything needed within walking distance!

So, while the world is in economic turmoil, it seems like Southern Mindanao is booming.  Let’s hope that it lasts!

The World’s Greatest Dads Are In The Philippines

Happy father’s day to every father in the Philippines!

You must be quite special to be able to play that role, especially here, given the tough times and extra pressure on family values. You must be carrying such a heavy mantle on your shoulders. You must be more than the “World’s Greatest Dad”: the phrase printed on so many of the gift items that I, thinking of something to get you, have seen here in the mall.

What if I get you a “World’s Greatest Dad” coffee mug? Not that you need one. You start every day earlier than the rest of us, cockerels included. You get up at half five, or six, or half six, or seven, but never later than eight in the morning. To maximize productivity, you usually skip breakfast –but not the Nescafe 3-in-1– and that’s why I wonder how, on that empty stomach, you can brave such rush hour traffic as people outside of the Philippines wouldn’t believe, and I mean really wouldn’t believe. Anyway: no, a coffee mug wouldn’t be a good idea, for you already have a natural wellspring of patience, hard work, and caffeine.

Maybe a “World’s Greatest Dad” picture frame? You don’t have that yet. I noticed that you’ve kept Fujifilm pictures of your sons and daughters in your wallet –as currency for memory– and even though time may crease the edges of these prints and blur its colours, you’d still hold on to them as though these were beer money.

Or a “World’s Greatest Dad” mouse pad might do you even better. That’s a nice little aid for when you work hours at the computer, and know more and understand better the quirks –among them, technology– that make my generation different from yours. A friend of mine says: “So much of later learning is taken up with connections that are still very difficult to express in known languages (in this case, the language of point and click).” Don’t you agree? Fathers may stand as the tower of wisdom but even so, you are open and you listen.

Well, how about a “World’s Greatest Dad” baseball cap? Something to shade you from the severe sun. After all, the climate here has been very disagreeable. Right now it’s hotter than summer, and I am surprised that the heat could be so ferocious at this time of the year. Only the calendar is proof that it’s June. Yet you toil on anyway –driving the jeepney, planting the rice, attending the meetings, taking the live calls, wheeling your patients to the emergency room, whatever it is that you do– so that at the end of the day, you can go home with a promise that no one will go hungry tomorrow.

Perhaps you’ll appreciate instead a “World’s Greatest Dad” fridge magnet. From the shadows of the staircase your children watched you work on an adobo recipe like a piece of cake and make something wonderful out of a can of Ligo Sardines. You’d never utter a word whilst cooking, never sang, never whistled; you’d be lost in concentration, or in a state of prayer, as if in another world, roasting, frying, steaming, dutifully tossing salt and garlic chops into a pot until without warning the telephone rang. Or sometimes it was a neighbour looking to borrow the toolbox. In any case, you’ve taught us the value and intimacy of a home-cooked meal – sprinkled with love and served with affection. Aww.

But I’ve run out of time, typing this, so I guess my Father’s Day gift will be a Swiss Army Knife. One can never go wrong with that.

Cheap Thrills Away From Manila

One learns new things when in an unfamiliar place, when in a (rather) strange land.

I was taking a stroll in Gaisano Mall, Davao City not so long ago when a quick look at the box office put me in a state of shock. Movie tickets cost only seventy-five pesos each! That’s less than two US dollars. (And it wasn’t just because 10000 BC was showing. Quality of film had nothing to do with price.)

Finding this out was quite a big surprise to me, considering that in Manila where I live, one would have to shell out a minimum of one hundred and twenty pesos for a movie at most theatres. Make that a hundred and fifty (or more, exclusive of excessively salty popcorn) if one is a posh moviegoer who cannot not watch in upmarket cinemas such as in Greenbelt, Shangri-La, or Eastwood City. Three hundred if one were to go to the IMAX Theatre in SM Mall of Asia.

While one can argue that choice, variety, and legroom all constitute the premium amount we all have to pay for in Manila, it is still rather astounding that there are places outside of the nation’s capital where movies cost only half as much. Well, movies and other commodities. As I continued to explore Davao City, I had the chance to examine the price tags of pirated DVDs, rubber shoes, imported magazines, nylon guitar strings, haircuts, and brewed coffee – examine, that is, with absolute dismay, for even though there were bargains in Manila none ever came so ridiculous as the bargains in, say, many Philippine provincial cities. I’d never before heard of a twenty-five peso haircut!

But that wasn’t the last surprise. At precisely three o’clock in the afternoon at the department store of another mall, all the salesladies stopped what they were doing to perform a five-minute choreographed dance – from wherever they happened to be standing. It was Broadway over at the Men’s Underwear section!

Away from Manila, I learned that despite being a city rat, I’m still prone to enjoying the cheapest thrills in life. This is the Philippines indeed.