13 January 2011

100 Planes Crash - 26,500 People Killed

Monday 13th December - My Last Day in Kenya

I could have stayed in bed all morning but as John Felix slept, I completed my packing and showered.  Moses was collecting us around 8.30 am and as it was only 8:00 am I had plenty of time.   “Come on John”, I coaxed, “Time to get up! What would you like for breakfast?”  Aware that he usually only had bread, I’d bought in juice and planned on having toast or even eggs.  As I wondered what time Moses would appear, I suddenly heard some guitar music playing.  “What’s going on?” I checked my watch – 8.05 am. I then thought I heard some unmistakeable laughter. “Surely, he’s not here already??” I opened my bedroom door and peered over the mezanine balcony.

“Good morning” chorused not only Moses, but Tatu, Vashni and Paul James.  As they played and sang, I saw that Eric had already made them welcome and given them breakfast.  What a wonderful sight to greet me and what a wonderful send off for this was the day I was leaving to return to France.

I dragged my heels on the way to the airport.  As for John Felix, he grew quieter and quieter .... wouldn’t eat any breakfast.  Eventually as we climbed out of the car at the airport, the tears came.  The little boy just cried and cried. We all tried to comfort him, but to no avail.  We all tried to explain that I had to leave but I was coming back.  As I pulled him onto my knee and hugged him close, his tears not to mention his nose ‘dribbled’ all down my clean t shirt.  I didn’t mind one bit.  It was as if every bit of emotion that child had been hanging on to for the last ten years was released there and then.  Eventually, we walked together around the perimeter fence and made our promises. I bit my lip handing John Felix over to his other 'mum', Tatu, I bit my lip as I said goodbye to Moses and Paul James, I bit my lip as I walked across the tarmac until I was safely inside the plane.....

So it’s now the middle of January.  My return to ‘normal’ life wasn’t quite so hard this time.  After my first trip, there were many nights when I would wake and not be able to go back to sleep worrying about all the kids.  This time has been different.  I look back on the photographs of Eric, Magdalena, Evelyn, John Felix, Ruth and her siblings and smile. Together we have made such a difference to their lives and I know that together we will continue to make it happen.

Bono famously said “If you want to eliminate hunger, everybody has to be involved”.  So my job now is to start by raising awareness. So just for a moment, I want you to imagine a newspaper headline that says, "One Hundred Jetliners Crash, Killing 26,500”. Think of the worldwide media frenzy and implications of this one event as everyone shared the shocking news. Now imagine, the very next day that another 100 jetliners crashed and another hundred the day after that, and then following day ….. but no one did anything about it. It is an unimaginable situation but it will happen today for the world's hungry children and it will continue to happen.  Almost 10 million children will be dead from hunger related causes in the course of this year. And then another 10 million next year and 10 million the year after that.

Let’s try and shrink the gap between the ‘haves’ and the ‘have nots’ of this world. A single airline crash can dominate the news for days so why does the equivalent of 100 planes, each filled with children, crashing on a daily basis, never reach our ears?

Each one of us has a something we can contribute. Whether that is Thomas letting me use his Air Miles for my flights or taking over my role with Guy and Kitty whilst I’m away, Angela sending over a bag of fabric for Violet to practice her sewing on, maybe buying some chickens in place of giving someone an ‘unwanted’ wedding gift, everyone has something of value they can offer be it financial or otherwise. I have prepared a short presentation on my Africa experiences – if you’re looking for a guest speaker for an event you are holding, then please get in touch – I’m willing to travel.

 Thank you for allowing me to raise your awareness!  My next instalment will be after the Easter break when I return to Kenya, this time with Guy and Kitty.

11 January 2011

Con Artists

Drivers in France have been warned to be on the lookout for a hitchhiker who is adept at swindling money out of motorists with a string of elaborate stories. Known as ‘Max the Swiss Hitchhiker’, the man manages to talk food, transport and accommodation out of unwitting drivers by telling them he is either a businessman, grandfather or academic whose car has been stolen.

