Frustrated Mobistar Company Suspends Customers Numbers

Mobistar, one of Belgium's telephone companies

The global economic crisis that followed the 11 September attacks was so severe that many companies went bankrupt, and those that survived are still recovering.

One such company that has lost many of its customers and is still losing is the telephone company 'Mobistar'. As the telecommunication market increased, it became a competition. 

Many are offering better and affordable rates to target customers. Apart from Mobistar are other phone companies such as Ortel, Base, Proximus, Belgacom, and Lyca.

Many users, especially foreigners who communicate with families at long distances, started shifting from Mobistar, whose call rates are very expensive compared to other affordable telephone companies. 

Take 'Lyca' for example, someone can use a 5 Euros credit to speak to his family in Africa, for about ten minutes, and still have a leftover call credit of about 2 Euros 50 cents.

This is totally impossible with Mobistar, even if one buys 15 Euros worth of credit card. Because of this problem, many foreigners face, many consider buying credit from Mobistar a waste of money. 

Those using Mobistar have no choice but to buy a 5 Euro credit once a month or in two months.  

After a series of warnings from Mobistar that they will suspend my number, an act to intimidate users to buy credit, they finally suspended the number 0497/024967, which I have used for the past thirteen years. 

If Mobistar thinks this is a good strategy to lure users to buy credit, then I am sorry they are wasting their time; moreover, they are going to lose a lot of customers more than ever.

Why would one buy credit worth 15 Euros but can't speak to his family in Africa for ten minutes, when 5 Euros from Lyca can do the job? 

Suspending my number can't intimidate me into going running to any of the Mobistar offices to negotiate or buy a credit. 

Thanks to the amazing discovery of the internet and Skype, I will send my new number to my family within a few days.

The Book Connection Guest Blogger Joel Savage

The book connection

 

Everyone has objectives, but not everything goes as planned for those who want to achieve something unique in society. I am one of them. I missed part of my education after the sudden death of my father. It occurred to me that if I really wanted to further my education, the only option was to travel to Europe. 

 

I wasn’t greedy, thinking that Europe makes one rich overnight, but I had an idea that if I succeeded in integrating legally, I could follow my dreams since they have the best educational facilities and good teachers.

Upon arrival in Europe, I realized that going to a foreign country could be very difficult in regard to financial aspects and visa applications, but nothing was more difficult than gaining legal immigrant status in a foreign country.

 

Like Paul’s missionary journey to Rome, I found myself sleeping in rough places, including the central train station and a deserted food factory. Rome might be a strong Catholic city, but it views foreigners, especially blacks, as people from an unknown, strange planet.

At the mission houses, amongst other foreigners, we continuously witnessed the abuse of young boys by the priests and the constant stealing of money from our letters that passed through the mission’s office, because we had no resident address. In Rome, I went to a school run by the ‘Caritas’ [Charity] under the umbrella of the Vatican City.

 

I could read and write Italian very well, but that didn’t help to facilitate my status as a legal immigrant. The continuous degradation, racism, and discrimination forced many immigrants from Africa to leave Rome as illegal immigrants, but I stayed, hoping for the best; however, the situation never changed.

After working as a houseboy to an Italian journalist, I saved enough money and moved to Amsterdam, leaving behind a year-old child and my wife in Africa. Holland is a multi-cultural country and far ahead in development and integration.

 

Unfortunately, the hard immigration policies and liberal laws on soft drugs have encouraged others to do hard drugs, thereby having a drastic effect on many people, including illegal immigrants. I saw the disastrous effects of drugs on many, but they turned a blind eye and pretended they didn’t know what was going on because the free sales of drugs are like a catalyst that sustains the tourism industry.

This was something I wanted to avoid, and the only way to prevent falling victim to depression and drugs was to fight for my documents after almost four and a half years as an illegal immigrant. One thing I didn’t understand was the drug issue.

