As if New Jersey itself wasn’t enough of an eyesore.
This is old news by now, but it’s worth mentioning if you haven’t heard it yet: an enormous mall is being built in the home of Springsteen and Bon Jovi. It will be the new largest mall on earth (sorry, West Edmonton): 700,000 sq. ft. of new stuff churned out in sweatshops overseas for our perverse pleasure.
Oh yeah, and they’re building it on top of a wetland.
The brains behind it are calling it “The American Dream.” If this is the American dream, I’m more glad than I’ve ever been to be a Canadian. A columnist near the building site has called the idea of a mall this size “downright blasphemy.” It’s greed at its most blatant, and it’s disgusting. I would not stand outside this mall and protest, simply because I could not stand to be even anywhere near this monstrosity (wow, I don’t think I’ve ever used that word before – I guess that’s how strongly I feel about it). Just the thought of a mall like this makes me as angry as watching someone sit in an idling car – maybe more.
If everyone in the world lived as disgustingly comfortably as us North Americans, and if we had unlimited resources, I wouldn’t have a problem with this megamall. No problem whatsoever. But this isn’t the case. When I know that children in poverty on the other side of the planet are collapsing on dusty roads from dehydration and malnutrition, that workers who make the stuff we buy are treated like slaves, and that our resources are not unlimited and we are squandering them, I just can’t stomach the thought of this mall, and the money spent on its construction and sales.
Money is power. They’re building this enormous mall because there’s a demand for it: far too many people have an addiction to throw away money on stuff they don’t need (I have to laugh every time I see a book about “de-cluttering and getting your life back”). Collectively, we have the power to make life better for people who don’t have the luxury of shopping at the mall – if they even know what a mall is. I was at the Holiday Festival on Ice at the Kitchener Memorial Auditorium on Sunday and visited the World Vision booth. Everyone who passed by had an excuse not to sponsor a child, even though they had $50 to buy tickets for the skating show. I would sponsor a child if my mom and my bank account would allow me – and I look forward to the day that I can.
Feed the people – not the corporations.
wasteandwant 