It's been fascinating and somewhat childish (when you actually 'step back and let every one go past, actually flying fast passst' in my tiny view) and or roguely maddening how the modern gadget of having a personalised moblie phone has gripped Papua New Guinea. A very short few years back mobile phones was thought to be only for the excutives, working class (those big time ones) and those especially with money (gained either honestly or dishonestly).
Now everyone from a working person to an illiterate subsistent villager can own a mobile phone!!! No qualms there...............it is all well and good that we have made the big leap into the communication world and now can have access to those most isolated spots (although we have many blind spots to cover plus many other issues to sort out i.e costs, etc etc) but at least it's a step forward.
The cynicism starts when people start falling head-over-heels about the latest models and struggles to buy & own one; typically every month (even fortnightly!!).
Think of it, the mobile phone companies too come up with the latest model every month (even fortnightly) so poor idiots 'go with the flow'.
I remember reading a study somewhere a long time back by some professor of something (or rather), that the speed & constant shift in personal 'wants' (I want this, that and that and that....)
is a normal process of every growing child (to adolscent to teenager) especially those in the modern society (in PNG this would appropriately be urbanised children or 'town' children). Those who have children knows well the demands of a growing child. As they grow they become more aware of their grooming, of their friends (peer group) and the world around them which is greatly enhanced (and exaggerates) by the advertisements they watch and read. The term he used to tag this behaviour I believe is called a 'Fad' (at one stage I used to relate it as a 'fag').
Suffice to say, we in Papua New Guinea have put ourselves in that category (of growing children) in our rush to have that 'latest mobile phone on the market'.
I remember a best friend of mine (we went to school together and still live as permenant residents on the same island paradise) who once told me the rational he used to decide whether to buy a mobile phone with a camera ( after the seduction by flip-on phones, the camera/ mp3 etc phones did their 'catwalk').
He already had a mobile phone (very basic) and had already a digital camera; why would he want a phone with a camera and mp3 all in one (again)???
he worked it out that as long as he can make a call on the run (mobile) from point A to B that's all is needed!!
That rational goes well with me especially this last few years when mobile phones hit the market of PNG where I have been one of those 'standing outside and looking inside' and to be honest I quite like the view......................
Having said that, I still carry around my 9 year old Nokia (dont know what #) with its Japanese characters hardly worned out, that I fell in love with while transiting through Nagasaki. Mobile phones were a 'high class' thing at the time I had mine. Here's a sneak pic:
2 comments:
Nice work Dog, love the photo of the bashed Nokia. Sweetpela.
another thing, you're spot on. When I first got to PNG, BMobile was a disaster, it struggled to even carry a handful of calls in a city like Moresby. Then the red wave of Digicel flooded the settlements and it's influence is obvious.
Kids who used to play sport on the weekend are now txting their friends who are only a few metres away, and some of the more affluent kids are asking for playstations.
The westernisation of PNG has begun, can the health system of the future cope?
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