Monday

Feeding Imeldific tendency -- The ukay-ukay way

“Filipinos don’t wallow in what is miserable and ugly. They recycle the bad into things of beauty.” – Imelda Marcos

Yeah right! I’m talking about the world’s best known shoe collector – Imelda Marcos, the world was stunned when hundreds of pairs of shoes were finally shown to the public during their fateful days in power, some were amazed, some wowed, some hated her that for a first lady representing an impoverished country still has that daring spirit to hoard mostly expensive shoes that can already fed hundreds of hungry children with its amount.

This brought me to reflect on these things, that on a self-declared day-off, If I may call it that …. My eyes just amazed me with the proliferation of ukay-ukay shoes (second hand shoes) along the side streets of Davao City. From famous brands - Chanel, Ferragamo, Courreges, YSL etc… name it and you’ll have a variety of choice from slightly used, used, to badly used and cannot be used ones. For those who are on a tight budget, this is the best fashion to serve those Imeldific tendencies. Imagine acquiring a Chanel for just P150 that’s quite a jackpot!

My amazement did not end on wowing at the wall stacked-full of shoes it goes beyond -- what will happen to these tons of shoes that cannot be used anymore? One thing is sure the burden of disposing lies in the country or the city that imports (be it legal or illegal), or allows this enterprise to come about.

According to a source, this ukay-ukay (literally means mishmash) not only shoes but also tons of ukay-ukay clothes and also tons of used appliances are imported from Japan. These things leave me thinking that what has been feared as the dark side of the flawed, controversial Japan-Philippines Economic Partnership Agreement or JPEPA has finally touched down. Note that these are clearly tons of garbage disguised as legitimate front of free trade and economic partnership with Japan. The after effect of JPEPA has finally taken effect …. Feeding ‘pinoys’ Imeldific tendency and bearing the burden of disposing tons of wastes.

Imelda Marcos was wrong …. Filipinos wallow in what is miserable and ugly. Although Filipinos recycle the bad into things of beauty, we did it the hard way.






2 comments:

  1. I'm no fan of Ukay-Ukay I hate them aside from "garbage" from other countries they are also declared as relief goods and sold ... thanks for dropping by my blog btw :)

    ReplyDelete
  2. i luv Ukays. they have longer store hours than malls. ;]

    ReplyDelete

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