Monday Moaning: SyriaTel?!

When reaching ineligible areas, you might expect losing your phone's network coverage.
But MTC touch always surprises you with the following text message:

Welcome to Syria. Enjoy roaming with the following 

operators: MTN: Sending SMS 0.5 USD/SMS.
Syriatel: Sending SMS 0.5 USD/SMS.

For assistance, dial             +961 3 800113      . 
mtc touch wishes you a pleasant stay!

I got three embedded moans today:

1. My first moan is obvious!
How the hell SyriaTel antennas cover cities along the border more than our local operators?!
2. If anyone tried calling you, they won't be able to reach you of course.
3. Why do they send you that welcoming message (Sender: MTC Touch, and not SyriaTel) when your phone changes to SyriaTel's network, but they don't welcome you back when transferring to their network again??!!

I'm pretty sure Alfa has the same issue too.

P.S. You might get this message in some eligible areas too! (For example: Dahr El Baydar)

1950s Lebanese Mafioso

A couple of days ago, I was watching Serpico, a 1973 (true story) movie starring Al Pacino.

Unlike other cops, Frank Serpico was a police officer who didn’t accept any kind of bribes. In fact, he was the first one to fight the organized bribe collection.

At some point, a police chief tells him (Frank Serpico) “This could be the biggest thing...since the Harry Gross case.”

And since I love searching for these stuff, I looked online for Harry Gross, and I found two New York Times articles:

•           The lonely death of a man who made a scandal
•           Harry Gross Is Suicide; Bookmaker in '51 Case

Harry Gross was a bookmaker convicted in running multimillion-dollar gambling operations, involving hundreds of corrupted policemen, some of them were convicted, and others resigned or dismissed.

He was also convicted in some drug operations, and beating his wife’s grandfather to death!

Why am I sharing this?

If you read the second article (Harry Gross is suicide; Bookmaker in ’51 Case) you can’t but notice that this historical/hysterical guy had a Lebanese partner called Najib Daoud!

And this is how we roll… since ever!