<TABLE border=0 cellSpacing=0 cellPadding=0 width="100%"><TBODY><TR>Indian subscriber automatically assigned Tamil song ringtone
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<!-- START OF : div id="storytext"--><!-- more than 4 paragraphs -->MY WIFE is a SingTel pre-paid mobile phone user. Last week, when I called her mobile phone, her ringtone played a Tamil song. I immediately hung up, assuming I had dialled a wrong number. I called again and heard the same song. On my third attempt, I let it ring and to my surprise, my wife answered the phone.
Over the next few days, her friends went through the same ordeal, assuming they had got a wrong number when they called her.
We called the SingTel hotline last Saturday to inquire about the song, and the service operator told us the telco had launched a free ringtone promotion. Since we were Indian, the Tamil song was automatically assigned to us.
My wife and I are both citizens of India, but we are not from the state of Tamil Nadu, nor do we speak the Tamil language. Therefore, the approach of assigning a Tamil song ringtone because we were Indian was shocking, and it demonstrated the ignorance of the SingTel management team that put this promotion together.
There are 1,652 different languages in India. The national language of India is Hindi. English is also accepted as the language for official purposes. Tamil is a beautiful language spoken by people from Tamil Nadu.
We did not expect a leading telco like SingTel to be ignorant of such linguistic sensitivities and fall for the common misconception that 'if a person is Indian, he speaks Tamil'.
Furthermore, assigning a ringtone based on a person's race creates an environment of 'racial labelling'.
Why not have a neutral set of ringtones - a set of tunes with some meaning or message, perhaps even the recent National Day Parade theme song? Or allow subscribers to choose their ringtone at no charge?
Anil Ladislaus D'Souza
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<!-- START OF : div id="storytext"--><!-- more than 4 paragraphs -->MY WIFE is a SingTel pre-paid mobile phone user. Last week, when I called her mobile phone, her ringtone played a Tamil song. I immediately hung up, assuming I had dialled a wrong number. I called again and heard the same song. On my third attempt, I let it ring and to my surprise, my wife answered the phone.
Over the next few days, her friends went through the same ordeal, assuming they had got a wrong number when they called her.
We called the SingTel hotline last Saturday to inquire about the song, and the service operator told us the telco had launched a free ringtone promotion. Since we were Indian, the Tamil song was automatically assigned to us.
My wife and I are both citizens of India, but we are not from the state of Tamil Nadu, nor do we speak the Tamil language. Therefore, the approach of assigning a Tamil song ringtone because we were Indian was shocking, and it demonstrated the ignorance of the SingTel management team that put this promotion together.
There are 1,652 different languages in India. The national language of India is Hindi. English is also accepted as the language for official purposes. Tamil is a beautiful language spoken by people from Tamil Nadu.
We did not expect a leading telco like SingTel to be ignorant of such linguistic sensitivities and fall for the common misconception that 'if a person is Indian, he speaks Tamil'.
Furthermore, assigning a ringtone based on a person's race creates an environment of 'racial labelling'.
Why not have a neutral set of ringtones - a set of tunes with some meaning or message, perhaps even the recent National Day Parade theme song? Or allow subscribers to choose their ringtone at no charge?
Anil Ladislaus D'Souza
