BlackMan Time

Archive for November, 2006

I met a woman from the Philippines yesterday and she opened my eyes about a relatively new craze particularly sweeping the big cities in that country. Women are flocking to the internet there in droves because they have found there’s gold in them there hills!

The scheme is simple. They find a friendly foreigner – Americans or Europeans are the current favourites – then they feed them hard luck stories. These can be anything from “a tsunami/hurricane/typhoon blew away my house; could you send me some money to help me rebuild it” to “my mother/aunt/granny is sick; could you send some money so that I can pay her hospital bill.”

Faced with the real-time webcam images of these typically beautiful Asian women, mature men with more money than sense, or maybe seeking adventures further than their immediate fields, are being persuaded to wire thousands of US dollars into local accounts.

Predictably (or is it bewilderingly?!) the moment these funds are cleared in the women’s accounts, the Phili beauties suddenly disappear. Another scam well done and the poor (sic) unsuspecting men are then left wondering what a fool they’ve been.

This scam is apparently so successful for some women that there is an increase in the number of other Pilipino women logging on as news gets around that surfing the net is profitable business!

Have you got any experience of this?

Just this week I was on my way to have an important chat with an organisation about a project. I arrived in a rush at London’s Victoria station and walked briskly to an address near there.

As I waited at a pedestrian crossing a woman of eastern European appearance, resembling what some would call a “gypsy”, approached me with a tiny flower. Without invitation the woman was about to pin this flower into my suit lapel, while simultaneously saying: “God bless you sir!”

I don’t know what came over me but my spirit reacted to this in an uncharacteristically violent way! The only word that came out of my mouth was a loud and vociferous “No!” But the woman tried to pin the flower again and the second “No!” was even more deafening. She backed off and said: “alright then…” and I continued my journey.

Some time back I remembered having a conversation with a friend about if someone has good intentions towards you and wishes you well, you should take it in the good grace it’s been given. They suggested if I didn’t maybe bad luck might follow me! I didn’t dismiss it as mere mumbo jumbo. But neither did I embrace it either.

On this occasion, however, I simply took great exception to this woman touching me, let alone pinning a “good luck charm” on me. I had no idea what kind of hex she was introducing me to and at that moment I didn’t want to know!

Then I reasoned with myself that if she was indeed trying to bless me with good luck which I rejected then maybe I would not be successful with my project proposal. If, on the other hand, I was successful then maybe I did the right thing in rejecting her…

My proposal was successful so you’ll have to guess which way the verdict went!

There can be no doubt now that the vast majority of America hates what George W. Bush has done in Iraq. Now, they want their fellow American soldiers out of the region and Bush out of the White House.

This is the overall verdict after Bush’s Republican Party suffered massive defeats in the US mid-term elections yesterday. Donald Rumsfeld, Bush’s military architect in Iraq, has resigned and if Bush had any sense of pride (yeah, right!) he would do the same thing too. But no, he’s still going on about how America’s presence in Iraq has made the region safer, blah blah blah, etc. and is clinging on for dear life for the remaining two years of his presidency.

The results also saw the Democrats regain control of the House of Representatives for the first time since they lost it in 1994 mid-term elections. And they have now won control of the Senate too!

With this damning indictment Bush is in great danger of ending up a lame duck, unable to pass key legislation because of Democratic dominance in Congress. This, of course, is brilliant news for those who regard Bush as nothing more than an empty-headed, full-of-rhetoric, war-mongering, oil-stealing president.

But what chances are there that the next man won’t be just as bad as Bush? Hopefully, the next man will be a woman in the form of Hillary Clinton! I’m sure a woman leading the world’s biggest economy will do a better job. Maybe women’s maternal instincts better prepare them for not pushing for wars that could see the sons and daughters of other mothers killed in the name of oil.

We shall have to wait and see.

One of the remarkable things about a hurricane is that if you ever get stuck, caught or stricken by one, it’s not necessarily the devastation you remember the most, it’s the survival!

Sure you may remember: how your roof became airborne or that walls crumbled or shook, water flooded the house, absence of electricity, phone, fuel and candles become your good friend.

You may even remember having to stay in, compelled to have conversations with neighbours or associates you’d stop speaking with long ago. Suddenly, you discover battery-powered radio and wonder why you’ve neglected it so!

As you struggle through the ordeal it is all hardship, but when you get through it you feel relief and a great sense of achievement that you survived. Memories like those stay with you for life. Maybe it’s those moments which define who we are because it defines character. When you emerge you are stronger for it…

Is it the same principle with stormy relationships? Does the climate here bond you closer? Or does it tear you irreparably apart?

It’s predictable that one or two people would be in a huff after my comments yesterday. These misguided few still think that Saddam Hussein is the reason why there’s trouble in the Middle East or the mastermind behind the Twin Tower bombings.

While they are happy to berate me for being so forthright in my views against the Bush government and its triumphalism on the capture and conviction of Saddam, they conveniently forget that Saddam wasn’t even involved in any of the above events.

Yet, Bush was quick to launch “War on Terror” to great media furore, ostensibly to find, kill or convict those behind the bombing. But, to date, so-called terrorist number one, Osama Bin Laden, is still at large; Al Qaeda and the Taliban have grown in stature locally, while public opinion against Bush and America’s $100 billion a year involvement in Iraq is the highest they’ve ever been.

