Lizzie

Submitted by Straight_Talk_Luigi (United States), Mar 1, 2008 at 15:39

First of all, I don't give kudos for ANY on-line relationships. Webcams, photos, accounts, on-line identities, all these can be faked. During my undercover work, it was found out that many of the photos used were from modeling webpages from Hawaii--involving both men and women. The other thing is, having a relationship over distance is NOT the same as in person. People have gotten scammed, even killed from meeting someone they met on-line.

Second, I've heard this whole "my Moroccan man is so great" thing MANY MANY times before. It's just the gender and ethnicity change. Lizzie, what you are doing is really nothing new. I've seen women go and parade around on here and other on-line sites trying to brag about their different-colored or foreign guy. So, my first question is, are you dating this man to show how tolerant you are? Because it wouldn't be a first.

Third, it's understandable that you would want to date internationally. Being a Western man myself, I know that many Western guys think they can party their whole lives. But just because you see abuse here in America, doesn't mean it doesn't happen in Morocco. In fact, it's culturally acceptable for Muslim met to hit their wives as a last resort.

If you knew Canadian laws, as yasemin has been posting about, or actually lived amongst Muslims, then Jen's post was really not out of line, but taken out of context and understanding. No one was questioning cindercats parenting abilities, just concern, because a lot of Muslim men flip a switch once that marriage happens. Many of them also are relunctant to tell a Western woman who religious they REALLY are before marriage, because religion is dormant in many parts of the West, and where it isn't (like America), it's mostly Christian.

Personally, I have little faith in American child protective services. My cousin is a police officer, and she worked on a case where a mom was allowing her teenage daughter to live with her 23-year-old boyfriend in the same room. The officer got a social worker to go over there and investigate, and the first thing she told the social worker was: 'This woman is very persuasive, and she'll have you convinced that guy sleeps on the couch every night." The social worker was like "yeah, whatever." And sure enough, the social worker was convinced that he slept on the couch. It always seems like they go after the religious parents who actually discipline their kids with a spanking.

And people wonder why Western kids are a mess these days.

And you're right, you don't save foreigners from a marriage, because, quite frankly Lizzie, your agencies don't have that power or the proper resources. It's the police, the FBI, FCC and FTC who handle things like on-line fraud and scams. But in reality, if people are STUPID enough to believe that someone can fall in love over 2 e-mails or that they won the UK national lottery (I used to live there, and no such thing) once a week, in a free society, we can't stop them. And you know why they keep on doing it? Because they make money off of it, and it works!

I don't think many people realize this, but LIVING abroad and TRAVELING abroad are two ENTIRELY different things. In many places, locals are PAID to be to nice to American tourists so they will come and help the local tourism economy. And when you travel or live in another country, you are bound by THIER laws!

It's the same way here in America. Foreigners have come over here, committed crimes, and have been given the death sentence before.

So if you think you can go and take a chance with a foreign guy and if it doesn't work, go crying to the US embassy or a government agency and they will wisp you away to America, well, think again!

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