Back in Manila

Aimee and I flew back into Manila on Monday. The Asean summit was scheduled to be back on in Cebu and the city would have been a pain to get around due to the escorted convoys of delegates blocking up streets to get through. It was probably a good idea to get out of town for a while. It's also a good chance for me to go to Batangas in southern Luzon to visit my aunt. We'll head there tomorrow to visit her for a bit...should be about a 3 hour trip each way barring any problems getting there. Aimee's friend J.P. was nice enough to lend us his car...makes it easier.

Today we went to check out the SM Mall of Asia. The place is massive! About 390,000 square meters of shopaholic heaven. The place is easy to get lost in. I guess there's enough money around Manila to support the mall...there's definitely enough people to around to go there. A few hours of wandering around the mall was enough for me...tired me out.

Tonight we went to see a movie: Blood Diamonds. I'm not a big fan of Leonardo Dicaprio, but he was good in the movie. The story was solid and the movie was well done. I read about this issue a while ago. GNN even made a video about it (BTW, the video archive on the site is worth checking out...especially S-11 Redux). While it's good to see this movie and know the issues involved, at the end of it, girls will always want a diamond ring for their engagement. Guys will always want to get something really nice for them. There will always be a demand for diamonds. Some portion of the diamond market will always be supplied from conflict regions where people die. It's the same story with oil. The questions still remains: What can we do about it ? We the people who live in the areas of the world with the highest demand for diamonds and oil and the money to pay for the high prices ?

A little deep, I know...but I forgot to take my camera out with me today.

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On another note, I've been checking out the Clustrmaps thingy in the sidebar to see where around the world people are looking at this blog. It looks like someone in northern Manitoba is checking out this blog quite a bit. I don't think I know anyone who lives up there. So if you're up for it, whomever you are, drop me line. It'd be nice to know who you are...