No Thanks, Kabila
Jan 25th, 2003 by Jinja
Every now and then this generic spammail floats around.
It seems the son of an African Dictator has an awful lot of money he wants
to share with lucky me:
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Your contact was availed to me by the chamber of
commerce. It was given to me because of my diplomatic
status as I did not disclose the actual reasons for
which I sought your contact. But I was
assured That you are reputable and trustworthy if you
will be of assistance.
I am Laurent Mpeti Kabila (Jnr) the second son of
Late President LAURENT DESIRE KABILA the immediate
Past president of the DEMOCRATIC REPUBLIC OF CONGO in
Africa who was murdered by his opposition through his
personal bodyguards in his bedroom on Tuesday 16th January, 2001.
I have the privilege of being mandated by my father colleagues
to seek your immediate and urgent co-operation to receive into
your bank account the sum of US $10,000,000(ten million Dollars)
and some thousands carats of Diamond.presently, i am with the
nederlands government seeking for political asylum.
This money and treasures was lodged in a vault with a
security firm in the nederlands.
SOURCES OF DIAMONDS AND FUND
In August 2000, my father as a defence minister and president
has a meeting with his cabinet and armychief about the defence budget
for 2000 to 2001 which was US $700m. so he directed one of his best
friend. Frederic Kibasa Maliba who was a minister of
mines and a political party leader known as the Union Sacree de,
I opposition radicale et ses allies (USORAL) to buy arms
with US $200m on 5th January 2001; for him to finalized the arm s
deal,my father was murdered. f.K. Maliba (FKM) and I have
decided to keep the money with a foreigner after which he will use it
to contest
for the political election. Inspite of all this we have resolved to
present your or your company for the firm to pay it into your
nominated account the above sum and diamonds. This transaction
should be finalized within seven (7) working days and for your
co-operation and partnership, we have unanimously agreed that you
will be entitled to 5.5% of the
money when successfully receive it in your account. The nature of your
business is not relevant to the successful execution of this
transaction what we require is your total co-operation and
commitment to ensure 100% risk-free transaction at both ends and to
protect the persons
involved in this transaction, strict confidence and utmost
secrecy is required even after the successful conclusion of this
transaction. If this
proposal is acceptable to you, kindly provide me with your personal
telephone and fax through my E-mail box for immediate
commencement of the transaction.
All correspondence is for the attention of my counsel:
I count on your honour to keep my secret, SECRET.
Looking forward for your urgent reply Thanks.
Best Regards
MPETI L. KABILA (Jnr)
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But if you’ve done your homework, you don’t want anything to do with Laurent
Kabila’s son and his ilk. It’s a messed up region of the world, that’s for sure.
Recommended reading:
King Leopold’s Ghost
or Philip Gourevitch
I don’t want your dirty money, Kabila!
And on the Activism tip:
Bruce Sterling on how to make an impact:
http://engaged.well.com/engaged/engaged.cgi?c=inkwell.vue&f=0&t=171&q=0-
When it comes to political activism, most everybody
wants to devote their attention to their own side;
the good people, the decent people, the People Like
Me, in other words. There is always a famine of
activists who can spend a lot of time studying the
enemy. Because that is disgusting, and it hurts
your head. You have to actually comprehend alien
ideas and revoltingly wrongheaded people who
are People Unlike You.
On the other hand, a good Opposition Research guy
has effects that are way, way out of proportion to
the scale of that endeavor. That is a rare political skill.
You don’t need any political charisma or organizational
skill to pull that one off, either. You can become a real hornet.
If you’re up for it, good luck with that.
