No worries, I'm back in the UK and in the contract job I spoke of. A bit of online freelance work solved the problem. Thanks for the offer.

Hey Jody, you offered a place to stay maybe.  It looks like I might be in a position to extricate myself from this by degrees but I might need somewhere to hang for a while in Manila. 

I don't know the timing yet because it depends when or if I get to sell my car in the UK and get my tax rebate etc.  But if the offer still stands, please let me know.

Thanks Jody, an internet cafe was what I had in mind.

Thanks to coinnewbit too, I'll ask on reddit.

I have started to receive some work through Freelancer.com so although I'm nearly broke right now, things are looking up. I might need up to 50 dollars for food, phone and internet until I get some pay through Freelancer, that could be up to 3 weeks away. Someone here gave me 500 pesos too, a massive help.

Obvious scam?

I offer multiple credible UK references, UK bank details, UK passport details, a verified UK address, my online personal (Facebook) and professional (LinkedIn) profiles and a background which can be checked and verified.  I can also do cam2cam on Skype or YM to further verify my identity and whereabouts and show bank cards, passport etc.

I can also produce copies of my bank statements showing an address and previous income in the UK, evidence of previous employment in the UK, recent offers of employment in the UK and various other details which support what I say.

As I said before, I am staying at a friends house and my money is nearly out. It is not out yet, I have about 200 pesos, or about 5 dollars left. That's food for about 4 more days, a week at most.

I also have limited and very slow internet access which I have to pay for using a pay as you go usb modem. That expires on Monday.

What other information would you like?

I did look at Call Centre and teaching English work. Only problem is I don't even have the bus fare to Cebu City now. Also I am a UK citizen not a Filipino and cannot get a work permit for regular work here. I'm actively seeking work through Freelancers.com but they hold payments for 14 days even assuming I can get work there.

It does look as if I will get a loan from a friend but not for about 6 weeks. Consequently, I only need to find about 300 USD to get by on, or the equivalent in BTC, if I'm prepared to hang on and hope he'll keep his word.

Alternatively, as a sign of my desperation, I'm prepared to offer 200% on the original request. I know I can walk into an extremely well paid contract in the UK and have several agencies ready with employment the moment I arrive in the UK.  I can verify this.

I can also provide my UK passport details, a valid UK address, access to my LinkedIn and Facebook pages, my UK bank details, my Philippines and UK phone numbers and UK references.

Yes, I'm looking for work on Freelancer.com and the like. Nothing so far.
It's not in my nature to sit around doing nothing and I'm not looking for a free handout. Nor do I like borrowing money.

Thanks Jody, I'm staying in the house of a friend who has returned to the UK for a while so I'm not on the street, just penniless. I really appreciate the offer though.

In response to various replies above:

Apologies for not presenting this request correctly in the first place.

I do have some collateral in the Philippines.
Getting to my UK destination involves bus and train journeys plus 2 flights.  I also have a small debt here to settle and need to eat until I depart. It's probable that I could get to the UK for less but I'd be leaving myself open to more problems.
The person in question was my partner for 6 years. Sooner or later you have to trust the person you're with to some  extent. Obviously I made a mistake.
The embassy will help me to contact a sponsor in much the same way as I am doing here. They will not lend money.
My family do not have the means and I wish to avoid the immense distress this would cause my elderly mother.
If I were to make my identity, professional background and references known to any lenders, I think concerns about repayment would be greatly reduced.
I can sell BTC and transfer funds to my UK bank account and/or into cash here.
Any amount I can raise here would be immensely helpful, even if I can't reach my target.
I am in Moalboal, Cebu, about 3 hours bus ride south of Cebu City.

Call me dumb, but I am stranded in the Philippines after my (ex)partner walked off with all my assets.  I need to raise about 1350GBP / 2000USD to return to the UK and get a job. I'm offering 100% interest on a 10 week loan to me, in part or whole, or some negotiable amount based on BTC exchange rate movements. I can provide details of my professional background, personal identity and credible UK based references to any lenders or anyone who thinks this might be a scam. 

