My interest in Gold and the US Dollar grew in the past couple of weeks, as a person who is not that much into the financial world I didn’t care much when a friend started talking about the gold rise and how the dollar will become worthless soon. Well as much as that seemed a bit over the top and a very very far fetched thought yet the whole scenario intrigued me and I started reading more and educating myself about how things are playing out in the markets worldwide.
Between the truth and lies and the conspiracy theorists and the opportunists I had a huge struggle in really fully understanding how is this thing working, but the big picture got clearer day after day.
The Gold reached record highs in the past 9 days, and every day you would read the same kind of headline “Gold reaches a record high”. Every Day!! Yesterday it reached $1195 USD, but then news broke from Dubai stating that Dubai requested debt ‘standstill’, that lead to fears in the worldwide markets, this caused a sell-off in commodities and stocks, while the U.S. dollar gained against its rivals.
The Gold dropped to a $1130 USD an ounce after reaching $1195 USD, as of the time of writing this post the gold is at $1176 USD. So this seems to be just a temporary drop that wont last long.
Did Max Keiser predict this back in February 2009 ?
After being bombarded with FOREX ads all over the internet, it seems you cant dodge those ads anywhere you go even if you have any kind of Ad Block, I finally caved and decided to try this FOREX thing using virtual money (Practice Account).
One of the easiest and friendliest user interfaces seemed to be ETORO, having both novice and advanced modes. So long story short I tried it for few hours and gave it a long thought and I decided that its an interesting thing to learn more about before jumping on with real cash. Yet I later caved again and wanted to deposit some money but not to go crazy and try to take it slow.
The next day I get a phone call from ETORO middle east customer support, and I was amazed that he spoke Arabic, although talking about FOREX in Arabic was awkward but I had a long chat with him, and he kept going on and on how etoro is the best invention on the net (ya right), I didn’t mind it as I was eager to know more although I knew he just wants to make a sale.
Everything was fine until I asked him a question about money transfers via credit cards and PayPal and if they support it and so on, the second I mentioned PayPal he went crazy, and asked me what’s my nationality I told him “I am Jordanian”, so he went mad again and started insulting all Jordanians!!! that we are cheap and etoro is not for “my” kind of people!! So I taught him a lesson on how to treat future customers and ended the call.
Just minutes before his call I was thinking seriously to deposit $500 dollars to try it out, and also to try the “Islamic” accounts, but after that unprofessional rude unacceptable treatment how can I do so?? Few days later I am chatting with a friend and FOREX came up and he told me nearly the same thing happened to him too!!
What is wrong with these people? Are they expecting FOREX professionals to talk to them? or are they expecting new users to deposit thousands of dollars from the first try? Their whole pitch is that they are user friendly and that their system is “EASY” for beginners?! Actually their minimum deposit is $50 US Dollars. Although I think etoro is an attractive and simple system yet they really need to seriously filter their customer support employees for the middle east and employ those who are pro and who knows how to effectively and respectfully communicate with their customers.
I can see the MBC network executives pulling their hair now, but no one can blame MBC, no one could have predicted this kind of chaos. Fight after fight year after year and it never ends, an actor/actress is leaving or being removed, some even being offered big bucks to move to other series !!! The fighting even reached between fans who are now in two or more teams, those who blame the director who is controlling everything now as a producer and those who accuse the actors to be troublemakers for asking more money, Yes this is the level it reached to?!
Bab El 7ara is the series that was reminding us of the beautiful old simpler times, pressing on going back to traditional values, good manners and bravery in a society that is so polluted in our current days. How can I believe the actors in their roles any more now after seeing all what is happening in behind the scenes??
Yet MBC will still be profiting hugely from “Bab Al Hara 4” this year and the 5th season next year. I believe even if MBC just show a black screen with the words “Bab El 7ara” written in Arabic on it will be enough to catch millions of gazing glued eyes.
The first two parts of “Bab El 7ara” were too good that anything coming after that would find a gigantic audience, we all know if “Bab El 7ara 3” was shown first no one would care to follow it. It is being speculated that this season is well written and will avoid amateur mistakes that happened in the third season. I guess we can only wait and see.
And here is the “Making of” segment in the MBC Morning Show:
Again the man who wants offer the truth to the people is fought in every way possible. Leaving Dubai TV after an amazing 4 year run, where as he says he was never censored, which in my opinion is a very brave thing from Dubai TV. But then he had to leave, and after months of speculation we see him announcing on DREAM TV in the talk show “Al3ashera Masa’an” with Mona Elshazly that he is heading to London to continue producing “Qalam Rasas” for Al-Libiyah channel.
No one was enthusiastic about Al-Libiyah, yet the people wanted to listen to Hamdi Qandeel in any possible way, even if it was audio files being downloaded via the internet. But the show did start on Al-Libiyah and although there was always technical problems with the sound and color, but people watched, a huge number of audience the new born channel would never ever have dreamed of.
