Uninstalling Logic…..

logic - reasoning conducted or assessed according to strict principles of validity

Most of us have been restricted to our homes for the last few months now. We’ve tried to keep ourselves busy, and have been hugely successful in doing so. Ludo is now a national obsession, and it might soon replace nation’s favorite game – cricket (Ludo Premier League, just imagine!). We had a pandemic to fight, so we decided our priorities well and displayed unprecedented national strength. We single handedly brought down ratings of a Chinese app from 4+ stars to around 1 star on Playstore. This was a big statement we made globally, to everyone who had doubts on our resolve when we could not resist alcohol queues.

However, in spite of the astounding achievement, we are not the ones to rest on our laurels. There’s a new fad in town, and its grabbing eyeballs. There’s huge participation, and people are completing the act with flying colours. I am looking forward to get involved as well, and experience a new high in life. But like all the important decisions of my life, this comes with a huge dilemma as well.

The exciting movement I am talking about is boycotting Chinese goods and uninstalling Chinese apps. Let me share my dilemmas here –

1. I plan to uninstall all Chinese apps from my phone. However, my dilemma starts after that. My phone is a Chinese brand. I’ve used American, Taiwanese and Japanese phones. The brand I use used to be American, but a Chinese corporation brought it. The Chinese brand was the best in performance, and offered a great value to the price. Who cares, this phone is going to the bin.
2. I am straight up ordering a new phone from a popular American brand (hint – Its named after a fruit, and its not banana). Some research and it struck me that this brand assembles its phones in China. Who cares, I am going to buy it anyways. I am allowed to be a hypocrite sometimes.
3. I look around the house to bin more goods. My parents are watching Ramayan on TV (Chinese brand, again). I am going to bin that TV, and would suggest my parents to read the book instead. I would not be able to buy a new TV from a Korean brand for some time now, because I will have no money left after buying the (fruit) phone. The TV has some Chinese equipment and was probably assembled in China, but who cares, I am allowed to be a hypocrite sometimes.
4. I keep looking around and I see my laptop. American brand, phew! The backside however, says “Made in China”. Did a fact check and found that this is the case with most computing brands. Not going to use a computer/laptop anytime soon. Can’t be a hypocrite all the time. Setting up a pakoda shop soon.

Here’s the obvious truth. We live in a globalized world, and things are not that simple to segregate. A mobile phone corporation from US, would set up its factory in China, would have the R&D work done in Japan and software solution developed in India. Boycott of goods that we are talking about is impractical, if not impossible. We do not have the capabilities to produce everything we need at this moment, and it would take years to develop those capabilities, even if we wanted to. What next, we would buy goods from some other country, which would be more expensive and would leave us with lesser money.

A friend of mine said, “You can take a person out of China, but not China out of a person.” While this was said as a joke, it’s the bitter truth.

Hope you have a great week ahead. There would be lot of work related calls lined up I’m sure, on Zoom – a US based corporation set up by a Chinese immigrant. It relies considerably on its R&D team set up in China and Chinese equipments. Hope the app is still there. If not, hope that job is still there.

 

Yours bitterly,

Ashish