SOME people used to love going to shopping malls because it had everything they ever wanted; confined in the sheen of shiny glass panels are possessions that they coveted. Behind the riveting window panes laid their dreams—seemingly within their reach. They always thought that these public locations were heaven in this corporeal world. After all, everyone was smiling because they had so much to eat, they had so many amusements to revel in, and they seemed to have so little to worry about. Enthralled by the ability of malls to put people into a state of euphoria, everyone regarded those places as singularities that pulled each person into a space where no one could ever be harmed.
Through the years, some were finally disillusioned by the harsh reality that the people who work in these malls live in inhumane working conditions and suffer insufficient wages. These hellish experiences given by the monstrous tycoons razed the once idealistic image of malls as paradise to the ground. Merely passing by these buildings maims the soul, for the disenchanted know that the monstrosities within them will never relinquish their illustrious visage. It continues to lure souls into its jaws and forever gnaw at the measly sustenance that its workers have left to live off of. F ADRIAN PAUL L. TAÑEDO
