Mobile phones used to text threats in Iraq

Modern cellphones may be convenient, but many Iraqis are abandoning them because they bear nothing but bad news. Aws al-Timimi is an IWPR contributor in Baghdad. He reports for Spero News in one of the most poignant accounts' related to cell phones I've ever read. (Picture from NewsVine )

''Mobile phones, for many years a forbidden object of desire for Iraqis, are beginning to lose some of their lustre, as getting a call rarely means good news. The insurgents send text messages to warn people to quit their jobs, while kidnappers ring up to deliver their ransom demands.

... A growing number of Iraqis are abandoning mobiles and going back to the old-fashioned landlines.The falling demand is due to their widespread use of mobile technology by kidnappers and blackmailers.

... To avoid threats, some Iraqis will only take calls from numbers they recognise. Others will not use their phones at all, because looking at them brings up sad memories of relatives and friends who have been killed.''

The compelling avatar, which will be available in the not-so-distant future, corresponds to the original idea of Kim - the genie that folks can conjure up at any time and at any place.''

September 15, 2006

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