Steps to quit smoking

Hello all! Long time since I last posted something! So here I am! Back!

My first article since months is going to be about a very sensitive subject: Smoking!
After some research here are the steps to do so... Read carefully and enjoy!

Want to die? Quit reading. Want to live? Then continue reading. According to the American Heart Association, approximately 26.2 million men and 20.9 million women in the United States are smokers. Smoking is well known for its damaging effects to the lungs, skin, heart and brain. The steps to quite are setting a program, joining a support team and for extreme cases Medical therapy

The first step to quit smoking is setting a program. There are many ways to do this, for example one can each month smoke one cigarette less than the last month. This is a long and smooth transition to quit smoking and to feel less frustrated by the desire to smoke. Another way of setting a program is to do activities with family and friends that will keep your mind away from cigarette. Indeed the less you think about cigarette, the less the desire to smoke one will cross your mind. Plus family will always be there to help you because they care about your health. Including family in your program is a big plus in order to stop smoking the death stick. And finally you should include major dietary adjustments. Cleaning up the diet can be a helpful tactic. Often times, smoking is done in conjunction with the consumption of fatty foods and alcohol. Replacing these foods with more nutrient-dense options like fruits and vegetables will help avert you away from smoking.

The next step is to join a support team. When joining a support team you can have access to precious advices from ex-smokers, they will tell you that it is a difficult and long way but they are the proof that it is still possible thus giving you some hope. Also in support team you are in company of people who are in phase of quitting. So that you will know that you are not the only one trying to escape from the evil grip of the cigarette. This is more a psychological effect that helps you and your ego greatly, especially when you feel the urge to smoke. Finally if you are about to have a nervous breakdown and have a cigarette you can always ask someone to take cigarettes away from you so that you won’t be able to give in to temptation.

The final step is a Medical therapy; and it is used for heavy smokers. It could be Acupuncture. In fact acupuncture is one of the oldest known medical techniques, and it is believed to work by triggering the release of endorphins (natural pain relievers) that allow the body to relax. As a smoking cessation aid, acupuncture can be helpful in managing smoking withdrawal symptoms. Another aspect of medical therapy is Nicotine Replacement therapy. This involves "replacing" cigarettes with other nicotine substitutes, such as nicotine gum or a nicotine patch. It works by delivering small and steady doses of nicotine into the body to relieve some of the withdrawal symptoms without the tars and poisonous gases found in cigarettes. This type of treatment helps smokers focus on breaking their psychological addiction and makes it easier to concentrate on learning new behaviors and coping skills. Finally the medical therapy could be a Non-nicotine Medication. This therapy consist of using (absorbing) a substance that will fool your nervous system. There are 2 substances recommended by Doctors. One is called bupropion, it has an effect on the nicotine receptors in your brain through a chemical associated with the pleasure of smoking cigarettes. The other is called varenicline, this medication acts like nicotine and fools the receptors in the brain into believing they’ve already had their dose of nicotine.

Smoking is bad for your health as it takes away years from your lifespan, one should quit smoking by setting a program, joining a support team or by using a medical therapy.

Egyptian Justice

I will be covering the Moubarak trial just to set an example that every dictator has a judgement day coming. At the end of the trial I will tell you what I think about the judgement

Ousted Egyptian president Hosni Mubarak arrived on Saturday by helicopter at a court where he will face sentencing over his alleged involvement in the killing of demonstrators.

Mubarak, wearing dark sunglasses, was then transported by ambulance to the courthouse on the outskirts of Cairo, where he was taken inside on a stretcher.

Mubarak, the only autocrat toppled in the Arab Spring to be put in the dock, former interior minister Habib al-Adly and six others could face the gallows if convicted of ordering the deaths of some of the estimated 850 people killed.

Chief Judge Ahmed Rifaat is expected not only to issue a verdict but also pass sentence on those who are convicted.

Mubarak, his sons Alaa and Gamal and business associate Hussein Salem, who fled to Spain, are also on trial over an alleged bribe.

His two sons had already arrived at the courthouse earlier on Saturday, according to the official MENA news agency. (AFP) 

[UPDATE]The audience just started and Mubarak has been sentenced to life along with his minister of interior. Egyptian court acquits 2 sons of Egypt's Hosni Mubarak on corruption charges, scuffles breakout in court after verdicts announced 
 The father spends life in prison so his sons (free of all charges) can enjoy freedom and keep the money!
Anger in court after verdict. 

