Women’s Phones to be Tapped

Something is missing from this article. It just screams discrimination! Can you even imagine this happening in the United States [putting aside any other phone tapping programs, I mean for JUST women to be singled out]? The ACLU would have the complaint drafted and would be in the initial filing stages if this were to happen in the United States. But, this isn’t, and I’m doubtful that anyone will ever stand up and say, “But what about tapping the men’s phones, too?” And quite frankly, just tapping the phones will not stop “phone abuse,” if that is truly the problem.

I can attest to being one of those in the States who abused a cell phone. Like many, when I first got my cell phone, it was going to be “for emergency purposes.” Then “emergency” morphed into, “Honey, I’m stopping at the store on the way home. Do we need milk?” And from there, it was all downhill, being in the car or at the store or wherever was just another opportunity to make or take a phone call – and I considered it to be a timesaver – in that I could have double the amount of “just to chat” conversations with family and friends.

Here, in The Sandbox, cell phone use is epidemic. I do NOT recall the last time I saw someone WITHOUT a cell phone. A majority of the imported laborers and workers have them, many of the maids have them, all of the young “local” boys and girls have them, as do most of the “local” adults. And, I do not mean that these people all just “have” cell phones; they use them, they are permanently attached to many ears! [Me? Well, I can honestly say that my cell phone here, at this point, is for “emergency purposes.”]

Thus, that the Ministry has decided to “introduce radical measures to stop women employees and teachers from using telephones at work” will likely do nothing to curb what may indeed be a problem, in that there is nothing that will stop these women from using their cell phones. And, from what I’ve seen in the variety of work places I’ve had the pleasure of visiting, the men are as bad, if not worse, than the women when it comes to being on the phone. Interesting, then, why it is, when women are the minority workers, here in The Sandbox, that the men are not being targeted if the intended result is increased attentiveness and productivity.