Repair – the fourth R missing in our lives

MY IT-savvy friend in the office must be quite fed up of me. I go to him regularly for advice on how to fix the glitches in both the hardware and software on some of the devices I own.

Problem is, I am a few generations behind him, and some of the gadgets should simply be sent to the tech graveyard, as he puts it.

For example, it takes some effort to find a video converter software for my five-year-old MP3 player. As for my eight-year-old PDA, it was just impossible to find a replacement battery even though the device is in perfect condition otherwise.

At a time when consumers are spoilt for choice for everything from the latest 3-D TV to the coolest smartphone, the desire to simply replace, rather than repair, is extremely high. And it does not help that prices of such items are always heading south.

Each time I go to the nearby hypermarket to get my weekly provisions, I cannot help noticing that the prices of essential items seem to go up, while the prices of what should be properly classified as luxury goods head the other way.

“Darling, the 32-in LCD TV is lower by RM500 since last week, can buy-ah?” I would remark. My better half, fortunately being both the home minister and the minister of finance, will firmly reply, “Our bill for household provisions is going up by 10% every week.” End of debate.

I am glad that Penang Chief Minister Lim Guan Eng has correctly stated that “Penang people are not kiam (stingy). They are just khiam (thrifty).” Of course, you have to be a Penangite to understand the nuances between these two words.

It is this khiam nature that makes me cringe at the throwaway culture that we seem to encourage.

While it is good that we practise the 3Rs Reduce, Reuse and Recycle the race to upgrade has effectively eliminated a group of entrepreneurs who specialise in the 4th R: Repair.

When I was a kid, I would spend time with the barber down the road almost every day as I was fascinated at how this man could repair practically everything that we threw at him. He was not trained professionally but give him a transistor radio, a TV, an iron or a fan, and he will work miracles with them.

Towards the end of the year, he would stop his business to take a break in India. When I was much older, I queried him about his annual trips and he told me that apart from the hair business, it was the repair business that made his income grow.

These days, even if it is just one component of your PC that is spoilt, chances are your vendor will tell you to buy a new one.

I suppose for those in the business of selling, including many of you who read the business section of this paper, it is a necessary component of healthy economic growth not to prolong the life of any item.

It's very much the same as how our local municipalities operate. Why are plants replaced with artificial trees, road pavements upgraded and garish contraptions placed all over the place? I suspect that some of these projects are deliberately carried out in this manner. If the people protest, then a new contract can be issued to replace, not repair, them. And chances are, they will look just as tasteless.

Cars are made to last a lifetime, but do you notice how often they are changed, especially if they are official or company vehicles?

The bigger issue here is that our finite resources on this planet are being consumed in ways that do not make sense. And let's not forget that those items we simply discard, when they could be repaired, end up at dumps and create environmental issues that threaten to spiral out of control.

● Deputy executive editor Soo Ewe Jin is happy to walk through the malls in the Klang Valley and come home with nothing. But he is still seriously wondering if he should retire his Zen and invest in the iPod touch that his friend wants him to get.