In the Philippines, elaborate cellphones are a status symbol. If you're anyone halfway affluent, you will own a crazy color cellphone with all the gadgets - camera, video camera, Internet access, and so on.

And furthermore, you'll use these gadgets. I saw pictures taken and videos made. And of course I saw something that seemed inevitable in an environment of gadgets and people who didn't understand them: A cellphone virus.

It was my friend Mari-el who got it. Mel, as she likes to be called, is a highly intelligent, upper middle class Filipina who makes a good income and has most of the luxuries of life, including a fancy $300 cellphone. And on the day this story opens, she came to me with a problem.

"I think Celly is sick."

I had come up with the curious practice of giving her cellphone a name, because like all Filipinas she just could not be parted from it. So is Celly a mere overpriced piece of plastic, or a member of the family? Well, as a family member, she has to have a name. Thus, Celly, which Mel pronounces with her magical accent.

So we went to an Internet cafe and in about 15 minutes I was able to figure out Celly's virus problem and how to fix it. The http://www.f-secure.com/ web site has details and a removal program.

It's interesting to see a third-world country beating the US in acceptance of modern cellphones. Some people here have Blackberries, but they are business tools more than personal status symbols. I don't know anyone who considers their cellphone a symbol of affluence. We like buying overpriced cars more.

Does anyone here have a fancy cellphone? Why'd you buy it? Or why did you decide against getting one?

D

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