OPINION & ANALYSIS
Topics today
Malled in the court
by the meal deal
Today’s fact
Phillip
O’Neill
WE like to think of ourselves as
living in a gastronomic region. Yet
on any day there are more meals
served in food courts of Hunter
shopping centres than in the region’s
fine restaurants and cafes.
There are many interesting things
about food courts. One is the food,
which we’ll get to in a minute.
First, though, there are the
security cameras. Why do food
courts have so many? Why is every
diner so watched? And who is sitting
back there watching? Do mall eaters
have a problem with their table
manners? Is chip theft on the rise?
Do shoplifters stop by the food court
for a quick exit snack?
Then there is the design of the
food court. The problem for the mall
owner is that food courts are dead
outside meal times. Mall planners
put food courts out of the way,
upstairs, or off to the side, and so not
waste prime retail space.
Food courts are simple things: a
big square with food outlets around
the edges and as much eating space
as possible crammed in the middle.
The lighting is severe and constant,
and there is no muzak, just the
bustle of kitchen and eating noises
and aggregated chatter. It’s business
not recreational noise.
Food courts contain none of the
lavish fittings that you see elsewhere
in a mall. The only visual
interruptions to the business of
being fed are a few giant pot plants
(fake), some ATMs, and a scattering
of informal stalls offering deals on
credit cards, mobile phones, pay TV
subs and laptops, and an invitation
to donate to the poor.
The seating at food courts is as
primitive as you can find outside of
a camping ground. There are long
benches with stools. And there are
small fixed tables with plastic chairs
that cling to sweaty thighs. Keeping
dining groups small must be good
business.
You order, you eat, you leave.
If you want to linger, you go to one
of the new cafes out with the
designer merchandise shops. There
you can stop, revive, survive, without
leaving shopping heaven.
Traffic lights were invented
before cars.
Today’s word
Simper: To smile in a silly or
affected way.
It happened today
From our files –1966: Hunter
District Water Board began
pumping water from the
Williams River into
Grahamstown basin yesterday.
Today in history
BASIC: The seating at food courts is as primitive as you can find outside of a camping ground.
Food courts, by contrast, are basic.
They are a one-on-one between food
and digestive tract, mediated by
wallets, fingers and mouths.
They are the mall workers
canteen. Their sales uniforms stand
out. They watch the clock annihilate
their break, listening to their iPods,
texting, fuelling up.
Fast food, fast eating.
Mainly, though, food courts are for
shoppers. Food courts prolong the
time shoppers spend at a mall.
You park, you shop, you get
hungry, you eat, you shop some
more.
It’s surprising how many food
court goers eat alone.
Some exceptions are mums with
strollered kids in the first stages of
hot-chip addiction, older kids
wagging school, and retired couples,
the old bloke mulching a burger
with failing teeth, looking aimlessly
across the court wondering if,
maybe, this is the most exciting part
of his day, his wife pretending her
carrot salad is delicious.
But what she’d really love is a
bucket of hot chips, especially if it
came in a meal deal, like most
diners order.
A meal deal is hamburger, chips
and a soft drink, with change for
coffee out of 10 bucks.
Or it’s the fried chicken value
combo for the same price.
Or the pizza, or the felafel roll with
mild sweet chilli sauce, and a drink.
However, some diners go exotic.
They tuck into wok-fried noodles
from a box, American sitcom-style,
with chopsticks. Or nibble at a mixed
sushi lunch box, or a burrito wrap.
Or fuel up big time at the Asian
oriental stall. Two selections plus
rice and plastic cutlery for the same
price as the chicken value combo
next door.
Then finish off with coffee and
donuts, or a soft serve cone, like the
kids, and the woman with the trolley.
And sneer at the blonded women
in lycra and runners with their
energy boost drinks with extra
macro stuff.
And enjoy your laminated
surroundings as you pick your teeth,
watching well-trained, obliging
customers bin their scraps.
See women dressed the way
cafeteria workers in department
stores used to dress, collecting piles
of chicken bones (sucked clean) and
empty chip cartons and armloads of
wrapping paper and scrunched
serviettes, and watch them wipe,
wipe, wipe the tables.
See men in grey janitor uniforms
haul large plastic bags of scraps to a
nether world. Watch other grey men
mop the tiles, carefully positioning
yellow “Warning wet floor” signs to
record their labour.
See the food court continuously
refreshed for hungry shoppers
darting into pit lane, as your own
campaign recommences.
Professor Phillip O’Neill is director
of the Urban Research Centre,
University of Western Sydney.
