I went to the mall with my family last Sunday. My daughter bought pairs of shoes for school because Michaela’s shoes is already broken. This time they choose to buy flat shoes because it would be better to wear flat shoes when out of the house lest you slip on wet surfaces.

Do you know what I noticed? Despite the global financial crisis, there were still too many people in the mall, especially on weekends. People still go to department stores and restaurants to spend their money. It was an early payday weekend so the mall was more crowded. Sometimes, it would make you think that majority of those people are not affected by the crisis.

But do you know why Filipinos are fund of going to malls even if they have little money? Well, its up to you to know why and if you’re a Filipino you should know..

I list here the types of people who goes to mall that I know would make you learn where you belong.

1. Needs to buy something
2. Meet someone
3. Dating
4. Eat
5. Watch movie
6. Past time
7. Freshen
8. etc…

And if you have many more…please do so add to my comments…

Rev. Jesse Jackson (left) and Joseph Jackson (right) stand outside Michael Jackson’s home.

“I have a lot of concerns,” Joe Jackson told CNN’s Don Lemon on the red carpet leading up to the BET Awards ceremony Sunday night. “I can’t get into that, but I don’t like what happened.”

Michael Jackson’s personal physician, who was questioned extensively by investigators over the weekend, found the singer not breathing in bed when he entered the singer’s estate last week, according to the law firm representing the doctor.

However, Jackson did have slight pulse when Dr. Conrad Murray discovered him Thursday, and Murray gave tried to resuscitate the singer as he awaited paramedics, a representative with the law firm of Stradley, Chernoff and Alford law firm in Houston, Texas, told CNN Sunday.

Attorney Edward Chernoff is representing Murray. The law firm said reports that Murray injected Jackson with powerful painkillers, such as Demerol or Oxycontin, were false.

Funeral arrangements for Jackson were pending Sunday. “We haven’t gotten to that yet — we’re working on that,” Joe Jackson told CNN’s Lemon.

Murray voluntarily met for several hours with detectives, the Los Angeles Police Department said late Saturday night.

Health Secretary Francisco Duque III said in a radio interview that such products are merely food enhancers and have no therapeutic value.

“Mali yan.  Ang herbal products di naman bakuna ‘yan. Walang approved therapeutic value, food enhancer yan. Huwag tayo magpapaloko sa advertisement,” Duque said in an interview on dzXL radio.

[Those claims should not be taken seriously. Herbal products are not vaccines and they have no therapeutic value. They are food enhancers. Don’t let their advertisements fool you.]

Duque said he has instructed the Bureau of Food and Drugs (BFAD) to write the companies making such products to stop making claims that they can cure A(H1N1). He also ordered the BFAD to issue advisories in Filipino that such herbal medicine products have no approved therapeutic claims and should thus not be considered an A(H1N1) cure.

On the other hand, Duque reiterated his advice not to consider flu shots as A(H1N1) cures, although he said they can help protect especially children and the elderly.

“Pero kung ang tanong ay effective ba ito sa AH1N1, ang sagot hindi. Ibang klaseng virus ito [But if you are asking if such flu shots are effective against AH1N1, the answer is no. AH1N1 is a different virus],” he said.

New cases

Duque said that 79 percent of the previous cases of A(H1N1) or about 339 have fully recovered. He also said that the 36 new cases recorded on Sunday were all “mild in nature.”

The new 36 mild confirmed cases involved 15 males and 21 females with ages ranging from two to 59 years old.

Duque noted that 34 of the cases are Filipinos, while the remaining two are foreigners. He added that six of the new cases have a history of travel to a country affected with the novel virus.

“All of these new patients are responding positively to their treatments,” he said.

Several reviews of Transformers 2: Revenge of the Fallen are already out. This probably comes from the critics and press pre-screening. What’s very interesting to note is that unlike the first movie, this sequel is getting a lot of lukewarm reviews, especially on Rotten Tomatoes where the movie just scored 60%. I’ve re-posted some of the one-liner reviews for your perusal. Check them out after the break.

Revenge of the Fallen is just like Transformers 1, only longer, and that makes it even more boring.

Fan boys will no doubt love it, but for the uninitiated it’s loud, tedious and, at 147 minutes, way too long.

It is a sprawlingly noisy adventure epic that entertains at times, but never really manages to engage. Still, the kids will love it!

A super-sized second helping, but the novelty factor and some of the charm’s gone. Hey, at least there’s more Megatron / Starscream squabbling this time round.

My advice is to switch off your brainpower, get in touch with your inner juvenile self and go with the flow for this feast for the senses, orchestrated by the undoubted maestro of the genre Michael Bay.

