Man, this is a good day. A great day! I won't have to work anymore, for the rest of my life!
Your winning Price of One Million Five hundred usd.($1.500,000USD) has been forwarded to Western Union Department for immediate transfer to you as soon as possible.
Contact: Customer Care Department Tel: 00 233 543 49 6991
Email: (customerservice.dept@qatar.io )
My name is Mrs.Beatriz Yusi, The wife of Albert Yusi who was coordinator of Bayan Muna for Misamis Oriental and Chairman of MOFA. He was gunned down and killed in our home in the Philippine on July 20th, 2008. Before my late husband was killed, I inherited from his estate a total sum of ($ 9.5 Million Dollars) Nine Million five Hundred Thousand Dollars (..) I made up my mind to give you 15 % of the total money for your help after the money has been transfer to your account.
Je voudrais solliciter votre accord à recevoir le transfert de 13.850.000 dollars,en tant que proche parent d'un de mes clients qui est décédé dont le compte est actuellement en veille, pour reclammation. Si vous voulez traiter cette affaire avec moi contactez moi immediatement. +2285249574
With the summer approaching, it is time to switch to another subject. Sailing.
"Master Steve", the instructor who guided me through most of my RYA theoretical qualifications, and brought me up to the level of a powerboat instructor, send me the video link above, shot in the British Virgin Islands by Wind In My Sails.
It is an ode to the "Credit Card Captains", those who have the financial means to charter a vessel, but have no freaking clue what sailing or navigating is all about.
In the past I wrote two similar stories about "Credit Card Captains", witnessed during our previous two trips to the BVI. One was from one from Anegada and an even worse case we witnessed in Virgin Gorda.
Of all the areas I have sailed so far, the BVI has the most dense population of "Credit Card Captains". Most of them, Americans who might never have sailed before, taking a yacht to sea, endangering others and themselves.
In Italy, talking on a mobile phone without an earpiece or microphone is punishable by law.
But I am not sure if the law actually has provisions if you talk on one phone, held in your right hand, while at the same time, you set the Email configuration of an other phone with your left hand.
While you are driving.
Let me correct that: While you are driving a bus full of people. In the middle of Rome.
I mean, after all, God gave men two hands, right? How else would you use the spare time in a traffic jam than calling up a helpdesk to configure the "Backke Barry" (sic) Email settings. Right?
Putting the amount of innocent victims into perspective...
This also means by invading Iraq and being unable to guarantee civil stability (a responsibility enforced by the Fourth Geneva Convention), the US has directly or indirectly killed more Iraqi civilians than Sadam ever did (989,788 versus about 600,000).
No matter how horrific the 9/11 attacks were. No matter how repressive the Ghadaffi's regime was - including clusterbombing his own people. Still, we, "the civilized world" should show higher ethics.
And we don't. We use "an eye for an eye" tactics, meeting violence with more violence, having our hate and mass hysteria lead us. That's why I have been upset with the world lately.
I think it is immoral to wildly celebrate the murder of a man, even if he was a criminal brain who killed thousands. The more so as Bin Laden was not a cause. He was a symptom. A symptom of a divided world, mostly caused by decennia of frauded US foreign policy. A policy rooted in expansionism, religious discrimination and a hunger to dominate economically and politically.
Now bin Laden is dead, will the world be a better place? I don't think so.
Even worse, what happens in Libya. I have no respect for a repressive leader. I have no respect for any leader turning his arms against his own people to stay in power. But I also have no respect for an international community who miss-uses a pretty clear Security Council resolution to topple a government. Even if it is a repressive government.
The mandate given by the UN Security Council resolution on Libya (#1970) is very clear: protect civilians under threat of attack, enforce a no-fly zone, an arms embargo and a freeze of assets.
This is not what NATO does. NATO is executing a clear support operation for the "rebels", in their attempt to topple Ghadaffi. And that includes attempts to kill Ghadaffi. And nobody cries foul, because Ghadaffi is the bad guy.
Not even if one of the assassination attempts kills Ghadaffi's 29 year old son, and three of Ghadaffi's grandsons. All younger than 12. Only the West can get away unpunished with killing three young boys without being accused of war crimes.
After toppling the Afghanistan and Iraq regime, it seems we are all too eager to open up new war fronts. Wars to which we know no end. Wars which will lead to years long of human suffering. As in Afghanistan and in Iraq.
I am upset with the West, right now. And sad. Even more so when I see people celebrating the death of a person, when I hear all the joy on Twitter, when I hear all the cries of "This is a good day for the nation, God bless America". Just like "Gott mit Uns", the motto of the German Nazis.
If there is a God, I am sure he does not bless wars. I am sure he does not bless the killing of three small boys. Even if they were the grandsons of a cruel dictator.
Meanwhile innocent civilians are getting slaughtered in Bahrain and Saudi Arabia. A civil uprising met with violent repression, very much like the one in Libya. But there... "Sssshhht, don't say a word! They are our allies!".
Despicable, that's all I can say. And we are all guilty of not crying foul.
Peter. Flemish, European, aid worker, expeditioner, sailor, traveller, husband, father, friend, nutcase. Not necessarily in that order.
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