[KS] Re: HELP -- advice????

[Leonid Petrov]

Dear list members,

What 'degree of legitimacy' are we talking about? It will be -25C in Kaluga
(and much colder in other areas of Russia) soon, and I am pretty sure that
one third of its population will not have gas, electricity, nor/or central
heating in their faulty collective blocks of apartments constructed in early
1960s by Khruschev government. Isn't this enough to be 'legitimate'? If one
of these poor people has access to the Internet and appeals for our
compassion, why should we immediately suspect fraud? Even people with access
to the Internet and expertise to enter the freely advertised Korean Studies
list are not being paid. Their desire to help people around them is
legitimate too.

Will we question the 'degree of legitimacy' of a group of desperate North
Koreans should they ask for help through e-mails even if we know that there
is no Internet connection in the DPRK? Why not just help them (or him)?...

LEONID A. PETROV    PhD Candidate
Division of Pacific and Asian History
Research School of Pacific and Asian Studies
The Australian National University
**************************
E-mail: petrov at coombs.anu.edu.au
WWW: http://members.xoom.com/north_korea/index.html



> Dear list members,
>
>
> Perhaps, I shall sound a bit  cynical, but, after all, I am a Russian
> myself. I would not advice anybody to react to this message. Indeed,
Russia
> under the present  'democratic' clique is not a nice place to live, if you
> do not belong to the lucky few (alas, rivalling cliques are hardly better)
> Living standards are much lower than used to be under the Communists, and
> keep going down. However, modern Russia now is not only place of poverty,
> but also a kingdom of fraud! I hate to say so, but, alas, this is a
> matter-of-fact-statement. In Russia, really desperate people do not have
> access to the computers, let alone ability to sneak their message into our
> mail list. I believe it requires a rather high level of technical
> sophistication. Hence, dear colleagues, we can be 99,99999999% that this
is
> just another fraud, and I would feel sorry if anybody will spend even a
> fraction of his/her hard earned money on these people.
>
> Regards
>
>
> Andrei Lankov
>
> China and Korea Centre
> Faculty of Asian Studies
> Australian National University
> ACT 0200
>
> Fax: 02) 6249-3144
>

----- Original Message -----
From: "Andrei Lankov" <Andrei.Lankov at anu.edu.au>
To: <korean-studies at mailbase.ac.uk>
Sent: Monday, November 22, 1999 10:40 PM
Subject: Re: HELP -- advice


> At 11:14 PM 11/22/99 +0900, you wrote:
> >Probably it did, I received the same message and if there are more people
> >on this list, that it is almost sure.
> >
> >At 10:36 PM 11/22/99 , you wrote:
> >>I received this message on my server.  I wonder if it came over the
Korea
> >>list?  Did other members of the list receive the same message?  Does
> >>anyone know its source, or degree of legitimacy?  (I'm not questioning
> >>whether or not there are desperate people in Russia today.  Rather, I'm
> >>wondering if the senders of this message do in fact legitimately
represent
> >>desperate people in Russia).
> >>
> >>Liz Ten Dyke
> >>Kingston, NY
> >
> >-----------------------------
> >Henny  (Lee Hae Kang)
> >
> >Feel free to visit
> >http://www.henny-savenije.demon.nl
> >and feel the thrill of Hamel discovering Korea (1653-1666)
>

Dear Colleagues,

Please excuse us for any inconveniences we could cause you by our message.
As you know, now Russia has a deep financial and economic crisis. We already
for some months  do not receive our salary. Our parents and invalids also do
not receive pensions and forced to hand over blood to buy necessary for live
foodstuffs. Because of all it, our children are constantly hungry and ill
from cold and exhaustion.

Unfortunately, everybody in our country already has reconciled and are sure,
that soon all simple people as we will die from starvation, and our mad
politicians will continue to play in the silly political games.

Therefore, we, due to a service opportunity of access in the Internet and
hopeless situation have decided apply to you with request to help us with
food-stuffs, warmth clothes or money so that we could buy food-stuffs and
things of primary necessity for our children here.

Please note that because of starvation, we need mostly the following:

a. Dried food
b. Canned food
c. Multivitamins
d. Chocolate
e. Coffee and tea

Also we need clothes and shoes. Now the weather here is very cold. Therefore
we need warmth men clothes which are sizes L and XL. We need these big sizes
as our children and we will be dressing under these clothes our old clothes.
It will allow constantly being in heat. The men shoes we need are the sizes
44 - 45.

Please send your help to our mailing address is:

Valentin Mikhaylin
Ryleeva Street, 6-45
Kaluga. 248030
R u s s i a.

In case if you willing to send money, please let us know and we will inform
you some details how it might be sent.

We hope very much for any help, are sending you our warmest wishes and
looking forward to your reply.

We wish you a Merry Christmas and a Happy New 2000 Year.

Greetings from your Russian Friends,

A group of needy people from Russia.






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