The case against being taken for granted by Jordanian establishments (Third installment): LG dealer "New Vision"

In this iteration of the CABTG series, i will share my recent experience with LG electronics' new distributor in Jordan; New Vision.

As any bonafide consumer would do; i answered the sudden impulse urging me to get up and buy me a new screen instead of my perfectly usable old one. and so i did on a Monday, i bought a 55 inch'er from said established, bundled with a 3D blue ray player & set of unusable 3D glasses.

I was promised a 72 hour delivery time frame, taking us all the way to Saturday; which i was Okay with, yet the showroom staff refused to take my address or give me expected time of delivery; stressing that the delivery team would contact me on the day of delivery. I must've been in a jolly good mood after answering my capitalistic tendencies; i budged in.

Saturday late Afternoon; i missed a call from a number that later turned out to be the delivery team; i returned the call an hour later, he informed me that he wouldn't be able to deliver today because i live far away and that i'll have to wait until tomorrow. Knowing that he wasn't speaking on any authority i called the showroom and informed him that if I don't receive my set tonight i will come to the showroom and cancel the purchase, i was promised a call back which didn't happen.

Naturally, i went to the showroom and demanded a refund for the undelivered goods; the showroom manager; a typical salesman, pleaded with me not to cancel the purchase; and made personal promises that my goods will be delivered the next day; first thing in the morning, again it seems i was still enjoying a mellow kick from the deceitful rewarding feeling of making a purchase, and budged in.

On Sunday morning, not exceeding my expectations, the delivery didn't happen by the time i was promised, and again; went to the showroom but this time i was angry; the first time around i would've taken my money and left probably willing to come back for another purchase; this time i was pissed off, even the nice showroom manager didn't attempt to talk me out of it!

The manager informed that since i partially paid for the goods by VISA, he was unable to refund and thus I had to go to the company's HQ down the road and talk to the finance manager, my instinct was this is wrong; but i accepted and made my way to the HQ.

It is rather interesting for me to observe how i was suddenly turned from being a customer to a visitor in an office building not ready to receive customers; i felt i was falling between the cracks of their business process; or lack there of.

The finance manager asked me why i want the refund, and i was explicitly clear that it was because the failure to deliver the goods on time TWICE; he dismissed it by saying that one day worth of delay isn't considered a delay; he took the liberty of assuming how valuable my time was.

I reiterated that i'm not in a business negotiations and that i demand a refund, and the only reason i am here is because i was instructed to come here by the showroom and all i need now is a committed date to receive my refund by.

He called in a colleague of his; asking her about what she knew of my "case", she repeated to a degree of accuracy the events that led to me requesting a refund, he asked her if I had any other motives; in fact he asked her if i had any ulterior motive for "creating this problem"?

I interjected declaring that LG & New Vision already consumed allot of my time and again demanded a clear date for getting my refund which he refused saying that his company will end up having to incur the 3% Visa surcharge if they process the refund and negotiated with me that if I accept deducting it he will process my refund -for the undelivered goods- promptly! Refusing to negotiate my basic right; I barged out of his office feeling utterly insulted and reaching out to my phone to call my lawyer.

The nice lady who was summoned by the finance manager followed me to the staircase; and asked me to calm down and apologized repeatedly pleading at one point that "he's just a finance manager; and this is how finance managers are like"!

I explained to her that I'm not even suppose to be in the company's HQ for what otherwise should be a simple customer-care case solvable from the showroom, and that this tactless person was disrespectful by not acknowledging their company's failure to deliver; assuming my time is of no value AND negotiating the amount of my refund!

I left confidently without agreement on refunding or delivering the goods because I knew i can afford the cost and time to get my money through the long legal process; and because i have direct contacts wit LG's regional office (LG Levant) in case Jameed hits the fan; but i imagined if I was just a normal hard working customer who neither can afford the time or cost of this; I would've been left with one of the following options:

Accept being taken for granted, putting up with late deliveries and failed commitments, and wait until the delivery is made OR Negotiate with the finance manager on the 3% Visa charge and get whatever I manage from this company the sooner the better!

An hour later, i received a call from a very nice and tactful person; who identified himself as the company's operations and maintenance manager; and said he was informed of my case and pleaded on personal grounds (again) to accept his sincere apology and allow him to send a team to deliver and install the purchased goods within an hour.

Realizing that though i can afford not to budge in, i opted to do just that; i have far too many things on my mind; i can do without another, and i also feel bad about engaging the legal system over such pity cases..

The nice guy called once again to double check that everything was alright; sending with the delivery few extra goodies to make it up for me; but being the person I am; the story couldn't end just like that.

At night, i sent an email to my senior contact at LG Levant office; explaining all the above; and how the whole experience was bitter and that it highlighted a failure in the business process and demanded an apology from the finance manager or his superior along with a straight forward summary -that you will find below-

promisingly i received a prompt answer from him; and promised an answer from the appropriate person within New Vision within 24 hours, which i did; and it was again the nice lady i encountered earlier; who sent an apologetic email that completely overlooked the fact that her company failed to deliver on time TWICE; and that i was insulted (negotiated with & almost interrogated) by their finance manager, simply citing "an error by their logistics partner" and that they "in good well" delivered and installed the set the same day of my escalation!

And that was the last time i heard from either of them, it is fair to assume that LG Levant considered the case closed; the goods were delivered AND I received "a response" from their distributor, why would i possibly feel bitter or pissed off; right, right? I'll tell you why LG Levant & New Vision:

• Assuming that 72 hours is an acceptable delivery time frame, they failed to deliver by then, not once but twice! Why should i trust their warranty and after sales promises thereafter?
• Refusing to take down my address and giving an approximate time of delivery is a common mistake among retailers; because delivery becomes subject to a phone call with the delivery team which is a recipe for misunderstandings and unmonitored customer experience.
• There was no clear refund policy or process, at least in my case of a failed delivery of goods, i found myself having to hustle with HQ for what is otherwise a very obvious and straightforward thing to happen.
• And even when i fell between the cracks of their system (or the void of its non existence) I wasn't treated as a customer; but more like a supplier or a visitor dealing with employees who are not ready or trained to handle paying customers!
• As for negotiating the 3% VISA surcharge! Come'on.. it's utterly ridiculous!
• It is nice to have tactful and nice employees, but to have the system depend on them being nice to cover up for business failures, to the extent where they have to plea on personal basis to cover up; that's pathetic.
• And finally unable to issue a proper & straightforward apology by the offending employee or his superior is a catastrophic failure.

I tried to be as objective as possible, i layout the story not only to exert pressure on both LG and its new dealer in town to look into how I ended up with such bad experience, but also because i believe with more aware consumers; the bar on customer service will be up'ed in our locality.

