Ka-Blog!

When I was a kid, I used to stare long at my Mama’s stereo while it plays her LPs. I wondered how beautiful sound could come from plastic discs as they spun on the wide turntables. A couple of needles I destroyed by stroking it with my finger, delighted by the scratching sound that comes out of the speakers whenever I touched it.

          Years later my Uncle Ben gave me my first SLR film camera. I attacked it with philips screwdrivers, intent on understanding how it captured pictures. Later, I had to bring the camera to Quiapo to have it put back together again.

          When Randy Malayao deposited his computer with me, it too fell victim to my curiosity. Unlike the stereo and the camera, however, I was able to put it back together and got it working again just fine. The good thing about that experiment was my knowledge of how the CPU’s innards work. If there would come a time when I would need to build my own computer with out-of-the-box components, I can do it even without a computer engineering degree. But I can just buy a CBU unit, can’t I?

         When I first became an activist, I remember having letters and news releases printed and personally delivered one by one. I needed two days just to be able to make the rounds of 20 or so newspapers around Metro Manila. If things such as fax machines, emails, internet and 3G mobile phones were available to us then, we could have been on the news lots of times more.

          Related to things I now do, I wonder how things have become so much easier. I have more contact with people, even overseas, compared to any other time in my life. Military technology like computers, internet and mobile phones are wonderful when they are put into civilian use, aren’t they?

          Let me qualify the past paragraph though. What I really mean is these gadgets are wonderful if capitalism does not sink its sharp teeth into every technology and invention that comes out.

          Case in point: I remember an enterprising inventor who builds laptop computers at a fraction of their commercial cost. They are so cheap the guy could afford to donate them to humanitarian organizations. Instead of branded hard disks, he uses generic and cheap memory sticks. Instead of trademarked software than run only on branded processors, he uses stand alone programs that can be stored on thumb drives. Presto, the unwarranted profit from capitalists are eliminated, hence the cheaper price.

          Crass capitalism really dampens my enthusiasm on these wonderful gadgets. Like millions of others, I have been their victim again and again.

          Here’s one of my stories:

          It took me more than five months to be able to use my old post-paid number again after I lost my phone late last year. First, my service provider Smart asked me to settle my outstanding bills first. This is an insult really because I have been a loyal subscriber for nearly a decade already and my bills could not be anywhere near a thousand pesos at the time. Yet they had to make sure before they could give me a new sim card that could be manufactured for only a few pesos. Second, they asked me to pay several hundreds of pesos for the lost sim card. Again, how much does it cost to produce a sim card compared to what they asked me to pay? Third, they gave us the runaround saying they ran out of sim cards. Before I inhaled my next breath, they offered their new 3G sim cards instead. I did not have much choice, did I? But again, it took them two months to give me the goddamned card. Next, they told us 3G sim cards should only be used with 3G phones! Holy excrement! Now I needed to shell out more money for a newfangled phone. Even then, it took them another two months to make one available for me! All the while I had to keep on paying my monthly bill even though I was not enjoying any service from the fucking company.

          Now I know “Smart” refers to the company’s shareholders and not to their kawawang subcribers. I should have just given up my Smart account. But Globe is no better and Sun has no signal in Romblon. And I could no longer bear using pre-paid phones when I have hundreds of tasks to accomplish, a thousand calls to make and millions of texts to send.

          Thieves! They are no better than Joc-joc Bolante, the lot of them!

         Anyway, I now have this new phone. I’m a bit resistant with this one. With my old Nokia 1100 I could send text messages without looking and while still half-asleep. With this new one, a wrong button pressed connects me to the web which only means higher bills. Plus, it looks so delicate and expensive I am now resigned to having it tied around my neck. Lest I go through those five gruelling months again.

           Yesterday, while at Plaza Miranda, I looked for a micro SD card that could go inside a very tiny slot at its side. With it, I could store pictures, videos, and music files worth several gigabytes. Cool. But since I bought it from the first store I saw that had it, I paid P250 more compared to other stores at the far end of the mall. Stupid Raymund, that’s me.

         Since I feel I need gadgets like these, since I have no choice but to rely on commercial service providers and since I have to buy them from stores, I will always be victimized throughout my buying and paying days. Most unfortunately, there will always be people like me–techie tanga and gadget gago.