The iPhone has taken Canada by storm… there’s nothing like stewing in your envious juices watching your big, brash older cousin get all the cool toys that you wait an agonizing year for access to to make a nation of consumers salivate. You know how I know that Canada’s gone iphone crazy? Every time I take my (scratched) iPod Touch out on the skytrain, people look over at me, trying to figure out if it’s the hallowed iPhone.

My sister-in-law Briana recently got one, and I have to admit, it’s really cool. That same week, my phone (a hand-me-down from my brother) bit the dust, and I decided to check out my options. I quickly discovered the lure of the iPhone and it’s many fancy features when I realized that there quite simply is no product out there that does as many things as well as the iPhone does. Validating that is the plethora of “me-too” and knockoff products that have come out that look exactly like it (ahem, Samsung…). I was really tempted to figure out a way to buy it (I am lucky enough to be a Fido subscriber, part of the Rogers network which offers the iPhone in Canada), but part of me just thinks - I’ve been a Fido customer for so long to get to this point so I can have no contract. Why would I sign another one that binds me for three years?

Then I started thinking about what that extra money that I would be spending for the 3G network would get me. an iPhone is $199 for an 8GB version. for CityFido (of which I am one of the lucky few subscribers), I pay $45/month for unlimited local calling, period. For $5 extra, I get voicemail, etc. If I had the iPhone, I’d be paying an additional $20/month for the 3G network. So that’s $70 (minimum) I’d be paying, me, a girl who swore I’d never get a blackberry because I couldn’t justify the ridiculous subscription costs. (not to mention why do I need to check my e-mails at every blinking moment?)

So - it seems that others have been giving the iReligion a second thought. I admit - the thought did occur to me that getting an iPhone, though sporting an apple is the trademark of cool these days, is really just another symbol of being part of the massive consumer culture, and an expense 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 buy you? What would it buy a homeless guy in the DTES? What would it buy an orphan of HIV in Africa?

This line of thinking brought me back to reality - I just applied (last week) for a researcher position on a project called A-PODD, the African Policy on Disability and Development, a project that brings together universities in Ireland and South Africa to study case studies of how national policies on disability are being used (or not) to affect the lives and health of citizens with disabilities. I applied to work on their Sierra Leone case study. Who knows whether I’ll be selected. The point is - great as my current job is (and I will be there awhile), I will not be in Vancouver long enough for a 3 year contract of anything. I even feel wierd buying furniture!

The case study in Sierra Leone has a particularly interesting premise - they are looking at how national policies about disability in the wake of Sierra Leone’s long civil war may help to develop the country itself. Sierra Leone’s war left hundreds of thousands with disabilities stemming from amputations - citizens needing jobs, people with families, members of their country who want to be able to be a part of bringing it out of war.

In light of that sort of story - it is extremely hard to justify a purchase like the iPhone, even with the newly-earned salary fattening up my wallet (more like finally paying my bills).