Tag Archives | government

The Only Video You Need To Watch To Understand The Current Crisis

By Rami on November 19, 2019 in Economy, Government

Back in July when the parliament was discussing the budget for the year 2019, not a lot of people probably focused much on the lawmakers’ speeches since most of them actually criticized it, but we were all amused by what MP Salim Saade had to say about falsifying our deficit in order to get the CEDRE funds “They [CEDRE donors] know that we are lying to them, and we know that they know that we are lying to them!”.

However, his joke was in fact a very small part of a thorough explanation for everything that has led to the economic and financial crisis that we are currently going through. Back in July, that economist had a very clear idea of where Lebanon was heading to, while other MPs and ministers were either not listening or making sarcastic comments instead of asking him to elaborate his claims further, they literally seemed uncocerned and it clearly shows in the below video which I highly recommend you watch. It is 24 minutes long and will explain to your the real reasons for the current state we are in now.

If you are interested in following similar experts who say things as they about our situation, then I recommend you check Nassim Taleb and Dan Azzi on twitter. (The latter regularly publishes interesting articles in Annahar and Al-Akhbar newspapers)

A Government of Publicity Stunts

By Rami on February 20, 2019 in Politics

After a 9 month political deadlock, we finally got a new government that won the vote of confidence in the parliament last week. And with all the challenges ahead of the country, you’d think the new ministers are busy planning a way out of this shit we are in. However all I’ve been noticing lately are nothing but pathetic publicity stunts to make a positive impression, while in fact everything is still steadily deteriorating like the electricity supply for example.

Over the last 20 days, and according to social media which supposedly reflects the people thoughts, here are the major achievements of the new government.

Raya El-Hassan – Ministry of Interior

Just like every previous minister of interior, she started by claiming she will ban all illegal vending kiosks and tents that cause traffic on the highways, in addition to banning illegal motorcycles. Yep, good luck with both decisions in areas like Ouzai! But anyway, fast forward two weeks, everybody will forget about these decisions and everything will be back to “normal again”.

El-Hassan also called for establishing civil marriage in Lebanon (that is partly ruled by religious figures), while she knows very well that implementing it will definitely backfire on her political party and she would never allow that to happen. The move is only an attempt at scoring with civil and secular movements.

Mohammad Choucair – Ministry of Telecommunications

Cellular communication is expensive, and DSL internet is SHIT. So what does he do? He simply promises people an awesome level of service soon, and of course never forgets to mention fiber optics plans in his statements.

Fadi Jreissati – Ministry of Environment

There was a dying plant in the office of the previous minister, so the first thing he did was replacing it with a new one and posting about it on social media. And he also decided to drive to the parliament in an eco-friendly car. Meanwhile, Litani.

Nada Boustani – Ministry of Energy

Shortly after the formation of the government, the electricity supply was reduced due to shortage in fuel. So what does Mrs. Boustani do? She makes it public that working hours at the ministry should be highly respected. Ok.

They’re all against corruption

One thing all ministers are currently agreeing on is to make fighting corruption as one of the main goals of this government. So they all want to stop whoever is robbing the country’s wealth and resources. Because you know, it was the Italian Communist Party that has been ruling our land for the past 40 years.

Anyway, the whole thing makes me wish I was a minister. Making promises is quite easy, and the benefits are pretty cool. Who would object a high salary, cool circle of colleagues, getting worshiped by the people, driving like an asshole in tinted cars, and making TV appearances?! SIGN ME UP PLEASE!!!

Chicken Hatchery Discovered at Electricité Du Liban 🤦🏻‍♂️

By Rami on July 31, 2018 in What the fuck!

Last week was absolutely full of fucked up news. The cyber crime bureau has been randomly calling people in for investigation over opinions expressed on their social media accounts, Beirut Municipality is planning to go forward with deploying a waste incinerator somewhere around Karantine just like 1st world countries do, and political leaders are meanwhile busy ~~sharing the cake~~ fighting over the government seats.

