The Urban Natives

Most of them are street smart. Most of them also came from different towns. There are the city office-working ladies in black pants & black blazers, the working men in their "gusot-mayaman" barongs, the overworked jeepney drivers, the underpaid public school teachers, the conservative Chinese, the Spanish-speaking coños, the fat politicians (they can't miss the scene), the religious (they are of different types) and others. These are the urban natives or the people in our shire.

Language
There are varying dialects-- Visayan, Ilonggo, Cebuano, Ilocano, Bicolano, Kapampangan, Chavacano and the Muslim.
There are also varying languages-- English, Taglish (or Engalog for those dreaming of becoming a socialite), Chinese, Chinoy, (half Chinese and half Tagalog), and the broken Spanish, the latter who use this language are sometimes called coños.

Interests
Common interests aside of course from the mobile phones are soap operas (called "telenobelas"), celebrity careers, videokes and shopping malls.

"Telenobelas" or soap operas started in the early 90s inspired by the soap operas of a Mexican actress named Thalia. There are the local Pinoy flicks and the Taiwanese and Korean romance novels. The Pinoy flicks would be heavy on drama, usually having a tragic, political arena. The mixed-identity or identity lost because of amnesia is also a common plot.

The Videoke is a source of merriment in all occasions, from birthdays, fiestas (a celebration to commemmorate the patron saint of a parish) or even a night out gimmick of a group of individuals. It's cheap, it's fun, it's also riot when people start to fight because of the search for the right tune or the right lyrics.. and the people just like to sing.

Celebrity career is often inspired by the parents for an easy money-making career for their children. Sometimes, education is not anymore encouraged as it should be. Singing, dancing and acting are the new definitions of talents for some of these urban natives. Hence, the search for the Pinoy Idol continues..

And there's the continous building of so many shopping malls. People don't go to parks anymore for leisure. They just go to malls. Restaurants will be the next popular mall business. People go out to the mall without anything in mind to buy. They just move and watch around, dine and most likely shop on something they don't need. The malls have trained the urban natives to be the "ultimate consumer".

In Our Shire

A few years even before the Americans espoused the idea of GSM, the urban natives of our modern tribe have already started using the GSM technology. From young thinkers to grandparents, the urban natives come to include, specifically the use of GSM mobile phones as a way of life. From the sidewalk vendors, the bus drivers, the retired public servants, the yuppies and those wannabe-yuppies, the trying-hard to be cultured politicians and the techy-savvys---mobile phones have become part of the way of life, part of our culture.