But problems keep following Hamdi, for unusual reasons the General Manager of Al-Libiyah channel was jailed for couple of days for reasons related to Hezbollah (don’t ask me am as clueless as you are), and since that day “Qalam Rasas” never aired. Only five episodes were aired since the comeback in March. We later knew that Al-Libiyah channel which was a private channel, was nationalized by the president of Libya Muammar Al-Qathafi.
And here the same Mona Elshazly announcing this on her show “Al3ashera Masa’an” “10 O’clock”:
Now I have been hearing that a deal is in the making between him and Al-Manar channel, funny enough, that is the TV channel of Hezbollah. Will the deal work out? Will it get cancelled few weeks later? Who knows? we shall wait and watch.
Here is the last episode of Qalam Rasas on Al-Libiyah for those who missed it:
On my clock it was 2:49 AM when I felt the tremors in my room, I was reading my favorite blogs and I felt the bed shaking and then I looked at the mirrors in front of me and they were shaking, although these kind of tremors became more normal during the past few years, yet I still do freak out and panic whenever they happen because I keep wondering if this could be the BIG one.
As usual I quickly went to the USGS website to check what happened but it was still not reported, then I checked twitter where I found couple of people asking the same question I had, DID YOU FEEL IT?
During the past four years and while watching each and every episode of Qalam Rasas I always had a feeling it will get canceled the next day. Mr. Hamdi Qandeel was very brave and sometimes I believe he was too brave, he would amazingly mirror the thoughts of millions of Arabs every week, and call things as he see it.
I think the best TV show on Dubai TV since many years and for years to come is Qalam Rasas, this show was the only thing that made people forgive the shortcomings of the Arabic media, it was a great example of free speech, whenever the Arab media would get attacked for being censored to the max, Qalam Rasas was the show that gave hope to the people that having a show that reflects their views is possible even while the governments are busy creating new rules to further cripple the media.
Lets all get ready to watch Star Academy, The manager, X Factor, Super Star, Mission Fashion, Hizi Ya Nawaem, Taratata. Those shows will never get canceled whatever happens in them, as long as it makes us occupied and our time well wasted. Or maybe we can watch some Turkish drama series, Nour and Sanawat Al Daya’a were not enough apparently now each and every Arab TV station is showing a new Turkish series, tears guaranteed. And if all that does not give you the satisfaction you are longing for, there is always Rotana and Melody and Mazzika channels.
With all this high quality clean intelligent content on our TV stations who needs Qalam Rasas? We do not need to be reminded, we do not need to get informed, we have to stay in a coma.
Hamdi Qandeel always felt that this day might come, In April 2007 he mentioned that he might resign soon, but back then we assumed this was just part of his script and that he is just joking. I realized that since that moment when he talked about resigning his episodes became even more brave and outspoken and he was not afraid at all to name names, its as if he was taking full advantage of the time he has on air.
All what I can say is I wish Mr. Hamdi Qandeel good luck in his next project and that I wish he does not resign and I wish to watch him on another channel, a TV channel which would give him the space he deserves. Friday nights just wont be the same anymore.
At first I would like to thank all those who emailed and asked what’s wrong, and why ibrahimo.com lately is not as usual. Well I had couple of issues before and during the holy month of Ramadan, and then after Ramadan by around ten days my Toshiba Qosmio G30 stopped working properly, the screen would melt (as seen in the image) just after few minutes from booting. Later I find out it was the Nvidia video card which is embedded on the motherboard. After calling Toshiba (Al-Futaim) here in Dubai I gave them my notebook’s model number and an explanation on what was happening, and they quickly and over phone told me what was the problem, they told me they needed around a week to order the card from Germany!!
That was not the funny part though, I could not stop laughing when I was told that if I had warranty for one year it would be expired by now and I will need to pay something between 3500 to 4500 thousand dirhams!!!!! The notebook itself cost me something like 6500 thousand dirhams. So later I found that I was covered til 2010 and the repair will be done for free.
I was not posting on the blog as normal during the past 3 months, this blog is still considered semi-personal, I will post my views and opinions on Technology, Sports, Politics and TV. New improvements will be implemented soon. So stay tuned…
I became suicidal today, yes, this was the worst 2 hours dealing with customer support in my life. I call customer support of many companies, there are great ones and there are bad ones, DU is simply THE WORST.
Two Hours and I still did not get any info. Yes, I repeat I have spent two full hours and I still did not deal with my issue, I did not get any info, at all. The thing started when I got the "DU Call Select" device, I think they call it "Autodialer", am not sure. The phone number which was printed on the device and in the manual was 800155, so, silly me, I called the number and chose the Arabic language, after that I waited and waited and waited and…. you guessed it WAITED. I tried my luck in the English language hoping some human might answer and I waited and waited and oh! I suddenly heard a voice, could it be a human voice I said hello and the employee said hello… YESSSS!! At Laaaaaaast….
