Month: November 2004

Ebony Encounters

Near the edge, she stood, alone, overlooking the green grassy field that sloped down to the stream. Not tall, not assuming and not showy, her simplicity made her even more alluring. As we neared, we could see how callous time had been to her. The years were truly showing – the gnarled roots, the weather beaten bark, the humps where branches once stretched out from. She had stood there for as long as I could remember, stout and unwavering, through the generations, where she provided relief from the elements to many.

After a leisurely walk around the Botanical Gardens, Mum, Wuan and I sought some respite under her outstretched branches. The sun was beginning to scorch down on us. Fascinatingly, it was soothingly cool beneath her domed crown of lustrous green foliage. As we rested, we felt the vigour slowly returning. Despite the buzz of the afternoon crowd, we experienced serenity under her copious shade.

How much she had seen, we wondered. Surely she was privy to the sweet whispers between lovers as they leaned on her. She must have heard the delighted shrieks of children playing catch around her sturdy trunk. Unquestionably, she would also have quietly observed elderly couples reminisce about the years gone by as she unfailingly breathed some youthfulness into them again, as she had done time and again.

Yes, this ebony tree has witnessed them all and will continue to play witness for many generations to come. She knows untold human pain and passion. She knows the joys of being children, the carefree bliss of young lovers and the contentment of couples in their twilight years. Each time we seek refuge under her, she imparts to us a little of her wisdom of the ages. In turn we leave with her some part of ourselves to be silently chronicled, never to be told, never to be revealed.

One day, Wuan and I will retrace the steps that we took with Mum. We want to visit an old acquaintance. Mum left behind some part of herself with her. Wuan and I did too. Perhaps under her outstretched arms, we may discover something about ourselves we never knew. Perhaps under her comforting shadow, I may be able to relive some beautiful moments that I had with Mum and Dad when I was just a little boy trampling all over the green grassy slopes that she had watched over from her vantage point.

Babysitting Joel

The monotony of the afternoon was shattered by squeals of delight from my grandnephew. Yes! I am a granduncle already ? has been one to several grandnephews and grandnieces for many years now. Eight-month old Joel is Elaine?s second child. Elaine is Peter?s daughter. Elaine is at the hospital looking after Janelle, Joel?s elder sister, who was afflicted with a persistent fever that refused to go away.

Peter and wife went to visit Janelle and dropped Little Joel here for the maid to look after as babies are not allowed into the wards. I got breathless just watching this little thing waltzing all over my apartment in his walker. When I was on the phone with Wuan, he gawked at me and yelped again and again, wanting to talk into the phone too. Thankfully he was here for a couple of hours only. He would have totally exhausted me had he stayed any longer.

Spammers and Scammers

Over the weekend, I banned several IP addresses from accessing my entire website. Not only are these IPs used to spam my blog with casino, pharmaceuticals, porn and a bunch of other useless ads, they have flooded my web statistics table with their addresses as well. MT-Blacklist, the blog spam comment filter, works fine but there were instances where offending comments have to be manually deleted because the URLs were not in the blacklist yet. In spite of the annoyance they have caused, I have to give it to the spammers for their persistence and creativity in circumventing the blacklist by continually using new URLs and changing the strings in their messages. The most notorious IP used to spam my blog is from 80.58.*.* which was traced to an ISP in Spain.

On a similar subject, I am amazed by the Nigerian email scammers. They have truly evolved. The norm was to send a run-of-the-mill message telling recipients that they could be the beneficiary to 10% of a US$15 million fortune of some dead African despot. Recently, I got chatted up in Yahoo Messenger by a man claiming to be a barrister representing the estate of some dead but rich Singaporean who had lived in Togo. If I was not in a hurry to go out that evening, I could already have a tidy sum of money sitting in my bank account by now. Sigh!

And then there were those who used religious undertones in their emails hoping to make it more convincing. For those who have been praying to God to let them strike the Big Sweep jackpot, an alternative windfall like this truly looks like heaven sent. Going by the abundance of these emails that I have been receiving, if I had replied to each and every one of them, a million here, two million there, before I know it, I would already be one of Malaysia’s richest men.

On a serious note, I would like to know how much these scammers are raking in from their activities. They say that there is a fool born every minute. Some are greedy too, This is where the greedy fools and their money are soon parted. The Nigerian Email Scam is also known as 419 (named after the Nigerian Penal Code for fraudalent schemes like this) and the Advanced Fee Fraud. Apparently, this is a thriving activity in several African states and the third largest industry in Nigeria. Despite many being taken in by this scam, many gullible ones still fall for it. This goes on to show that there are always suckers to be had.

Email #1
Good day and compliment,I am writing this letter in confidence believing that if it is the wish Of God for you to help me and my family, God almighty will bless and Reward you abundantly. My family and I are true Christians and worship’s God truthfully.
I got Your contact through Internet during my research on some one who could Help us. I am a female student Of University of Nigeria,Lagos. I am 22 yrs old. My fathers died earlier two months ago and left my Mother I and my brother behind.He Was a king, which our town citizens titled him before his death I was a Princess to him and I and my brother are the only people who Can take Care of his wealth now because my mother is not literate enough
To know all my fathers wealth behind.He left up to USD 10,350,000.00 million dollars[Ten million three Hundred and fifty dollars] with a security Company, and I dont know how and what I will do to invest this money Somewhere in abroad, so that my fathers kindred will not take over what Belongs to my father and our family, which they were planning to do Without my present because I
am a female as stated by our culture in the Town.That is why I felt happy when I saw your contact which I strongly believe that by the grace of God, you will help me secure And invest this money.I thereby need your help in bringing the box Containing the money out from the security company.
Based on your reply I Will furnish you with more details on how we can proceed. I am ready to pay 20% of the total amount to you if you help us in Securing this money and another 10% interest of Annual Income to you, for investing this money for us, which you will strongly have absolute Control Over.If you can handle this project sincerely and also willing
to assist me In lifting this fund, kindly reach me and I will let you know the next Step to take towards actualizing this transaction as quickly as Possible. Please,note that this transaction is 100% risk free.

Email #2
Wa-Salaam w’Ala ikum, walhamdililahi wabarakato, I hope you are in Peace of our dear Allah, May he Bless you abundantly.? I guess you might be astonish to receive this request from me, as am still a stranger to you. Before proceeding, I will like to introduce myself a little bit to you, my name is MUSA ALI , the son of ALI AL-BAJAJI , popularly known as ALI Chemicals in Iraq.

My dad was killed by the coalition forceses of America, during their attack in our country as the war is still going on, with what is still going on in our country, the American want to take over the whole places and no one knows what is going to be the result, that is why I am drawing your attention to the total sum of US$ 7.2 Million (seven million tow hundred thousand United States dollars) which my father have been storing in one of his private room in our compound. That was moved out of our country with the help of one United Nation to Malaysia. This money was moved successfully and now we need a truthful and honest person to help us transfer this money to his/her account, as we don’t know our father’s foreign account details. (Due to his sudden death)

But before the American could take cover of our country we have manage to move this money to Kuala Lumpur in Malaysia, with the help of United Nations, and at this very moment this money is in the office of the United Nation in Malaysia. We are seeking for your urgent assistance to help us go to Malaysia and I will be giving you the contact details of the agency in Malaysia, for you to be able to go there and transfer this money into your private or company account, for us to have future again in our life, as we have lost our beloved dad.

For your kind interest and willingness to help us, we will be giving you 15% of the total money, and the remaining 85% will be for us.If then you are interested please don’t hesitate to write me back for
more details on how this transaction can be done.