Author: R J Adams

There was a time, far back in the annals of history, when customer service was just that. We, as consumers, played a vital role in the Capitalist society. Manufacturers, service providers, worked hard to ensure we received the best possible product because, to be sure, if they didn’t their competitors would.

They were the glory days of the consumer. Except, we weren’t called consumers then. We were customers.

A ‘consumer’ is an organism that gobbles up things. A ‘customer’, according to Wikipedia, is:

…the recipient of a good service, product, or idea, obtained from a seller, vendor, or supplier for a monetary or other valuable consideration…”

So the term ‘consumer’ is incorrect. We are all still customers, though the corporate world has quite forgotten it. They prefer to think of us as gullible fools, which sadly some of us are. Hopefully, there are still a few who are not.

This morning, we received a letter in the mail. It was in a nice, posh envelope with fancy writing – though the line above the address, which looked like this:

***********AUTO**3-DIGIT 498

…gave cause for suspicion.

It was from our TV service provider, DishNetwork, and they seemed overcome with gratitude that we were their customer.

Opening the envelope revealed an equally posh little card, again extolling our virtues as their customer:

Was this to be an invitation to dinner with Joseph P. Clayton, himself…

…President & CEO of DishNetwork? (He didn’t buy that suit at Walmart!)

Or, mayhaps, a world cruise – all expenses paid by the company – in recognition of our valued custom?

Alas, no, it was simply a not-very-cleverly-couched attempt at informing us they were raising the monthly rate by another five dollars:

For those of us with less than 20-20 vision, the relevant paragraph reads:

“Starting in February, the monthly price of all core English packages will increase by $5. And if you have a DISH DVR, your service fee will increase by $1.”

It then goes on to illustrate all the many wonderful features that make it okay to charge another $60 a year, though when reading carefully it rapidly becomes obvious the benefits are non-existent.

I wonder how many people are employed by Dish Network solely to come up with ways of conning as many of their customers as possible? No doubt, they all coin in fat salaries for their clever ideas.

If they were all sent packing, and the company purchased cheaper envelopes, there’d be no need to raise their prices.

Do they really think we’re fooled by glossy envelopes and overly-sentimental, insincere, platitudes?

This condescending attitude towards the customer is prevalent in corporate America – try to make him/her feel important while squeezing a bit more from the bank account.

How much annual revenue is produced by every DishNetwork customer paying an extra $60 to $66 a year?

I can tell you.

Approximately, seventy-five million dollars.

Frankly, it stinks.

In these days of economic depression, high unemployment, and battles within Congress over spending cuts, it may come as some surprise to a few – those of us with something still working between our ears – that 34,000 of our US fellows have signed a White House petition demanding America build a ‘Death Star’.^[1]

Not being one of the herd obsessed by Hollywood’s “Star Wars” epics, I was a trifle perturbed to learn a ‘Death Star’ is a huge military machine armed with super-lasers, roaming around space and in the business of destroying whole planets.

Apparently, even if the US Congress were in favor of the idea – and, let’s face it, they’ve managed to approve a few crazy suggestions in their time – the cost, $850 quadrillion dollars, would be prohibitive.

That’s $850 thousand billion, or billiards, as they’re known by mathematicians. And, let’s face it, there’s a load of balls in this somewhere. Not at all, say the exponents of this lunacy, it would create jobs and strengthen defense.

Given that the US arsenal of nuclear weapons is sufficient to destroy this planet a hundred times over, and it’s just possible not too many folks would be queuing up to work in outer space, it may be the whole deal hasn’t been completely thought through.

But then, is anything given suitable consideration anymore? If it comes off the TV, or out of Hollywood, it must surely have merit. It’s how Americans appear to be educated. I don’t know why they bother to keep the schools open. Think how much money would be saved if the government fired all the teachers and professors and paid kids to stay home and learn from the “History Channel”, and the “Biography Channel”. They’d know all about ancient aliens and celebrity ghosts within a week.

And, let’s not forget, “The Learning Channel”. No, on second thoughts, forget I wrote that.

With a state subsidy, cinemas could be free to students; universities offer degrees in religious studies based on the, “Passion of the Christ”…

…and “The Devil’s Rock”…

…just so they get a nicely balanced view of the subject.

