It happened way back but I think it might our purpose for this piece. There were some administrative earthquakes and aftershocks in this office for reasons no one really knew for sure. Things have gone from bad to worse in only a couple of months’ time that opposing groups were formed among the staff and all the nastiest of rumors made the rounds of even nearby offices with no direct link with the one we’re talking about. No one really what actually drove the staff to form in groups while everyone knew all the decisions come from upstairs with no involvement of the general staff! One rumor was that they have secretly downsized quite a significant number of the staff. When the bosses called an emergency meeting emotions were high and names of those who have been dismissed and also demoted started making the rounds. It was total mayhem. No one claimed to have seen the list and the question “Who told you so?” was practically non-existent.
This guy was told his name was the very top of those to be dismissed. Him being a good and industrious staff member that was too much to take. They say he went into immediate depression and as almost everyone was on edge there was no one to advise him to take things easy. Many of the staff had many sleepless nights as we’re not in times when you could just get another job the morning next to the day you’re dismissed.
Well, the meeting day arrives and surprise! Surprise! There were no layoffs except for two guys who committed such gross mistakes which could have put the very existence of the organization in question. So where did all that buzz of carpet bombing of staff members by the bosses come from? Later it was discovered that a cleaning lady heard a boss utter the word “dismissal” casually and the flood gates I opened. Exaggerations and more exaggerations! I just think that we’re in times when what you see is a hungry frog emanating loud sounds which seem to come from some mini-loudspeaker and someone tries to convince you it’s an elephant! Ha!
It looks like it’s some sort of a pandemic. Why is that it seems every other one of us is obsessed with inflating anything and everything! Exaggerating everything from the so-called news items and gossip to how you plan to write the next great novel in the country isn’t the result of accidental blurs but the way some people justify our existence.
“You know the Third World War is about to begin.”
“Oh, now that’s the biggest breaking news I heard so far this year. Where did you get that information from?”
“Well, it was on so and so’s radio show.”
“Are you telling me he said word for word that the Third World War was to start?”
“Yes he did.”
“And where did he say it’d begin?”
“Well he just said that the entire world would be at war with each other. He didn’t mention any specific place. Why are you so surprised? The guy knows almost everything there is to know about the world.”
“Ok take it from me and he knows absolutely nothing about his own country let alone the rest of the world. All he’s knows picking up the most picturesque, sensational adjectives from all over the place and feeling his pieces with them.”
Anyways if you ask me there are a lot to do to do justice to commentaries of international affairs on the airwaves or in print. People are being misled by wrong and highly exaggerated and fictionalized narratives. Indeed much of the news we hear these days are not only discomforting but also scary too. Yes there is a lot of talk about the Third World War stuff. This world is the messiest it could ever be. Yes especially the Middle East could lead to very nasty international scenes, causing much harm. But then concluding that every one of us would go for every other guy is taking things a lot too far. Maybe one day there might be this big scenery where every one’s hands are on every other person’s throats! At least that would be the worst of the worst scenarios, wouldn’t you say?
Recently some guy told me the breaking news he heard from “those who know the case.” He said he was told in all secrecy the US and Russia were going to war and the only thing remaining was who shoots first. And he was told this in ‘the utmost secrecy!” Either most of us are becoming hopeless fools or something very strange was going with us. Being told the ‘secret’ of an upcoming war between two giants, information hidden from the rest of the world of all places in this part of the world! That’s insanity in all its superlatives! He told me because he was sure I wouldn’t parrot it to any other person! Thanks for the confidence!
Yes, I too browse the net because somehow it appears that despite the near-total mess it has turned into it is not as bad as searching for the elusive needle in the haystack. But still things are so bad sorting out the genuine from the fake is becoming difficult. So don’t blame yourself if you at some point in time are taken astray by some sensational news and think it’s the truth. Maybe it’s something that you yourself wanted to hear and when it comes there is no room for thinking twice. “I told you!” would be the first words that come to you!
The problem is we don’t like and share such news only on the web but we do it in real time. The only thing is you don’t share it with hundreds or thousands of people at the same time. So we rush to the nearest friend or somewhat we know rather fairly and say, “I told you so!”
“What did you tell me so?”
I remember quite a while ago at a certain gathering this guy probably in his seventh or so decade in this world was talking about old times. One thing was that the man really knew how to talk, you know appealing to the senses of the rank and file and almost every one most way younger than he was were listening to him with real attention. He was talking how those times were and sounded like it was some sort of an earthly paradise you could have a whole lunch with ‘siga wot’ for a few cents, and there was no talk of hunger and everyone was happy and smiling. Nonsense. And he is talking about an age when millions were starved and the world was being fed scenes of famine and hunger which it never expected to see on TV. Yes there were good times, no doubt about that. But such exaggerations wouldn’t do justice to any generation past, present or future.
“Tell It As It Is!” should be a slogan gracing the walls of homes the world over. That’s how severe the problem of exaggeration has become!
The Ethiopian Herald August 18/2024