Green peace in the big city

There isn't any! Unless you pay big bucks for it, but even in the one and only greenspace between Makati and Pasay City there's bits of string stretched along the stone walkways of the Greenbelt shopping complex park preventing anyone from sitting under a coconut tree and reading a book. I got in a bit of reading at a Thai curry place at lunch, but the skinny kid serving me was making me nervous by standing 3 feet behind my chair so I had to engage him in conversation about Jose Rizal and his life and writings. The kid said everyone has to study him in high school and read the novels. He recommended I start with Noli Me Tangere since El Filibusterismo is the sequel. The kid said the Spanish executed him not for his revolutionary acts but purely because of his writing - they felt threatened by a weapon of mass destruction: his pen.

I walked this morning from Facundo Street in Pasay City despite everyone's moans of "it's so far!" Four kilometres. I do that twice every day to and from work - granted, though, it doesn't involve Jeepney-dodging and stepping over piles of garbage, poop and children. There are so many children, cats and dogs running around in that area. You don't pet any, of course - all flea-bitten and skinny, foraging for food. Yes, children included. Cute but sorry, I'm not giving you my change, dear, as it would involve digging into my bag and then being swarmed by a million more of you. What I witness daily just walking down the street speaks volumes about overpopulation and the Church's continued active discouragement of birth control in this country. Sorry, but it's a fact.

So I walked here in the heat and got sucked into the Greenbelt Mall complex looking for a park. I found Top Shop and Zara. There's also Banana Republic, Escada, Marc Jacobs, Juicy Couture, and every brand name that appears between the glossy covers of Vogue. Such a contrast after my walk through Pasay City.

Tomorrow evening is my last practice with the band before departing for Coron with my friend Rupert (Pet). Today, trying to find something other than shopping to do - I can't go many places by myself because as a foreigner I'm a target so the other option is to stay home and listen to the three-year-old scream. Sweet kid most of the time when he gets his own way but dare to cross him and hoo-boy! Back to locate some green space.