FROM: MR.Mr Peter Shabangu TEL:27 83 9915 406
EMAIL:info_shabangufamily@hotmail.co.uk
JOHANNESBURG SOUTH AFRICA,

My Dear

You may be surprised to receive this letter from me since you do not know me personally. I am Mr Peter Shabangu , the first son of Mr.GARY Shabangu, who was recently murdered in the land dispute in Zimbabwe. I got your contact through network online hence decided to write you. Before the death of my father, he had taken me to Johannesburg to deposit the sum of US$20 Million (Twenty Million United States Dollars), in one of the private security companies, as if he foresaw the looming danger in Zimbabwe. This money was deposited in a box as germ stones to avoid much demurrage from the Security Company. This amount was meant for the purchase of new machines and chemicals for the farms and establishment of a new farm in Swaziland.

This land problem came when Zimbabwean President Mr. Robert Mugabe introduced a new Land Act reform which wholly affected the rich white farmers and some few black farmers.This resulted to the killing and mob action by Zimbabwean war veterans and some lunatics in the society.

In fact, a lot of people were killed because of this land reformed Actfor which my father was one of the victims. It is against this background that, I and my family who are currently staying in South Africa decided to transfer my fathers money to a foreign country since the law of South Africa prohibits refugees open any bank account or to be involved in any financial transaction througout the teritorial zones of South Africa.

As the eldest son of my father, I am saddled with the responsibility of seeking a genuine foreign account where this money could be transferred into without the knowledge of my government who are bent on taking everything . All i seek for is an honest business man, whom I can entrust my future and that of my family , I must also let you know that this transaction is 100%risk free. If you accept to assist me and my family all I want from you is for you to make arrangements and come to Johannesburg South Africa, so that you can help me open a non-resident account in your name which will aid us in transferring the money into any account you will nominate overseas.

This money I intend to use for investmentand growth in your country. I have two options for you, firstly you can choose to have certain percentage of the money for nominating your account for this transaction, Or you can go into partnership with me for theproperprofitable investment of the money in your country. Whichever the option you want, feel free to notify me. I have also mapped out 5% of this money for all kinds of expenses we might incure in the process of this transaction.

If you do not prefer a partnership I am willing to give you 25% of the money while the remaining 70% will remain for me and my family.If you are realy capable and willing to assist me please contact me immediately with the above Tel,Fax or this e-mail address with which i have sent you this message.

Finally, please treat this matter as urgent as possible, i'm in dire need to leave this country soonest.

Thanks for your mutual co-operation, I expect your soonest response.

Kind Regards,

Mr.Peter Shabangu .
(For the Family)

Ok. There are surprisingly few errors in this email. Even the country code for the listed telephone number is South Africa. It appears to be from a hotmail.co.uk account, but that's not necessarily an error. The errors:

1. My Dear

   Problems with the translation software? That's a bit personal for a stranger who wants to give [take from] me a lot of money.

2. germ stones

   Might these germ stones in fact be the kidney stones of the escaped mice in New Jersey?

3. land reformed Act

   Hmmmm... must only affect land which has been altered in some way

4. all kinds of expenses we might incure in the process of this transaction.

   I guess some expenses might be incurable.

I'm touched.... really ;)

After posting this comment, I thought a little deeper about how companies use these tools.

Marketing in the US seems to use the lowest common denominator in an attempt to appeal to the largest subset of the population, as well as create an emotional reaction ("I MUST have that; it will fix all my problems!"). This is fairly common knowledge. There was a very interesting "course" on marketing on a local public tv station a few months ago that went over some of the basics of the topic (I could not find a link, unfortunately).

Some examples:

• Marketing: "Product A is the best!" - since this is a subjective statement, it is not required to comply with the law regarding truth in advertising.
• FUD: "On September the 11th, 2001, our nation was confronted by a new kind of war. See, we're at war. This is a war. This isn't a single isolated incident. We are now in the first war of the 21st century. And it's a different kind of war than we're used to. I explained part of the difference is the fact that the battlefield is now here at home. It's also a war where the enemy doesn't show up with airplanes that they own, or tanks or ships. These are suiciders." (GWB) - invoking 9/11 creates images in people's minds (airplanes into buildings, people jumping, etc...). FEAR is a bigger motivator than sex (lowest common denominator again). The fact is that more people die in this country due to illness|old age|car accidents than by terrorism. Fear felt by the American people translates into profits for friends of The Family, through justification for invading and "rebuilding" Iraq, and possibly other countries.
• Spin: "There's another way to phrase that and that is that the absence of evidence is not the evidence of absence. It is basically saying the same thing in a different way. Simply because you do not have evidence that something does exist does not mean that you have evidence that it doesn't exist." (Rummy) - Translates to "prove it!"
• BS: "Iraq has weapons of mass destruction." (GWB, Rummy, several pundits and "analysts") - 2 1/2 years later, we're still waiting....

There are countless examples of how these tactics are used everyday by politicians, corporations, zealots (of all kinds), and the average person. This appears to have become ingrained in our society.

From the beginning of this country, greed has slowly been overtaking common sense, rationality, morality (not in the "religious" sense of the word), and ethics. Through the fairly recent dumbing-down and reduction of the attention span of the average American, the prevalence of greed has been increasing exponentially.

This needs to stop before it's too late (see? Even I can do "FUD").

Now that that's out of the way, I'll get on with it.

I have worked a very small company, medium-sized companies, and a couple really, really, big companies. So far, in my experience, the medium companies seems to have the better balance. The large ones seem to be riddled with excessive politics, backstabbing, and game-playing, and the small ones, imho, are usually not that stable.

The one small company where I worked laid me off after three months because they were going under. Therefore, the only comment I can make about my brief time at a really small company is that I decided to look for a very large company that would stay in business for a long while. So....

At my next job (a very large company), I saw good managers marginalized by the incompetent, and the highest-quality workers laid off time and time again (myself included). 'Twas once a decent place to work, when I first started there, but since then, it had steadily declined. The visionaries at the top were ousted by the "management school fad following" fuddy-duddies. From there, successive layers of management from the top down were "adjusted," until the whole chain was only following the latest fads. The latest example of this before I left was Six-Sigma. The end result of this "business process streamlining" was massive downsizing, and the replacement of full-timers with overpaid (and usually not very good) contractors. I don't blame this on the contractors themselves; in fact I've even become friends with several of them. Another part of this management strategy was to promise employees things and not deliver. Also, directors - technical, not board - were actively encouraging the lower-level employees to report on other employee's doings. As time went on, the stress levels increased dramatically. Morale all around was at an all-time low. I guess this is what the politicians mean when they refer to the "trickle-down effect." Finally, just as I started looking for something else, they laid me off. What a relief!

Contrast this with where I now work. Mid-sized company where the executives were also the founders of the company. They all take pride in their products and services they provide to customers. And yes, the executives refer to them as customers, not consumers. This philosophy runs through the entire management structure. They actually treat the employees like the people we are, rather than just resources. This makes all the difference in the world. I find it very motivating and refreshing! For the first time in several years, I actually look forward to going to work again.

If the time comes that I decide to look for another job, I will have a difficult time making a decision if I receive any offers from large corporations. Or not.