April 2, 2024
Today at
21:13
Lost in his own country, Rik Van Puymbroeck looks at what surprises and sometimes overwhelms.
BRUSSELS. Almost a hundred years ago, someone in Yokohama founded the Japan Victory Company and now one of the millions of products that left the company lies withering against a Brussels tree. Looks like a CD player. No longer necessary in streaming times and therefore thrown away.
What was once new is one day disposable. Except for the light bulb in the Livermore fire station, of course, which has been burning since 1901. You could recently read that in this newspaper. But beyond that? We still have a beautiful Olivetti Lettera 32 at home. We also still have the Tandy on which we wrote our first pieces in 1991. And even a costume from 1989. But the typewriter is now a set piece, the Tandy no longer works and we no longer fit into the costume.
Everything is ephemeral and no more music will be heard from this JVC device. Why anyone felt it necessary to dump it on a central reservation in Brussels is a mystery.
Blame it on man’s disrespect for the environment. That too, just like the light bulb, seems imperishable.
