That mall has always been there, unvisited, not experienced, seen from afar as I pass by the area upon constant arrival and departure in and from this city. Last Friday, I finally went to the site of new commerce, apprehended the crowd and realized the deaths of so many things in this expanding community.
In the 50s and 60s, there was one way of understanding the coming of big stores or department stores to a small city or a town. It was called modernization theory and these stores and many so-called "modern" structures were modernizing elements. This means that when a modernizing agent is introduced, change takes place. Thus the name "change agent" for these structures. The massive (by local or even by regional standard) establishment in what used to be a terminal for jeepneys and vans is expected to bring about a change, and this change should be for the good.
Immediately, one senses that there are indeed life-altering systems and processes in the mall. The stores are not local and are designed not to look local. These are national and inter-national franchises expected to be more sophisticated and different from any other local stores. In fact, the presence of the mall localizes the local even more. Next to the fastfood area is a store that has hyped up the most local of symbols, the "pili." Finally the nut that has given the region undisputed identity is national and international. The wrapping is sealed foil and the message is sanitation without question. Does this mean also mechanization? We are not sure. I would not be surprised also if the makers insist that the nuts are virtually untouched by human hands.
Alongside the pili nuts are pastries, which are not necessarily Bikol but by strength of merchandising can be claimed so. If "pili" is here, can Bikol Express and Laing be far behind? An array of small bottles carry names for Bicol dish labeled as such, following the ex0nyms or names given by outsiders. Interestingly enough, Nancy Reyes Lumen, a colleague in Business Mirror, recalls how the name "Bicol Express" came about in one of her articles. She cites how Celing Kalaw and her brother Etring Kalaw concocted a very hot dish and called "Bicol Express."
Personally, I am emotionally not ready to buy this legend. I still would want to believe that what looks and tastes like Bicol Express - bottled and all mass produced - originated somewhere from a dish that was passionately and irrevocably made from that core product we know as "balaw." The native must have other ingredients owing kinship to other processes like how tough or how soft should be the meat of the coconut, how alternatingly gentle and strong should be the mashing of the meat, and how light or how heavy the milk should be. These are matters that are imbued with the mystery of rituals, beyond the comprehension of any food expert living outside the boundaries of our land. These matters are not open to any positivistic measurement. Of course, someone else may come and demystify our processes but who cares. Culture is irrevocably a composite of artifacts, of things made and imagined by man and produced through cumulative knowledge. They are singularly owned and selfishly understood.
All this have of course vanished in those bottles and labels. A company now owns the artifact of our identities and they are all marked by outsiders.
With the appearance of the huge mall also comes the disappearance of other traditions like "buwena mano" or "good hand" or "good luck." There are so many stores in the mall that the first buyer becomes an incomprehensible factor. Besides, the prices are fixed and the "tawad" or haggling is rendered obsolete. The "buwena mano" functions both ways: the "good hand" of the first customer either is given a good price or is allowed to bring down a price because he brings good luck for that day. The mall is also the death of the "suki" for nowhere in the selling of brands that originate from other countries is there a place for this idealized customers. The advertisers will take care of that.
Globalization has changed also these products. Remember the US balikbayan "Timex," which used to be made in Cebu? Or the American lifestyle sold through GAP shirts? They are made in the Philippines. Or the Polo of Ralph Lauren, the quintessential dream-for upper-middle-class accoutrement, which are made in Malaysia and Indonesia?
The mall is a temple of these products.
As for modernization, the theory and its practice has destroyed rather than built the identities of countries and communities. Commerce proves to be more outstandingly dominant than any other ideologies about selves and knowledge of selves.