Racism 101

Lets begin with a little introduction. Yesterday I was on my way back home in a bus. This one was special because it has 2 doors to get out; one on the road and the other one on the safe side. There was this Asian worker (like many here in Lebanon) who was sitting near the door that lead to the road side with 2 other guy sitting next to her. She arrived at her destination and she was like "Sorry to bother you can I..." without letting her finish her sentence these guys were like "NO GET OUT THE OTHER WAY", the guy who was sitting next to me was also harsher because he said "[here there are some insult that I categorically refuse to write] there are a lot of you anyway so one less won't make any difference".
This phrase is what is driving me to write this article right now. This unacceptable! How can you have such a diminished value for a living human even if she is different?

Lebanese keep bragging about how open they are and that they love everybody etc etc... but who is this everybody? Americans? Germans? French? or simply people with MONEY? People who are reading this I'm very sorry to tell you that money is the only thing most Lebanese love about foreigner. They don't even view the poor Asian worker as a human because they don't have money.
Unfortunately this is the sad truth, Lebanon is a Racist country. For you who might be thinking that one example is not enough to say this I have a big load of example with me.
2 months ago there was this Ethiopian worker who always has been victim of violence by her greedy masters who where refusing to pay her her salary, who weren't even giving her enough food and were treating her like less than a human being. She tried to seek refuge in the Ethiopian embassy but she was caught in front of it by her boss who beat her on the road in front of everybody, insulted her and then he pushed her in the car with the help of a friend. And the guard that were posted in front of the Ethiopian embassy didn't even raise a hand to help this poor worker...
Public media painted this poor maid as a thief who was trying to escape; what kind of thief would seek refuge in an embassy? People aren't that dumb! This prove how corrupted public medias are (let's not talk about this because this is not the subject right now)
There a lot of cases where maid are being brutalized, tortured physically and mentally and there are some cases of sexual abuse.

I could talk a lot, write pages and even shout it nothing will change. Racism exist in high proportion in Lebanon, especially against these worker who only came here to work and earn some money for their family who are waiting for them. Some worker are lucky because they end up with kind employers, some are less because they end up with monster. Some even committed suicide because of horrible treatment. Their home country doesn't even lend a hand for them

Now a little word about the role of parents in this matter, parents teach their children to consider themselves superior to others. We can see a lot of children ordering maids around without even feeling sorry for her; children that are supposed to be innocent are corrupted by their sick parents from the beginning. [Thanks Mathild Haidar for this part]

People think about it, would like one day to be in the same situation as these maids? Would you like to be abused off just because you were born Lebanese? There is a phrase that my beloved parents taught me "Treat the other like you want to be treated".

Shame on those people who's brain is smaller than an ant, and thanks to my parents who raised me well.

I pray for a Lebanon without Racism and Corruption

The Blackberry mania

Long have we witnessed in Lebanon some sort of Blackberry "mania".

I find the blackberry pretty normal, not very attractive and very poor in applications. The only thing that I actually like about it is its security system; communication between blackberries is encrypted thus making it impossible to what is being said between two users. Most Lebanese Blackberry owner don't even know this security thing and this is NOT the main reason they have for buying one, but they still don't intend to change.

Why is this? It is pretty obvious for someone who knows the Lebanese telecom situation, but it is another thing for those who don't. Lets see "why" in details.

First thing first, in telecom the word "unlimited" is just a word; nothing here is unlimited. We have only 2 mobile telecom company and they don't compete between each others, it is some sort of Duopoly. This will lead to very high prices: Minute Call = 0.36$; SMS = 0.09$
3G arrived only recently so before there was only a WAP service (10$/month for only 25MB/month) and the Blackberry service (40$/month for 100MB/month). These 2 service being the only one with mobile internet people began to buy a Blackberry so that they could communicate between each other almost anywhere, anytime on a constant basis. People in the buses, class, mall always holding their phones and messaging each other. When I asked my friend "why did you buy a blackberry" he answered: "so that I can send free messages".
This is the problem! We don't have free messages nor anything! We have to pay for every message and every call!
Also I must mention that it is the state that imposes such a high price! Like for the internet, the government has a total control on the prices of mobiles services! They are the one imposing such a duopoly. Don't take me wrong I am NOT blaming the CURRENT government but ALL the government since 1993.

Now that we have 3G we still have blackberry but not as much as before, the epidemic has passed!

Internet In Lebanon

So today I will be blogging about the internet situation in Lebanon and how it evolved from 1993 to nowadays!

