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Commentary: The world in my hands
Commentary by Caezer Ng
for Smoky River Express
I dial a 1-800 customer service number in the late evening and a mans voice with a noticeable accent answers, “How are you today, sir?”
“Fine,” I reply. “And how are you?”
“It is a good morning in India, sir.”
My agent could have picked up the phone from Canada, I thought; a starving post-secondary student who worked night shifts to make ends meet.
We talked a bit about India. It turns out that he is a student - high school - but he is working to support his family.
My request is complete; I thank him, and we depart.
The mobile phone rings twice, which is not enough time for me to answer it, but I want to find out who is calling. The phone slips out of my hand, smashes against a table, and the battery door falls apart.
“Good job, butterfingers,” I tell myself, but I am intrigued by all these fancy electronics.
“Made in China,” reads the battery.
“So what else is new?” I ask. I know my Sony Ericsson phone is a design by the folks from Japan and Sweden.
All these wires and stuff maybe there is an assembly plant for phones in Malaysia, the Philippines, or Thailand.
After all, my camera is a ‘Made in Thailand’ product.
My phone appears to work, but I consult my manual to see if there is a problem.
The box it comes with has some Chinese writings on it, and no French, so it is not a Canadian-ready product.
My seller is from Hong Kong, I remember, so there is a strong possibility this phone has sat on a shelf in that country.
Hong Kong is also quite notorious for grey market products.
Something is rotten in the state of Denmark, even though the Danes probably have nothing to do with it.
I join my South African, Afghan, and Moldovan friends to watch that Hollywood film - Blood Diamond - about the war-ravaged country of Sierra Leone.
It reminds me of the Democratic Republic of Congo, a nation with a wealth of natural resources like diamonds, gold, coltan, and cassiterite. My South African friend tells us there is a war going on there over these resources.
“Coltan? Cassiterite? Never heard of them,” I say.
“They extract tin from cassiterite,” my friend replies.
“And they use coltan for capacitors in electronics, such as computers and mobile phones.”
We sit quietly for a moment and then we each pull our phones out.
They are each of different makes - Samsung, Apple, and Sony Ericsson - from Korea, United States, Japan, and Sweden. I check my time, the South African makes a text message, the Afghan calls another friend back in Afghanistan, and the Moldovan wants to listen to music.
The Moldovan connects his headphones to his music-playing phone.
I ask him, “What are you listening to?”
“City and Colour,” he says. “I’m taking this back to Moldova.”
“He’s a Canadian artist.”
“I know.”
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