Wednesday, September 12, 2012

Nice Try Films: Francis-Anne, Francis-Anne

Working in the film business, I have been forwarded many email queries that have varied from quaint to bizarre.  Here is an actual email that I felt warranted some actual, special attention:

From: XXXX [mailto:xxxxx@gmail.com]
Sent: Saturday, November 10, 2007 5:53 AM
To:
xxxxx@gmail.com
Subject: EMERGENCY!!! (I NEED YOUR URGENT HELP)
Hello,
  
  How are you doing today? I am sorry i didn't inform you about my  traveling to Africa for a program called "Empowering Youth to Fight Racism,  HIV/AIDS, Poverty and Lack of Education, the program is taking place  in three major countries in Africa which is Ghana , South Africa and  Nigeria . It has been a very sad and bad moment for me, the present condition that i found myself is very hard for me to explain.

I am really stranded in Nigeria because I forgot my little bag in the  Taxi where my money, passport, documents and other valuable things were  kept on my way to the Hotel am staying, I am facing a hard time here  because i have no money on me. I am now owning a hotel bill of $1,600 and  they wanted me to pay the bill soon or  else they will have to seize my bag and hand me over to the Hotel Management., I need this help from you  urgently to help me back home, I need you to help me with the hotel  bill and i will also need $1,800 to feed and help myself back home so  please can you help me with a sum of $3,400 to sort out my problems here? I  need this help so much and on time because i am in a terrible and tight situation here, I don't even have money to feed myself for a day  which means i had been starving, so please understand how urgent i needed  your help.

I am sending you this e-mail from the city Library, I will appreciate  what so ever you can afford to send me for now and I promise to pay back  your money as soon as i return home. So please use the details of the hotel manager below to transfer the money to me through Western Union money transfer because that is the only way i could be able to get it fast and leave because i need an id to pick up the money through western union. This is the information below....

Name: David Brooks
Address: 16 Johson Street
City : Victoria Island
State : Lagos
Country : Nigeria
Zip Code : 23401
Text question: To who
Answer: Frances

After you have send the money, email to me the western union money transfer control number or you can attach and forward to me the western union money transfer receipt so that i can pick up the money and leave.
Hope to hear from you soon. Although, the embassy here have promised to give me a covering travelling papers that i will need to have my way back home, all i need right now is the money to settle up the bills and leave.

Love - best wishes
Frances-Anne
Frances-Anne XXXXX
XXXXX Films & XXXXX
XXXXX
Toronto, Ontario


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Oh, Francis-Anne, Francis-Anne…

The follies that you and I have come to know in our many adventures abroad.  What would my life be without you as the hyperbolic, travelling Lucille Ball you have become?  I still recall our African travels back in 75… it was summer there, as it always is… and Idi Amin invited us over for dinner.  You and I, two carefree spirits in search of fortune in the cheap nick-nacks we would later sell at a premium through our founding of Pier 1.  Oh, we were a pair. 

The devil you say?  Stranded in the whiles of Africa, which according to you has now been reduced to just three countries: Ghana, South Africa, and Nigeria?  My God, what happened to the rest of them?  Tell me they didn’t take Gabon!  Not Gabon!  Sad and bad indeed.  Little bag lost?  Why it’s just not right that a Canadian could be so loved by the world over, yet so reviled by hotel management in Nigeria.  Obviously, these people are simply not familiar with your indomitable spirit and giving nature.  If they only knew the Francis-Anne who gave peanut butter sandwiches to thirsty children in Sudan… or who could not have heard tale of the Francis-Anne who tagged penguins for the Watcheedum Zoo?  That’s it, get me this hotel person on the phone.  Surely anyone in hostelry management can be reasoned with.  I’m outraged.  I’m simply beside myself that these people would expect you to pay when you have no money.  What on earth is this world coming to?  And Nigeria of all places.  A place so full of wealth and disposable income!  Why it’s becoming positively impossible for charitable folk to travel nowadays, what with all the reaching and grabbing. 

You know what I think?  I think your little bag wasn’t lost.  No, I’d dare say it was stolen.  Stolen by some unscrupulous individual who is probably smoking away your charitable funds on some illegal, offensive depravity.  You, Francis-Anne, pour angel of generosity, here in this very place to fight racism, poverty and HIV/AIDS, and what happens?  You’re robbed by an selfish ethnic person with a medicinal agenda.  Why it’s all so terribly Hallmark Channel, that I don’t know which button to push to turn it off. 
Don’t worry, Cissy-Anne, I’m sending for my bank book.  In the meantime, don’t do anything rash like selling your body for money or, god forbid, marrying a local to get citizenship status.  I knew a young man here in Hollywood who married a girl from Georgia so that she could get her green card.  Turns out she was only using him to get his money so that she could return to Atlanta with bigger breasts. 

Oh wait, Frannie-Annie… look what’s just come in: I’ve just received an email from the widow of a General Borengeh, the former Minister of Interior and Banking and Housing of Nigeria.  My goodness, I’m sorry to report that the good general has been killed in a terrible accident.  Oh but look, like any good general, he’s planned ahead and has set aside some money for his widow.  And this poor woman needs my help to obtain this money (being held by some heartless bank in league with the Nigerian hotel industry no doubt!).  Tell me, are you anywhere near a First Nigerian Bank?  Sounds like there must be loads of them there.  I can arrange for Mrs. Borengeh to get her money, and since we’re fastly becoming such good friends, I’ll ask her to in-turn get you out of your pickle.  Oh, it’s all so coincidental that it must be fate!

Sincerely,

Your Friend at Nice Try Films

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