Pros and cons of shopping mall

The world of entertainment in America has always been developing in order to provide people with better places to have fun and relax. However, there seems to be one particular form of entertainment that seems to have a major growth in its industry. This form of entertainment is no other than Shopping Mall. Shopping Mall is a modern, indoor version of marketplace whereby shops from different brands cluster together in to form a complex of shops. Despite the immense development, there are still few advantages and disadvantages that need to be taken into consideration.

The most noticeable advantage that Shopping Mall provides to the community is the safety for the consumers. Shopper always finds it hard to find a place where they can shop freely due to the existence of criminal. Shoppers tend to be always on alert with their stuff as thieves, robber, and shoplifter are everywhere. Whereas in a Mall, shoppers can have more fun and relax without in need so much care on their belongings because of the amount of securities that Mall provides for the customers. This is a huge advantage as most of the customers are teenagers and young adult in shopping mall. There are cameras in almost every shop to ensure that criminals will be prosecuted if they go against the laws and regulations of the Shopping Mall. Moreover, there are securities in every entrance and exits of the Mall in order to maintain a safe environment. In addition, Shopping mall is also a great place for consumers to find all sorts of product in one roof. Consumers can now find all their wants and needs in a single place, rather than to go from one block to another with their car. This provides the convenience of saving time, energy, and gasoline for the customers. The creation of competition in one place can also helps to provide a better range of products and choices for the customers. Not only that, Shopping Mall is also the most convenient place for people to have fun. Shopping malls are always air-conditioned which is always beneficial for people in hot places, such as Arizona, to gather and feel comfortable. Shopping malls are also good for places that are cold as there are heaters in every corner of the building.

Nonetheless, there are possible drawbacks of having such Mall. The most prominent disadvantage is that it causes small businesses to run out of business due to lack of competition. Mall provides all sorts of convenience from time, safety, energy, gasoline, and environment that small businesses can’t accommodate. This loss in competition can make the people suffer from lower income, higher unemployment rate, and lower standard of living for the society. In time, this can causes further disadvantage to the mall as less competition leads to a monopoly and this can create a poor image to the mall. Eventually, the whole society will have huge economy drawbacks. This can be corrected if the government is willing to put more tax on Shopping Mall products, which will cause the price of the product to go higher and make the small businesses outside the Mall able to compete through price. The second drawback that Mall tends to make is the problematic segregation that is occurring inside the Mall. Take for example Valley Fair Mall in San Jose. In Valley Fair, most of the expensive stores are located in the first floor, and the rather cheaper stores are located in the second floor. The escalators are also very hard to find, there is only 3 escalators and they are really hard to find. This creates an environment whereby rich people belong in the first floor and they should be treated first. This creates segregation through difference in income, as medium-class customers who already go to second floor tend to find it hard to go down. They should have provided the expensive and the less expensive in both floors to make the segregation less obvious.

Fashion crime

My first and only fashion crime occurred when I was still in High School, back in Indonesia. In Indonesia, all the students in a school always have to wear a uniform that has been determined by the school law. This uniform consists of white shirt, short sleve, a gray tie, belt (for boys only), gray pants, and black shoes. When wearing the uniform, boys are expected to always keep their buttons tidy, always wear the tie during school time, always button up the neck so that the tie and the clothes will look nice, and never wear any shoes that are not completely black. Whether the student likes it or not, the school always demanded the student to always follow the rules regarding school uniform.

