Comments on: The iPhone Challenge

By: iPhoned

iPhoned — Sun, 24 Aug 2008 07:59:41 +0000

[...] that could do a whole lot more good elsewhere. Smarter folks than I have been writing about this – first on the Gateway blog, then repeated on Resonate, and then picked up by the Toronto Sun. What would 3 years of an iPhone [...]

By: Dion Oxford

Dion Oxford — Mon, 04 Aug 2008 18:15:39 +0000

Hi all,
I just realized that my post was here on this site so haven’t been aware of the conversation.
I’m so glad it’s sparked a good online chat.
I appreciate the support (thanks Brian and Andrew and the rest of you) and the mostly constructive criticisms as well. It is true that I occassionally eat out and that I like to go to movies. I also like stuff and am easily wooed by neat things. I also, as I admit to in my piece, really like the i-phone and would have one if my conscience didn’t get the better of me.
The fact is though, I do belive that we (we includes me) live in a world where we continue to get duped into rationalizing our ongoing wastes of money on things we truly don’t need. We keep being told by the ad-man what to buy, how to dress, what to eat, what to watch, how to think, who to fear, how to vote, who to worship… and we keep letting it happen to us. For me, the process is to try and live life more simply each day and to daily attempt to uncover when I am being duped and try and respond by not buying everything I want, by eating at home more, by not bowing to the conveniances that the market is constantly raping my head with. As I’ve moved more towards this, I realize how much money I do have over and above what I need and how much more I can give away and truly how much more joy I have in my life as a result.

This piece was a challenge to me as well as to the reader . The i-phone is the most successful ad campaign in recent years and is merely the item I used to illistrate my point. Yes, you can look at me and certainly conclude that I am a hypocrite. Believe me, you can’t be any harder on me than I am on myself. But more importantly, look at yourselves and ask what this challenge might mean to you. Don’t rationalize your own misuse of money by looking at me; at the end of the day that just won’t cut it.
peace
Dion

By: Nathan Colquhoun

Nathan Colquhoun — Sun, 03 Aug 2008 23:58:46 +0000

iheard….haha

By: jordoncooper.com » Blog Archive » The Cult of Cool

jordoncooper.com » Blog Archive » The Cult of Cool — Sat, 02 Aug 2008 09:02:33 +0000

[...] one of the new 3G iPhones that are now in Canada. The answer is no I don’t. I agree with Dion Oxbridge’s writing on the iPhone. I don’t even have a iPod Touch. I have purchased three of them and returned them before [...]

By: jordoncooper.com » Archive » The iPhone Challenge

jordoncooper.com » Archive » The iPhone Challenge — Tue, 22 Jul 2008 01:29:29 +0000

[...] Oxford from the Gateway in Toronto, has an amazing post about the iPhone and the amount of social change you could make rather than paying Roger’s $4000 over the next [...]

By: andrew

andrew — Sat, 19 Jul 2008 22:04:33 +0000

Eddie – I suspect that the question is actually not one of charity at all, but rather a question of justice. It’s a question of justice where the iPhone is emblematic of the alarming disparity between rich and poor.

Because it’s not just about charity. It’s about how we live our whole lives. It’s about how our lives are balanced against the lives of those around us. You’re right. All of us are implicated in the world’s injustice.

But that doesn’t excuse us from turning a blind eye.

Rather, it should stir us up, and spur us on to seek the good of others before our own good, all the while knowing that there’s always more that we can do individually and corporately.

By: Eddie

Eddie — Fri, 18 Jul 2008 20:04:25 +0000

It is a holier than thou attitude when it makes assumptions about people who may happen to buy an iphone. The attitude of the post is one of arrogance that anyone who buys one is not a good steward of their money. How do you know that the person who is carrying the iphone did not donate hundreds, thousands or millions to charity. How do you know that they are not donating time to work in soup kitchens, shut in aids patients, or holding drug addicted babies on the weekend.

Now unless Dion actually owns nothing in this world than one can make the argument that he is not being a good steward with his money. Has he ever gone out to eat, see a movie, go to a hockey game. Has he never gone away on vacation, has he ever bought a book, computer, or anything for that matter….If he has and is condemning others for buying an iphone then this posts smacks of a definite holier than thou attitude.

By: David

David — Thu, 17 Jul 2008 19:57:04 +0000

I wonder how many jobs are provided by the Iphone to those same people you are providing free food, water, clothing & shelter to. Paying for goods/services that create and sustain jobs is better, and more humanitarian, than giving money away. Lets help the poor by perpetuating a system that gives both them and us jobs. There is no reason why everybody can’t have an iPhone.

By: Brian

Brian — Thu, 17 Jul 2008 18:47:28 +0000

I think that I need to reply to Matt on this one. First off, you really don’t know who you are talking to here. I don’t need to defend Dion Oxford, but we are talking about someone who runs the best homeless shelter in Toronto (and that’s the word on the street!), and who has laid his life on the line for the poorest of the poor in our society. [I can feel Dion blushing as I write this.] But perhaps more importantly, I’d be curious to know, Matt, what reasoning you would use to decide whether to buy into any particular new piece of technology. Sue and Sonja are right. We all make choices, and some technology can indeed enhance life in the Kingdom. But what criteria do we use? How do we apply that criteria? And is every decision to not buy into something, and every argument that raises questions about the just stewardship of resources, by definition a ‘holier than thou’ attitude? I don’t think so, and I think, Matt, that the issues that both Andrew and Dion raise are way too important for such a dismissal.

By: sonja

sonja — Thu, 17 Jul 2008 14:26:22 +0000

HAH! You get it cheap in Canada … in the US we pay $70 per month for honor of using the phone and $30 per month to the monopolizer (AT&T) for data.

You do make some good arguments. OTOH …

As Sue says, we all make choices about how we spend our money. We cannot possibly spend it all on the poor. But we can make choices that reflect righteous, just and merciful decisions … and perhaps an iPhone falls in that range for some and not others. Who is to know?