أضعت هويتي

نشرت هذه التدوينة على حبر، شكرا لفريق حبر لتنقيح وتصويب الأخطاء الإملائية واللغوية:

أضعت هوية الأحوال المدنية الخاصة بي قبل عيد الفطر المبارك. هي أصلا متهالكة وفيها صورة أكاد أنا نفسي لا اتعرف على الشخص الذي فيها (شكلا ومضمونا). لم أكن أعرف أن هذا الحادث العرضي سيكون له تبعات تفضي الى أن أتنفس الصعداء حين أستلم هويتي الجديدة بقدر لا بأس به من الراحة التي يشوبها كبر من نوع ما…

قصتي تبدأ كأي مواطن سمع عن ما يعرف “بسحب الجنسيات” وبغض النظر عن أصل الشخص وفصله، وإن كان يحمل بطاقة جسور خضراء أوصفراء أو كان أجداده هاجروا الى البلاد قبل الحرب أو بعدها أو ممن كانوا أصلا قابعين على هذه الأرض الطيبة أو رحلوا من جبال القوقاز أو هاجروا من كردستان وفارس الشام … فأي مواطن يشعر بقدر من المسؤولية وأنه كغيره ممن يشاطروه هذا الوطن، مواطن له ماله وعليه ما عليه؛ سيشعر بريبة من هذا الموضوع.

فيبدأ هذا المواطن الذي كان مطمئن بحتمية استمرارية “مواطنته” وأنها من الثوابت التي من المفترض أن يبني عليها هويته وانتمائته، يبدأ بتقصي الحقائق والتأكد إذا كان هو من ينطبق عليه هذا الكابوس أم لا.

هنا تبدأ القصة بأخذ طرائق شتى! فالكثير سيطمئن أن الموضوع لا ينطبق على من يكون من هذا الأصل أو ذاك، فتنتهي الريبة بقطع الشك بيقين الانتماء القبلي بأنه ليس من تلك الفئة “على الإطلاق” ويمضي كما كان!

وهنالك من يفاجأ بأنه من تلك الفئة المنكوبة في اليوم الذي يذهب به لاجراء أي معاملة في دائرة الأحوال –على سبيل المثال لا الحصر. قد أتطرق إلى هذا لاحقا ولكن وبالتأكيد أن حياة هؤلاء الأشخاص ستتغير جذريا من بعدها.

والبعض قد يتجاوز ما يتناقله الناس من قصص واقعية يشوبها المبالغة الطبيعية في مجتمع مثل مجتمعنا والتي قد يتحمس البعض فينسج – أو ينقل ما نُسج من – نظريات مؤامرة ومخطاطات باطنية سوداوية لاستئصال فئة على حساب أخرى. فيمضي البعض للاستماع للرواية الرسمية والتي ترى في ما يتناقله الأفراد والإعلام -على حد سواء- تضخيم غير مبرر لاجراء قانوني لا ينطوي على أي أبعاد سياسية أو أهداف داخلية مخفية، فهو تصويب لأوضاع بعض “المواطنين” حسب تعليمات فك الارتباط بين الأردن والضفة والذي اتخذ قبل عقود.

بلا شك أنه إذا تجاوز المرء التجريد الذي يحتويه هذا الطرح وأن تلك الاجراءات وبغض النظر عن سلامتها القانونية؛ تمس حياة أقوام من الناس قلّوا أو كثروا، ليسوا مجرد أرقام وطنية واحصاءات، بل هم بأسماء وألقاب وهويات وانتماءات جزء كبير منهم لا يعرف غير هذا الوطن، ويبنون آمالهم وأحلامهم على بديهية أن هذا بلدهم!

وها أنا، أقف حائرا من أمري، فقد سمعت القصص الواقعية، والروايات الرسمية المعززة بالوقائع والأرقام (وفعلا هنالك مبالغة من قبل الناس والإعلام)، ولكن جواز سفري صالح لأعوام قادمة وهوية الأحوال كذلك، فحتى وإن كنت من تلك الفئة (وها أنا الآن قد اطمأنيت أني لست منهم) فأغلقت هذا الهاجس من باب تأجيل “الهم” وعدم السؤال عنه حتى حين!

لكن ضاعت الهوية (هوية الأحوال) وأصبحت مضطرا أن أواجه هذا البعبع الذي كنت قد أدخلته في مستودع التأجيل، وأخذت أستأقصي المعلومات عن أصلي وفصلي، وأسأل ان كان أحد من أفراد عائلتي قد تعرض لأي شيء أو طٌلب منه أن يراجع المتابعة والتفتيش (حيث تبدأ النهاية). بعض كبار العائلة أكدوا لي”إحنا مش منهم… احنا هاجرنا في ال48 ولا نحمل لا كرت أصفر ولا أخضر ولا أحمر كمان…”

شحذت قواي، وبعد أسابيع من التأجيل وإيجاد الوقت لهذا العملية التي لا تأخذ أكثر من ساعة، وصلت لفرع الأحوال المدنية التي أتبع لها وعبأت النموذج عند كشك الخدمات وبدأت الأمور (في مخيلتي طبعا) تتباطأ بشكل سريالي وأنا متنبّه لكل ما يدور من حولي….

صاحب كشك الخدمات على الهاتف يتحدث مع “وسيط” قائلا: “عندي ابن عمي بجدد هويته وحولوه على المتابعة والتفتيش… بس هوعمره ما راح ولا اجا، شو العمل؟”… بداية غير مطمئنة.

قدمت الطلب وموظف الأحوال يدخل رقمي على الحاسب، يقرأ المعلومات التي على الشاشة، وأنا أحاول استقراء تعبيرات وجهه أو بالأحرى أترقب الوهج الأحمر يخرج من الشاشة معلنا أنني “منهم”… فقط قام الموظف بالتأشير على المعاملة بما أتيح له من قلم حبر… على حظي كان لونه أحمر… ليش أحمر؟ لِما كل هذه “المشروحات” على معاملة اخراج هوية بدل فاقد؟

“استريح على المقاعد يا باسم وأنا بناديك”!

أستريح على المقاعد؟ طب دفع الرسوم؟ طب وافق على الطلب؟ أنا أكره الانتظار… سأغرق في التفكير بالاحتمالات… هل سأخرج من هنا بلا هوية؟ لا البطاقة البلاستيكية والرقم والطني، بل هويتي التي قوامها أني انتمي للأردن، مملكة وشعبا ووطنا.. هل هذه نهاية القصة؟ الحمدالله أن الانتظار لم يطل ونودي على إسمي… ودفعت الرسوم وأخذت الوصل، وطلب مني الانتظار نصف ساعة. لكن أنا شكاك… هذا لا يعني أني “نفدت” يجب ان ألمس “هويتي” لأطمئن.

مضت النصف ساعة وسمعت إسمي من خلف الزجاج. أمسكتها وأنا “أتنفس الصعداء بقدر لا بأس من الراحة التي يشوبها كبر من نوع ما”!

طب ماذا عن الأخ الحيران تحت الذي عليه أن يذهب للمتابعة والتفتيش؟ اختلطت المشاعر عندي، تحول شعور الراحة الى نوع من الخجل والكبر اللحظي الى خزي…

أنتهت قصتي التي بالأصل مجرد شخص أضاع “وثيقة” اثبات هوية واستخرج واحدة عوضا عنها. لكن قصة بعضنا (ولو كانو قلة) لم تنتهي، قد يرى البعض أني أضفت بعد درامي لا يغير من الحقائق شيئا، وأنا اعترف بذلك، لا لشيء فقط لأني فعلا أشعر أن هذا الموضوع له تبعات خطيرة على لمفهوم الهوية والانتماء والمواطنة والجنسية والوطنية والمبادئ والثوابت التي على الفرد أن يعرفها ويحس بها ليكون مواطن.