This was very troublesome for me during my high school days, as I was quite rebellious towards my clothing. I always love to wear clothes and pants that are comfortable and a little loose in my body so I can wear it freely and have my body able to move around easily. But most of the time, the uniform that the school provides were very tight and stiff, it restrict my movement and often time make me feel uncomfortable. So one day, I decided to rock my own fashion by deciding to not unbutton my sleeves, unbutton the neck area for the tie, loosen the belt so that the pants will be hanging even more, and wore white jacket most of the time to school. Everyone was shocked when I came to the school as I looked very different. Everyone was questioning my act and asked “What were you thinking? You will certainly get into trouble for this”. The students were exaggerating their comments because all the students know that the school has a very strict policy towards not wearing the uniform properly. Then immediately the news of my rebellious act got heard by the school’s principal. He was furious and demanded me to come to his office immediately. When I came by to his office, the principal’s face was already red like a tomato. He told me to button up all the buttons in my shirt, wear my belt properly and to never wore that jacket ever again. He told me on how my uniform was very untidy, unprofessional, sloppy, and rebellious. Then he continued on complaining on how my sense of fashion resembled an act of mutiny towards the school law and order. He also complained how my disobedient act will not help me to succeed in my upcoming future, how people will often times look at me badly. Moreover, he complained how my fashion was a disgrace for the school, and how it made the school look bad by not being able to control the student properly. Afterwards, he called my mother and asked her to come by the school and give proper lesson towards my rebellious act. When my mother came, the principal came to an immediate anger, probably just to show a sense of authority and respect within the school. My mother immediately apologizes to the principal and ensures him that she will make sure that I will always wear my uniform properly. Eventually, the one-day-rebellious-act that I did was a huge disaster for me.

Apparently, the school does not realize the fact that asking all students to wear the same uniform is actually not helping the students to socialize better with each other, but more into making every student feeling left for not being able to express themselves through what they wear. The efforts of educators to enforce a school dress code are just another way to evoke student’s rebellious side. Uniform creates the feeling that each and every student is the same, and this contradicts human norms on how each person is unique and one-of-a-kind. The school needs to realize that uniforms are uncomfortable, boring, and distract the student mind from being able to express themselves. School should try to allow students to express themselves through what they wear and not banish them from going against the society. They should follow schools in America that allow students to express themselves through what they wear.

.Hack

“.Hack” is a story about a lonely, friendless boy named Kite. Kite does not have many friends in his school, he is a very geeky person who likes to be ignored and live on his own world. He always tries to get away from people and stay in his room alone. However, what his school mates don’t know is that Kite is actually a hero in a fantasy world called “The World”. In this world, Kite is being idolized and loved by people from all across the country and is consider as the strongest player ever live. Turns out, Kite is not only the strongest player ever, but also the key player to save this fantasy world of his. He has the fate to use the bracelet, called “G-Gaunlet”, to return everything back to what it was meant to be and save “The World” from utter destruction caused by Skeith, the terror of death.

“The World” is a simple world of MMORPG (Multi Media Online Role Playing Game) where everything that you do will seem real and possible. It is a world where gamers across the globe will be able to move their characters with their minds, not controllers. It will be a vast world where people will be able to gather up from different countries, explore dungeons, kill monsters, and find one-of-a-kind treasures. Players will be able to use different sorts of weapon, such as sword, guns, spear, gauntlet, and axe. The game starts once the player use the goggle, called “Specs”. Specs connect the players mind in the real life to the fantasy life and allow him or her to control their characters as what they wish like.

The story started out when Kite was hunting with his best friend, Orca, in a dungeon. Orca is player that came from Russia, who is considered to be Kite’s right-hand man, and the second strongest player. He is the wielder of the most terrifying two-handed sword, “Onimusha”. They were going to this dungeon to find the best weapon “The World” can provide. However, during their searching, they saw a beautiful young lady passing by while being chased by Skeith. Kite and Orca immediately ran and follow Skeith’s path to see what he is up to. At the end of the corner, they saw that Skeith was about pierce this white-haired girl with his sword. When Skeith saw Kite and Orca, He immediately transported all the people inside the dungeon into another dimension. After they transported, Kite immediately jumped into action and safe the little girl. Kite asked her name and asked what was going on. The little girl can only reply “My name is Aura, protect the gauntlet”. Orca was busy fighting Skeith to buy them time to find a way to get out. But, Skeith suddenly breakout with his “S-Gauntlet”, the most powerful gauntlet that can delete anything in “The World”, and destroy Orca into pieces. Kite was terrified and did not know what to do; it was his first time to fear such disparity. Skeith immediately aim his “S-Gauntlet” towards Kite as his next target. Aura suddenly told Kite to calm down, and called upon a spell. The spell cast down a book, called the “Book of Tranquility”, and the book immediately covers Kite and Aura with force shields. However, “S-Gauntlet” power was near perfection and it torn the book apart. The torn book caused Kite to suffer the impact and turned his character back to level 1 beginner. Aura saw the danger and immediately cast another spell and transport both of them to a save place.