Any alternative solutions would also be of interest.

My address is 1PPcjmrjKMh4zsrzpF6j4DiKykCfhZ2fz6.

Please PM me if you can assist.

Some resources I use.

Reviews - http://www.tomshardware.com/t/cpus/

Buying - http://www.scan.co.uk

They didn't pursue it due to lack of resources?  They have enough resources to spy on the rest of us.

Imposing your own expectations is fascism.  You are not the cultural and moral guardian for everyone else.

Was that before or after Luke Skywalker destroyed the Death Star?

Well yeah, living with terrorism is. Even if it is mostly Uncle Sam and friends.

Yeah I wasn't too sure about coke really, I had a feeling it might not be in the same group as heroin and morphine etc.

It was quite a long time ago when I used ecstasy and I was under the impression it was MDMA cut with speed (amphetamine).  My days of experimentation are about 30 years in the past and I worry about damaging my brain these days, but it's sound advice for anyone else wanting to experiment.

  Be careful what you wish for.  Your own culture isn't so rational or productive.

Also it seems that the majority of "abbos" aren't doing just fine.

http://www.aljazeera.com/indepth/features/2013/08/201381810463203589.html

Or the Brazilian tribes  - http://www.theguardian.com/world/2012/apr/22/brazil-rainforest-awa-endangered-tribe

Or the Ainu - http://scholarspace.manoa.hawaii.edu/bitstream/handle/10125/21976/v1i1_02okada.pdf

Or the Bedouin - http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-middle-east-14314883

etc etc etc.

I couldn't agree more. The end result is that it stifles debate, criticism and dissent and undermines any hope of democracy and social justice.  History shows that governments cannot be trusted and all it takes is the next McCarthy to justify spying on the (insert your fear here) in our midst for things to go horribly wrong.

I'd argue that several approaches are required. 

1) Encryption of personal data,
2) Far greater transparency and accountability
3) The dismantling of the overreaching and intrusive systems now in use.
4) Governments committed to the protection of personal privacy and  freedom and the economic well-being of all peoples rather than a select few regardless of culture/religion/genes/race/sex/colour/location. 

Playboy has some great articles.  Some of the stories are ok too.

To me "Stink" tends to conjure up images of going down on a pussy and being greeted by the odour of wee.

Anyway, I was going to discuss drugs cos when I was still mis-spending my yoof I did try out quite a few at various times, with the exception of the opiates.

 At the time Cannabis resin, or dope, as it used to be called then, was cheap, available and pretty harmless in moderation and I viewed alcohol and cigarettes as much more harmful.  I never, ever experienced any kind of withdrawal or dependency on anything except cigarettes and amphetamines, and of course, the mother of all hangovers from cheap cider 

Amphetamines was a bit scary because of the horrible come down but I never felt that taking more would help because it was about fatigue from being awake for ages, as well as the strong feeling that it was fucking up my body fast.
I also sampled LSD, magic mushrooms and ecstasy and could only describe the experiences as profound, interesting and great fun. 

Some years later I got run down by a car and had months in a hospital bed with pelvic and spinal injuries.  I was administered morphine and I was just in a dream for some days.  About 2 weeks after, they abruptly stopped the morphine and I had a few really horrible days and nights.  That withdrawal period must have been a cakewalk compared with withdrawal from a long term dependency on on any opiate or alcohol but it was enough to reinforce the view that the way we understand and use drugs is wrong.

Specifically the language we use with them is very important in the sense that we refer to coffee, cigarettes and alcohol individually and the rest simply as drugs, when the effects and differences between them are profound and important to understand.  Clearly some people drink and develop issues with it while others can moderate their use and the same is true for the other drugs.

