We allowed ourselves to be too reliant on foreign made goods and on foreign companies that drain profits out of our economy

Can computers be infected with Chinese viruses, corona or other?

My laptop was made in China, so too was some software, and the dongle is by Huawei, China’s secret weapon!

Zoom is American, but the founder and CEO has a Chinese name. Was Donald Trump right to blame all ills on China?

So I put the laptop into intensive care. I did a complete memory clear-out, and reset to the factory default settings.

Hello! The automatically reinstalled operating system is Microsoft, one of America’s secret weapons; another being Apple.

Are the default settings American or Chinese?

I reinstalled my Chinese developed Office Suite software (Microsoft Office having gone awol some years ago).

Will cyber warfare be waged within my laptop? Has that been happening all along? Are there hidden viruses embedded somewhere in my laptop?

So to be safe, maybe, I’ll disinfect the laptop and wash my hands.

Oops! The disinfectant and hand gel were made in China.

Donald, don’t inject or ingest Chinese disinfectant. You’ll get slanty eyes. Use an American brand.

So now I’ll stay more than two metres from the laptop using wireless keyboard and mouse.

Oops! They too were made in China. So disinfect them too.

Now I can’t read the screen. I’ll use my binoculars.

Aagh!! They too were made in China.

Why have we allowed ourselves to be so reliant on foreign made goods, and on foreign companies that drain profits and dividends out of our country and economy?

Instead of Microsoft and Apple, can’t we have a home-grown Potato brand of hardware and software (Mashed Potato)?

Can’t we have O’Doherty’s instead of Big Mac/McDonald’s?

Can’t we have Bewley’s instead of Starbucks?

Can’t we have Shannon or Clyde instead of Amazon?

And

‘Who Are We’ instead of ‘Huawei’.

Yes we should trade and cooperate with other countries, if necessary and on our terms, but the post-Covid-post-Brexit economy should be basically self-reliant, and more localised.

Dennis Golden, Strabane

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