This morning I was going to work with Rasib and we had a little chat on mobile phones. He told me that people in Bangladesh would be willing to pay months’ salary to buy fancy cell phones. Some dudes are so insanely crazy that they have good shiny mobiles, but they cannot even afford to pay subscriptions. It’s funny to picture someone carrying an iPhone while not being able to talk over it, instead he
goes to public telephones to make a call…
Earlier I’ve read similar stories with Vietnamese. They spend a fortune on mobile phones that may bring them self-assurance. To think a bit, maybe people are not so irrational when we look upon ourselves. As a matter of fact we all do the same thing every now and then. Buying fancy clothes and boots than one should; attending not-so-affordable high-class universities; humiliating oneself so as to get in some community,
etc.
The common thing behind the scene is that we spent more than we could afford to get such a feeling that we are important, or at least as important as others, if not more important. We are eager to get ourselves recognized all the time by pretending to be more respectful than others. Failing doing that, we may at least try to tell ourselves apart from the ‘losers’.
But what’s a loser anyway? Paying more than one could possibly afford doesn’t look like a winner’s
behaviour for me. One may look great doing that, taking away the fact he may be feeling miserable at the same time. People are always pretending to be someone else, at last they are confused and insecure and lost in others’ images. Isn’t that pathetic?
Using iPad doesn’t make you Steve Jobs; wearing black frame glasses doesn’t make you an art director, no matter how hard you try. You’re just yourself and no one else.
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