When Kite woke up, he logged out to check on Orca’s condition. He sent him dozens e-mail only to receive zero replies. He soon found out through news from TV that a guy named mike “Orca” Lizz is in coma due to unknown reason. Kite was furious and wants to seek revenge for his best friend. When he got back to the game, he saw a weird gauntlet in his arm which is similar to Skeith’s gauntlet. From then on, his journey to save “The World” begins.

Money raises an ethical issue

So, I just watched a movie in my Humanities class called Examined life, by Astra Taylor. It was a very interesting movie that combines clips from eight different influential philosophers who talks about matters relating to philosophy. One of the most intriguing philosophers that caught my attention was Peter Singer, one of the philosophers who talks about the ethical issues regarding money and expenditure. Singer was concerned on the ethical issue of how people never seem to see the fact that money can fulfill their moral obligations to help other people. He wants to raise people’s consciousness regarding the ethical issue by questioning on how people should spend their money.

One of the most fascinating examples that best exemplifies his views regarding ethical issues of “how we spend our money?” was a question concerning expensive shoes and a little kid in a shallow pond. The example goes out asking people about what will someone, who’s wearing expensive shoes, do when they see a child drowning in a shallow pond. The answer to this rhetorical question will surely to safe that child from drowning and forget about the shoes. But, the expensive shoes could have been donated to organization such as UNICEF to help children in poor countries, save them from simple diseases, and help more than one child. Having this in mind arouses a question on which will you choose? Will you save one or save hundreds? If you save one, you will feel good and think that you have fulfill your moral obligations to safe a person at that moment. On the other hand, if you choose the second option, you will likely feel bad for not saving hundreds of children suffering from curable illness.

Given the current situation will most likely foster our incentive to help others by spending our money carefully and to spend on what really matters. However, having this in mind, there is a third option that people can choose. The rich person could have save the child, abandon the shoes, and then donate his or her money to a charity organization to help the needy children. This idea is generated through the possibility that the rich person might have been generous enough to forget all the effort he put on acquiring that pair of shoes. This option will certainly benefit everyone, if the option was provided. Yet, this third option raises another question relating to the ethics Singer asked us to think, will the rich person actually be kind enough to spend additional money to the poor people? Then again, this questions our ethical issues on how we could have helped others.

Singer also mention on how money can help to reduce or prevent suffering of the people. He mention the fact that people have moral obligations to help others, either based on moral, ethical consciousness or based on religion teachings on how everyone should help each other. People always understand that they are able to help if they are willing to do so. On the contrary, people never seem to really engage in thinking on how they can actually help. One example to proof this is when singer mentions on how a person does not really feel guilty for spending one thousand dollars on a suit, as he proclaims that his expenditure does not harm anyone. What that person doesn’t know is that by not spending his limited amount of money on expensive products, he is actually benefiting the society by laying the money idle and creates an opportunity to donate that money to actually help others. This moral problem on not being able to think broadly on how money can actually helps people test our moral obligations to help others. Are we justified enough to consider ourselves being a good person? Are we fully utilizing our money to help others? As not all people tend to care about what is going on around the world and how money can be a source to relief those problems.

All this sums up to the final question of how can we spend our money properly to fully help others and erase this ethical issue? And the answer is that with the opportunity of the money we have, we can still contribute to assist others and make each other life’s better. This all relates to Singer’s captivating sentence, quote “Because we live, something has gone better than it would have otherwise. We contributed in however smaller way to make the world a better place.” (Examined Life).

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“The Unexamined Life is Not Worth Living” (Socrates)