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Showing posts from February, 2014

Article in Foreign Policy Magazine

Help, I'm a British Philosophy Professor With the Same Name as a Burmese Heroin Kingpin! ...and banks keep getting us confused. BY Jamila Trindle FEBRUARY 10, 2014 Jamila.Trindle @jtrindle Source here . The U.S. sanctions blacklist is meant to stop terrorists, drug lords, and weapons traders from getting access to their money. Unfortunately, it also ensnares a lot of people who just happen to have the same name as one of those alleged criminals. Professor Stephen Law, who shares the name of a prominent Burmese heroin dealer, has discovered that firsthand. The British Stephen Law is a soft-spoken professor at the University of London where he has taught philosophy for 17 years and plays the drums in a band called The Heavy Dexters. He's also the author of books like Believing Bullshit: How Not to Get Sucked Into an Intellectual Black Hole. The Burmese one is a wealthy drug kingpin who was sanctioned by the Treasury Department in 2008 and again in 2010 because of hi

My THINK week event with Miguel Farias - Oxford Feb 24th

Think Week 2014 - Stephen Law & Miguel Farias Monday February 24 th , 7:30pm:  Do You Believe The Facts Or The Myth? Friends Meeting House , St Giles Dr. Stephen Law Dr. Miguel Farias A discussion about belief. Humans believe in many different things, but what do we prefer? The science and facts, or stories and myths? Why are our minds inclined this way? And if we do prefer myth over fact, how can we change the nature of our belief? Philosopher Dr Stephen Law, author of ‘ Believing Bullshit ’, and Experimental Psychologist Dr Miguel Farias, will present their ideas about these questions and discuss their thoughts. Members of the audience are invited and encouraged to join the resulting discussion. Presented as part of Think Week 2014, February 24 th  to March 2 nd  Oxford Think Week 2012 is sponsored by the Richard Dawkins Foundation for Reason and Science (UK) http://richarddawkinsfoundation.org/ PLEASE VISIT  WWW.THINKWEEK.CO.UK  FREQUENTLY FOR MORE EVE

How the US Treasury imposes sanctions on me and every other "Stephen Law" on the planet - my letter to OFAC

Right, here's another thing I am getting off my chest - email letter to OFAC (edited slightly from version sent). Dear OFAC This correspondence is copied to my UK Member of Parliament The Right Hon. Andrew Smith. Please copy him into your reply. My name is "Stephen Law". The name "Stephen Law" appear on OFAC's "specially designated nationals" list: Here is the actual OFAC listing for "Stephen Law", alias of "Steven Law" https://ofac.data-list-search.com/Entities/ByName/steven-law This person is Burmese and is suspected by US Treasury of drug trafficking. He is the son of Lo Hsing Han (dubbed by US Treasury as "The Godfather of Heroin") and has a Singaporean wife. His addresses, as listed by you, are all in Burma and Singapore. None are in the UK. I have discovered that, as a result of this listing, US Customs block shipments of goods to me here in the UK. Also when people try to wire me money from abroad