Ben Affleck’s “Argo” is the latest Hollywood effort attempting to educate young minds. It’s a tale of the 1979-81 Iranian hostage crisis, and ‘tale’ is the operative word. Mark Lijek, one of the US diplomats caught up in the crisis, likes the film but admits it’s way off the truth.

From the BBC:

…Argo’s final scenes are superbly tense, as the six make it onto the plane by the skin of their teeth. The CIA had given them false departure documents for which, of course, there were no matching arrival forms.

The big climax is a heart-pounding chase down the runway as gun-toting members of the Revolutionary Guard try to stop them taking off.

“Absolutely none of that happened,” says Mark.^[2]

It doesn’t matter. Hollywood hasn’t produced anything truly factual in its history. It’s a dream factory, designed to titillate and entertain. Which would be fine if Americans saw it in that light. Sadly, for many, it’s how they learn about life, history, and, yes, even religion.

Right now there’re 34,000 signatures on a White House petition to prove it.

^{[1] “US shoots down Death Star superlaser petition” BBC, January 12th 2013}

^{[2] “Argo: The true story behind Ben Affleck’s Oscar-nominated film” BBC, January 13th 2013}

It’s a source of constant amazement how Western nations, desperate to sow democracy throughout the world, happily trample that aim underfoot when dollar bills rear their ugly heads. Democracy, it seems, is far less important than Capitalism.

You didn’t really think they were one and the same, did you? Silly!

Take the latest atrocity perpetrated by that staunch ally and market trader with the West – Saudi Arabia.

From the BBC:

Saudi Arabia has beheaded a Sri Lankan domestic worker for killing a baby in her care in 2005 in a case that has been widely condemned by rights groups.

The maid, Rizana Nafeek, had denied killing the four-month-old boy.

Her supporters say she was only 17 at the time of the killing. They say her execution is a breach of international child rights.

The Sri Lankan government condemned the execution, which it said took place despite numerous clemency pleas.

The Saudi interior ministry said on Wednesday that Ms Nafeek was executed for smothering the infant after an argument with the child’s mother in the town of al-Dwadmi.^[1]

The argument here is not whether this girl committed the crime, though that is undoubtedly in dispute. She confessed under duress (read:torture) and was unable to understand the language sufficiently to know what she was confessing to.

The crux is a) that she was executed, and b) the execution was performed in an utterly barbaric manner.

Western nations, with the odd notable exception, have evolved beyond the archaic idea of, “an eye for an eye, etc.”. Even Texas draws the line at beheading.

This teenage girl, in a foreign country with a strange language, and without access to a lawyer, was committed to prison for five years never knowing if she was to live or die. Unhappily, it proved to be the latter.

BBC:

Human rights groups including Amnesty International and Human Rights Watch (HRW) have criticised the Saudi authorities for their handling of the case, as have campaigners in Sri Lanka, who argue that there were also serious translation problems at the time she confessed to the crime.

They argue that her reported execution breaches the UN Convention on the Rights of the Child which Saudi Arabia has ratified.

“Saudi Arabia is one of just three countries that executes people for crimes they committed as children,” said senior HRW women’s rights researcher Nisha Varia,

“Rizana Nafeek is yet another victim of the deep flaws in Saudi Arabia’s judicial system.”

Is it too much to expect those nations with a supposedly deeper respect for humanity and justice than the likes of Saudi Arabia – a dictatorship masquerading as a monarchy – to take economic measures against these despotic regimes, to dissuade them from acting in such a barbaric fashion?

Apparently, it is.

Abdullah holds the key to Arabian oil wells. Saudi has recently placed an order with Britain for fighter aircraft worth billions of pounds. There’s been little mention of the sad fate of the Sri Lankan girl, Rizana Nafeek, in the Western press, and none in the American press. [Google: “Rizana Nafeek” and note how many US media websites carry the story. I found none in the first three pages.]

The doctrine of Capitalism, as we’re all learning, contains no regard whatever for human life – except, of course, when there’s a profit to be had.

^{[1] “Sri Lankan maid Rizana Nafeek beheaded in Saudi Arabia” BBC, January 9th 2013}