فإذا الثوابت كانت عرضة للتغيير لبعض منا، فما يمنع بعضنا الآخر من أن يترقب توسع الدائرة في مرحلة لاحقة أو في حال تغير الظروف والأحوال؟

في “الغرب” اطمئن الفرد إلى حقه بالمواطنة وازيح عنه هم تقلّب الأحوال فوفّر له التأمين الصحي والمسكن والمصروف في حال احتاج الى ذلك، فاصبح مواطن صالح منتج… لا بل مبدع!

كنت أعتقد أن المشكلة في بلادنا أن الشعب مهموم بقوته ومعيشته –ومطّهد في بعض الأحيان- فبالكاد يقدر على إحسان مواطنته أو انتاجيته فيصبح الحديث عن الابداع والاتقان ضرب من الترف الفكري … فما حال هذا الشعب إذا اثقل عليه هم هويته؟

أنا لم افكر يوما بالهجرة مع أنها متاحة لي، فانتمائي هو لهذا الوطن وإيماني أن اعماره واجب شرعي وجزء لا يتجزأ من امتدادي والانساني والأممي. أجد نفسي بحاجة على الأقل للتفكير”بخطة بديلة” والتي للأسف تعني “هوية احتياطية”… وهو مفهوم لا اتقبله ولا يتوافق مع حتمية انتمائي ومصيرية ارتباطي بالأردن الذي هو وطني أولا وأخيرا…

I was there when it started, and...

7 Years ago, I was a fresh engineering grad, one of my uncles was an investor in what was then the hottest talk-of-town new telecom venture; everything was hyped, from the uninspiring typical name it was given, the choice of technology it ran, to the "miracle" financing it secured and the tasteless celebrity who -dis- graced the launch party, the story of XPress telecom got far deeper concatenation with me beyond my family affiliation and employment in it and here are some excerpts.

It's worth noting that today; the company will be formally shutting down its regular service; shrinking back from its kingdome wide coverage to Amman & Aqaba and limiting its offering to its unique Push-to-talk (Walkie-talkie) service until further notice, but we'll come back to that later...

The uniqueness of my story stems from the various perspectives, exposures & involvements i had; i was a launch employee (launch ad here); my family was the major investor in it; my cousin (whom i look highly too) was its chief for the most part of its heydays and later I became a minority shareholder and found myself returning as a consultant helping in minding the shop; keeping the ship intact until a salvage was attained.

I'm not sure how articulate I can be in giving my account; but one thing i know for a fact that very few can appreciate the intimacy many of XPress employees had (and some still) years after they left the company; where they invested years of effort, dedication & hard work to make it a success story. Each of us have powerful memories, hopes & aspirations that was one way or another nurtured in XPress. In a sense, its far greater in magnitude than the loss of the shareholders investments & assets.

I for one was a field engineer at the time, relentlessly executing my duties (and overlapping with the duties of others to their discontent), the network which stood once at 160 sites (tower) strong; i knew them by heart beyond technical numbering and parameters; they had names, neighbors, they had stories & for the most part; I left a little of me in each and every bolt, knob, wire & equipment I was part of.

I vividly recall the ecstatic build-up towards the launch, the custom made handset gifted to his majesty, the very first call we made 4am in the morning; I have it captured on video; sneaking my name into a BS press release, last minute provision of coverage in Aqaba during the official launch ceremony after 36 hours of straight work; memories rushing at the rate 12 gigabytes a minute as i type... so you can imagine why things seems surreal today; as i use the network knowing that the last call might not be too far!

Its rather hard for everyone to appreciate or empathize with the sort of feelings that's going through me now, barely I am able to comprehend it, but no doubt its a mix; if not totally charged & volatile.

Years later and until few months back, i became the person I am; doing telecom consultancies and what have you; I looked back at the deteriorating situation of XPress and couldn't stand it; it took a triggering point and a help of a trustful friend to bold-up and approach the board of the company to help in whatever way possible to have a turnaround or at least allowing it to die gracefully like it started with dignity.

4 months i spent in this part-time assignment, I was in a unique position to retroactively witness how it came to this; stood over the ruins of a glorified past; a pile of dozens unused fleet cars; a pale headquarters that stood witness to the company's predicaments and a network (my true love affair) in dire situation were unthinkable sacrifices were made to keep the whole thing going... surviving one day at time!

Today; I find myself taking an active part in putting this child to a quasi rest; mostly in a graceful order but not without unnecessary bad-PR splashes; but it was far better than the inevitable nosedive crash that was around the corner, at least this is how i justify things reassuring myself...

It's not the end of the XPress story as yet; it may live to chirp off another day, until then it'll step aside into the shadows and hope for the best.

P.S: I post this as a "time capsule" for me; not the usual bulletproofed blog-worthy reading material, i post it unedited and in its original flow

The case against being taken for granted by Jordanian establishments (First Installment): Tahboub Kitchens

My frustration with the way Jordanian companies and services providers take their customers for granted and generally sport a laid-back attitudes was dramatized with a recent skirmish I had with the said establishment.

I have taken it upon myself to write (and speak) about every similar occasion with explicit reference to the establishment’s name, despite having almost deserted my blog, but the power of search engines and aggregation of knowledge and sharing experiences is huge, take me for instance:

Before I went to Tahboub (Tahboob, مطابخ طهبوب) Kitchens, I typed their name into Google, and I came across fellow blogger Roba’s incident with the said company and what she considered as (and I’m paraphrasing here) “the curse of half-completed jobs”.

But it is Tahboub Kitchens after all, this might’ve been an isolated mistake; they are arguably the most reputable Kitchen Company in town, my late father opted for them when he built his house 7 years ago, why shouldn’t I?

So I get my wife to liaison with them for the design, material and what have you. Once all is set, contract signing and payment time comes, I find out that I had to make 50% down payment (which is fine by me) and 50% balance payment 10 days BEFORE delivery of goods and installations? So that’s effectively 100% down payment before you even receive your goods OR have them installed!

I suggested paying them 95% down payment in cash, and keep a 5% retainer paid once full delivery and installation is completed satisfactorily!

They refused arguing that it’s the industry’s (the kitchen companies in Jordan that is) policy to get full payment before delivery and installation!!! I retirated that this is totally unfair, a contract by default is signed to protect both parties' best interest and stipulate due-diligences equally.

In this arrangement however, Tahboub Kitchens secure their payments, leaving me with nothing but “good-faith” to get my goods delivered and have them installed ON-TIME and with the quality expected.

So I patiently negotiated back, that I would pay 100% down payment when signing the contract if they agree to add a penalty clause for every day of delay or every item not meeting the quality standard of installation!

Unsurprisingly, they declined to modify the contract, because “all Kitchen companies do this”… and because they are Tahboub Kitchens; “nothing will go wrong” they assured me… I read this as "You're no special, nod your head with approval and lets get done with it"

Is it only my grumpy nature or is it a valid argument that if Tahboub Kitchens are so damn sure of their delivery times and installation quality; why not treat me fairly and make me a happy customer by commiting to this contractually in a win-win setup!

The whole discourse was exhausting throughout the two months of negotiations for a simple 6,000 JDs kitchen(ete). Negligible in their books perhaps, but I was left with an impression of yet another company full-of-itself, dazzeled by its legacy or perception of good reputation that is not matched with fairness nor sincerity.

