Siam Square is the center of shopping in Bangkok, at least of the upscale type.  There are several malls that run into one another, connected by sky bridges. The Sky bridge reality reminds me of Minneapolis where you can walk from building to building in the arctic winters and never set foot on the earth or pavement.  The Lonely Planet guide bemoans this skybridge reality because it takes you away from street life and where micro-capitalism, tiny shops and local goods and services, still exist.  And that is true.  But, try to cross streets in this area and you are glad there are sky bridges.  As someone said, anything metallic with an engine has priority.  The signaling system is not always clear or obeyed so even though the little green walking person in the signal looks like it is giving you the right away, don't believe it.  Cars and motorcycles seem to come out of nowhere.; Turning left or right into what look like one way lanes going the other direction.

The thing about capitalism in southeast Asia is that it has been embraced and amplified.  In a mall in Portland you might find a mobile phone operator in a small cart somewhere.  In one of the malls here KMB, there is an entire floor of mobile phone outlets.  They pitch to you.  They follow you.  And, making a decision is, well random.  They all tell you they can do anything.

When you walk into say Clackamas Town Center in Portland, the background mood and music is Boston Pops or something like that.  It's hardly ever crowded.  Here the background music is like a Rave--a constant pounding beat.  And the sales pitches are relentless and persistent.  At the tops and bottom of elevators brochures.  If you took everything handed you it would fill your backpack.  So its Clackamas Mall on steroids.  You can feel the drum beat of production and consumption as though its the heart beat of Gaia. What you can't picture is the sweat factories where it all comes from.

And what does everyone want?  Well if you look at ads, like one for a new credit card and the "power" it will buy you.  Its the Ipad.  While the American empire is so yesterday, there are still some iconic elements that are at the heart of the hyper-consumer dream.  America is still remembered dearly in a fractured kind of way: Elvis and Ipads.