Thus, to people who care to look beyond the surface, the so-called “fair trial” of Saddam is just a sleight of hand to district people from the real situation. The cracks that are being covered include Bush failures: in the Middle East generally, to nail the main culprits allegedly behind the Twin Towers bombing and to have made little or no progress in his so-called “War on Terror.”

Far from “making the world a safer place”, what Bush and co has in fact done is made it a far more unsafe one. It’s now a world where governments are trampling over civil rights and liberties citing the “fight against terrorism” as an excuse, yet what is there to celebrity in reality?

I challenge anyone, except the politically blind or naive, to argue the contrary!

I really wish ex-world heavyweight boxer Frank Bruno would stop using cocaine and apologising in the press about it. When it first happened and he made headlines when he entered a psychiatric institution to deal with his problems, many had big sympathy for him. He even won an award for his recovery efforts.

We all thought he was on the mend, as opposed to being round the bend!

Now, with news of this latest incident comes a “oh, no! Not again…” from among people I am regularly in contact with. I only hope he can get back on track. But then again it’s going to be difficult, if not impossible because since quitting boxing Frank has not really had a track to get back on.

I really hope he doesn’t do a Mike Tyson and announce a boxing comeback. And then retire. Then comeback. Then retire. Then comeback. Then…

Whilst online the other day, a very attractive lady from Nigeria (that’s what her photograph show anyway!) added me to her instant messaging account. I accepted and soon we were talking.

Within 30 minutes, this mysterious beauty, whom I’d only just met, was asking me to arrange a flight, ticket and accommodation for her to London from Lagos. Every part of my cautious instincts flagged up. This was not the first time this has happened and it seemed that it’s only women from Africa who are this brazen.

Offline I wondered whether this was a new way to scam people: find a photo of a handsome/attractive person, start a profile on a messaging service, log on and pitch the bogus identity!

Obviously, I may truly be wrong but I think any sensible person would realise that you can’t expect to be successful if you come on so strong with someone you hardly know, so soon. Maybe this technique work with other more gullible souls!

Is there anyone out there with similar stories?

I’ve never bought into any kind of government hype or hoopla. I simply don’t trust the people who are elected to govern because their motives are usually not as wholesome as most people realise. There are, of course, many reasons why this is so. These include greed, power, pride and self-importance.

You could use this logic, I suppose, to justify why it would be good if America and its allies don’t succeed in Iraq. It should by now be crystal clear that they arrived there after lying to their respective governments and even after their lies were exposed they made up more lies to justify remaining there.

So, for me, America, et al, being in Iraq is like a thief who breaks into your house and steals your prized possessions because s/he can. And just because that thief has the support of many people still does not justify the thieving act. In that scenario you should be congratulated if you repel the thief, inflicting a bullet wound (or two!) even.

The property owner should be the one seen as a hero if they manage to stop the thief. So, why, I ask myself, is America and its allies, seen as heroes and the local people, Iraqi property holders (the press calls them “insurgents”) seen as the villains?

It is clearly abundant that the Iraqi people, like people anywhere else, do not like the idea of being slaves in their own homes or having foreign forces occupying their land and dictating to them. But, in order to get away with such thievery America and its allies, backed by the media (which is mainly American owned anyway), report these developments favourably to America.

This may put a “positive” face on it but the fact remains that a great theft is happening right under our noses, and the thieves are being seen as the heroes and the victims, many young and innocent, as the villains.

Surely, that can’t be right…

Technology, always heralded as a good thing, is emerging with sinister potential to intrude into our lives. To illustrate this, last night I was out walking in my area. I looked up and into the night sky and counted around six CCTV (closed circuit television) cameras on my journey from my front door to the high street. It dawned on me that suddenly my movements could be (or actually were) monitored!

I started thinking about the implications, considering the other measures I know aready in the pipeline or introduced. These include a national ID card, much biometric details being required on passports, the DNA finger printing of everyone, regardless of whether they had committed a crime or not and internet satellite maps which allow others to zoom in to your house or whereabouts without you knowing.

Don’t forget legislation, already passed, to snoop on internet users, or track users via their mobile phones, coupled with information gleaned from customers using shopping loyalty cards (like Nectar or integrated travel cards like Oyster). With all this technology you have the perfect framework to always know what individuals are doing, either to market stuff to them, surveil or control them.

Civil liberties, take a back seat!

Whether we like it or not we are being watched and not just by Big Brother! There are an estimated four million CCTV cameras in the UK. We are filmed an average of 300 times each day. More intrusive technology are being introduced without our knowledge. Are you really happy with all of this? Or, do you take the view “I’m not doing anything wrong so I don’t have to worry?”

Maybe there’s no cause for alarm but maybe your personal secrets should remain…erm…secret!

That old racist PW Botha died yesterday and try as hard as I can, I still cannot find enough space in my heart to hate him or be glad that he is dead. There’s certainly no love for a hateful, barbarous human butcher like that, but I find rejoicing over his death unrewarding, unfulfilling and not gratifying!

Maybe if he was killed by an African freedom fighter during the time when he was leading a white-dominated, apartheid-infested, South Africa (from 1978 to 1989) then it would have been a definite cause celebre. As it stands today, given that he lived to the ripe old age of 90, while the family of those he slaughtered are still suffering, does make you wonder about poetic justice.

But, then again, maybe this is not the end and who knows what awaits him in hell…