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Mobile phone prices in Lebanon increasing already
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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Videos and photos from Nejmeh Square today
Protestors gathered at Nejmeh Square today to oppose the extension of parliament’s mandate, but shorty after took things a bit further by throwing tomatoes at the MP’s cars as they were getting out of the area.
One of the protestors, Marwan Maalouf, even tried to set up a tent next to the parliament but was immediately arrested by the Lebanese army.
Below are also some photos taken by Habib Battah.
I wonder which MP was in that Mercedes which apparently took the biggest share of tomatoes!
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Sroud 3a broud
Meanwhile, our parliament was meeting to extend its mandate until November 2014.
Photo via Cheyef 7alak
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Ziad Rahbani in concerts at NDU and Zouk Mikael Festival
Ziad Rahbani will be performing in two concerts next week on June 7th and 8th at Notre Dame University in Zouk Mosbeh, in addition to another concert next month on July 25th at Zouk Mikael International Festival.
For those who are interested, tickets for NDU concert are available at all branches of Malik’s Bookshop, while tickets for Zouk Mikael concert will be available at Virgin Megastore.
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We need a second Adel Shehab
Following the news about the three Lebanese soldiers who were killed in Ersal yesterday morning, a story from 1958 involving the late army commander Adel Shehab started making rounds on Facebook.
Back when General Adel Shehab was in charge, some gangsters killed lieutenant Benoit Barakat while he was on duty in Ersal. So Adel Shehab responded by granting the villagers one hour for them to surrender their guns and hand him the criminals. Three hours later, when the people of Ersal didn’t do anything, the General ordered warplanes to start bombarding the village for several hours until all criminals surrendered themselves.
This isn’t the first time for the people of Ersal to kill soldiers who vowed to protect their village and the whole country, and there’s definitely no guarantee that they won’t do it one more time, so what’s holding General Kahwaji from doing the same as Adel Shehab did in the 1950’s?
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The ugliest side of the clashes in Tripoli
How sick is this?
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Celebrating FC Bayern’s win of the Champions League
One would think the Lebanese national team was actually playing!
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Onno Restaurant – Bourj Hammoud
Back when I posted about Varouj, several people recommended that I go try Onno, another Armenian restaurant in Bourj Hammoud, and I totally regret not doing so until lately as I found it really fantastic!
The restaurant is located right underneath the bridge that connects Achrafieh to Dekweneh facing Life Center, and it is quite small and cozy with a few tables that fit around 20 people I guess. So don’t go there expecting something fancy, as the focus there is the food, which is cooked by the family who owns the place.
We ordered the following: Basterma with quail egg, two pieces of soubereg, cherry kebab, batata harra, mouhammara, soujouk, and two soft drinks.
The portions were pretty generous and tasted quite good as well, I especially loved the cherry kebab and basterma since it was the first time for me to try it with quail eggs. And the best part had to be the bill, which came at 55,000 L.L for everything we ordered,which is less than half what you would pay at other places like Mayrig or Mayas, for much more authentic Armenian food in my opinion.
Needless to say, Onno is totally recommended, and I’m planning to go again soon to try the other stuff they have like manti, quails, and frog legs. Check below what Alain Bourdain had to say about it in his travel and food show No Reservations back in 2011.
Update:
For those who are interested, Onno’s phone number is 03 801 476.
