Killed for a cellphone

Posted by: karlmuller30

Fri Feb 1, 2008 7:30 am (PST)

We've had some examples of synchronicities on the forum. Here's a very sad one. I've really been struggling to find time to post anything (and an earlier attempt at this very posting got lost when my machine completely crashed a little while ago...) -- but something really moved me to write yesterday about cellphones, safety and especially crime. I had to type really fast just to get it out.

Last night, I was supposed to meet up with my neighbour, she's moving to Japan next week, and we really needed to meet. But another friend called in with a minor crisis, so she went to have a chat with her. During this chat, her friend gets a call -- her other best friend, a seven-month pregnant woman, has been robbed at her "security complex". The thieves were trying to get ... her cellphone. Basically, her husband put himself in between them, and he took the bullet for her and was killed. My neighbour went out to the place, the body was still there, they were waiting for the police.

It's gross, was the word my friend used. Killed for a cellphone.

This all happened about half an hour after I finished that posting.

So I'm not in a very good mood about all of this. I had told my friend, who is American, about a year ago, that things were getting out of hand here, and I would give her a six-month warning when the time had come to go. She went to Japan for a visit in September, and a few things happened here which made me think, this is it, it's time for that warning. She mailed me saying she was having a wonderful time. I mailed her saying, this is your six-month get-out call. It's time to leave. Six months later, she is about to go. And she says, thank God. Just in time.

People are talking about these bizarre incidents of violence and threats. Robert Becker made a strong association with microwaves and "rages". I am certain that they are linked. And things are just out of hand here.

The guy who was killed ... in his early 30s. He was a policeman for a while, then became a social worker, wanted to help people. There are very, very few male social workers here. Sounds like a very good guy.

Killed for a cellphone. You know, we are saturated with cellphone advertising here. Everyone in the ads is smiling, having a happy time. And it stokes up this desire, and people think, why shouldn't I be part of this happy smiling group. All I need is a gun and one bullet.

The wife was shot in the hand. My friend said "She's OK". I said, she's not OK. Her husband's dead, her baby is going to grow up without a father, that is not OK. All for a cellphone.

Now, the thing is -- if they blacklisted phones properly, even as we speak, they could be tracking the criminals via the cellphone's polling signal. They just don't do it. Unless it's a high-profile crime, in which case they track the crooks to the metre and by the second.

I sent a huge document to our National Prosecuting Authority pointing this all out, back in about 2004. I didn't get so much as an acknowledgement of receipt. But I think this is one issue worth pursuing, because this kind of thing has hit so many people. The single most reported crime in SA is cellphone theft. More than half of all crimes involve cellphones directly in one way or another. Someone was talking about a holocaust, well, this absolute blizzard of crime has hit SA since cellphones came in. Tell me cellphones keep you safe.

I still would not get cross with someone who, for one reason or another, feels that it's worth keeping a phone for some emergency or other. Before anyone on this board start judging anyone else, let's remember that all of us are posting here on an electronic medium, and exposing ourselves to EMR in the process. I will get very suspicious of anyone who spends a lot of time on the computer saying how bad it is to use electronic gadgets. In one of my first posts, I said, we're fighting fire with fire. There's nothing wrong with using some of the enemy's weapons, as long as it's done in a good cause.

But there's a widow flying to her family home in Durban in a cargo plane as I write, with her husband in a box in the hold. Tell her that cellphones "keep you safe".

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Re: Mobile phones

Posted by: Tom Unrelated

Fri Feb 1, 2008 8:09 am (PST)

Karl,

really sad story. ;(

Of course using a computer to post to this forum does expose one to some EMFs. However, I am using a landline DSL and have shielded almost any EMFs from my computer. My job involves to be in front of a computer the whole day, I do a living from it. It is still far from perfect, though I couldn't use it much if at all without all those measurements. I have been hiding now for more then a year behind all my shielding to stop mobile phone, DECT, WLAN and alike from outside harassing me. Hadn't been much out, only the few meetings I needed to attend and the unavoidable shopping, mostly during times unlikely to meet much of those mobile phone users. Did visit friends quite seldom, to avoid radiation during traveling and always ask them to shut down their DECT/WiFi equipment.

After all you are your own prisoner on a microwaved planet, I'll move in some time and hope to get a little more sun then. It isn't all that easy if you have to give up almost anything, but without using the Internet I would still not know what makes me sick nor would I have found a place to go. I wouldn't have found people in the same situation which is a great help and more.

Peace

Tom