Primitive civilisations: A study in English white goods

History claims that the British Empire was the single most dominant power for over a century. A stranglehold over a quarter of the world's population, at that time, and a quarter of the world's land mass. The sun never did set on the Empire. A nation with an impeccable pedigree that defined Imperialism between the 15th and 19th centuries. Or so popular history goes.... Some of us however, believe this to be a conspiracy pepetuated on an unprecented scale. If this was indeed true, there can be no plausible explanation for the presence of archaic white goods strewn across Central London, in the year 2008. I mean, the sheer effrontery! Any civilisation that continues to support the installation of non-frost free fridges, can only be fit for slavery!! Only a nefarious plot of gargantuan proportions can explain why I am on my hands and knees crawling about on my postage stamp size kitchen floor desperately seeking a power source for the damn fridge. Why? Why??! Because it turns out that these grossly inadequate little buggers need to be 'defrosted' every now and again, to live happily ever after. Defrosted? Wasn't that dropped from the vocabulary of all civilised nations more than two decades ago? Isn't the point of a fridge the fact that it frosts? If it wasn't insulting enough to have to put up with a parody of a refrigerator tucked away in relative obscurity among other white goods, one with a quaint old fashioned freezer compartment requiring the engagement of both hands and a foot to operate, I now have to now acquire defrosting skills! Logic (reinforced by impartial opinion) says unplug it and watch the floodwaters from a safe distance... One has, however, to locate a plug in order to unplug. How mortifying is to have to admit to the belated discovery that I seem to have a freezer compartment which seems to be glued shut. Why are no listings in the yellow pages for a 'Defrosting consultant'? Surely they can't imagine that anyone else in the Empire knows a life that's not frost free? Ask any developing country - if you're fortunate enough to have a fridge, it won't need defrosting.
What kind of civilisation, except the most primitive, would permit nay even acknowledge the presence of such outmoded technology on it's soil?!