my little sister (better known to me as ‘yaya’) celebrates her 18th birthday today.

dinner reservations were made at cyma-greenbelt and the whole family was complete. not that everyone’s attendance mattered; as far as we siblings are currently concerned, we are (secretly?) happy to be together.

note on the food: the ribs were not as good as i remembered, the lamb was blah, the greek chicken adobo was dry and tasted weird, the skolatina (molten chocolate cake) took forever to serve and was burnt in some places. service was really, really, really slow. ugh, never again.

after dinner, we walked around the mall area, paying special attention to the newly erected greenbelt 5. more expensive stores for this third world nation. a perpetual bafflement on my part.

yaya was looking at the shoes at people are people and she found a pair she fell in love with. “mia, if i don’t get these shoes tonight, i don’t know what i’ll do with myself.” i rolled my eyes and strutted out in my cheapipay flipflops.

i like nice things. why shouldn’t i? that’s the whole point of nice things: function + aesthetics. if i could afford it, i’d have more shoes and stop wearing (borrowed!) ballet flats (that are falling apart) to client calls. if i could afford it, i’d have more than three pairs of jeans (two very worn) and quit allergy-inducing ukay-ukays.

but i never could stomach the idea of having to pay an arm and both legs for a brand name. i’m in marketing and i realize that branding is an important thing, and that along with the brand comes the promise of high quality craftsmanship.

the sad part is, this promise doesn’t always deliver. yaya is a havaiana fan (teens are stupid and make for the perfect market) but while we were walking home from powerplant, the strap of her month-old pair gave out. and before that, she wore a band-aid where the rubber had rubbd her raw.

the other thing that bothers me is why these damn things have to be ridiculously expensive. i saw a dress in banana republic that i liked, and nearly threw up after seeing the PhP9,000 price tag. as if even half of that amount actually goes to the seamstress who made it. as if sweatshops aren’t a reality.

i like nice things. who wouldn’t? but i can’t stomach having to part with my hard-earned money for something i can’t eat or use forever. i can’t understand why local brands insist on international models, thereby jacking up their prices so that even buying local isn’t cost-effective.

there’s a bloody economic recession. people are losing their jobs. private school students are forced to transfer to already-cramped and ever ill-equipped public schools. there’s even a need for feeding programs and ‘programang pangtawid para sa pamilyang mahirap’ ni pangulong arroyo. but we have vera wang, louis vuitton and gucci in our malls.

tell me, why haven’t i heard of an entrepreneur or business-type person who sells good quality products at fair price? come to think of it, what is fair price? i continue to hope for that balance, of being able to buy quality products at reasonable prices, of capitalism’s rewards being equitably distributed.

god help a dreamer like me. i chanced on being rooted in this fucking country.

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