Odds and Ends...

Thursday, Oct. 7, 1999--Hong Kong (www.gelken.com/APJ)--A story that crossed my desk earlier this week caused me to wonder out loud how many people actually 'listen' to what is being reported on radio and television news, or actually 'read' their newspapers. I also got to wondering just how much of what people are told is actually based on any credible evidence. And it isn't just journalists who are at fault in the mis-shaping of people's opinions!

A couple of women here in Hong Kong paid considerable sums of money to protect themselves from the dreaded millennium bug. They also hoped to make a few bucks by helping others too. They bought hundreds of what turned out to be over the counter indigestion tablets at highly inflated prices from an enterprising con-man. Apparently they were convinced that the millennium bug would give them an upset stomach. The women became quite distressed when they discovered the 'bug' was computer related; and they wouldn't be able to make a handsome profit selling some of the pills to their friends for an even more inflated price.

These are the same sort of people who could cause a run on the banks by withdrawing all their cash before the 31st of December, believing that computers worldwide would gobble up their hard earned savings. The same sort of people, I suppose, who think GM food must be okay because after all, GM make pretty damn good cars, don't they?

We 'informed' types who keep our finger on the pulse of what is happening in the world can, of course, have a good chuckle at the expense of folks whose reading material is usually stacked next to the supermarket cash-register.

Well, until columnist David Corn reminded us this week that a former POTUS had some rather bizarre ideas of his own, that is. Check it out, there were a few gems that I hadn't heard before. And then just when I thought anti-Y2K pills and 'Dutch' would win the prize for the wackiest stories of the week, along came Britain's 'Iron Lady' who couldn't resist the impulse to make another spirited defense of her pal, Augusto Pinochet.

Margaret Thatcher described Pinochet as Britain's only political prisoner. She told adoring fans on the fringes of the Conservative Party Convention that a country's leader should not be held criminally responsible for the excesses of his underlings, whether or not he knew about them, endorsed them, collaborated in them! A good friend of former Indonesian strongman Suharto, I think Maggie is a bit worried about going abroad herself. She should be.

In my book, if the skipper of the Exxon Valdez can get busted for an accident that happened when he wasn't driving--responsible for the ship and outrageously negligent, yes--but not driving. Then I guess it is okay for a dictator to get busted--even though he didn't apply the electrodes himself.

From the blue-collared man in the street to the Gucci shod executive and politician, off-the-wall concepts and perceptions of the world in which we live cross all boundaries of race, religion, education and wealth, or the lack of. So where do these ideas come from? Why do normally sane people queue up for hours to buy a Big Mac and the chance to acquire a Snoopy figurine in national costume?

Not surprisingly the latest Snoopy collection on offer here in Hong Kong doesn't include a Chechen in national dress, but I can't help but wonder if a Kosovo Albanian might not be making an appearance in some future promotion. A KLA uniformed Snoopy with an AK47 would fit nicely with the other stereotyped nationalities. Because, of course, we support autonomy for Kosovo to the extent we went to war on their behalf. We also support autonomy for Chechnya, but only to the extent of laundering IMF money for the Russian Mafia, some of whom may or may not be of Chechen origin.

I was amused to see China listed this week as a country that doesn't allow religious freedom. It made the list, I suppose, because of Beijing's crackdown on the Falun Gong spiritual-meditation sect. The Secretary of State now has to decide what sanctions to impose--or not if she feels it isn't in the national interest. U.S. national interest, just to make that clear. While I am basically opposed to the imposition of sanctions under most circumstances, I would fully endorse the most wide and sweeping sanctions against Beijing if Madeleine Albright announced them from the steps of Mecca Cathedral. She could do it the next time she visits Saudi Arabia, a staunch anti-Iraq ally.

Wait a minute...Mecca doesn't have a cathedral.

Another misguided concept. Who ever gave politicians the notion that their presence at the scene of a disaster was welcome? It makes for good sound bites; the caring politician sharing the pain with the ordinary folks. But it is a pain in the 'you know what' for the emergency services who may still be fighting the clock to save lives. I must have seen it a thousand times, but seeing the fuss being made of British Deputy Prime Minister John Prescott at the scene of the London commuter train crash made me wonder 'what the hell does he really think he is achieving other than getting his ugly mug on the television?' They are a distraction and their presence serves no real useful purpose--at least not to the people trapped in the wreckage or rubble.

Take a deep breath. I suppose it is plausible that the ladies who tried to buy anti-millennium bug pills while standing in a queue for a Big Mac made with ingredients produced by General Motors watching their palm-top portable televisions air a report on Prescott's visit to the crash site could be distracted by a friend who tells them that he or she has just read in a magazine that he or she just bought in the supermarket that computers are going to crash on December 31st and make their money disappear--I suppose it is plausible that they may even believe in the Indonesian 'rogue military element' theory.

Nah, okay, that is a bit of a stretch. No one is that gullible.