Giving a baby tortoise a free-range home in Marrakech thanks to SPANA charity

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Category: Blog

Published: 10 January 2023

On the 6th of January whilst in Marrakech, Morocco I got an odd message from my wife; “I saw a tortoise on the way to the hotel” along with a photo. I was rather confused and replied quickly for more information. We were staying in a riad (old Arabesque house) within the medina on a small non-car accessible side street. It turns out my wife, a big animal lover who spends most of the day watching cat/dog videos on Facebook, spotted a baby tortoise on the street which had clearly escaped or been abandoned.

In traditional shopping areas, they sell baby tortoises openly. My wife asked around and no one claimed it, so she took it to the hotel room! I was a little shocked and luckily, she did not tell the reception. It was given water and, on the way, back to the hotel I bought it a lettuce which was 4-5x bigger than it! Most of the time it was not moving – sleeping which I believe is normal.

There was only one thought in my head - visit SPANA, an English charity with eight branches in Morocco, based 5kms+ away. Marrakech being a city, does not have suitable places to leave it out and outside of Marrakech is rather arid. Giving it to the men selling them is not an ethical idea. The day before (5th) we visited the excellent Jarjeer Mule & Donkey Refuge outside of Marrakech which focuses on mules, donkeys & horses.

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Should it take a newspaper article to get assistance from the (despicable, disorganised, slow and business minded) Home Office?

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Category: Private Thoughts

Published: 21 September 2022

This is a very rare speak my mind from me. Normally I don’t talk about locations or relations however I already “outed” myself in May to get help from the Home Office and then FCDO due to the first govt. dept. mentioned causing us a problem in Turkey.

If I had a pound for everyone who said to me as a British citizen, UK embassies will help you or since your wife married a British citizen she will automatically and instantly get a British passport, I would have a small fortune. Sadly, this is totally not true and perhaps it was true a decade plus back.

Previously I did not really care about immigration or govt services. Why? It did not affect me till the wife came along who has a non-Western weak passport which makes travel tough even in Eastern Europe.

This article is in follow up from https://www.theguardian.com/uk-news/2022/may/10/couple-belarus-prison-surrogate-child-uk-visa-delays which covered our plight till Tuesday 10th May.

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An example of very dumb/poor IoT security and some free tips: criminals please do secure your internet connected cameras at your cannabis farm!

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Category: Cyber Security (Personal)

Published: 01 September 2022

Firstly, the content in this article has been under lock and key for over three years. Why? For legal and safety reasons. Do be careful when poking around on purpose or by accident in relation to criminal activity.

In one week some years ago I was training a bunch of apprentices in London. The five-day course was OSINT and of course it covered a module on Shodan plus a lot more. On the first day or two of the course, an enthusiastic boy called me on over to look at what he had found. When I was under 20 like him, I wouldn’t think too much about the dangers of looking into organised crime.

Swiftly I went over and laughed. By chance, without wanting to he found a cannabis farm on Insecam.org. This website has numerous categories including: bars, bridges, car parks, factories, hairdressers and farms where this “business” was listed some years back. Under the farm category typically you see cattle and on this occasion, it was an illicit type of farm.

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