Existing laws, the war on drugs and the absurd political dialogue around them are wildly disconnected from rational and informed debate.  A strictly rational analysis of the issues brings me to conclusions which strongly suggest many of them should be legalised and regulated maybe like tobacco and alcohol, with revenues being used to assist public health and education.  The reduction in the cost of drug related crime, DEA activity, policing and prisons alone would be worth it, even before any tax and legitimate profits from the colossal revenue stream involved.

I remain of the view that the opiates, with the possible exception of coke, are addictive way beyond being very, very, very nice, which they are too.  I walk a mile away from them and I don't really know what's best with these.

I also have the view that cannabis resin and the milder forms of marijuana are harmless, fun and good for my creativity, apart from the damage from smoking it very occasionally.

Caffeine and nicotine are my staples, beer makes me fart.

Occasional use of LSD, Ecstasy and magic mushrooms, well,   

There are some strange arguments here...


For many cultures "Modern Society" is the collective and attempts to retain their own culture, land and individual freedoms have been met with repression, violence and slaughter.  Permitting them to retain their ancestral rights and cultures is not collectivism or authoritarianism, it is exactly the opposite.  Stating that they are responsible for the actions of invaders and the destruction of their society and culture is not terribly rational and suggests that all peoples should submit to this supposedly superior modern culture or suffer the consequences.  That is authoritarian.
For example, the Iraqis or the Hawaiians should have been overjoyed and grateful to have the Americans "take over".


I offered just two indigenous peoples as examples because the list is extremely lengthy and the majority is white against black or brown.  Perhaps some of the predominantly brown/black that were not slaughtered or caught diseases from the predominantly white invaders are doing ok, but the evidence is that many are not.  Except of course the Abbos (Indigenous Australians) and Indians (Indigenous Americans), and possibly (Southern?) Irish doing just fine in your own family.


So it's OK to behave appallingly at specific times as long as they fall within your criteria of working, normal, decent human beings all over the world who should embrace your idea of Culture and Education?  There's the narrow collectivist perspective again.  

I've had the great fortune to live within many different cultures and societies and I have had the misfortune to observe my own countrymen and others behave disgracefully from those perspectives.  That's not a bigoted elitist mindset.  It's one of many alternative views.


The Sun, Fox News and other localised versions of this trivial garbage are not aimed at highly literate people, they are aimed at the not so smart and not so literate with the intention of manipulating their world view and votes.  They are dumbed down, bigoted, sexist, often racist and frequently hysterical. They exist because their appeal is primarily to people who either can't or don't want to think rationally about the world they live in rather than have confirmation of a very narrow and biased view of their own.  

I don't personally find that particular media entertaining in any way whatsoever, and my reply was not meant to be a joke.   I can share a good laugh with a Bedouin Chief about the behaviour of Israeli girls and Egyptian guys on holiday in the Sinai, or with poor kids in the slums of Manila racing rats in the flood water, to name but a few.  I choose to live a very simple life in a wooden hut in a rainforest and promote education among some of the poorest and most disadvantaged and I use the bulk of my income to do so.  Luckily I am smart enough to be able to work for myself in a field that pays well enough to do so but I didn't get there from adopting a mindset that finds media of this kind entertaining.  

It would not surprise me in the least if Fox News and its ilk was simply irrelevant to "Gormless Gypsies" (and possibly Irish Tinkers, Horse Thieves and Feynian Bastards) and The Sun was best put to much needed sanitary use because the ink doesn't come off on your arse.

It so happens that I've taken a particular stance in this quite polarised debate because equating New Age Travellers, Squatters, and Thieving Gippo Scum with each other and in those terms is inaccurate and distorts the argument about the racist behaviour of the UK authorities as well as exposing your own bigotry and ignorance.

Explain where MY elitist snobbery and antipathy to free markets comes into this.

Agreed.  A steady drip of leaks, pardon the expression. It's being kept in the public eye at just about the right level, although the UK police seem to have a perfectly timed own goal on this occasion.