Text power

By Marifi Jara

QUELIMANE, Mozambique–We joined several million others here last week in registering our Mozambican pre-paid mobile SIM cards. Good thing there was already a facility to do it online because it would have been a stressful experience joining the long queues in the phone company’s office. The registration is required. If you don’t register, your number would no longer work after the deadline. This new policy was set up recently following riots at the beginning of September to protest an increase in the prices of bread, electricity, water and fuel.

Call for the riots, mainly in the capital Maputo and later extended to the other cities (but not here in Quelimane which remained quiet as ever although we did prepare ourselves for an eventuality by stocking up a bit more on food), were mainly spread through text messages.

The riots were contained after several days and the government did roll back the price of bread at least. It won’t likely hold for long though because the government could not really afford the subsidy it has to extend to keep down bread price, which has been affected by the global price of wheat. And when the price goes up again, unrest can naturally again be expected. But protesters will then have a more difficult time employing the power of texting as messages, with the registration, can now be traced even on pre-paid numbers and so there’s a risk of being charged for inciting disturbance.

Texting, or SMS if you like, holds great power as a communication tool because it’s quite simple, readily accessible with the proliferation of cellular technology, and it is perhaps the cheapest means of linking up these days. Remember how texting played a significant part in Erap’s ouster? And such power, of course, could be used for both good and evil.

And evil we saw when a bogus “warning text message” was circulated in Pangasinan about a supposedly another big flooding with water releases from the San Roque Dam just as the province was preparing for typhoon Juan.

The text message claimed to be official and coming straight from the provincial administrator – with name and a corresponding phone number. Some panic was triggered but good thing the provincial government quickly acted to dismiss the hoax.

It was a sick joke. Or perhaps a wicked prank intended to undermine the provincial government’s disaster risk reduction efforts. Either way, it was evil.

Even as most Pangasinenses have pretty much recovered and are moving on, the terror of last year’s flooding, which costs lives and livelihoods, is still too recent. Fear and panic could easily be fuelled.

We’ve learned a lesson here. We will be, should be more cautious next time about such text warnings. And we have been reminded of the strong influence of texting in our lives. It can sway the price of basic commodities as here, or make a major political impact as in the Philippines, or in the case of that con text in the province, could have added unnecessary panic-driven tragedies to a natural calamity.

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