Aw, a long discussion of whether or not Greg is a con man:
http://www.khmer440.com/chat_forum/viewtopic.php?f=1&t=50996
(Hope this link works.)

Warms my goddamn heart.

Greg really likes to write letters

Aw, on the K440 thread, I see Greg’s threatening to go to the authorities, and send lots of scary letters to the people we don’t want to share our secrets with. Here’s an excerpt from his post (http://www.khmer440.com/chat_forum/viewtopic.php?f=1&t=50996&start=312) on the forum defending himself. Below are a few from 19 months or so ago. Threatening to write letters is fun!

8/28/15: 3. So.. As you said I remain calm in a time of crisis so this is what I am going to do with absolute focus. The issue I see here is that the people who habitually troll people on this forum remain anonymous and can sling mud from the shadows. They can destroy the lives of people who are more vulnerable to this sort of cowardly attack than I am. So I think it is time to remove the cloak of invisibility and this is what I am going to do. I am in the process of setting up a security business here that will potentially employ about 100 people in a province that desperately needs employment. We are well advanced in this process and hope to start operations in the new year. To do so I have as I mentioned previously I have had several meetings with Mr. Man Sman (I provided his email previously) who is the director of the relevant department within the Ministry of the Interior (what is alternatively called the Ministry for internal affairs). I have established a good relationship with him and we are working well together. He and his department have now done a thorough examination of my background to determine if I am a fit person to hold a licensee to operate a security firm in Cambodia. I am composing a letter to him (copy to the Office of the Prime Minister) informing him that this forum contains misleading information that could prejudice the establishment of the business and also that accuses officers of the Royal Government of Cambodia of corruption and incompetence. I will include printed out sections of this and other discussions to that effect. In this letter I will suggest that this forum is actively deriding the professionalism and ethics of the Royal Government of Cambodia. I will also write an opinion piece to the national dailies including extracts from the letters and also selectively from this forum and submit it to them for publication in Khmer so that the people of Cambodia are also made aware of the cowardly methods that people use to entertain themselves on this forum. Considering the sensitivity of the current government to criticism I suspect that your protective wall of secrecy will be rapidly torn down and your own actions, process and exposed to critical evaluation. I will actively pursue this course of action with my colleagues in government. As you note I am not prone to displays of anger but I am relentless and determined when I but my mind to something. Please be advised that those who seek to deride me without cause will find themselves with a persistent and implacable enemy who will never give up on this. Once again calmly and with absolute politeness. I will follow this up by asking for a full inquiry into the activities of these “trolls” and if necessary I will fund it. I have also instructed my 2IC that he should inform those military and police personnel who have lodged application for employment with us that the actions of several contributors to this forum are prejudicing the possibility of their future employment. When the identity of these trolls is revealed I will make everyone concerned aware of their identity. I will do all this calmly and without resorting to derision or abuse so when the contents of this forum become public (which I will make sure it does) I will be seen for what I am. Someone defending his reputation against slander and abuse. I will commence this process next week after I receive my academic transcript and it is posted. I have already printed out about 35 pages from this and other parts of this forum so blocking my access will not change my intention. The only thing that will do so is a complete and contrite retraction of any unfounded accusations and claims.I will not broke any discussion of what unfounded implies. In this context it means: without actual proof. So I would counsel the people who use this forum as a legitimate medium for communication to muzzle the more rabid of your contributors so that they do not bring disrepute to those who use this forum legitimately.

And the threats he made to me over email, copies of letters he was about to send to “expose” people he thought threatened him:

First, about a man he ended up swindling in LP:

2/25/14:

Dear Dr. Kapelli,

I write to you to inform you that in disregard of the Swiss Governments commitment to ethical practice that a citizen of the Swiss republic is participating in corrupt and unethical behaviour in the Lao. This activity include bribing local officials , defrauding citizens of Switzerland and other European nation. This fraud is related to the sale of land which has no clear title or which has been secured by the illegal displacement of local people who are the traditional owners of the land in question.

Please feel free to contact me so I can verify these claims.  If I do not hear from you in this calender month then I will be forced to make direct representations to the Department of Foreign Affairs in Switzerland.