My dream came true and I reached someone and when I asked the first question he said "please wait" and the same obnoxious music started playing AGAIN, he didn’t even wait for me to say a word. I was thrown from one employee to another, don’t forget that until this moment I still did not ask any important questions this was only me starting a conversation. Anyway, eventually I reached another employee who was shocked why I am stressed and shouting, I told him why I was pissed and he said "oooh! you called the wrong number, you should have called 04-3905555" those are the ones who deal with landlines, but I made it perfectly clear I did not want help in "DU Land Lines" I want help in "Du Call Select" which has a device that when connected to regular (ETISALAT) landline you can call in DU’s rates.
He totally ignored my point and told me he is 100% sure that calling 04-3905555 will end my problems. So I called the number and after chatting for couple of minutes the lady tells me that they are not the ones who deal with this service and they deal only with DU Landlines and broadband and TV!!! So… She gives me another number, I call them praying that they can actually help or even answer my first question, but when I call them the guy says "Oh, I guess you made a mistake…", so I tell him "Don’t tell me that this is the wrong number, please do not give me another number", he laughs and say "well if you want help you should have called the number printed on the device, 800155"!!!!. I hangup, and laugh hysterically, non-stop tears run out of my eyes and I keep on laughing for around 15 minutes until I get myself under control and decide that this should be shared with my blog visitors & subscribers.
I think it is really a big big SHAME that a company such as DU has this low quality customer support, I believe that 800155 should be able to help current or potential customers in any matter ever, I like Etisalats new approach where calling 101 will lead you to each and every aspect and departments of the company. I am not saying that Etisalat customer support is fantastic but for sure they are million times better than DU. I also think that with DU not having such a great mobile service as everybody actually keeps complaining on the weakness of the network and mainly how crappy the reception is, I would have thought that they would be having a better customer service . Thank God that I do not have a DU card, my father and brother got it and they keep on having nervous breakdowns at least once a week.
Note: Please share any of your positive or negative customer support experiences with any company, especially Du or Etisalat.
I thought, like others, that Bab El 7ara Part 3 or Season 3 like some likes to call it, is the last one and the door will get closed. But those behind the series finds a great opportunity especially that the viewership of the third season did not decline, so now they have decided to produce two new seasons to be aired in 2009 and 2010. What does the director Bassam Al Mulla wants exactly, he wants us to see the grand grand sons of the series characters?
Bab El 7ara is getting more than it deserves, those who used to say that they wont watch the 3rd part because of 3abbas El Noori are actually watching, they want to know what happens to the other characters. If this goes on we could end up seeing Bab El7ara 6 and 7 and 8 and 9 and 10, Until we reach to the current time. How long will they stretch this, I don’t blame them they found the chicken which will lay golden eggs.
Tremors were felt at around 3:00pm Dubai local time, at first I thought it was only me but I confirmed it with family and friends. It lasted few seconds, but sure felt as minutes. The source is a 6.1 magnitude earthquake in Bandar Abbas in Iran. In Dubai tremors were felt most heavely in tall towers.
After being bombarded with FOREX ads all over the internet, it seems you cant dodge those ads anywhere you go even if you have any kind of Ad Block, I finally caved and decided to try this FOREX thing using virtual money (Practice Account).
Again the man who wants offer the truth to the people is fought in every way possible. Leaving Dubai TV after an amazing 4 year run, where as he says he was never censored, which in my opinion is a very brave thing from Dubai TV. But then he had to leave, and after months of speculation we see him announcing on DREAM TV in the talk show “Al3ashera Masa’an” with Mona Elshazly that he is heading to London to continue producing “Qalam Rasas” for Al-Libiyah channel.
Two Hours and I still did not get any info. Yes, I repeat I have spent two full hours and I still did not deal with my issue, I did not get any info, at all. The thing started when I got the "DU Call Select" device, I think they call it "Autodialer", am not sure. The phone number which was printed on the device and in the manual was 800155, so, silly me, I called the number and chose the Arabic language, after that I waited and waited and waited and…. you guessed it WAITED. I tried my luck in the English language hoping some human might answer and I waited and waited and oh! I suddenly heard a voice, could it be a human voice I said hello and the employee said hello… YESSSS!! At Laaaaaaast…. 
Tremors were felt at around 3:00pm Dubai local time, at first I thought it was only me but I confirmed it with family and friends. It lasted few seconds, but sure felt as minutes. The source is a 6.1 magnitude earthquake in Bandar Abbas in Iran. In Dubai tremors were felt most heavely in tall towers.