It is unfortunate really, people just nod their heads and accept when BS & irrelevent remarks are made, such as “all kitchen companies do this” or “Corrian facades are very expensive; once cut they can’t be used again”… the “industry” have every right to protect its interest, and enforce best practices to maintain a level of quality among themselves, but by the underlying factor is to be fair and not treat their customers as old mules.

At the end, I did not accept the contract because I refuse to be taken for granted, or be forced to an unfair deal that protects the best interest of one party on the expense of the other.

But I will not stand still either, in the meantime; I’m working with this freelance carpenter from Bayadir, who’s willing to make the kitchen for a fraction of the cost, and (inevitably) fraction of the quality, but at least the deal is FAIR and I don’t have to pay a premium for what possibly might turn out to be a nightmare like our fellow blogger had!

As a closing note, and in the spirit of constructive criticism, two piasters worth of advice to Tahboub Kitchens owners and management from my humble self:

• Yes Tahboub Kitchens are reputable, but reputation can’t be rubbed upon a customer’s face every time the customer highlights a concern or faces an issue!
• If a prospective customer highlights an actual story about how Tahboub Kitchens failed another customer (click here), try not to deny the facts or blame the glass sub-contractor, as mistakes do happen, and it’s okay… itreally is; as long as they’re (a) admitted, (b) have the guts to apologize and (c) attempt to rectify it!
• If Tahboub Kitchens are so sure of its ability to deliver top quality and on time, then why not be fair and bind that contractually, be it by accepting a small withheld retainer or a penalty clause?
• Tahboub Kitchens should live up to its reputation as an industry leader, and not blame “the whole industry” for unfair treatment or ridiculous conditions.
• Have the decency to reply back to the customer even if it wasn’t favorable! Why did I had to call & SMS the sales rep three times, and then call his manager a couple of times more (and she never call back); and a couple of weeks later I finally to get an answer that Tahboub Kitchens are not willing to add the penalty clause! That was double annoyingg, besides; loose ends are time and energy consuming!
• And finally, management shouldn’t hide behind the sales representatives/engineers, no matter how empowered and competent the latter may be, management should always be accessible, especially when the customer repeatedly asks for it!

Scoot drive for Gaza...

For those planning to participate in the Gaza drive arranged by 7iber and the Action committee; but find themselves strangled with time, I'm dedicating two of my company's delivery scooters to collect whatever you intend to send and we'll make the arrangement for the drop-off at the Cozmo location before 8:00 pm free of charge.

Please call us at 06-553-5249, SMS at 07-4543-2101 or email as at scooterexpress[at]wi-tribe[dot]jo

An alternative ISP, with an unlikely feature (or flaw)

Since I moved back to Amman at the start of this year, I was looking for an alternative to Orange fixed and internet services, not because their services were necessarily bad, but because they're offered by the incumbent who dominated the scene for far too long that they tend to take their customers for granted, and I don't want to be taken for granted.

Then a good friend of mine put me on the friendly-users list of the new fixed-wireless broadband internet service provider Wi-Tribe, offering me months of free (a geek drea0m) uncapped bandwidth 1Mbps connection, to the internet. Then Wi-Tribe launched commercially, the contacted me to upgrade my friendly-user status to that of a paying-customer one, to which I welcomed without hesitance, though downgraded to 512Kpbs, and later got my start-up company to get their internet fix from them at 256Kpbs all to my complete satisfaction, to the point that I actually upgraded back to 1Mpbs.

I'm satisfied with the level of service I’m getting, though if you don't pay upfront, you'll get tangled up with monthly payment related issues like weak retail network and nice staff but untrained on their billing system. Beside that, my friend Sari wrote a good review of their service, though I don't totally agree with it...

I still firmly believe in Wi-Tribe as an alternative ISP for folks in Amman (west Amman until further notice), and I will still recommend it to anyone who's fed-up with Orange and ADSL, as long as one acknowledges its FIXED WIRELESS (it plugs to mains power, so there you go) and it requires the modem (CPE) near a window.

BUT (there you go Jad) I came across a flaw in the service being offered, and that is "most" of their user's computers are visible to one another, especially those on VISTA with media players forcing its media server option onto making all the media content on one's computer basically "stream able" to endorsed users.

I did call Wi-Tribe call-center, and ensured that my friends who work there are made aware of the problem and its serious ramifications on their users, but I believe I’m obliged to inform others of what to do until the matter is resolved, which is to disable both network discovery and file sharing and enable windows firewall. For those who have their modem connected through a router (wireless or otherwise), get a technical friend to impose MAC filtration.

The early signs of fatherhood

Last summer, my wife got pregnant with our first baby, my reception of the event was as crude as it can get, crudeness apparently became a practice really; yes I was happy about it, I didn't necessarily applaud the occasion, I was mostly overwhelmed with the feeling of yet another no-turning-back moment, like the death of my father, my marriage and some other events and decisions that I've made.

Honestly, the death of my father is where every event seems to be referred back to, like the date of birth of Christ may peace & blessing be upon him with the annotation of Anno Domini (AD) that postfixes any date, I note things to have happened either before or after his death. To come and think about it; I tend to romanticize the things that fall in the former category, and somehow cast the intrusive shadow of his absence onto the events that falls in the latter.

But another development partially disrupted this practice of mine, in fact not only did it change the way I tend to remember things, its impact was so overwhelming that I can only explain it by it being a divine intervention, and this is the story:

Back in October, during a failed returning-home-for-good attempt of mine, my wife visited her doctor for the regular check, and called telling me the baby was a girl...

no suspense or surreal turn of events here, just an overwhelming (I'll be over using this word from now on) surge of joy; laterally my mind couldn't keep up with my heart as to why I was so much happy about my knowledge of my coming baby's sex.

Until now, I'm clueless to what happened from that moment onward, I'm oozing with happiness for what God have blessed us with and anticipating every moment until she joins us, as my disruptive and fun-spoiling mind-set got incapacitated in front of this new state of mind, I can only think that God instilled in me those feelings because I know that I'm incapable of not being crude or taking things for what they're worth at face-value.

Even the perpetual gap left by my father's departure seemed suddenly ancient history in front of the momentous event of my girl's nearing arrival, yes I do dwell upon the idea of what would it be like if he was around, and what name he would've favored (though he wouldn't have favored any, he was subtle with his personal opinions), but such thoughts were lacking the tear-drops squeezing & distressful emotions they come with, his departure was sad, but the soon to join baby girl is a happy event without any if(s).

Suddenly I started rationalizing one of my uncle's exaggerated obsession with his eldest daughter beyond anyone's comprehension, now -I think- I know what will it be like to father & feel proud of a wonderful daughter.

Before, I used to view my older friends with kids to be somewhat unfortunate to have chosen/dragged-into the unstoppable contemporary cycle of life; where one is rushed to pass his high-school, get a university degree, build a career, get married, have kids and grow a sizable belly and numbness while at it, never did I appreciate the heavenly feelings & tranquility they must've felt every time they were around their kids.

Until recently, I've constantly mistaken their obvious happiness when in the company of their kids to be merely a getting-used-to subconscious routine that they got themselves into in order to accept the fact that they're responsible for bringing those poor little things to this cruel world, and they're responsible for their welfare indefinitely.