 

The Dutch drug force in the past and present has successfully arrested drug couriers in the city and at Schiphol, the airport, but the coffee shops sell drugs, including marijuana, to customers without impunity. Who then supplies drugs to the coffee shops? This was a question I never found the answer to.

I never encourage crime or violence. I fear these two acts, and therefore, try my best to live a clean life. But to upgrade my status to a legal resident, I was involved in a serious crime, leading me to be behind bars. A Surinamese woman collected money from me with the promise of helping me get my papers. I didn’t know her, but I trusted her.

 

According to the police, she was a criminal preying on illegal immigrants. I was thrown behind bars for several days while my passport was with the immigration police. It was likely they were preparing my documents to be deported, as I foresaw my deportation to Africa to be very close.

One day, while behind bars, I had no bath and food for the whole day, even though every day the cell was opened for me to wash and be served food. The next day, when they served me food, I asked them why they had failed to give me my food the day before.

 

The officer thought I was joking, but he quickly realized I was speaking the truth. According to him, I was a very quiet person; therefore, the officers on duty failed to realize that there was someone in the cell. Because of this mistake, they gave back my passport and set me free. Today, I am a married Belgian national with three children.

 

Overseas Chronicle: The Rome and Amsterdam Experience

http://www.amazon.com/Joel-Savage/e/B008SCTYI6

AN AFRICAN IN ANTWERP, A resident's story

The tale of an African in Belgium


"I want the Belgian authorities to know that the media have failed to address the crime that is perpetrated on foreigners. I will publish it," -Joel Savage.


The Belgium-based African journalist Joel Savage has published a pocket-sized book, An African in Antwerp. It’s his true life experience and a personal encounter about how he lives in a city where one in three adults is known to vote for the Extreme Right Party. 

It is also in Antwerp where Ouleymatou, the African nanny, was gunned down with the toddler under her care in broad daylight in a racist attack by Hans Van Themsche in May 2006. Joel Savage’s pocketbook is handy, small, and easy to read. An hour of good reading.

An African in Antwerp explains in detail how immigrants are systematically abused and blackmailed by landlords, employers, and even friends. We’re under constant threat, and the Police do very little to help. 

It reminds me of the number of mixed-race couples I have known where African men are under constant pressure… “don’t do this or I will call the Police,” And in Europe.

 

The police come, every time they’re called, because if something really happens, they never want to be accused of negligence. And in any encounter with the police, the first thing they ask for is your Identification documents.

While Africans demand treatment with dignity in Europe, the same is still tricky in Africa. And honestly, a collective good treatment in foreign lands will remain a tricky issue as long as human rights issues are not dealt with decisively in Africa. 

In my opinion, the continued racism in Europe, America, and Australia has direct roots in Africa, and the day five nations like Nigeria, Egypt, South Africa, Kenya, and Congo will raise the dignity of their citizens to be at par with an acceptable international level, the world will be forced to respect Africa.

So in Joel’s book, it's very interesting to read how honesty and hard work have helped him thrive in a society that offers little to its black population. Belgium is a country traumatized by the loss of its colonial power in Congo. 

It was a painful divorce that the tiny European kingdom was not able to cope with. They like their selective memories of their past with the Congo, how they brought civilization to Africa. But not how King Leopold III annexed a country as big as the whole of Western Europe and one of the richest in the world, to his personal wealth portfolio.

The tyranny, killing, and raping of African women is not part of that good old past. Last year, the Belgian award-winning film producer Georges Kamanayo, himself a product of a Belgian colonial man in Africa, exclaimed that his picture and many other mixed children like him are missing in the beautiful family album.

 

The family album that Belgium so proudly presents everywhere is of a happy family. This year, the country is preparing to remember the World Expo held in Brussels in 1958. But man, this is 2008, and Africa has long gained independence. Joel Savage’s book is available in African shops in Belgium.

The updated book is now published in America as 'Little Boygium-Wonderful experience.' 

https://www.amazon.com/Little-Boygium-Experience-Joel-Savage-ebook/dp/B013SJ7DCW?