Old folks may find the relentless sensory assault a little draining, but the bangs, ’bots and bombast ensure Fallen has everything Transformers fans will want and expect.

Source

Based on the reviews that I’ve read so far, this movie will most likely be more of a robot royal rumble. It will focus more on the battles and effects as opposed to the first movie wherein they actually spent more time on developing the human characters than the Transformers.

Man, can’t wait to see Devastator kick ass. Hahaha!

The Southeast Asian country has three of the world’s 10 largest shopping centers, two of them in the capital, Manila. Scores of others, ranging from modern glass and steel structures to older, fading buildings, dot cities across the archipelago.

Although over 40 percent of the country’s 90 million people live on $2 or less per day, malls here are crowded at all times, and especially packed at weekends.

Around 80 percent of the Philippines’ population go to shopping centers and around 36 million people visit shopping plazas once or twice a month, according to Nielsen Media Research.

“People just come to the mall to stay cool, said Chris Balberona, a driver for a bank, who was at Manila’s Megamall watching ice-skaters on an artificial rink.

“Life is hard right now so we don’t really come here to shop.”

The air-conditioned malls are a boon in this steamy tropical nation. But shopping plazas in the Philippines have also become a place to pay bills, meet or watch people, eat or see a film.

Catholic masses are even held in the corridors of some malls. While the faithful sit on plastic chairs, less religious folk continue to browse the rails nearby.

Shopping is only an option at Manila’s malls.

A WAY OF LIFE

But with inflation hitting a near 17-year high of 12.2 percent in July as gas and food prices soar, Filipinos are forking out even less these days for non-essentials such as cinema trips and more clothes.

Private consumption is the lifeblood of the Philippine economy and a drop-off in spending is expected to cut economic growth this year to 5.1 percent, according to a Reuters poll last month, from a three decade peak of 7.2 percent in 2007.

Economic growth skidded to a seasonally adjusted 0.8 percent in the first quarter compared to 1.3 percent in the fourth quarter of last year

SM Prime, the largest mall operator in the Philippines, said 2.5 million people still visited its 30 shopping centers across the country.

“There has been no noticeable decrease in this number primarily because the ‘malling’ lifestyle has become a way of life for the Filipinos,” said Cora Guidote, vice president for investor relations at SM Prime.

But with the cost of travel spiking because of high oil prices, some Filipinos say they are cutting back on their mall trips and restricting themselves even more to window shopping.

Cita Foronda, an executive assistant who goes to a mall once a week with her four children, says the visits are now almost entirely to kill time.

“We only shop on a need basis now,” Foronda said. “Even with the sales, it’s not attractive anymore.”

With very few public parks or other public amenities in Manila, and high pollution levels, she says the small play areas for children are a big attraction.

“If you have small kids, of course, you go to the mall,” she said. “You want your kids to be happy because you hardly see them during the work week.”

Almost all utilities bills can be paid in malls, banks are attached and a fairly inexpensive meal at a fast-food eatery is always an option.

“It’s like they give you everything just so you go,” Foronda said.

REMITTANCES

Another factor keeping malls popular is the large inflows of remittances sent home by millions of Filipinos who work overseas.

These remittances, estimated to reach a fresh peak of nearly $16 billion this year, support the retail sector even amidst the economic slowdown.

Every few years a new mall emerges in Manila or one of the larger cities, bigger and more extravagant than the last.

One of the newest is the Mall of Asia, the world’s third largest shopping centre. It is almost as big as Vatican City.

Two other malls in the Philippines, SM North Edsa and SM Cebu, also made the top 10 list in the study.

But for those hardest hit by the recent economic crisis, the family pastime of ‘malling’ is becoming increasingly rare.

“Before, it was a regular family day for us to go to the malls, even if we went there to just eat or walk around,” said Romeo Castillo, a taxi driver who has two children.

“Now, it’s really impossible even for that, it’s just out of our budget.”

(Editing by Raju Gopalakrishnan and Megan Goldin)

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Ever since ancient Egyptians mixed unguents of bile of steer, ostrich eggs and resin, people have slathered on everything from the odd to the oogy. Plenty of other unusual ingredients – in addition to avian excrement – are thought to have beautifying properties.

Snake venom: From face creams to lip products, beauty companies swear the stuff reduces wrinkles and has a plumping effect.

Kitty litter: The grainy texture works as an exfoliator. Yeah, yeah – just put the idea away for when the recession really hits.

Placenta: Dogs eat it. Hospitals save it. And some women use it to soften their hair and skin.

24K gold: The shiny precious metal might help increase circulation and tighten skin.