However, one post on Facebook by journalist Rasha Abou Zaki almost overshadowed all other news (to me at least) as she unveiled a chicken hatchery inside the Electrecité Du Liban headquarters!

As Rasha stated, it is unbelievable how none of the responsibles at EDL knew about it or did anything to stop it, and I believe other governmental institutions are certainly not any better.

Given how chaotic things are in the country we used to always hear people comparing it to a farm, and this shows the government is actually living up to that reputation!

The Scary Case of Ziad Itani

By Rami on March 4, 2018 in Social, Telecom, Theater

I’ve been reading the recent articles about Ziad Itani and Colonel Suzan El Hajj and I couldn’t believe how fucked up the story is (given it is really true). The whole thing of course can’t but make you wonder how low can some officials get with their corruption and how easily can they actually get away with it!

All Colonel Hajj had to do to get Itani in prison was to fabricate a case accusing him or collaborating with Israel by claiming that the IP address of one of the people he was messaging on Facebook was traced back to Israel. However, this shows a big flaw in the way the ISF and other related governmental institutions work to pursue suspects.

How does tracing work?

When needed, Facebook and other social network websites disclose accounts records to governments to help them identify their owners in the cases where accounts are used with bad intent (check their terms here). The most important info they can provide is basically the IP address related to the suspect account. Governments can then check with their local ISPs in order to identify the identity of the person behind that IP.

In the case of Itani, articles are claiming he was not communicating with anyone in Israel, on the other hand what Hajj did was simply fabricating a false feedback from Facebook reporting that one of the account he was talking to was traced back to Israel. And this is where basically someone fucked up big time by not checking the authenticity of such information! Account records at Facebook CANNOT be forged, so whoever wan handling the investigation was Itani could have easily confirmed the claim by inquiring Facebook again.

It could happen to anyone

The reason Itani was framed for was purely personal. Colonel Hajj thought he was the reason she was ousted from the cyber crime bureau and it was almost the end for him. This means anyone can end up with a similar fate for criticizing some official or a well connected person. And worst of all, the authorities can convince the masses of any case just like they did with Itani.

The media and Radwan Mortada are to blame

The minute Ziad Itani was arrested the whole investigation with him was being leaked to Al Akhbar newspaper through one of their journalists named Radwan Mortada (here and here). Throughout the whole thing that guy was acting like an official spokesperson to the State Security department, and his articles made him sound like he was actually present during the interrogations.

All other media outlets were eventually picking his stories and this played a big role in actually convincing us Ziad Itani was really collaborating with Israel.

What’s next for Ziad Itani?

I don’t know what’s next for him, those who did a bad job authenticating the evidences should know better. Officials promised he will be released on Monday, but who will compensate him for the months he spent in prison? Who will make it up for his wife and little daughter? Who will restore all the damage done to his reputation? And who will erase all the bad articles about him everywhere on the web which will eventually haunt him forever?

What I’m certain of though is that officials elsewhere would be resigning over such scandal instead of capitalizing on it for political gain in the upcoming elections!

PM Hariri Vows to Make Internet in Lebanon 20 Times Faster

By Rami on December 23, 2016 in Telecom

Speaking at the third edition of the Global Business Summit yesterday, Prime Minister Hariri claimed that one of the priorities he set for his new government is to increase the internet speed in Lebanon by 20-fold.

His promise is a bit vague to be honest and no further explanation was given for us to know what exactly is going to increase 20 times, is it the average internet speed that households are currently gettings (20 x 2Mbps) or is it the overall capacity provided to ISPs in order to enhance our connection quality?

We all know there was a plan by minister Harb in 2015 to overhaul the current infrastructure in order to allow us to benefit from better speeds, but the upgrade was set to be completed in 2020… and knowing that Hariri’s government is supposed to only serve until the next parliament elections in 9 months, I’m not really sure how is he going to fulfill his promise while slow-speed copper wires are still used to connect us to central offices.

