I’m getting a lot of scam emails at the moment and they are all so laughably bad that it makes me wonder how anyone ever falls for them.
Like this morning’s effort, from ‘Johnson Komo’ of the Ivory Coast:

From Johnson Komo

Abidjan, Ivory Coast

Telephone No +225 08074826



My Dear one,


Permit me to inform you of my desire of going into business relationship with you. I got your name and contact from the Ivoirian chamber of commerce. I prayed over it and selected your name among other names due to its esteeming nature and the recommendations given to me as a reputable and trust worthy person that I can do business with and by the recommendation , I must not hesitate to confide in you for this simple and sincere business .

I am Johnson Komo the only Child of late Mr. and Mrs.Joseph Komo. My father was a very wealthy cocoa merchant in Abidjan , the economic capital of Ivory coast, my father was poisoned to death by his business associates on one of their outings on a business trip .

My mother died when I was a baby and since then my father took me so special. Before the death of my father on october 2007 in a private hospital here in Abidjan he secretly called me on his bed side and told me that he has the sum of Ten million,five hundred thousand United State Dollars. USD ($10,500,000.00) left in fixed / suspense account in one of the prime bank here in Abidjan ,that he used my name as his only Child for the next of Kin in depositing of the fund. He
also explained to me that it was because of this wealth that he was poisoned by his business ssociates.

That I should seek for a foreign partner in a country of my choice where i will transfer this money and use it for investment purpose such as real estate management or hotel management .

Dear, I am honourably seeking your assistance in the following ways:

(1) To provide a bank account into which this money would be transferred to .

(2) To serve as a guardian of this fund since I am only 20years.

(3) To make arrangement for me to come over to your country to further my education and to secure a resident permit in your country.

Moreover, Dear, i am willing to offer you 15% of the total sum as compensation for your effort/ input after the successful transfer of this fund into your nominated account overseas.
Furthermore, you indicate your options towards assisting me as I believe that this transaction would be concluded within three (3) days you signify
interest to assist me. Anticipating to hear from you soon.

Thanks and God bless.

Best regards,

Johnson Komo

You’ve got to love a tryer. Especially one that is as as inept and implausible a fraudster as Dear, Johnson Komo.

I’ve written a lot in the past about the women – and a bit about the men – who experience domestic violence but until now haven’t had a chance to look at what’s being done to address offending behaviour.
There are programmes out there for people who behave in abusive and violent ways. A lucky few can self-refer through the likes of Relate, while others are sent on behavioural courses by the courts.
The problem is that all of these initiatives are inadequately funded and have long waiting lists – and as a consequence have to turn down many who would benefit.
As I found researching this piece for the current Big Issue in the North – a point that’s coincidentally made in this week’s Private Eye – some of those who need this help most are being forced to go without and are consequently continuing to be violent towards their partner.
And yet our government can find money to pay for weapons and illegal wars, and second homes and John Lewis toasters – not to mention poncey canapes and wines.

I just found out I was shortlisted for an award a couple of weeks ago, by the International Network of Street Papers. A Rough Guess, an investigation into rough sleeping counts I wrote last year for The Big Issue in the North, lost out to a piece on the scourge of crystal meth in South Africa in the “best feature story, writing for social impact” category.
I’ve never even been shortlisted for an award before so even getting that far is a confidence boost.

If you have 10 minutes to spare today, I would recommend watching the Guardian’s film on vote-rigging in Zimbabwe.
An incredibly brave prison officer risked his life by secretly filming political prisoners in his place of work. During that process he managed to catch a Zanu PF war veteran forcing colleagues to vote for Mugabe in last week’s election.
Everyone knows it’s going on but until now it hasn’t been caught on camera.

As the Guardian puts it: “As he shot his clandestine film, Yuda was aware that it might never be seen in the outside world and that his reward could be nothing more lasting than an unmarked grave in the Zimbabwean bush. By the time he and his family were safely out of Zimbabwe yesterday, Yuda had a record of how the votes have been stolen and how those who have dared to oppose Mugabe fear daily for their lives.”

