Cannonfire had a thought-provoking post up yesterday: Cancer conspiracy speculation: It goes way beyond Hugo Chavez. We'll never know for sure how much that is now pure speculation was indeed fact, skillfully hidden. It would be amazing if all the named South American leaders afflicted by cancer were in fact murdered: assassinated in slow motion. A list:
Lula - Former President of Brazil; Dilma - Current president of Brazil; Cristina Kirchner - Argentina's current president; Nestor Kirchner - Former president of Argentina; Hugo Chavez - Venezuela's President; Evo Morales - Bolivian socialist leader; Fernando Lugo - the Paraguayan President; Ollanta Humala - President of Peru.
"If the world were good for nothing else, it is a fine subject for speculation." (William Hazlitt).Assassination is usually envisaged as carried out via gun shot(s), but that method has obvious drawbacks. Its immediacy makes it more than likely that the shooter will be identified and apprehended. There's always the chance that the shot(s) will miss target, but still result in capture of the gunman. Technological progress must surely, by now, have afforded would-be assassins more sophisticated and insidious ways of attaining their objective. It's not at all in the realm of sci-fi or dystopia that a direct method of inducing cancer in a targeted individual has been developed. It'd be nigh on impossible to track down the guilty party, or to pinpoint the cause, especially in the case of an otherwise healthy and vibrant non-smoker.
Thinking on this brought to mind a non-shooting assassination case in London, in 1978. The assassinated was Georgi Markov a Bulgarian dissident writer. (From Wikipedia)
Markov originally worked as a novelist and playwright in his native country, then governed by a communist regime under Chairman Todor Zhivkov, until his defection from Bulgaria in 1969. After relocating to the West, he worked as a broadcaster and journalist for the BBC World Service, the US-funded Radio Free Europe, and Germany's Deutsche Welle. Markov used such forums to conduct a campaign of sarcastic criticism against the incumbent Bulgarian regime. As a result of this, it has been speculated that the Bulgarian government may have decided to silence him, and may have asked the KGB for help. He died as a result of an incident on a London street when a micro-engineered pellet containing ricin was fired into his leg via an umbrella wielded by someone associated with the Bulgarian secret police.(Photograph: Fernando Llano/AP)
highly possible and extremely sad..
ReplyDeleteI was never one for conspiracy theories, primarily to offset my mother's dependency upon them. She was a devout Art Bell follower and never missed his radio shows. She had an alternative explanation for everything, even those things not requiring an explanation! Now that I'm over-the-hill and have time to reflect on various peculiarities, I'm finding that I'm susceptible to alternative explanations, too.
ReplyDeleteYour commentary today is a plausible set of correlations that does defy the odds of chance happenings. Maybe yes, maybe no.
As I fly around the blog-o-sphere, I find many unusual conspiracy presentations that I wasn't purposely trying to find, but happened on to them. I read them and think, "WOW...what if!". It's unfortunate that our world has such a corrupt pretense that a conspiracy theory can carry the same plausibility (or more) than the "real" explanation provided.
I resisted the 9-11-2001 conspiracy theories for some time, probably more so hoping that our government couldn't be that bizarre. But, anymore, I'm not so sure that the story we've been told is a valid one. Here's an interesting video about 9-11 conspiracy:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=yuC_4mGTs98&feature=player_embedded
The trillions of missing money is a fact and announced by Rumsfeld:
http://www.examiner.com/article/censored-trillions-of-dollars-missing-from-pentagon
Here's an interesting piece from Vanity Fair regarding the largest cash withdrawal ever from the US treasury that was shipped to Iraq:
http://www.vanityfair.com/politics/features/2007/10/iraq_billions200710
Truth is more important than fact! Truth is stranger than fiction! Truth is more important than good news!
I can go back as far as the coup against the President of Chile, Salvador Allende. While more blatant than these suspiciously more the average number of cancer cases, I remember reading what Henry Kissinger said just before Allende was killed; something to the effect of 'Not standing by and watching a country go communistic". The tactics may change, but the reasons and paranoia stay the same.
ReplyDeleteMakes a change from planes mysteriously crashing though.
ReplyDeleteSonny ~~~ Yes, agreed.
ReplyDeletemike ~~ Conspiracy theories are a source of fascination, not just because of the individual events involved, but in noticing how very easy it is to mix and match facts and factors with creativity and imagination, and come up with a feasible alternative scenario. Reminds me of astrology (done the wrong way) at times. Most of them, in my opinion, fall down because there are too many people involved and people being people, they would be unlikely keep secrets fastidiously over long time spans.
ReplyDeleteRe the current speculation - it's not too much of a stretch, though I doubt any such theory would apply to everyone on that list - but to some - yes I can see that easily.
Thanks for those links - I'll delved into 'em in a mo.
Anonymous ~~ Hi! Yet another instance from South America - I remembered the name but not the circumstances - looked up the detail.
ReplyDelete"They" said suicide, many think assassination.
Ye gods!! - Why are people so paranoid about socialism, communism, Marxism?
They should really be paranoid about capitalism. It's the result of unfettered capitalism that will bring us to the brink of extinction eventually. But as long as the wealthy can keep filling their already overflowing coffers.....who cares about extinction?
James Higham ~~ Variety is the spice of death as well as of life, ain't it though?
ReplyDeletePaul Wellstone, who was a beloved by the people true populist presidential candidate once upon a time - died in a plane crash.
mike ~~ I watched the video you suggested about the 9/11 conspiracy - it's the best I've seen. Love the way it speeds through salient ingredients from 2001 to 2011, the speed adds to the feeling that official stories presented to the public are more bizarre than the conspiracy theory! :-)
ReplyDeleteWhatever the cause of Chavez's death, Venezuelans have lost a fine leader. He truly cared for his people - at least, those who weren't robbing the poor to line their bank balances. Which is more than can be said for the leaders of certain nations so quick to condemn him.
ReplyDeleteI, too, remember the assassination of Georgi Markov, shot with a ricin pellet, possibly by the KGB.
RJ Adams ~~ Yes, he had the right priorities, improved the lot of the weakest and poorest. Of course those who fight to keep anything like that that from happening here will condemn him as a tyrant. Reading through comments here and there it's very easy to see, once again, a clear division in views, and from them deduce the political preferences of the commenter.
ReplyDeleteIt happens probably more than we'll ever know. And further back than we think.
ReplyDelete“He lies him down upon a bank of flowers. She, seeing him asleep, leaves him. Anon comes in another man, takes off his crown, kisses it, pours poison in the sleeper's ears, and leaves him. The Queen returns; finds the King dead, makes passionate action. The Poisoner, with some three or four, comes in again, seem to condole with her. The dead body is carried away. The Poisoner woos the Queen with gifts; she seems harsh awhile, but in the end accepts his love.”
anyjazz ~~ Quote Hamlet at me first thing in the morning before a cup of coffee would ya?! Wow!!!
ReplyDeleteThanks aj - yes that rounds things off very nicely. :-)