I hear you, but only 30% right now

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Ok, enough complaining about this week, it was also the week I found out about the MTN code. MTN is my cell phone company here, and on Monday I was with my co-worker, complaining about my mintues running out yet again, and he says "Oh, you don't have the code, do you?" I turned to him, intrigued, since this sounded like he was about to plant a chip in the back of my neck or dial up a satellite image on his watch. Instead, he grabs my phone, punches a few keys, hits # then send, and hands it back to me. "Now go ahead and call me," he says. So I do, and on my phone up pops "MTN Discount: 80%" meaning my phone call is now 80% cheaper than normal. But even with that discount, I hang up quickly, since the person I just called is right in front of me, and that would just be wasteful. I look at him with a "huh?" and he just says, "it's a promotion they've got," and he doesn't know how or why it started, but at this point it's basically a phone-bill chain letter, so I guess I better pass this along to five people in the next week or I will suffer a great illness or something ominous like that. The weirdest part: The discount rate is totally random. Sometimes it's 80%, sometimes 30%, sometimes nothing, which makes calling someone a bit like gambling, but just a bit.

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Comments

[kjell]

thats brilliant. we should institute that here. people love to gamble. i would make 30% more calls just to see what kind of discount i was getting.

[Omar]

Great Commentaries
Rafe - these are great commentaries from Ghana. keep us posted

[MC]

Like the unlimited funds code from SimCity
MazeCo, So Flanny has to leave the country every September-October and now you have to leave every May-June. It would be nice to have a local sports team win it all without a close friend in exile, but if that’s the price that must be paid so be it. Keep up the blog. I love hearing about your international shenanigans. Btw: A buddy of mine from the EPA who specializes in Environmental Justice is a native of Ghana. A friend of his, a student at the London School of Economics, is working on a micro-finance initiative in Ghana this summer. Look for his contact info in your email in the next few days. Lay off the FuFu.