Global city & Materialism

‘Would your wealth or even all your mighty efforts sustain you so you would not be in distress? (Job 36:19)

Last week I happened to be around Orchard on a weekday afternoon getting a book. I have not been there for the last 3 years at least. How the landscape has changed with posh shopping malls lining along both sides of the roads. Even the sleepy and dull Mandarin Hotel spent big to spruce up its facade to match with its surrounding environment.

I felt a bit out of place with only Giordano T-shirt and Khaki on, and carried a ten-dollar handbag. It looked like I was one of the rare ones out there ( too casually dressed!). People walked passed me (even the locals) were definitely wearing more trendy and expensive clothes nowadays, ‘catching up’ with this country’s image as a global city. For one thing, it is not only the tourists thronged these shopping malls; a sizeable number was also made up of our young ones. The lure of ultra-materialism is so evident that it is very easy for someone tempted to live beyond his means just to catch up with the Jones. So I read with abhor that a 12-year old girl had sexual relationships with multiple older guys in order to satisfy her crave for material things.