But that's no longer; Since the moment I knew she was a girl, I never seize to carefully examine all father-son (or daughter) interactions that I happen to witness, including all the boring accounts of my friends on what their 2 year old son (or daughter) did or spoke!

I did always consider kids to be cute, all kids that is, no one was particularly special, for me it was like as if all the kids in the block were cool B-boys who knew how to break-dance, it no longer catches my attention if someone just made a 360 spin upside down, would it now? a far fetched metaphor I guess...

But after this sudden enlightenment, my friend's daughter was no longer annoying when she kept interrupting us in our get-together; displaying her latest (horrible; I must add) singing abilities, she was no longer the 6 year old in the midst of what's better known as "سن الزناخه" when she slowly turns from someone who's 1st words are much anticipated with cheers and celebrations (usually quoted after) and turns into an unstoppable word sprinter; now she's just the chatty little girl, "I like…".

As I turn a new page in my professional life; I find myself extremely motivated by all of this, in the midst of my fears and weariness of leaving a very good and rewarding career to start a new venture in a field abandoned by most of who invested in it, in a country everyone is relentlessly trying to exit; I find myself irrationally charge-boosted with zealous belief in what I'm about to do, and I still fail to spot the link, but it doesn't really matters no more.

As a closing note; I pray to the sustainer of the seven heaven, to make it easy for my beloved wife (and all the pregnant women out there) and make their delivery a silk smooth one, my imaginative mind can't withstand or comprehend how this must be physically and emotionally intense… May Allah be your keeper.

A year without blogging, OR: The Sheikh is back

It's been well over a year since I wrote for my deserted blog, I can't help but maintain a continues awe of the way time lapses, however; it's not how time passes that made me return to my dear-diary equivalent, but rather the yet another set of momentous events and things that I've witnessed and was intriguing enough that I wanted to capture "somewhere" other than the volatile memory of mine.

You see, I have been writing for the most part of my adult life, never in a regular basis like when I was actually maintaining a blog (more or less), but I used to capture the "high times" with a written or typed notes of that specific moment, trying to reserve it by illustrating what is it and how it did or did not impact me or the people around me.

But as life went on, and I started leading a professional life led by a increased responsibilities and faced by new realities (eventualities really) that made me what I'm today, all this led to less frequent notes and writings, with the exception of the year I did actually wrote for my blog in.

That year (2006) was not necessarily less significant than any other, if any thing (to come and think about it); it was fairly significant, but beside that fact, the year I blogged in was unique in the fact that I managed to capture many aspects of it, from pseudo-political stances, to emotional dwells and the usual uncontrolled bashing of our oblivious society, the very same things that I experience every day and mostly forget the day after, but when when captured on this blog; I create a reference pointer; pointing right back at them, with some meta data around for the sheer entertainment of myself really, and perhaps some avid audience who can be counted on one's right hand (the left if you will).

Beside that, I've been through equally interesting "things" in the course of this passing year that intrigued me to write about them, I honestly missed writing and editing what I write for the purpose of publishing on this blog rather than leaving them lingering on the edges of my brain; although its tiresome and time consuming, but it does pay off when looked at after a while.

So what's behind this enthusiasm after a prolonged silence? Well, I'll leave this to serve as a come back post, and save the ranting (sorry Hamada, you know it was eventual that I'll use this over used term :) for the next post(s).

Until then I'd like to thank Gradly who for some reason I'm not sure of; was kind and gracious enough to add my blog to his blogroll despite the fact that I was inactive for so long, I feel humbled by his kind gesture.

I got promoted, so where's my partitioned office?

Apparently, at our sick and unprofessional work environment, if you don't have a walled or partitioned office, it doesn't matter if you're a manager or not, what's important is to have the latter and then command the blunt acknowledgment and attention usually associated with being one (a manager), and I happen to experience both, being an office-less manager and just recently added another key to my key-chain, having my very own office!

So after a year working for our marketing department, doing geo-marketing research and liaison-work between the technical and marketing departments; I finally went back to my career routes, crude engineering work, were dust, sweat, informal (yet practical) attire & cluttered work spaces among other things are all a token of pride and love of the work in hand, to everyone's expectation, I seem much lively and sport a much more enthusiastic face instead of the lame and pale one while suited inside a cubical.

When I used to be a manager at the technical department, we had some sort of an open-space office policy at the time, were the whole hierarchy of staff set together without any obstacles except for the director/chief of the department, who's walled inside his own partition, so I really never knew how it feel to have your own, not that I never thought of it, but in general I was in favour of open-space offices policy and the positive synergy it trickles throughout the organization, but with the recent change I had, I was assigned with my very own office…

I've been with my current company for two years now, I was the 10th person to join, so I'm fairly old in the organization, and I fairly know everyone around, and everyone knows me as one of them "old" faces around, but really I only knew the extent of how ill treated non-senior staff get until I was walled-in, were you get far more than what you bargained for, as you seem to get some of the respect reserved for those behind partitions instead of it being the tandem of all interactions with all employees!

Although I was a senior manager from day one in the company, I was never treated as such, partially because I never sought such distinction, I view the mere act of baring the responsibilities of a manager as the ultimate reward for being one, but as I was relocated to the office, suddenly the word "Mr." became a prefix to my name, the IT trouble-tickets that aged for a couple of weeks at the help desk were now seen-into promptly, and colleagues who never spent the effort to know me beyond my name are now congratulating me for my new office(or was it my assumed new position, it doesn't matter by now)!!!

What did change? I'm the same smiley and down-to-earth person i always strive to be, I wasn't promoted per-se, just a simple change in capacity that eventually led into having my own office… what a sick sea of deluded mentalities do i work in.

I personally envisage the perfect organization to value each and every employee as its greatest asset, not simply rhetorical slogans but rather in practice, were all of them get equal distribution of benefits and privileges, for everyone to feel being invested in and appreciated beyond any titles and organizational hierarchies, everyone must be rewarded on a transparent scale.

The most destructive of forces in an organization is the negative sentiments induced by feeling unappreciated or unprivileged in comparison to the privileged few who're usually managers closer to the upper management and their side-kicks, forcing one to set his/her mind and expectations to such that will turn him/her to an executive-freak oozing with blunt requests and wasting valuable work time ensuring that his/her business cards are in print hours after being seated in the new post.

For instance, we have a limited underground parking space that fits 40-50 cars depending how tactful we –managers- were, the remainder of the company have to find their spot in the alley ways of the neighborhood behind us, a nuisance task considering the 200 staff competing every day for the scarce lots.

With such a pretext, the underground parking becomes some sort of a privilege that's offered to senior staff, to the point that one of them who lives in a walking distance from the company not to abandon his "privilege" in the parking lot out of courtasy as he feels its his "right"... flippin heck, i'll fire'em right up if it was my call.

But in my utopian vision of the company, I'd pool the parking lot among all employees, perhaps reserving a couple for the top-management and their guests, but otherwise on a first-come-first-serve basis, and what I'll get in return: a positive synergy from having all employees equally "privileged", and those who thrive to come early on time will be rewarded by finding a convenient spot right under their offices and the late one's can endure the pain of finding space in the scorching heat outside.

