The phone invasion
We are having this problem at the office too. Please note that I am guilty as well. It's now really easy to get that quick personal phone call. It's direct. No more sneaking into an empty office to get or make the call. Now your phone vibrates discreetly and off you go to the toilet or into the parking lot et voila, you are talking to your cousin in a plane flying across the Pacific.
We've all seen the image of Maria Shriver getting caught talking on her phone in California, just after her husband, Governor Schwarzenegger passed the law banning such practices. But I think I have found the ultimate in telephone use. This one is even better than the one described in a Dave Barry column I read ten years ago about the SUV driving housewife whose phone was inversely proportional in size to her car. So the phone, he argued, were getting small enough to fit on an earring. Well, my phone story is right up there. It involves the use of a phone by an age old traditional tradesman. Someone so noble in his art that he is seen as the singer of love songs as we meander down the journey of heart throb and life. Yes, this is a man who is associated with romance, passion and history. Not to ruin the image, he also charge about EUR 100 to spend 30 minutes with you, so he's no cheap date. Yes, I am talking about the Venitian Gondoliere.
Venetian gondoliere on cell phone
Look at this photo! It's a Venetian Gondoliere, with his clients, in a canal, in sacred Venice, the capital of romance (I said that already!). And guess what? He's on his cell phone! Who's next, the Oscar winner as he walks up to the podium: "Sorry, I have to take this." as his phone rings on his belt. Or maybe the neurosurgeon as he's rummaging around in your grey matter? No, better, President Obama when he step up to receive his Nobel: "Sorry, have to take this, it's Afghanistan calling."
Forgive me if I take this conversation a little further and now take you into the realm of waste. It's a bit of a jump from cultural heresy to waste management but I happen to be involved on a contract with the Basel Convention that deals with such waste and it strikes me that we have not only trivialised the use of this new technology, but we have also trivialised their renewal and disposal. Which mobile phone are you up to? I'll come out and be the first to plead guilty. I am up to my 14th phone in twenty years. That's 14 phones! Imagine being up to your 14th refrigerator, car or bed in 14 years?
Close up of Venetian gondoliere on cell phone
What's crazy is that the third phone I got, the Motorola 8700 with a flip lid would still work today. The same GSM frequencies are live. Sure, I would not have all the gizmos but 14?! And worse, they were simply thrown out. They were not taken to some specialised recycling facility. No, they were just thrown out with the left over salad.
I think it's time we look at all these items and practices that we have trivialised and ask ourselves how much we really need. Do we need to have the latest and do we need to use it every five minutes when we do? All kidding aside, I have to let you go, my wife is calling on my cell phone!
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