Kindest regards

Greg Blake

And another one, about an organisation a friend of mine worked for:

2/25/14:

Dear Ambassador Clune,

I write to you in regard to the activities of the organisation known as XXX that your Embassy has supported in The Lao PDR.

I have, over the last two years amassed significant evidence that this organisation has acted outside the law of the Lao PDR and has also participated in corrupt and unethical behaviour. I also have have both photographic and documentary evidence to support these allegations.

I have provided copies of this information to both the Lao Department of Foreign affairs and the Australian Embassy and also the US Internal Revenue Service.

Please assist me in addressing the insult that this activity presents to the people of the Lao PDR. This is particularly relevant as your Embassy has supported the activities of XXX.

It is clear from the documentation that I have in my possession that this organisation is in breach of its obligations in relation to the requirement to 501 (c). Not only is their status as a tax deductible organisation invalid requiring the Fedaral Governent to revoke any benifit from donors to the organisation, but also seek compensation from them in realtion to the tax relief they have recieved.   But also that the directors and managers,  past and present,  of this organisation are culpible for breaches of both the law of the Lao PDR but also US Federal legislation.

Please contact me as soon as possible to dicuss this matter and save us all the embarassment of taking this issue to the media.

Kind regards

Greg Blake

</

This one was just too good to let pass:

July 8
“Ha… lets be facebook friends .. lets try to fill the emptiness of
our souls with meaningless blandishments.. lets engage in oral sexs in
the search of the meaning of life ..ha … just undulge me .. ha”

Just undulge me, indeed. I’m not sure what’s more meaningless than creating a whole backstory to try to impress people into giving money, sex and affection to some sad fiction, or what would ultimately be more empty — to someone with any empathy or any kind of conscience. Lacking either of those qualities, I guess it would be pretty fun.

I also found this, July 12:
“I suppose the difference between our societies is that we could
inagine a siciety not ruled by fear…”

Remember Donnie Darko? The fear and love business always reminds me of this: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MqAJ5W2wQH4

And I guess this fearless society he’s referring to is the one who voted in Tony Abbott. There’s a chuckle.

June 23

“A shot gun is an in accurate but brutally effective weapon…”

Charming.

Welcome back!

More bullshit for you, ladies and gentlemen: The man who told me to put my things–most of what I own–in storage for him to take care of, then claimed they were lost, then claimed they were out of his control, is now desperately trying to get me to contact him by telling me he’s going to return this stuff. Would you believe it? I don’t. When, months ago, I was asking him to please, if he ever cared about me at all, return my personal things, my family pictures, gifts, mementos of journeys, he had no interest. But he doesn’t like being ignored, I guess, and this is the last string he thinks he can pull.

I don’t like getting these emails from him, but the legalese is always a hoot. As are his confessions that he now sees his own pathology–followed by a much more detailed discussion of why, really, I’m totally fucked up, too. Like this:

There is no reason for you to belive what I am rrying to tell you
here..but I want to tell you anyhow..For months I have struggled to
understand my nature.  I have sought professional advice and the help
of others and spent weks in contemlation. [He probably talks to you about the time he spends in contemplation. He told me for a year that he was seeking help to understand his “true nature,” a pet phrase.] And as I aproach that understanding I am both horrified and releived. I think I know what I am now.
I apologise for the pain I have caused you. [No he doesn’t. He has actually never apologized for anything. I’ve asked. If I bothered to ask again, he’d apologize vaguely for nothing, then attack me for my failings.]

At first as my awareness grew I wanted to simply end it to kll myself. Then I was overwhelmed
by anger. Finally I have decided to take this understanding of the nature of my madness and use it to do good. To spend the last quater of my life in service. [This is another favorite phrase. He spends no time in service to anyone but himself, I guarantee you.]

Once again there is no reason for you to believe me but there are some
things I want to tell you. Firstly and most importantly I want you to understand that it is
possible for someone like me to experience love and thst I have loved
you more than reason. It was a new experience for me and I handled it
badly. But you cannot claim that what I felt and still do feel for you
was false or trivial.

