The Lord Works In Nigerian Ways...

I've posted a few times about "Nigerian money scams" - they're laughingly obvious and seem to follow a standard template. Here's a variation that I received recently...
"My Dear Beloved,
My name is Rev.Fr.Adam Coffin. I am 74 years old now. I have been suffering in the sick bed for the past 7 years at Queen Elizabeth Hospital, Woolworth. Now I believe that my time has come to join my ancestors in heaven. I got your email address from the Internet, as the spirit of Almighty God directed me to contact you for this charity work. I have US$11.1M deposited in a safe location in Europe, which I want you to claim on my behalf for an important charitable project.
Can you honestly do this for me?
Remain bless in the Lord.
Rev.Fr.Adam Coffin."
I'll give the scamsters a few marks for reworking their script, but they fail miserably at credibility e.g.:
+He got my "email address from the Internet"...but does not address me by name?
+He's on his death bed and his surname is COFFIN???
+He's been "in the sick bed for the past 7 years"??? Enough said!
+I can't find ANY hospital in Woolworth called Queen Elizabeth Hospital.
+How would a 'man-of-the-cloth' have accumulated US$11.1 million?
+If such a man did exist, wouldn't he donate his money directly to a worthy cause or his own church, rather than involving anyone else and paying them commission?
Oh puh-leez!

Whaling Now A NZ Political Football

Many New Zealanders were stunned when, at the recent meeting of the International Whaling Commission (IWC), NZ seemed to modify its long-held position...and support an idea to allow Japan, Norway and Iceland to openly hunt whales, but aim to reduce the total catch over the next 10 years.
Our government feels closing the "scientific research" loophole via a trade-off is a good diplomatic solution! Hello!! The only people who'd be joyous over this would be the whalers themselves!
Our IWC representative, Sir Geoffrey Palmer, calls it "enormous progress" if Japan was stopped from using the scientific whaling loophole. The only acceptable progress on this issue would be complete ceasation of commercial whaling [note that a 'gradual reduction' of kill numbers over the next ten years is not 'guaranteed ceasation' at the end of those ten years...].
Now the Labour Opposition's Foreign Affairs Spokesman Chris Carter has started an on-line petition, urging people to oppose a restart of commercial whaling. In a country that prides itself as clean-and-green and has always held the ocean and its contents in high regard, strong support for this petition will send a very clear message to PM John Key and Foreign Affairs monkey Murray McCully that a return to commercial whaling is not an option.
The online petition is at carter.org.nz/savethewhales or [click here]. And please...pass the word around.

PS: 22 March 2010 - Prime Minister John Key agrees killing whales is akin to murder but he is supportive of reaching an agreement to allow some whaling if it reduces the numbers taken. He is still hopeful of a diplomatic solution which will basically give the Japanese exactly what they want...and that's called "diplomacy"?

All Over Bar The Shouting...

Steve Irwin proudly returns

Sea Shepherd has wrapped up its 2010 campaign against the Japanese whaling fleet.
Steve Irwin and Bob Barker docked in Tasmania yesterday, greeted by a crowd of wellwishers...but also police with search warrants executed on behalf of Japan.
Onboard video material is being investigated, after a tumultuous whaling season that included a collision between another activist boat, Ady Gil, and a Japanese whaling ship, Shonan Maru 2, that led to AG sinking. AG's NZ captain Peter Bethune was later detained by Nasty Nippon after he boarded SM2 illegally.
Police also confiscated log books, charts and laptops, and interviewed some crew. They did not reveal the reason for their search, and the group has no idea what the Japanese complaints may be - guess!!! (Oz police also searched and seized evidence from SI in 2009 but there were no charges.)
Politically, the Australian Green Party is livid, saying it's "outrageous that Australian police are at the disposal of the Japanese whale killers." Meanwhile PM Kevin Rudd won't comment directly on the action but says the Government's position on Japanese whaling is clear. It will be interesting to see if Australia WILL hold true to its position - many hopes are resting on it.