Fragilecologies Archives
6 June 2001
I was at the airport in Hong Kong, waiting to board the plane for a flight to Beijing. Being someone with a definite and acute case of attention deficit (super-hyper person, even as I enter my sixties), I began to panic. Facing a three-hour flight, I wondered if I had enough reading materials and other gadgets to keep my mind occupied. This situation was compounded by the fact that I had several tens of Hong kong dollars left over and most likely would not have the chance to use them again in the next several years. What to do? Ten minutes to board. Getting more anxious with each passing moment. I looked around the waiting area: people reading newspapers, carrying books, holding snacks in their hands. It was a moment of truth. There was only one thing left to do…go back to the closest shop to see what gadgets I could buy to help me pass those three hours of sitting in one place. I ran down the hallway about two hundred paces and there was my last chance before the flight.
I looked over the stuff on the shelves and racks, worried that I could not buy enough candy, for example, to keep me busy. Then, out of the blue, I saw it… my salvation. A Nintendo game that was on a key chain. It could also serve as an alarm clock for when I would no longer find it interesting. It was called “Snoopy Tennis” — yet another attraction. See, I play tennis a lot. All the ingredients were now in place: motive, opportunity, pressure, tennis, and my last remaining Hong Kong change. I bought it.
DJan (my assistant) was travelling with me, along with my wife and two other colleagues from China. Earlier on this long trip I had made fun of her because at the outset of the trip the security people flagged her bag as hiding potentially dangerous weaponry. As it turned out, the x-ray machine had detected her all-purpose metal Leatherman with knife, scissors, pliers and screwdriver. I teased her for carrying such a thing on her person and for not packing it in her big case, if she felt that she could not leave home without it.
Sheepishly, I approached her to ask if I could borrow it in order to cut open the plastic packaging for the Nintendo game.
So far, so good.
Seated on the plane for only 5 minutes, and feeling boredom already setting in, I resorted to playing with the Nintendo. Well, I am not very coordinated so I kept losing as Charlie Brown hit tennis balls at Snoopy who was jumping vertically from one tree branch to another. One ball after another passed by Snoopy as I didn’t manage to get him to swing his racquet in time. Mind you, this game does not require a degree in rocket science… it just takes some patience and coordination. My wife asked if I had read the instructions and my reply was, of course not, I can’t handle reading instructions. Too boring and the process of reading them does not mesh well with my biorhythyms.
The steward on the plane announced that we were going to take off shortly and that all electronic devices had to be shut off until fifteen minutes after the plane had become airborne. I fly enough to have expected this and so her announcement came as no surprise. I then shut down the Snoopy tennis game to comply with IATA flight regulations. The game did not shut down. Now, you see, there are only three buttons to push on this thing, so it should not have been hard to figure out how to shut it off. I pushed the start button, the time button, and the button with the direction arrows. None of this had any effect on Charlie Brown who kept on hitting balls to Snoopy. Now the little machine began to beep occasionally. The plane was about to take off, my little machine was making noises and I began to wonder if this errant little toy could bring down a plane? What to do? Flush it down the toilet and let it fall into the South China Sea? Tell the stewards that we were being put in danger by Snoopy Tennis?
I started to wonder, then, about the regulation. Was it a real concern for ALL electronic devices or was its purpose to target a few of them by banning them all, rather than read a list of things electronic that should not be used on take off and landing?
As it turns out, I just shut up. I put the mini-Nintendo game on one of my belt loops (yes, I forgot to mention I can hang it on my belt so that it is always with me!). I leaned back, as the plane took of into the wild blue yonder, closed my eyes … and hoped for the best. Well, obviously Snoopy’s activation did not bring down the plane during takeoff. Eventually, Charlie Brown got tired of hitting balls at a fictitious dog that apparently had no interest in playing a stupid tennis Nintendo game. I got bored with it too. Besides, I was afraid to turn it on again; we still had to land the plane in Beijing and I did not want to give Snoopy a second chance to do any harm.