Mobile Phones, the Economy and some Lyrics

I'm a bit of a sucker for a gadget, truth be told. I was delighted therefore, when Nokia announced the replacement for the N95 - the N96 (bet you'd never have guessed !!). This phone was released slightly after the 3G iPhone, to whose softly rounded charms and genius of Apple's marketing I nearly succumbed.

But NO !! I resisted; my stubborn individuality surfaced and I gave my heart to the glossy and high-powered, kind of attractive but not in a conventional way, Nokia. The phone equivalent of a power suit and shoulder pads. Purposeful but sexy (you get the picture).

OK, no innovative touch screen control surface and effortless integration to Google Maps, iTunes etc etc, but well specc'd and pretty heavyweight when it comes to memory and processing. And if you de-branded it (ie removing the crap software installed by your network) then it reveals other tricks, like an embedded BBC iPlayer etc etc.

Trouble is, it's not actually the great leap forward it was billed as, and does nothing that my old N95 wouldn't do. I therefore feel somewhat cheated; she seduced me, opened her arms and then announced that her name was Roger. A bit of a let down, by all accounts.

Now I watch in envy at iPhone users, with their touching, brushing, squeezing and pinching... no failed promise there, I think.

Now, not even 6 months later, Nokia will release this to the world:-

You bastards !!!

I want one so much, it hurts...

This time, you'd better be called Candy and act like it.

Moving on, I fear my previous missive on the economy especially apropos the Banks, may, in the light of Monday's events, have been ever so slightly, errr, optimistic. Time will tell whether it will work, but I would ask only one question; what would you do ?

It's all very well, and very tempting, to rub your hands with glee at the thought of a bunch of Bankers taking it the painful way, and saying things like "they let Woollies go down, why is a bank any different ?". Well it is; banks are, in a deeply symbiotic sense, intrinsically linked to the economy, regardless of whether that economy is a free market one or not. Even communist countries have Banks.

Don't make the mistake of comparing these institutions with hack outfits like Northern Rock or B&B - they are several orders of magnitude bigger than that and hence are much more important. Remember, these are masive institutions with balance sheets larger than the UK economy (and incidentally, whose money do you think this is ?).

Now, imagine what would happen if one of these institutions were allowed to fail.

Without Banks (I use the term in an abstract sense), you don't have an economy. Just think what that means; no wages (how do they get paid and where do they go ?); no way of getting your money (forget ATM's, they won't work or have any cash in); no way of buying anything. No trade. No Car. No house. In short, the total and utter breakdown of our way of life.

Now, unless you are a Yurt inhabiting, twig eating Green or George Monbiot, I doubt you yearn for a return to a subsistence economy, with us all working the land and bartering our turnips. Putting aside the general excess of Western Civilisation, I quite like the way we live today and it's a damn sight better than any alternative I've seen.

So I say, if you don't want to end up eating grass, support your local Banker.

Now for some song lyrics; this one is called Saline. I think it's rather good.

If I
Say why
Will you cry
To please me?

Tell me lies
Fail to try
Say goodbye
It’s easy

Eyes cry
Tears dry
Tongues tie
Release me

Blue sky
Mind’s eye
Do or die
Appease me

Fine chilling mime
And I don’t know if I can believe in all the lies
Calcify
And I don’t know if I can survive the feeling
Losing all that’s mine

Amputee
Cut from me
Setting free
Deceiving

Leaving be
Lost at sea
Absentee
You’re grieving

Fine chilling mime
And I don’t know if I can believe in all the lies
Crucify
And I don’t know if I can survive the feeling
Losing all that’s mine

All, hold the wall, shallow call, doubters all, face the wall
Lovers fall, face the wall, losers all

I won’t be the good for nothing
I won’t be the same old feeling
I won’t be the one you turn to
I won’t be the phase you go through

(C) J Godfrey

That's all folks !!