:... I doubt whether the workmen who made this stuff- In Europe and the United States and perhaps nowadays Japan- had any idea of what their products were used for" (Naipaul, 40). "
Earlier in the narrative- as the town is in a state of disarray- Naipaul adopts a kind of irony when writing how these technically advanced cultures were creating products to be used in most primitive ways by the Africans buying them. Mashesh's proposed business scheme involving importing a Japanese appliance to carve wooden ice cream spoons seems indicative of the new shift in the attitude toward trade and western products as the town began to flourish- though he seems to be less interested in selling ice cream as a business venture and more taken with the idea of carving a living out of using these intricately modern, western machines.
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