Critical lessons from hoaxes

DIE HARD III
Herman Tiu Laurel
12/21/2007



“It was not only Lito Lapid but also his son Mark and Gloria's son who 'earned' millions from the lahar fees. Keep in mind that Gloria rescinded the executive order transferring the collection and distribution of lahar fees to the NRDC of the DENR soon after they 'ousted' Erap. FYI”, e-mails reader Armando Dayrit on our last column on the perils to “Among” Ed Panlilio’s anti-corruption revolution in Pampangga. So many especially among the so called Filipino intelligentsia here and abroad thought they were doing a good deed for the country when they supported Edsa Dos, but instead the reverse was true. This is because good people are easily taken in by the shrewd criminal elements.

It happens to the best of people, like the American population bamboozled into supporting the Iraq War of Bush-Cheney and company only to find that the fundamental reason cited for it was a really big lie, the non-existent WMD (weapons of mass destruction) of Saddam Hussein. It almost happened again for next year when Bush and company would have wanted an attack on Iran, except that now the U.S. National Intelligence Estimate of the CIA itself announced that Iran had quit its nuclear weapons program since 2003 – dealing a devastating blow to the Iran war plot of the neo-cons in Washington; and revealing the growing schism in the U.S. government over the wars for profit of the neo-cons.

Some of our most cherished thoughts, archetypes and institutions are formed by what those in positions of power want us to believe, and some never get to see beyond these myths taught in the formal educational systems and sustained by mainstream media that prevails in a particular setting. Innocent thought like “the leaders” are always good or should at least be given the benefit of the doubt – Bush and Gloria Arroyo are example of why people with power must always immediately be suspect because they start with so much hype building them up, or such archetypes of good and evil like the “genius” race of the Jews versus the “maniacal suicide-bombing” Palestinians.

ne institution universally built up as the most altruistic and idealistic global awards is the Nobel Prize, indeed it does give deserving recognition to mankind’s great minds and scientific efforts; but something is awry when you look at one of its particular award – the Nobel Peace prize. We know Aung San Suu Kyi is one awardee of this prize, from the very controversial country of Burma where the West and the East are locked in a battle for control; another is Al Gore for his campaign on “Global Warming” which starts a war against industrial development which would spread perpetuate poverty and stagnation in developing nations, and on the losing end of the ”carbon trading” deal.

Would you wonder why the universal name that’s synonymous to Peace itself that was nominated three times never won the Nobel Peace Prize? Mahatma Gandhi, portrayed in endless ways as the archetype of peace and peace struggle, and a genuine martyr of peace when he was shot by an assassin for his advocacy of peace between Hindus and Muslims, could not get the Nobel Prize board’s vote for the award to hoist his example for all the world to follow –could an anti-colonial crusader ever get such accolade from the colonial powers? Remember that all these awards ultimately serve the issues purposes, as in the Nobel for Economics that invariably goes to support liberal economic theories.

Gore and co-winner IPCC’s “man made global warming” thesis is belied by scientific findings. For example this news: “Ancient Fish Bones Reveal Impacts Of Global Warming Beneath The Sea: ScienceDaily (Dec. 18, 2007) — Scientists studying ancient fish bones in Scandinavia have discovered that warm-water species like anchovies and black sea bream that once thrived in Danish waters during a prehistoric warm period are now returning… researchers have investigated the fish fauna during one of the warmest prehistoric periods (the warm Atlantic period: ca. 7000--3900 BC) “ in other words, global warming had already visited even before the age of Man’s industrial emissions.

In 1997 the Asian Financial Crisis emerged as the whipping boy of Western financial institutions which blamed Asians succumbing to “moral hazard” and corruption calling it the “Asian contagion”. The hoax is that the Western financial institutions has always the most guilty of the moral hazard as the “subprime” crisis today shows– unmitigated lending to property assets while fully aware were astronomically overvalued because it was the only way to keep the banking profits flowing, and it’s the people to pay. The global bankers have been foisting these hoaxes since the turn of the century, and people still keep falling for them.

Being taken for a ride on such hoaxes becomes not only very costly for peoples, it can even kill as the wars for profit of Bush et al are doing this very minute. Politicians and media have always been primary instruments for such hoaxes, skeptics and journalists their nemesis; but it is up to all citizens of the world to question, especially what mainstream media controlled by powerful institutions and large corporations spew out. The Bushes and Arroyos will keep foisting their hoaxes – only our vigilance and enlightenment immunizes us against their deadly scams.

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