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419 Emails From A Cultural Perspective
dasboy writes "The LA Times has an article entitled I Will Eat Your Dollars about Nigerian 419 scammers that presents some of the cultural basis for the crime. They follow some young men in Lagos who toil over computers all-day and long into the night to snag a new victim. They even have a fight song entitled 'I Go Chop Your Dollars.'" From the article: "Scammers, he said, 'have the belief that white men are stupid and greedy. They say the American guy has a good life. There's this belief that for every dollar they lose, the American government will pay them back in some way.' What makes the scams so tempting for the targets is that they promise a tantalizing escape from the mundane disappointments of life. The scams offer fabulous riches or the love of your life, but first the magha has to send a series of escalating fees and payments. In a dating scam, for instance, the fraudsters send pictures taken from modeling websites."
Americans don't want to hear about poverty, Americans don't really care about the poor. A generalisation, but given the last elections, is true in the majority. A typical response from an average American of the 'values' majority is 'I know what poverty is and I don't want to hear about it, I know that I wouldn't choose it for myself' - to them that's all that matters in a portrayal of poverty, that they know it's bad already and that they wouldn't choose it for themselves, and as far as the others are concerned, well, it's no concern of theirs. To them, if the poor are poor it's their fault, it's their 'moral' failure; they chose to be poor, and if they be 'moral' then wealth will be their reward - to them wealth is a blessing from the Lord, and they sure deserve it and deserve whatever they can get, even if their unethical corporations grab it from the poor of the Earth. I have talked to many 'values' Americans and repeatedly found them the least empathic people I've ever had the displeasure of talking to - it's useless to tell them about the poor. And they wonder why the world hates them; well, having talked to them, may I be forever damned if I don't hate them.