Back to my private office, I can't say that part of my sick psyche is dripping with ego and happy about it, you must admit that having your office translates into less intrusions and dealing with nuisance interruptions from people whom least of thier concerns is being productive while being paid for his time. But really I'd like to see myself outside of it with my staff, more – platonically- interment and face-to-face.

Investing in one's employees from the bottom of the organizational chart and up while valuing each and every staff member is crucial for a productive and homogeneous workforce and will ultimately change the sick attitudes and perceptions about becoming a manager or taking a senior post, humbleness must be the core of the corporate culture, by understanding that some people's job are to manage others, but it's no different than doing any other job in the team, just like a football team, were you have a captain & a goal-keeper along with 9 others, the former two may have a special role, but they're all part of the team of equal members.

Truly nothing like an open-space and open-door office policies.

Related DCMS reads:
I've been promoted; so where's my laptop?

Flashback : Thoughts extravaganza in a Bonfire night

Four years ago while i was still studying at university, i wrote this essay in an online forum i used to post in, I'm reposting it as-is to capture the true essence of it.

little did i know at the time that the thoughts manifested in it will perpetually echo with relevance until today, alas with even wider spread footprint, for we now have the affairs of Iraq, Afghanistan, Lebanon, Palestine among others haunting our minds with distress and worrisome.

At the peak of the Israeli assault on Lebanon, Jordanians spent well-over half a million JDs on fireworks on the night of Tawjihi results! Though some may justify shelling huge sums on an individual basis under the premise that people are gay-happy and they want to celebrate (after all, it's better than firing rounds of AKs around, no?), yet the cumulative expenditure is totally unjustified at wartimes.

It'll be another despicable highlight of our culture failure and defeat if the niche of our society decide to celebrate bonfires at our ends, were the unacknowledged resistance is striving to find the money to source firearm, while others are spending the money on recreational fireworks to celebrate others' engaging history

Enjoy the piece:

For those who don't know what bonfire night is -as I have only came to know it when I came to England few years back-, it is a night of which people shell out mad sums of money on fireworks, and blast them out all night long in a spectacular display of an urban tradition!
What provoked the following stream of thoughts was not the astonishing and dazzling displays I have witnessed throughout that night...

What triggered it was merely the background sound of that night...

As I walked back from university on a late hour, I was listening to all these fireworks exploding, some where close, some where echoing, some had thunderous explosions, other seemed to have this repetitive pattern of sound that tend to remind me of an automatic assault weapon. Slowly... my hallucinatic mind could not help but to drift in a stream of thoughts, visualising the west bank -and Gaza- in pursuit of capturing the anxiousness my fellow Palestinians live -or die- under... day by day!

The unexpected explosions that you tend to hear every other second did trigger a hint of anxiety, as I forced my self to believe that I was in an anxious situation, trying to capture the moment and have a taste of what its like to live under fire, and it does sound like anything but normal... they say a picture speaks for a thousand words, but tonight it proved the other way around, the continuous fead of news from Palestine could not squeeze a single tear drop... while a Hollywood movie might get many weeping over a fictional love story with a dramatic twist of some sort... Tonight I could not help but to keep my self constrained by the tangling stream of thoughts thrilled by an ever-lasting explosive echoes and sounds

Yet I live in a peaceful and quite town, and during my usual shuttle walk between my house and the university, the worst thing that I might encounter in my linear daily life is a drunk and or drugged-up homeless whom might ask for some change! building up from this situation, and with the help of my imaginative mind, I hardly managed to remind myself of those who live under the siege, how do they feel? I hear the thunderous explosion, with un-dismissible certainty that this explosion was 150 foot high in the air, indeed not worrying about if it was of a close proximity... which is certainly different from being in a situation where you encounter actually occupiers, geared up with M-16s, F-16s and apatches looming in the horizon, and every other explosion you might hear is in the next block, until one day you are in its proximity, yet they lead a normal life... they get married and seem to strive to survive and raise out of ashes time after time!

After a long day at uni., and with this imaginative journey to examine 'how it feels like' to be there, I shall lay down and sleep... to wake up for another English, gray and rainy day... certainly those anxious thoughts should evaporate by then... as for those on the front line back there... Allah Ma3ahum

Islamically tuned, Ramadan themed & personalised scam email!

Though I didn't have the endurance exhibited by Bakkouz and his long email skirmish with Amina the orphan and her
Intoxicated-to-death father, however I found this pilot scam email I received yesterday interesting.

Did he/she actually spent some actual human-time on customising such message, or is web-crawlers are now smart enough to relate a name, a theme among other info to the email they hunt!

At any measure, I did reply to him, and he was more direct than Amina by bluntly asking me for my personal details… he wasn't persistent though, he dropped it when I did, Enjoy…

Notice the Subject and the overall general context, things like "I got your contact from an Islamic search on the web when i was searching for who to entrust".

From: AMAD UDDIN adudd_islamm@yahoo.it> Signed-By: yahoo.it
To: ***************************
Date: Oct 10, 2006 1:13 PM
Subject: From your Brother Amad Uddin To Basem Aggad
Reply | Reply to all | Forward | Print | Add sender to Contacts list | Delete this message | Report phishing | Show original | Message text garbled?
ATTEN:Basem Aggad

Salam Alaykum......

greetings in the name of Allah, the most beneficient, and the most merciful

Dear Brother,

Compliments of the season. I know my letter might come to you as a surprise, but don't be surprise because it’s coming in good faith. I am Mr. Amad Uddin from ZINBABWE. But based in United Arab Emirate U.A.E. with my kid sister Fatima Uddin.

My father and me located to from ZINBABWE to London long time ago, after we where converted to Muslim by my late father's friend who was from United Arab Emirate (DUBAI). After my family welcomed the Islamic religion my country was no longer self for us to stay anymore, due to the Christianity religion over there we where wanted death to be killed by Christens that is why we left to London to stay.

My father was invole in the recent Plane crash in IRAN couple of days ago, when he was flaying from Bander Abbas to Mashhad. before we left to London my father deposited the sum of E28.2m Euros (twenty Eight Million Two Hundred Thousand Euros) With Me-bank International Dubai
( United Arab Emirate). Which he made it know to me as the only son. Part of this fund i mapped out to use for building a Mosque where children of ALLAH will be worshiping, the rest of the money i will use for a very lucrative investment to keep my life going because i can't go back to my country anymore.

My Christian name use to be Michel Andrew before i was converted and since then we have been happy in worshiping the almighty ALLAH our personal savor’s, I got your contact from an Islamic search on the web when i was searching for who to entrust before i saw your contact and decide to tell disclose my situation to you of which i know that by Allah grace things will work out fine for me and you. All i need is your assistance in helping me to retrieve this fund from theMe-bank International Dubai (United Arab Emirate) and have it transferred out side through your account to build this Mosque which my late father told me to do and which has also being my dream. I know i do not have much say in my country any more that is why i want to entrust this transaction in your hands. However, i will make shore i provide all the documents back up we will need for retrieving this fund.

After transferring these funds to your account in your country, we will bring out money for building of Mosque, the rest of the funds you will be in title of 15% shear for assisting me, and 5% will be for any expencies you made on the process of this transaction.Then i will use the rest for an investment in your country.

