Korean man taken hostage in lottery scam

Yesterday my wife was checking the spam folder of her email account when she alerted me to one in particular. The email, directing us to Singapore where upon arrival and after providing details etc etc, she would be in line to receive money from a relatives will. These emails are the scourge of the inbox but are easy to identify and easily dismissed. But nobody falls for those emails right? Wrong.

A South Korean man has fallen for one such scam. Worse still he turned up in South Africa in person with his daughter on the belief that he would be picking up millions of dollars and was then taken hostage. Thankfully he was rescued but was so embarrassed "traumatised" that he declined to testify in court. It is easy to ridicule someone for falling for such a story but you have to feel sorry for this mans ordeal.

Summer starts here

It reached 30°C today as Summer officially started for me. There's no backing off now for say three months or so. I am comforted by the knowledge that however hot it gets outside my workplace is quite cool and so far I haven't even had my fan on at home or had the windows open at night. The air conditioner was on in the staff room for the first time today and nobody was complaining. It's 11pm and I've had to buy some beer to cool off, at least that's my excuse.

And what will Summer bring for me? I've been checking out prices for a plane ticket for a trip back home and have found one that has good arrival and departure times. It comes at a cost though, some ₩1.68million, some ₩380,000 higher than quoted to me for May. Still it's worth paying to go home especially as this time my wife is coming with me. A week at home in July at the height of Summer, sounds good to me.

And turning to more sobering events on this peninsula as International investigators have officially blamed North Korea for the sinking of the South Korean warship Cheonan. My take is this, I don't see how South Korea can win this one. If they attack then can they really win? North Korea is so unpredictable to this casual observer. If they do nothing then they look very week, to their countrymen and to other countries. They are stuck it would appear to me. International sanctions being tightened will only work if China co-operates and is that really likely? Perhaps it is time for China to decide what country they want to actually be. Time to finish this glass of beer.