SMS Headlines

IRAN SHUTS DOWN TEXT MESSAGING
In a sudden and abrupt move, the Iranian government instituted a policy of gasoline rationing. They released notices encouraging citizens to use their personal automobiles as little as possible and to share rides if they had to. Unfortunately the news was so unexpected that even police and gas station owners were slow to respond resulting in long lines of people already angry at the constantly increasing cost of living. Angry motorists reacted violently and nineteen stations were attacked by organized mobs. To assist in the prevention of further mob scenes, the authorities switched off the SMS messaging system in Tehran overnight to prevent motorists from being able to organize.

SMS VERSUS CONFERFEIT VODKA
Starting soon, Russians will be able to utilize SMS to ensure that the Vodka they are drinking is legitimate. By sending the serial number located on the bottle to a designated short code, they will get a response via text verifying or denying the product. The project is an initiative by state run Rosspirtprom, the company responsible for the sale of 60% of strong alcohol in the country and the distributor of the top brands.

The sale of counterfeit vodka is a huge problem in Russia, not just because it hurts the major brands sales, but because the counterfeit drinks are filled with cologne water, antifreeze liquids or pure alcohol. Fake vodka is responsible for 40,000 deaths each year. This easy and efficient method of preventing counterfeit vodka will hopefully assist in the decrease of unnecessary deaths in the country.

SMS BREAKS UP MARRIAGES IN KENYA
Allafrica.com has reported that cell phones are assisting in the divorce rate amongst couples. This conclusion is based upon the results of an opinion poll commissioned by the Sunday Nation that revealed that, for many couples, spying on each other has become a fulltime preoccupation. The poll shows that 47.3 percent of the respondents have been actively engaged in domestic espionage in the last three months and that 42.8 percent of the respondents revealed they secretly read their partners SMS messages regularly.

According to psychologists, marriage counselors, and the church, marriages have been put to the test by this tendency of a spouse to scroll through their partner’s messages. Of course, there’s nothing to worry about if there’s nothing risqué on the phone to begin with but the increase of cell phones in Africa have also seemingly increased the trend of casual affairs. Where as before, households were only equipped with landlines and thus lacked the amount of privacy individual cell phones offer, people may have been more hesitant to pursue an affair in the first place. With the cell phone comes privacy, with privacy comes potential secrecy and once these secrets are discovered, disaster may ensue.