This is powerful, shocking investigative journalism at its very best and should be required viewing. This is going to win the paper – and Yuda – some big media awards, and rightly so. I really hope nothing untoward happens to he or any of his extended family as a result of this.

Following on from the pictures I put up the other week of Edge Lane, a regeneration area in Liverpool.
There I met the formidable Elizabeth Pascoe, who has taken her fight to defend 400 houses in the community all the way to the High Court. The piece, published in this week’s Big Issue in the North magazine, can be accessed by clicking on the links below….

I feel a Daily Mail-style rant coming on, and for that I apologise in advance.
I read something today that has really, really bugged me. Apparently foreign exchange trips are under threat from new child-protection rules which require families taking part to be thoroughly vetted.
(Obviously) I understand the need to protect children from abuse, but I have to say I find this story very worrying.
I am among the minority of British people who speak another language fluently. I studied French at university, have spent 18 months in total living there – a year of which was spent teaching English conversation to some very unresponsive teenagers – and ended up gaining a distinction in my oral exams at the end of my degree.
Seven years after my last period living in the country – in France’s beautiful third city of Lyon – two of my closest friends are French and I’m still in contact with others I met while I was there.
My vocabulary has inevitably shrunk from not using the language on a daily basis but being able to converse fluently with someone in another tongue has enriched my life and remains one of my proudest achievements. Most of my friends back home are envious of this.
I am constantly shocked by British people’s arrogant attitude towards foreign languages. Because the world speaks English we can’t even be bothered to try and pick them up. But to me personally, learning French was never particularly to do with using it for a career – it was just more for the sake of learning and the love of communicating.
I was outraged when the government did a u-turn on GCSE languages last year and allowed teenagers to give them up altogether at 14. My other half is of the last generation that was not forced to take languages to GCSE level (my school year had to) and it’s now one of his big regrets.
Given half the chance, kids will drop any subject that involves proper work. I chose geography GCSE over history because we got a week off school for a field trip. I even chose geography A-level for pretty much the same reason.
I think it’s very, very bad for British society if we can’t be bothered to communicate with anyone other than Americans, and members of our former colonies.
Now there’s a chance that exchange trips may not take place in the future. Between the ages of 14 and 17 I spent about six weeks in total with a family from Biarritz, in south west France.
Marie-Charlotte, my “correspondante” didn’t really like this country – or speaking English – so only came here once. But the experience for me is what gave me the confidence to take my language studies to the level I did.
By the end of each fortnight I was using teenage slang, thinking and even dreaming in French. I was immersed in their culture – watching endless game shows on TV, playing pelote (a Basque game) and boules and partaking in long, leisurely lunches every day. My trips gave me the balls to travel somewhere alone and forced me to fit in with young people my own age from quite a different culture. I have amazing memories from those years and wouldn’t change it for the world. I hate the idea that my own children – if and when I have them – may not get the chance to benefit from these experiences.

I’m being incredibly slack at updating this blog at the moment, for no reason other than being a bit busy with work. I’m certainly not complaining, but lots of commissions alas means less time to write for myself.
One very exciting adventure in the pipeline is a lengthy independent trip to the Middle East in a couple of months’ time, during which I plan to do a range of different types of stories…

So the House of Commons voted – but only just – to extend pre-charge detention for terror suspects from 28 to 42 days today, undermining this country’s tradition of high standards of justice.
I am with the civil liberties campaigners on this one – I have failed to be convinced by any of the arguments I heard in favour of this move, and strongly suspect it will end up doing more harm than good.
Already, under UK anti-terror laws you can be locked up and repeatedly questioned by police for up to 28 days without being charged and may not even be told why you are there. As the human rights group Liberty points out on its website, that figure is seven times the limit for someone suspected of murder.
Muslims will end up bearing the brunt of this law, as usual, which will surely only feed discontent among sections of our youth.
I hope the House of Lords kick the plan into the long grass, when they get the chance.