He is so charming that he has been invited home with many a motorist and given a bed for the night. He then invites his hosts to visit his chalet in the Swiss Alps, which, of course, does not exist. He also vows to pay them back for their hospitality, but the promised cheque never arrives.

Because he does not actually ask for money - motorists always offer to help after hearing his sob stories, and whilst some of them do give him money - Max cannot be convicted of fraud.

In a recent case brought by three drivers who spotted him on a bus in central France, he was found not guilty, despite failing to appear in court.

This fraudster is similar to an ‘English spoken’ con artist who targeted people coming out of Nice airport. He did ask for money, usually 50 euros, on the basis that he’d lost his wallet, promising to send it back which he never did. He was very successful in extracting cash but so brazen that his luck eventually ran out and he was lifted, convicted by the French courts and sent to prison.

This happened to me in London a few years ago when a young guy stopped me just as I was leaving the tube station, heading for my hotel. He claimed he had lost his wallet and only needed £5 to help him get a train ticket to get home to one of London’s suburbs. He was so good, he even asked me for a business card so he could send the money back.

I gave him the £5, it was Christmas after all, and went on my way wishing him luck but as I walked to my hotel, I felt something wasn’t quite right.

I walked back to the station expecting to see him asking other people for the rest of his train fare but he was waiting for the public phone to become free. I managed to get quite close to him without him noticing and heard him quite clearly say to the person on the other end of the line, ‘it’s ok I’ve got £5, I’ll get another couple of fivers and I’ll buy the booze before I get to your place.’

As he turned round, I approached him and said I felt mean and that if he gave me the £5 back, I’d given him his full train fare (I was holding out a tenner).

He gave me the £5, I told him where to go, and left him fuming. I’d managed to scam a scammer!  

And with that, I’m stopping my daily blog, which for the last 624 days (excluding holidays and weekends) has taken not a lot of my time, but enough to prevent me from concentrating on my book.

I’ll still post a blog if I’ve something to say, but for the last week or so (you’ve probably noticed) I’ve been struggling, so from now on I will not be posting a blog for the sake of it, it’ll be posted when there’s groundbreaking news of some sort or another!



10 January 2011

Watch it Guys – The Missus Could Put You in the Slammer

A husband is facing five years in jail after ‘hacking’ into his wife's email. He suspected that his wife was having an affair and read her emails without her permission.

Leon Walker has been charged under anti-hacking laws aimed at preventing identity theft in the United States. The 33-year-old had suspected his wife Clara, who had been married twice before was having an affair with her former husband.

He is alleged to have used his computer skills to gain access to her email account on the shared home computer and discovered a series of emails which confirmed his suspicions that his wife was cheating on him.
When he confronted his wife, she knew he could only have obtained the information he used from her e-mail account, so she promptly had him arrested.

When I read this I thought of how things work in our house. Nobody is allowed to touch Guy’s PC and he probably has an interface and software on it which would render it useless to us mere mortals in any case. Kitty’s PC is used simply for photos and MSN – there’s nothing else on it which would make it useful to a normal internet user. My laptop is still waiting to go down to Antibes to get fixed and so J and I share her trusty Toshiba but with her travelling netbook and her iPad, she generally uses those, leaving me with the laptop.

The thing is, we all know each other’s passwords so if I found some naughty e-mails between J and the security guard at the Cap 3000 mall, whom she probably sees more than me, could I be arrested and thrown in the local slammer? 

Another case of the US laws being a bit over the top or could it spread to Europe?

Of course, it doesn’t help when guys such as me have the delectable Meg Ryan announcing, ’Three little words – you’ve got mail’, whenever something arrives in our mailbox. Get a copy of the wav file at the URL below and copy it to your ‘Windows/Media’ folder usually found on your ‘C’ drive and then assign it to your mail notification sound on your Control Panel.

http://simplythebest.net/sounds/WAV/events_WAV/email_wavs.html