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To kill now for a cell phone, and then what?

Francisco Miraval

A few months ago, a Latino teenager in Greeley, Colorado, was sentenced to a minimum of six years in a jail for juveniles for killing last March his nephew, a 2-year old boy he was babysitting, when the boy tried to take the cell phone the teenager was using to access a well-known social networking site.

According to information released by the Greeley Police Department, the teenager confessed he struck his cousin in the chest and then shook him, because the boy will not allow him to use his cell. Because of his confession, the teenager received a suspended sentence of 18 years in a jail for adults. However, if he does not complete his rehabilitation during the next six years, he will have to serve that sentence.

It sounds incredible that somebody would kill a human being for something some common and easy to obtain as a cell phone. However, it is even more incredible that the case in Greeley is far from being the only one. In fact, this kind of tragedies happens not only in the United States, but also in other countries.

For example, last August, a mother of three was killed in Buenos Aires, near her house, when she resisted a robbery. The two robbers took the cell phone of the victim, but they left an important amount of cash on the floor.

According to La Nacion newspaper, in Buenos Aires the number of people murdered during a cell phone robbery now exceeds the number of people killed by car thieves.

Also last August, in Neiva, Colombia, a 17-year old student was killed in front of his house by assailants who took his cell phone. According to witnesses, the teenager did not resist the robbery. He died while he was being transported to a hospital.

Why people kill other people for a cell phone? Police investigators in Colombia and in Argentina say there are two main reasons: cell phones are easy to resell and cells store so much personal information that the information could generate more money than reselling stolen objects.

In addition to the valid reasons offered by police, I think there are other, more personal reasons. Man y of us have experience that uneasiness and emptiness inside us when we leave home without the cell phone. In fact, without the cell we feel incomplete and therefore we go back to get it.

In other words, we are so attached to this particular device that we have become chained to it. We are their slaves, and people kill or die because of that techno-slavery.

In addition, our lives are trapped inside those cell phones, including our contacts, songs, pictures, and personal information. And we use cells all the time to communicate or to create the illusion of communication. How many times you have been in a meeting focusing on your phone, but not on the meeting?

If people now mercilessly kill for phone, a device that can be easily replaced, what would happen next?

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