I was in Malaysia last week, when Labour received a drubbing in the Crewe and Nantwich by-election. But I interviewed Salford MP and communities and local government secretary Hazel Blears, a few days previously, which ran in this week’s Big Issue in the North.

I’m shocked and saddened to learn that Pauline Campbell, the Cheshire prisons campaigner, has been found dead near her daughter’s grave.
Campbell, who I’d met and interviewed on several occasions – most recently just a few weeks ago – was an amazing woman who channeled her grief about Sarah’s death into an emotive and effective campaign for improved conditions within the prison service.
It’s such a poignant and tragic way to die. Pauline seemed incredibly strong but it was clear she was very fragile underneath her steely determination, and found it difficult to move on.
I did the last in-depth interview on her, which appeared in this week’s Big Issue in the North. She sent me a couple of lovely emails after seeing it in print:

Monday:
Ciara
Just read it. I can’t thank you enough, because I think it’s so very well written. I’ve sent a note to Kevin, also, to express my gratitude. He sent it to me by e-mail. I do get the magazine through the post – in fact, it was due to arrive today, but didn’t reach me. Daresay it’ll arrive tomorrow.

Tuesday:
“I read it again last night, several times, after I’d e-mailed you. It is so moving, Ciara, it reduces me to tears. I would go so far as to say it’s the best article that’s ever been written about me – truly. You have an amazing talent there.
“Although it’s about a very sad matter, I think you’ve really come up with the goods.“

She also alerted me to a death last week at HMP Styal, the women’s prison in Cheshire, which is currently listed as “natural causes” but could well change following post-mortems and an inquest.
It brings the total deaths at Styal this year to three – one self-inflicted, one aneurism on the brain and this last one, in which a 32-year-old woman died after developing breathing problems while in a shared cell at night.

She said:
If you’re able to do a news follow-up next week, that would be ideal, at which point [presumably] you could flag up the Styal x 3 deaths. I am very angry about this, Ciara. My intuition tells me something is wrong. Am just having a think about what to do. I am not necessarily going to sit back and do nothing. It needs flagging up, and there are ways and means.

I just hope her work lives on – it will be difficult to find another campaigner with the energy and conviction that Pauline had.

postscript:
The Guardian’s Northern correspondent, Helen Carter, has written a lovely piece about Pauline on the newspaper’s Comment is Free site.

I have been thinking about this all afternoon, and can’t help thinking the timing of Pauline’s death is as poignant as where it happened.
Less than two weeks ago, she learned charges against her in relation to her blocking a highway while protesting outside Styal following a death in January, had been dropped by the CPS.

She sent me a copy of the letter, which came two weeks after she was put through a gruelling pre-trial review – for which she was denied Legal Aid. It read:
“We have carefully assessed both the factors for and against the prosecution in this matter, and paid particular regard to your current medical situation and have decided that it would no longer [* be in the] public interest to proceed further with this matter. We have also taken account of the fact that this incident was generated by the unfortunate death of Lisa Marley at Styal Prison in January of this year which I appreciate will have caused you particular distress.”

Pauline’s response was:
“This prosecution has felt like an attack on my reputation, especially the false allegations made about me by serving police officers. But I believe in standing up for principle because it is one of the few ways in which people can make a difference.
“I refuse to bow to pressure, and will stick to my resolve to hold prison-death demonstrations outside jails in England when women kill themselves in the so-called care of the State. It is mediaeval, and people must speak out.
“Justice Secretary Jack Straw is the one who should be in the dock, not me. I am not the wrongdoer. The message will not go away simply by trying to shoot the messenger.”

Could this abandoned prosecution (or ‘witch-hunt’ as Pauline would have called it) have been the final straw?