Putting faith in the incomprehensible
Jesus is magic for the
moment, writes
Daniel Dries.
I SUDDENLY find that I am
entering into ‘‘theological’’
discussions with my four-year-old
daughter. Bearing in mind that most
of the people in my Sunday
congregation are considerably more
‘‘mature’’ than four years old, I need
to give some serious thought to the
appropriate jargon for sharing the
Christian faith with my own
children.
Somehow, the concepts and
language that I picked up at
theological college don’t seem quite
appropriate for this purpose.
Recently, my daughter and I were
discussing the meaning of Easter. My
daughter explained the entire event
to me by saying: ‘‘At Easter, the
naughty people nailed Jesus to the
Cross. He died, but it didn’t matter
because he came back to life. Jesus
is magic!’’
My natural professional instinct
was to say: ‘‘Jesus is not magic. The
resurrection of Christ is both the
pledge and the paradigm of the
bodily resurrection of believers.
Moreover, believers are now raised
‘with Christ’ in that they share his
victory over sin and his risen life . . .’’
It’s not difficult to imagine what sort
of a response this would have
elicited from a four-year-old girl.
While the phrase ‘‘Jesus is magic’’
makes me rather uncomfortable, my
daughter’s explanation of the
resurrection probably reflects the
early Christians’ response to the
event much more accurately than
my own.
In a world in which miracles don’t
sit very well with people any more,
the trend is often to reduce Jesus to
an admirable and inspiring moral
teacher or life coach – a sort of firstcentury Oprah Winfrey or Dr Phil.
The reality is that we can’t
possibly rationalise or reconcile the
resurrection with our modern
understanding of science or human
existence. However, there is no
doubt that the person of Jesus Christ
did things that absolutely amazed
and transformed the lives of firstcentury people.
Although the institutional church
has received some very bad press in
recent times, it is also undeniable
that Christ continues to do amazing
things in the lives of countless
thousands of believers.
I have to admit to being just a little
proud of my daughter’s explanation
of the Easter message.
I imagine that the majority of
children her age would be quick to
suggest that Easter is primarily
concerned with chocolate eggs
delivered (quite inexplicably) by a
fluffy white bunny.
Any 21st century parent who
wishes to share a Christian belief
system with their children faces a
significant challenge. Trying to
combat the growing secularisation
of festivals such as Christmas and
Easter, without squeezing the fun
out of them, is far from easy.
For the time being, I plan to go
along with the ‘‘Jesus is magic’’
theology. In time to come, this will
translate into ‘‘Jesus can do anything’’.
Helping young people to accept that
there is something amazing or
incomprehensible in the person of
Jesus Christ is really the crucial first
step towards a life of faith.
The Reverend Dr Daniel Dries is
Priest-in-Charge of the Anglican
Parish of Belmont.
1774: A collection of English
nursery rhymes is published
including Baa, Baa, Black Sheep.
1794: US Congress passes law
prohibiting American ships from
supplying slaves to other
countries.
1859: The first political party
dedicated to the working class in
Australia, the Political Labour
League of Victoria, is founded in
Melbourne.
1895: Auguste and Louis Lumiere
show their first movie to an
invited audience in Paris.
1897: Federal convention starts
second meeting in Adelaide to
begin drawing up a constitution
for a Commonwealth of Australia.
2004: Israeli helicopters kill top
Hamas leader Sheikh Ahmed
Yassin in a missile strike in Gaza
City.
Born today
Nicholas Monsarrat, British
novelist (1910-1979); Marcel
Marceau, French mime
(1923-2007); Stephen Sondheim, US
composer
(1930-); William
Shatner,
Canadian-born
actor (1931-);
Roger Whittaker,
British singersongwriter
(1936-); George
Benson, US
singer-guitarist
(1943-); Andrew Lloyd Webber,
British composer (1948-); Matthew
Modine, US actor (1959-); Reese
Witherspoon, pictured, US actress
(1976-).
Odd spot
British teenagers who cannot
tear themselves away from the
internet, computer games or
their mobile phone can get help
from a new addiction service. A
private London hospital has
launched Britain’s first
dedicated technology addiction
service for what it dubbed
‘‘screenagers’’, after parents
complained their children were
flying into a rage when told to
turn off their computer.
Today’s text
I reckon everything as complete
loss for the sake of what is so
much more valuable, the
knowledge of Christ Jesus, my
Lord. Philippians 3:8
Monday, March 22, 2010 THE HERALD 9