Finally, i will reside in your country because i will not be welcome in my ZINBABWE as a Muslim.

If you are interested in assisting me. Email me at amadudd@yahoo.se

I look forwards to hear from you.

Happy Ramadan.

Best Regards.

Amad Uddinamadudd_islamm@yahoo.it>

Moslems celebrate their "Lunar food & drama festival" aka Ramadan

Next will be surrounding the Ka'ba with advertising billboards like football stadiums to milk out petty pilgrims, why not?

If it was a matter of dedicating certain delicacies (Qatayif, Samosa …etc) to this season then I wouldn't have given this despicable state of affairs a flying thought, but what we're witnessing here is an outright exploitation of the holy month of fasting with total disregard to the true essence of it.

And mind you, despite my usual rhetoric tone, I'm not enflamed by the fact that the commercial exploitation of Ramadan is on the expense of its Islamic and sentimental values, no… for this only worries those who cohere to the Islamic doctrine on a daily basis, whether off-Ramadan or during the month, in which Ramadan act as a catalyst to do more of the good stuff they usually do.

But for others, it seems fair that during the month of Ramadan, if one feels unconvinced (too young, too hot or too tired) or simply can't be bothered with fasting, then the least that one could do is to refrain from doing so and go about his/her day as business as usual, but this isn't exactly what happens.

What we see before our blatant eyes is the transformation of Ramadan to a total different entity, with nothing left of its Islamic origin or its cultural evolvement, but a mutant commercially exploited month-long celebration driven by greedy corporates and oblivious recipients (that'll be us).

From a more analytical perspective, Ramadan became what it is now from right from the capitalising of two underlying features that engulf the fasting community: hunger and boredom, that's of course what's left for those who blindly practice fasting, others subtly find themselves stricken by those two.

It sounds fair that our heritage have in its luggage allot of dedication for Ramadan along other occasion, some with valid grounds, like serving high energy food and thirst-bashing & nurturing drinks and some merely found out of the blue, no harm in that, every other culture have its fair bit of seasonal food and drinks.

Here in Jordan, Circassian have their Shibs-ibwasta, typically served in winter time (seems like year round back in the Qoqaz though) and Christian minorities serve a special home-baked biscuits during their seasonal occasions, but I'm not sure how many cultures out there have Vimto and contemporary commercial products as a Ramadan household item?

I'm not sure either; if many other cultures allow themselves to be exploited and be manically rushed into a "a pre-Ramadan shopping spree", as if supplies will run out at some point in the near future, to the point that some supermarkets here rationalise the despising of Vimto at the rate of one bottle per shopper!

The amount of advertising spending for fast-moving consumer goods double, especially drinks, they litter the littered billboards with drinks and Ramadan-inspired food, as if to say that the sunset marks the cadence of one's average Ramadanian day… petty really.

I'm not disputing the commercial viability and what used to be a marketing ingenuousness of placing food & beverages products right in the face of hungry folks who are about to have their first meal after a long day! But how ethical is that I ask? Not from an Islamic perspective but rather in terms of the corporate responsibility towards respecting others beliefs and try not to exploit it.

If anything, demand should decrees during Ramadan, work the math out, people should be consuming less since they'll be eating less, how we managed to challenge the laws of supply & demand, I think I have a clue or two.

Then comes the matter of entertainment and TV, cinema, tents & theatrical drama (will its mostly comedy I know), and again I'm not disputing the business sense behind investing heavily on aligning premier stuff for Ramadan TV schedules and line up a number of movie releases and performances especially for this month.

This is a normal continuum of the despicable state of affairs of Arabs & Moslems in general, where the only industry they seem to be "good" at is the entertainment one, if only this accompanies some quality content… but alas, mimic societies are bound to have the cultural contribution of an amphibian frog.

So I have no problem (will I do, but you should know my theme by now) with Ramadan TV specials and all, except with the fact that its dedicated for and named after the month of Ramadan, it sounds utterly awkward and incoherent with the general theme of Ramadan and what it should typically entail and stand for.

The least that can be done is to continue offering the usual stuff without dedicating anything to the month! Its very disrespectful to those who adhere to the month and try to observe it thoroughly.

I humbly think that Moslems and non-Moslems alike (living in Moslem societies), the fasting and the can't-be-bothered-with-fasting folks alike, we should all take a strong stand against all greedy companies and supermarkets that try to milk us out during this holy month and gradually diminishing its genuinely distinct essence.

A boycott movement if you like, against every exploitation of the month of Ramadan, in sheer respect for what Ramadan stands for and what it means to those who try to sincerely observe it, and happy Lunar food & festival everyone, and Ramadan Kareem to the observing few.

To the interested few, my blog site feed changed

My avid readers, the don't-call-me-Sheikh site feed address was changed

from http://dontcallmesheikh.blogspot.com/atom.xml

to http://dontcallmesheikh.blogspot.com/feeds/posts/summary

kindly amend your aggregators accordingly.

A tip to all those who migrated to Blogger beta and are using the new templates, your old site feeds will eventually disappear, circulate the new one accordingly.

Getting techy with it

Blogger platform help. How can I upload AND place a JPEG banner instead of the one in the template? Please help, it'll be rewarding, rewarding I tell you (visually at least)…

Batelco Jordan CEO joins XPress

Once again, another episode in the Jordanian telecommunication sector, notorious for its plentiful surprises, Marwan Juma an old-school figure in the IT & telecommunication scene in Jordan resigned from Batelco and joined the ranks of XPress as the CEO, taking over from Mr. Suleiman Ma'ani whose been the latter's CEO since its establishment back in late 2002.

The drastic changes in XPress is taking place after a new shareholder beefed up XPress's capital and became the managing shareholder, which usually entails sweeping management changes.

Good luck to both men wherever they settle for they both hold high credentials, bright track record and a credible reputation.

I have worked during Mr. Maani's reign, and beside stating his charismatic personality and thorough leadership felt through the organization, Mr.Maani was loved (or at least respected) by most employees even after he left, i have not encountered a single negative resentment or hard feeling felt by any of his x-employees, even by those who think (from a professional perspective) that they were let down by XPress as a hall.

As for XPress, I hope that along with such changes, there'll be some serious revision of their marketing strategy, for they do offer a genuine addition to the Jordanian telecom sector with their services but they seem to be badly communicated in the market place.

Read more here:

Al-Rai report (Arabic)
Addustour (Arabic)
Al-Ghad (Arabic) with really more info than the official Batelco statement.

A glitch in the Matrix? The windowless houses of Riyadh

The photos speaks for themselves, but mind the awkward angles they're taken at, they were shot in a drive-by fashion as I thought to myself that those who put too much effort "covering" up their houses will probably be really pissed-off if they found someone –a foreigner especially- taking photos of the very entity they're "covering" away from voyeuristic intruders!



Let's start with this one, the owner of this house decided to have some windows but with an angle to cut any line of sight! people inside probably suffer from a stiff knick when looking outside the window.



Your average apartment building comes in two window fitting flavours to fit your lifestyle: noisy "window" air-conditioning or a blinded window.



The guy decided to artistically & permanently place a metal sheet in front of the windows adjacent to the main street.



No need for air-flow, single-sided darkened windows.



To be fair, this is how the majority of houses have their windows done, fair enough I assume!



