Why are these young women contacting me?

Recently I have been receiving some chat messages on WhatsApp.

The first read: “Hi, Mr Robert, long time no see. How are you?”

The second read: “Hello Kevin, I’m sorry,I forgot the meeting address I gave yesterday. Can you give me a new address? I’m sorry to disturb you.”

The third read: “Why does my address book have your number, have we done business before?”

They all seemed innocuous, as if people had contacted me by mistake. Usually, when I receive what I think is an email or chat message in error, and I think it may be important to the sender or the actual intended recipient, I reply and alert them that I got it by mistake.

But these three cases had one common feature that aroused my suspicions and that is that all three senders had profile images of young East Asian women. That seemed like too much of a coincidence.
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An example of white privilege

The phrase ‘white privilege’ is often heard in discussions about race and ethnicity. In a recent post on how some people seem to be drawn to using the N-word, I linked to this cartoon by Keith Knight, in which he provides an example of what it looks like in practice.

I became curious about a parenthetical comment written in tiny letters below the last panel so I did what he suggested and did a search on the terms “25 blacks 1 white” and this was the story from 2017 that was returned.

According to CBS affiliate WCSC-TV, Michael Brown and 24 of his family and friends were at Wild Wing Cafe celebrating his cousin’s final day in Charleston, S.C., last month when the group was suddenly told to leave.

The reason? The shift manager allegedly told Brown that a white customer felt “threatened” by his party. When one of Brown’s companions started filming the exchange, the shift manager is said to have told the group to leave.

“[That] totally alarmed all of us because we’re sitting there peaceably for two hours,” Brown told the news outlet.
…

WCSC-TV reports that a representative at the chain reached out to Brown to apologize and offer a free meal for the group.

That is a good indicator of a privileged mentality. It would never occur to me to inform the management of any institution that I felt uncomfortable by the mere presence of someone else, unless they were directly targeting me. To not only feel that I can complain but actually have the management ask the group to leave because of my mere discomfort is a good indicator of the privilege that some groups of people feel.

Disturbing trend in murder mysteries

As regular readers of this blog know, I am a fan of mysteries in books, films, and TV shows. I am a sucker for the genre, even though some of them leave me feeling dissatisfied at the end either because the plot is ridiculous and full of holes or because the characters behave too implausibly.

But recently I have noticed changes in the central premises of the shows. It used to be the case that the murders (and there is almost always at least one murder involved and often more) involved motives that were either financial or had some kind of love triangle in which an inconvenient spouse or lover needed to be got rid of or blackmail over a dark secret or something of that sort. The basic idea was that it almost always involved adults. But nowadays, many of the stories seem to involve minors and there is usually sexual abuse and pedophilia involved.
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Great moments in religion

A Catholic priest in Arizona has resigned after it was revealed that he had used the phrase “We baptize you” instead of “I baptize you” during the baptismal ceremonies, not only invalidating those baptisms but all the sacraments that the unbaptized people subsequently went through.

Father Andres Arango resigned from the St Gregory parish church in Phoenix earlier this month after diocese leaders discovered he had mistakenly used the phrase “we baptize you” instead of “I baptize you” for years.

His error means that countless baptisms – an irrevocable requirement for salvation in Catholic theology – will have to be performed again. And some churchgoers could find their marriages are not recognized.
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NFTs are a playground for crooks and grifters

NFT’s (Non-Fungible Tokens) are the new rage, riding the wave of the fascination with blockchain and cryptocurrency, two other things that do not seem to deter people from getting on the bandwagon even though they may have just the haziest idea of what they are. Naturally this leads to crooks moving in, selling NFTs of items that do not even belong to them.

When Lois van Baarle, a Dutch artist, scoured the biggest NFT marketplace for her name late last year, she found more than 100 pieces of her art for sale. None of them had been put up by her.