Anyway, when it comes to internet, I prefer to remain a bit optimistic because we really need a better connection so bad, not only for personal use but because the infrastructure upgrade will definitely have a positive impact on our economy. And in all cases, no matter what the government plans are, I hope they start by getting rid of Abdel Menhem Youssef first!

Drugs Price List in Lebanon Now Available Online

By Rami on June 11, 2016 in Government, Health

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The Ministry of Public Health released their new website and mobile app a few days ago, and among the new services they now offer is a listing of the available drugs in Lebanon along with their official prices so you can compare them with the prices set by your local pharmacy and know if you’re being overcharged, in addition to the ability to compare a certain drug to its available alternatives having the same formula.

This is definitely a good step forward by the ministry to identify the pharmacies that do not abide by the set prices, and ensure that consumers are getting their medicine at a fair price.

The drugs price list is available both on the ministry’s website and the mobile app for iOS and Android.

Is The Government Indirectly Imposing A New Tax on Gas?

By Rami on March 31, 2016 in Lebanon

gas price

Following the huge decrease in gasoline prices during the last year, there has been a lot of talk about the possibility for he government to fix the price at 22,000L.L per 20 liters or introduce a new tax of 5,000L.L to increase the revenue, but it was claimed a couple of months ago that the cabinet is not going to approve such thing and we all got relieved.

However, it seems like the tax is going to be gradually imposed one way or another. Over the past 3 weeks, the price of gasoline has increased by 1,700L.L even though the price of crude oil decreased from $41.5 to $38.3 over the same period.

What’s also worse is that the media is not reaching out to the ministry of energy to inquire about these increases, but you really can’t blame them when Ahlam and Adel Karam are keeping them busy with their nonsense…!

Lebanon among the countries requesting account information from Twitter

By Rami on February 17, 2014 in Lebanon

According to the latest transparency report published by Twitter, Lebanon is now among the countries that are requesting account information from them, as it has requested information about a few accounts somewhere between July and December 2013.

So if you’re planning to use Twitter to plot some evil plan, you now know the platform isn’t safe anymore!

via Al Hayat

The one Lebanese town that feels like the rest of the world

By Rami on June 13, 2013 in Lebanon

power generator

Believe or not, Kherbet Selem, a small village in south Lebanon, now enjoys 24/7 electricity after it used to suffer from up to 12 hours power cuts!

The municipality there simply bought its own diesel generators that switch on automatically when the power cuts, and the village is now having 24/7 electricity for the first time in history. So basically that’s the only place in Lebanon that feels like the rest of the world!

Meanwhile, our government has been failing to fix the electricity sector in Lebanon for more than 20 years now, and will definitely keep on doing so for at least the next 200 years.

Mobile phone prices in Lebanon increasing already

By Rami on June 1, 2013 in Lebanon

mobile phones

As you all know, and in order to stop mobile phones smuggling in Lebanon, the ministry of telecommunications is now requiring all traders to register the IMEI (a unique ID assigned to each mobile device) of every legally imported mobile phone or tablet.

The collected IMEIs will then be used as of today June 1st to filter the devices that are allowed access to our mobile networks (alfa and touch). So typically speaking, a legally imported mobile phone with its due taxes paid will be allowed to connect to the mobile networks, while other smuggled ones will be denied access since their unique identifiers are not registered at the ministry.

The weakest ring in the process is of course the group of people who will be responsible of the data entry of the registered IMEIs. Since they will be easily able to register and IMEI of some untaxed mobile if there was not much control over them.

As a result, mobile phone prices ended up notably increasing over the last week. For instance, the guy who sold me my mobile was listing the iPhone 16 GB for around $650 since mid-May I guess, then he increased the price 2 days ago to $745. Logically due to the fact that the handsets he’s currently offering were legally imported and subject to some import tax.

Everybody is eventually complaining about all of this, especially that it gets a bit complicated when you buy some used handset from abroad. And I know it’s wrong to complain about a price increase when it’s a result of complying with the government taxation rules, but still, a $100 increase totally sucks!

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