I also want to tell you that you behaved at times in ways that were
cruel and unreasonable. That I think that like me empathy is difficult
for you and that you have been since I have known you ultimatly
focused on your own needs and desires.
Aw, sweet. I’m not sure what I did to indicate a lack of empathy, other than empathizing the hell out of the series of increasingly absurd problems he claimed to had befallen him. The town conspiring against him, friends getting sick, friends killing themselves, friends betraying him, a government plot…ah, at that point, perhaps, my empathy began to stretch. What a bitch I am, huh?

All I’m asking, folks, is that if you meet this guy, don’t give him anything. Not trust, not money, not affection, not for a minute. It’s not going to be returned. This is not for me, this is not for him — this is for you, whoever you are. This is a warning.

Here he is again.

 

Favourite topics

In February, out of the blue, I got an email from Greg asking if I was pleased with myself for (in some fashion left, sadly, undescribed) destroying a secret action against human trafficking.

This is not true, of course: not true that I magicked it all the hell and not true that it existed in the first place. (And before you think, “well, maybe… ” —  no. It isn’t. This is an example of the kind of lie he makes up to make you feel guilty and stupid and responsible and cowed, because that’s how he wants you to be.)

He wrote:

“one dead .. one in prison ..  i hope you are proud of the consequences
of your actions.. the route for the export of young women to the US
from lao is open and will continue to function .. fantastic …”

As usual, he doesn’t say anything about what I actually did or could have done to disrupt this grand action. Just that the usual culprit, my “fear,” was enough to gum up the works. My fear has ended up being responsible for a lot of notable events over the past two years, according to Greg. Quite a powerful figure, this fear, able to stop bank transfers with a single tendril; able to smash international coalitions with a breath.

I remember, back when I used to believe him, asking how, how, how this had all happened and what I could have had to do with it, given that  I spent most of my time alone in hotel rooms, telling little white lies to people who were concerned about me. He never had a real response. He just made me feel shitty for not “understanding.”

“.. get on your knees and apiloguse to the
families of the young women whose lives you have ruined with your
fears and pathetic insecurities … you have no idea what you have
done .. the only comfort i take from this is that you will never be
truely free ..”

And an insult at the end. Imagine wanting to make someone feel responsible for something like this — someone who, hours or days before and after, you’ll also claim to love.

 

Verse

It’s hard to maintain a blog about just one thing, especially such a pathetic thing. Getting the daily sniveling emails helps, I suppose. He’s been attempting poetry:

Temple drums

sacred tree flower’s scent

Peace found and lost

and

Mountain sky

Joy betrayed

Peace no more

and

Joy dispursed in lies

Hope eroded by

assumption;

Why live.

— all from June 1. Grammatical and spelling errors all his, of course.

 

I’m not sure how to make it all hang together. I’m only doing this in hopes that if someone like me–someone in Cambodia or Myanmar, maybe–meets Greg and starts to be swept away, that he or she will find this and think twice.

Perhaps you’ve met this guy and he’s telling you about his military record. I’ve never found it. Or his PhD or his multiple degrees. Look them up. They don’t exist. Perhaps he’s confiding in you that he’s working for the Australian embassy in whatever country he’s in. By all means, call them. He isn’t.

It’s easy to let yourself believe, however. Records don’t exist because of his super-secret missions. Same with the embassy–he’s operating in the grey area where everything happens, doncha know, but where nothing is discussed. He’s not a Western man, baby–that’s why his conversations are so self-aggrandizing; that’s why he enumerates his degrees every chance he gets, brags about his fighting skills (though never actually demonstrates them), whines about his sad family life, his brittle persona, his devastating empathy. But of course, it’s not that he’s your special diamond in the rough. He just wants to look at himself in your eyes as he talks about himself. It’s a sick little masturbation, and you’ve become part of it.

If you have a year of your life to throw away, or money to invest in a sham company like Teknomadic, the one he half built and abandoned in Luang Prabang, Laos, by all means, listen. If you don’t, just take a bit of a closer look. He’s selling you a world built on his word, and his word is worthless.