In 1993, while the fixed network Lebanese still suffering the aftermath of the Civil War, was decided to install a GSM network. The tender, launched in March 1993 ended in June 1994 with the signing of contracts with France Telecom Mobile International (FTMI) and Ericsson, two networks MIC1 and MIC2.
 In May 1995, the GSM service will be effective with a network deployment, at the time this network has granted two months free usage to its new subscribers to test the service. Cost of service at the time: 5 cents per minute excluding tax, 2 cents of tax granted to municipalities as against 12 cents today. Similarly, while Lebanon since 1982 was connected to the Internet via the AUB (American University of Beirut), the global network will actually be introduced into Lebanese homes the same year, with the creation of an ISP in 1995 and will become operational in 1996. Through 2000-2001, it was in fact directly to ISPs (Internet Service Providers) to provide Internet access (ISP especially significant that only had a connection of around 700 KB / S for all its customers). There was also present in Lebanon, ComputServ, AOL etc. ... so major players through local representatives, without however this being official, as the details of the time this article http://www.ercim.eu/medconf/ papers / catafago.htmlSo it will change from 2000, with the provision by the Lebanese state, via the company Ogero, of connecting means other than satellite connections, and installation of hub particularly in Bir Hassan. Besides the interest "economic" to force the ISP to the state to buy their bandwidth and improve the finances of the state, high prices are passed primarily to customers. We can mention the case of a private university plan fitted by two T1 connections and who paid 60,000 usd per month for each of its campuses.
 This was also the Lebanese state to consolidate Internet connections and better control.These include notably the case of the case "of lesbians from the AUB" or the broadcasting of live scenes of a homosexual Hamam of Tripoli in Northern Lebanon. The ISP sector was then marked by mergers and acquisitions in December 2001 or diversifications including abroad. This period was, moreover, marked by the dramatic growth of "cables", it was actually providing Ethernet Internet on a large scale, but still it was an illegal network, their primary access to the web from unlicensed the state via satellite or via unscrupulous ISP or at least looking at the use made by their customers of their services. Level "security" only two networks worthy of the name, that of BDL (Bank of Lebanon) and ISP (Internal Security Force), connected by a fiber optic network, the rest, the ISPs are largely low; by example, an ISP had its customer database directly accessible on the Internet, or access a computer to a Lebanese trader company, just with Internet Explorer.
DSL service announced in 2005 has been effective in 2008, meanwhile, there was a rise of erzats internet connection "Broadband" from 2003 to 2004So the prices were about as such as we have received DSL: - 128Kbps (download) 64Kbps (upload) 2GB (quotas) for $ 20 - 256Kbps (download)  128Kbps (upload) 3GB (quotas) for $ 30-512Kbps (download) 256Kbps (upload) 4GB (quotas) for $ 50-1Mbps (download) 512Kbps (upload) 5GB (quotas) for $ 75Note that the speeds were THEORETICAL! We usually only received 70% of the promised speed (and again)These prices were due to several factors:- Prices are set by the state and their ISPs have no words to say-- E1 cables were sold by the state to ISPs has $ 1,350 (compared to $ 10 in France)- The connections were mostly via satellite- The single Ethernet cable land we came from Cyprus (our neighbors Syria and Israel loving us so much)- Political corruption (even African governments are not as corrupt as the Lebanese government)
In 2009 an event change all this. Indeed, Lebanon announces that it has signed its participation in the IMEWE (a project of submarine cable connecting India to France serving nine countries on its road; IMEWE = Indian Middle East Western Europe) in December 2010 the day of the inauguration and commissioning of the cable, telecommunications minister stop the project and cancel the inauguration saying that the ISP (Ogero) who will look after the cable has not paid the state the right to exercise control on the cable (everyone knowing that this is just an unacceptable excuse and that this is only the result of greater political problems, in fact the boss Ogero and the Minister belongs to different political parties) The funniest is that after this incident the minister who sabotaged all attempts to pose as savior of the telecommunication sector and Announces 3G for summer 2011 (which will arrive in November 2011) I should mention also that ISPs have only a one-year contract that is renewed each year (hello investments)After a long and interminable wait "salvation" has arrived. The government has changed, the new Minister of Telecom has signed a decree allowing the use IMEWE cable, reducing the price of E1 cable ($ 1350 was $ 300) and packages (packages that are available to end users on October 2011) I leave you the pleasure of discovering these new package here: http://www.idm.net.lb/products/adsl.aspThe problems often encountered lately: frequent disconnection, reduced speed for no apparent reason, quotas still too low, the unavailability of these packages to all regions of Lebanon's infrastructure is weak. (Also changing ISP is equivalent to 1 month minimum of waiting if you're lucky)