On the 20/20 issue

I have quite a number of friends who are not African, even more who are not Nigerian, therefore I feel it's my responsibility to clarify some of the things that had been said on Friday Night's edition of 20/20. If you did not get an opportunity to see it, go here and look at the video links on the right side. I am sure we've all received the emails where someone says there's some money somewhere in the millions and you need to pay a certain fee to get access to that money. Maybe you have received the email saying you should send your name and account number for the money to be transferred to you.
After watching the show, I couldn't help laughing. This wasn't because I took the issue lightly; far from it. It was because I was surprised by how easily it was to take advantage of people who should know better but didn't. I honestly don't feel sorry for anyone that got scammed. It would be a different story if these people were giving money to a noble cause and got scammed out of it. This wasn't the case however, these were people on both sides trying to make quick bucks and one side got burnt in the process. It is strange to me that a congressman and a surgeon could be victims of these fraudsters, but it just goes to show that sometimes greed will take you to lengths you never even fathomed. I feel in this case I have to quote Malcolm X: This is a case of the chickens coming home to roost: the culture of defrauding people for promised wealth is coming around full circle and the price will be paid by the innocent and the guilty.
Then there are the scammers themselves whom ABC apparently thinks we are applauding. Apparently making a music video poking fun at the scams equates to elevating the scammers as icons of the society. That's like saying Eminem's "Stan" was praising crazed fans, N.W.A.'s "Fuck Tha Police" song was praising cop killers or maybe Big & Rich's "Save a Horse Ride a Cowboy" is actually saying cowboys should be a jockey's best friend. The truth is these scammers don't have to explain themselves, it's people like me that have to try to justify why we can still call Nigeria home, just like no matter how much your brother or sister mess up, family's still family. I'm disgusted by the actions some of my people have undertaken to make money, but I can't blame them after they continually feel that making an honest living is not the key to success.
In the end though I wonder if people are more mad about being scammed or mad at the people they were scammed by, after all some still consider us to be lazy, ignorant fools.