This is from the inside of an apartment building, to come and think about it, methinks the reasoning behind such practice is not to detour nosy neighbours but actually to prevent whose inside from looking outside!



At least this one is different, L-shaped, very very original, remember these are not see-through glass, they're all darkened or "امبزر".



A wall was porpously constructed to hide away the window and block any chances of sight in either direction.



This is another typical in-the-box boxed house.



The little window is for the toilet probably.



Keep the window arches to maintain the architectural visual harmony (if such thing exist) probably; but do with glass! I swear I didn't touch any of the photos with Photoshop, this is sheer reality.



Another creative use of metal sheets in shading one's windows.



One must be fair, this villa have a huge lobby area to the right side covered out with glass, but the rest of the house (especially the sleeping & living quarters) is hidden away as it seems.



Another typical setup, notice the metal shading to the left, this is very common in between most adjacent houses.



Had a change of heart? This one inspired the "glitch in the Matrix" title, from the trap scene when the Machines changed the attributes of a building in order for it not to have any exists (doors, windows ..etc) causing a "glitch" Dejavu.

So… a visual account of a strange phenomenon here in Riyadh, I used to find the huge concrete fences around house to be repelling, but these are nothing compared to being stuck in one of them houses for days & days without a hint of sun shine or allowing a breathe fresh air to replace the AC-intoxicated & rotten air in the house (if you don't mind the desert dust).

Scandal at MobileCom: 1,000 car winners due to a fault!

This piece of news & pictures came from an insider, apparently hundreds of MobileCom customers who subscribed to some car competition gathered in front of MobileCom HQ sometime ago to claim their car after receiving a SMS message from MobileCom congratulating them on winning a promoted car.

The insider said that an employee at the marketing department sent the message to some 1,000 customers (who subscribed to the competition earlier on) by mistake while he was testing the winning SMS message that was suppose to be sent to the lucky winner, and those who received it gathered spontaneously the next morning at MobileCom HQ to collect their car!

Obviously the ground was fertile for speculations to thrive that Fastlink had something to do with in light of the incidents earlier, but putting this aside, i can only imagine the short ecstatic thrill of the winning customers and the sheer disappointment they felt the next day as they saw many of their likes claiming the very same bounty and slowly figuring out that there seem to be a mistake of some sort, a dream too good to be true for many.

The insider also told me that one of the winners was demanding not only the car, but also compensation for the Kunafah he distributed promptly after he received the message! Having said that, i wonder how this will be resolved, and if there will be some sort of compensation if any?!

If i was in charge over there, I'd be creative and exploit the episode by actually giving away 1,000 cars to absorb the bad publicity and boost some proactive synergy out of it by showing some surprising commitment and absorption of the situation!

Not necessarily giving away the promoted car which i think was a mid-range Cadillac, but perhaps some branded Cherry or something in that order, but i don't think MobileCom is brave enough or can even fund such a radical step.

At any measure, here are some pictures to go with the piece above, i just hope my insider is not an imaginative daydreamer who made this whole thing up, i didn't have tie to authnticate but MobileCom already pulled the car promo from its website!

"No body queues in Jordan"; but I do!

During a spontaneously arranged trip I had with my wife (Yes, I got married few weeks back) to Aqaba, I had an unfortunate incident at the Movenpick hotel while I was checking-out from it, the incident reminded me of how “third-world”* we can be right in the midst of our thinking rather than our surrounding.

A quick back rounder, this leg of the trip was never planned, my wife and I were roaming all over southern Jordan, as we reached rum and spent the day cruising over there, we decided that we were too tired to drive back to Wadi Mosa and headed down to Aqaba, at this point, we were looking a bit rusty & showered with sand.

We spent the night over at the hotel, showered and cleaned up, it was extremely busy, I think they were running at 99% occupancy.

Next day at the reception desk, I stood there waiting for my turn to check-out with my rusty looking beard, wearing army-like shirt and cargo pants and a wide tourist hat my wife grabbed from Petra, minus the sand and the sweaty smell.

A group of mothers and their kids were checking-in, it took the hotel personnel around 15 minutes to get them settled in, I was patiently waiting there, chit-chatting with my wife, going about my usual habit of eyeing people around, trying to figure out where are they from, what are they doing here & if there’s anything unusual about them.

Enter the apparently half-Jordanian-half English-guy (have he not spoken, I wouldn’t have figured out this about him), he stood at an uncomfortable distance between me and the desk I was waiting my turn at, with a bit of anxiousness as he seemed to wanted to check-out from the busy hotel like I did.

I did not mind the guy at start, he was not aggressive with his distance from the desk, but he seemed a bit shy of it, as if he knew he was about to do something that he’s not accustomed to, I didn’t make any pre-emptive moves like blocking his way or nicely asking him to step into the queue (comprised of myself behind the loud mothers & their annoyingly trespassing kids), under the assumption that the lad seems to be from somewhere were people tend to queue naturally at busy junctures.

The mothers and their kids left the check-in desk, the guy made his move & spoke in an i-speak-it-fluently-but-I-prefer-not-to heavy Arabic that he want to check out, the rude hotel attendant smiled in his face (one could argue because of his handsome Caucasian looks) and told him just a minute please. I turned to the guy and nicely told him in Arabic that he took my turn and that I was waiting behind the group.

The guy ignored me first time around as he waited for the attendant to return. So I repeated my request in English and he answered me without looking to me that he is “at a hurry and he have a large group”, now I had it… “listen ya Mr. Busy with a big group, I came here and lined myself in a queue, you better stand in the line too”.

The attendant came and started processing his check-out, I reiterated that I came there before him, and with a poker face she said “but it’s not a problem”, I told her “no it is a problem, this is disrespectful to me and she should respect the line in front of her”, upon my challenge she put aside his credit card and papers & started processing mine without even an apology.

I looked back at the guy and spoke to him in English, now I have his attention as it seems, and tried to understand why he acted in such a way, I wish I didn’t do that, I wish I stood there quietly, left him full of himself and his blunt feelings of superiority thinking of me and our country the way he did, for he answered me in a very arrogant manner:

“Listen, here in Jordan there are no queues, back in England people queue, but here they don’t, I did what everyone here is doing, utter chaos”

I swear by the one who raised the seven heavens with no pillars that I was infuriated to the point that I was going to grab him by the head and smack his forehead against the wall for the offensive gibberish he uttered.

“No my friend" i replied "people do queue over here, I’m queuing as I speak, you on the other hand, choose to ignore the queue & jump it while feeling comfortable of being uncivilized because you are not in England”…

He apologetically tried to explain his position but to no avail, I kept reiterating that he jumped the queue and that there was no excuse for that and not to mention how insulting it was to blame it on “being in Jordan”…

I left the scene feeling victorious but with a bit of disgust, first because of the blunt reception attendant who unprofessionally attended the good looking Euro guy who just skipped the line and passed on the rusty-looking “sheikh” thinking to herself that it’s “not a problem”.

Second because of the mentality of the guy who seemed to be from a well-educated & well-off background that should have salvaged him from being at fault of circumstantial uncivilized misconduct.

* I typically do not entertain such imposed terminology, but unfortunately I couldn’t find a better descriptive word that captures the meaning deceivingly embedded in such terms.