a letter from Princess Ugonma...

She wrote:

Dear Sir/Madam

My Name is Princess Ugonma daughter of the late HRH King Jonathan Etem King of Eleme Kingdom. I am 29 yrs hold and a mother of A son By Name Tony Etem I am in desperate need of your assistant concerning my family wealth.

My Mother was the first wife to the late King before her painful death. By the virtue of our African culture. When the King dies he is succeeded by the first son. Which is my elder brother Afam Etem But this was not possible because my step mother the Second wife to my Father wanted her own son to become the King. They, My Stepmother and her children conspired and killed my elder brother.

At first I did not know why they hated us that much. I though it was just for the throne which I had always advised my brother to let go but he wouldnt. He will always tell me that I do not understand. Until he almost gave-up the ghost. He told be that The Shell Petroleum Committee Nigeria in the course of Community development and benefits to King of the Oil producing community Deposited Into My late fathers account The sum of $46,000,000,00 ( Fourthy Six Million USD) In one of the Local Banks here In my country Nigeria. He also Gave me the Deposited Slip of the Fund in This Bank. He Told me that this is the main reason my stepmother wants him dead. I ran away with the Document he gave me and went into hiding with my only son whom is that only family I have got.

I need you help I need to start a new life. I want you to help me claim this fund and make arrangement for my son and I to start a new life in Your Country. If you will be willing to help me please do respond back to me

God Bless
Ugonma

I replied:

Dear Princess,

I think I know how to best help you. I think you should write to our Prime Minister. He is a most compassionate and helpful man. If there is anyone in this country you can trust with $46,000,000, it's our Prime Minister. He is a good Christian.

You can email him: http://www.pm.gov.au/contact/index.cfm

God bless,

Gerry

joining a few dots...

Ok, ready for a bit of reading?

No? Well, now might be a good time to resume your vapid internet browsing...

Oh... You're still here???

Right!!!

First dot: Iraq.

Second Dot: Iran.

Third dot: World War III

Of course, it's nothing to do with you or your need to maintain your "lifestyle", is it? You'll just unobtrusively play dumb, while the mass murder and pillage "necessary" to prop up our corrupt economies tears the world apart. All in the name of "economic growth" and the "benefits" you demand from it.

And you won't feel the need to hit the streets on the eve of the coming air attacks on Iran. All in the name of "freedom and democracy" of course.

And you won't feel the need to hit the streets on eve of the coming air attacks on China. All in the name of "freedom and democracy" of course.

And afterwards you'll say "Don't blame me... What could I have done?"

And the band played "Watzing Matilda"

A fatwa upon Iran...

Amnesty International (UK) is hosting an email campaign to get the Iranian authorites to provide urgent medical treatment for a jailed trade unionist.

So I addressed mine to each of the following:

Ayatollah Sayed ‘Ali Khamenei - Leader of the Islamic Republic of Iran
Ayatollah Mahmoud Hashemi Shahroudi - Head of the Iranian Judiciary
Rasoul Movahedian - Ambassador to the UK.

And I said:

Is Islam merciful? I am beginning to doubt it. I will explain...

I understand that Mansour Ossanlu has been advised by the prison doctor of Evin Prison that he is at risk of losing his eyesight unless he received medical treatment for his condition within the next two weeks. I urge you to ensure that Mansour Ossanlu is seen by a qualified doctor and receives urgent treatment by an eye specialist.

I respectfully remind you that every prisoner has the right to adequate medical attention and that you are responsible for prisoners' wellbeing.

I am very concerned that Ossanlu appears to be held solely on account of his peaceful trade union activities, in which case he should be released immediately and unconditionally. I remind you of the obligations of Iran under ICCPR Article 22 (1) and ILO conventions 87 and 98, which provide for the right to form and join trade unions.

I would be grateful if you could explain why Mansour Ossanlu was rearrested on 10 July, and for you to let me know details of any charges he is facing.

As a priority, I urge the authorities to ensure that he is given immediate and regular access to his lawyers, and his family.

In the name of Allah The Merciful, please stop your repression of good people just because they do not agree with you.

Sincerely,

(name)

Now it's your turn... Go on... Go to the link above and have your say...

Go on...

HoWARd's history...

In today's Sydney Morning Herald, cartoonist Cathy Wilcox neatly nails it...

leadership with a use-by date...

I'm not disgusted with freedom and democracy. I'm disgusted with the people of free and democratic countries as they sleepwalk their way towards fascism and a trashed planet.

SWMBO thinks a limited number of terms of office for leaders is a great thing to prevent criminals like George Bush and the NeoCons from hijacking the people. I disagreed with her.

The concept is flawed. It is a lazy concept. It throws the good leaders out with the bad. At a time when good leaders are as scarce as hen's teeth, if we did actually manage to find one, we'd have to throw him or her out after (say) two terms. It's leadership with a use-by date. It's crap.

And why? Because we don't trust voters or the democratic process. Maybe that's a part of it. But I think it's primarily because we're trying to abrogate our responsibilities as citizens of a democracy.

We won't hit the streets in large numbers, and stay there till the problem is fixed, if we see our leadership do some really really wrong thing. We won't vote with our feet.

Ultimately, we're afraid to be hurt or killed by the stormtroopers. Would such people even deserve to retain their freedom and democracy?

Take the Iraq war for instance. If all of the people who were seriously opposed to the war (over a hundred million in the US, and over five million here in Oz) all started moving (nonviolently) towards their respective national capitals, staging peaceful rallies in the cities along the way, there would have been no war. Bush and Howard would have backed down long before the building crescendo of peaceful people power gridlocked their capitals, causing their corrupt regimes to topple.

Democracy is all about peaceful people power. Use it, or loose it. And make no mistake about it... It has a use-by date...

outsourcing intelligence...

Now, some of you might have noticed my tendency towards being a tad cynical.

I blame reality...

You know how the bastards who sent our troops to Iraq hid behind excuses like "faulty intelligence" once they had nowhere else to hide? Well now they've found a new scam: Intelligence contractors.

Yep, they're outsourcing the task of intelligence gathering.

Think about the advantages... If they get caught torturing people, the government can deny all responsibility. If they get caught out acting on contrived intelligence, the government is not to blame.

And what about the contractors... The temptation to fit the intelligence "gathered" to the foreign policy agenda of the government of the day must be overwhelming...

Want to read more? Try the Washington Post and Corpwatch.

Wars in future might be set up like this: The government buys the "intelligence" it needs for a particularly convenient war, then they send in the mercenaries to do the job. If it all goes bad, "we were let down by the contractors"... Neat, eh?

Of course you know who pays for all this, don't you...

it's getting serious, but why bother yourself...

A union activist killed in Guatemala...

Blogs shut down in Britain...

Activists and ISPs sued in India...

What does it all mean?

It means Big Money doesn't like freedom of speech, workers' rights, or trade unions.

Who'd a thunk it...

*thanks for the heads-up to Eric Lee at LabourStart and Brownie.