Unscrupulous Mobile Phone Companies

[Mitch]

I was checking out some Goldfrapp touring dates this morning, and picked up on the fact that Mobile Phone companies, in a cynical attempt to market 3G and their mobile phones are now sponsoring music festivals.

Check this out:

www.02wirelessfestival.co.uk
At Leeds & London. In Leeds their in cohoots with stately home Harewood House near Leeds!

Jeezus, if you look at the sponsors, those supporting - Greenpeace is in there.

I thought Vodafrone sponsoring the Royal Society for the Protection of Birds (RSPB) was the biggest cynical joke, but this one takes the biscuit.

Through the festival O2 promote not just their 3G phones, but ringtones and MP3 downloads - all part of the marketing of 3G to younger people. Oh, and you can buy t-shirts as well for a bit of extra O2 promotion.

Anyone feel a letter to Greenpeace coming on - they appear unaware of the many residents campaigns against telecommunications masts and the health concerns.

[younowho]

whilst greenpeace's work elsewhere is commended they need to be stopping electro-pollution at home here in the UK.

I'm unsure of their stance on the masts issue but there certainly won't be many 'peaces' of 'green' left if the mobile operators continue to trounce our fields and towns with clutter that pukes out radiation over our communities.

As for the festival, considering the line up and cost of over £37 for a ticket .. well.. need I say more.. ?

out of interest, the inventor of the mobile phone stated 3G as a technology was dead years ago..

news.zdnet.com/2100-1009_22-964195.html

As proof of how desperate 3G operators are now getting, hutchison 3 are now GIVING AWAY FREE 3G phones and actually PAYING PEOPLE to answer them...

www.2u.co.uk/phones/3_3g_mobile_phone_phones/3-3g-three-threeg-mobile-phones.php

[Mitch]

Interesting, thanks younowho (who are you? ;D).

Such is the nature of corporations (in partnership with government) to force upon us not just something WE DONT NEED, but also something that evidence increasingly suggests is devastating to our health. Have we not been here many times.

As for Greenpeace, Masts are not one of their biggest campaigns. I see them as part of the problem - they are if you like a part of the system. They can be useful on legal advice etc. but they are riddled with contradictions such as the one mentioned above, and there are class issues here as they act I think very much like a charity - speaking for people rather than working bottom up to support independent grassroots community campaigns - although local Friends of the Earth and Greenpeace groups can work differently. Also, on the legal route is so often now a dead duck as we have seen with masts.

The answer may lie locally - with independent campaign groups (of which there are many in Burnley and Pendle) coming together to support each other - identifying and sharing information and incorporating more direct action in campaigns, and making links on the same issues they are facing.

This is an old article, but interesting :
society.guardian.co.uk/environment/story/0,14124,1233975,00.html

Talking of mobile phone companies at events, last year Vodafone had a stand and Burnley's May Day community event.

[michele cryer]

Eeek! Thanks for this extra info Mitch...very interesting...yes, I feel a letter to Greenpeace is in order..

[Mitch]

admin said:

Eeek! Thanks for this extra info Mitch...very interesting...yes, I feel a letter to Greenpeace is in order..

Write a letter, make the world all better ahhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhh. ;D

[michele cryer]