Van Baarle is a popular digital artist, with millions of followers on social media. She’s one of a growing number of artists who have had online images of their art stolen, minted as unique digital assets on a blockchain, and offered up to trade in cryptocurrency on the NFT platform OpenSea.
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Prince Andrew settles sexual abuse case against Virginia Giuffre

It appears that the lawyers for both sides have arrived at a settlement that will prevent the case from being litigated in court. Andrew had for the longest time vigorously denied any wrongdoing and vowed to fight to clear his name of what he claimed were false allegations against him by Giuffre. You can read the short statement released y Giuffre’s lawyer David Boies here that says in its entirety:

Virginia Giuffre and Prince Andrew have reached an out of court settlement. The parties will file a stipulated dismissal upon Ms. Giuffre’s receipt of the settlement (the sum of which is not being disclosed). Prince Andrew intends to make a substantial donation to Ms. Giuffre’s charity in support of victims’ rights. Prince Andrew has never intended to malign Ms. Giuffre’s character, and he accepts that she has suffered both as an established victim of abuse and as a result of unfair public attacks. It is known that Jeffrey Epstein trafficked countless young girls over many years. Prince Andrew regrets his association with Epstein, and commends the bravery of Ms. Giuffre and other survivors in standing up for themselves and others. He pledges to demonstrate his regret for his association with Epstein by supporting the fight against the evils of sex trafficking, and by supporting its victims.

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US anti-vax virus spreads to Canada

I am somewhat baffled by the protests that have been talking place in the city center in Ottawa and the bridge to Detroit in Windsor Ontario where truckers and people in RVs and have been blocking streets for weeks now. The police finally moved in to clear the Windsor-Detroit bridge which opened today and it looks like they are beginning to clear the Ottawa streets too. Meanwhile prime minister Justin Trudeau has invoked emergency powers to be used of necessary.

So who are these protestors? Some of them are protesting the covid-19 restrictions that are still in place but others seem to be anti-vaxxers whom one would think would be a fairly insignificant presence since Canada has one of the highest covid-19 vaccination rates in the world, around 90%. But it seems like these people are similar to the anti-vaxxers in the US, very loud and angry though small in numbers and consist of the usual suspects that we find here.
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Guinea worm disease almost eradicated

We need to celebrate the successes on the infectious diseases front and there has been a huge one that has been overshadowed by the focus on covid-19.There are many diseases that are water borne and create immense suffering to people who do not have access to clean water. One of those diseases is caused by the guinea worm. The good news is that tremendous strides have been made in combating it.

While the COVID-19 pandemic continues to rage around the world, another disease could be on its way out. Only 14 cases of infection with Guinea worm – a parasite that causes painful skin lesions – were reported in humans in 2021.

This is the lowest tally ever for an infection that, as recently as the 1980s, was found in more than 20 countries and infected 3.5 million people a year (see ‘On the way out’) – however, a remaining reservoir for the parasite in animals means eradication could be a while off, if indeed it is possible, say some scientists.

“It’s pretty amazing,” says Adam Weiss, director of the Guinea Worm Eradication Program of the Carter Center, which is headquartered in Atlanta, Georgia. The centre announced the numbers in late January. “Fourteen people on a planet of almost eight billion. It’s mind-bending to think about.”

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The disturbing allure of the N-word for some people

The N-word is a horrible slur. Like all other slurs that are used as synonyms for people’s ethnicity, sexuality, gender, and gender identity, it is used to demean people. They are not words that I think anyone should use, the only exception being in highly academic contexts where the words themselves are the subject of study and one needs to use them to avoid ambiguity or when people who belong to the group being described derogatorily use the words in an attempt to defang them.

But it does seem to be the case that there are people who are not Black who relish the opportunity to use the N-word. The word seems to have an allure for them that they cannot resist and they seem to seize any opportunity to use it and even go to the extent of creating opportunities for them to use it, while trying to act as if the context makes it acceptable. I have written before about how filmmaker Quentin Tarantino seems to absolutely delight in using the word in his films and even plays a part in the film Pulp Fiction where his character throws the word around. (Incidentally, whenever I write a post that castigates Tarantino, I get responses from his fans who assert that he is some kind film making genius and that I am too stupid to understand the humor and subtlety. These fans are as passionate about their idol as are fans of Sam Harris.)
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Rebuilding in-person events

The pandemic put paid to many in-person social events, such as concerts, theaters, clubs, churches, etc. While many shifted to doing things online, when the pandemic looked like it was easing last summer and these organizations looked to go back to in-person events, they found that many people resisted coming back, either because they feared getting infected or because they found that doing things online was more convenient for them. But this has had a negative financial impact on the organizations.

That is definitely the case for my local bridge club, which is the only social organization to which I belong. It generates revenue to pay the rent and other expenses by charging a table fee for each participant. When the pandemic hit, online bridge tournaments exploded but while those too charge a fee, those provide little or no revenue for the local clubs. When the pandemic seemed to be easing, some people returned to play face-to-face but nowhere near the numbers before and this has resulted in a financial hit for the club.
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