Ephrem Endale
Contributer
Science, so we believed for ages was all about life. It was supposed to be all about making this world a better place to live in. Indeed, over the decade’s science has done so much in making the world a knowledge-driven hub where old ways have been replaced by newer, more reliable and scientifically proven ways. But despite all the great achievements science has registered so far there is still a very long way to go in ensuring the vision of making the world better and trouble free. I mean they haven’t even discovered some cure for the common cold! They have yet to find cures for HIV/AIDS, and numerous health problems. Science has still to tackle the numerous problems that paint a bleaker future for mankind. It has yet to tackle problems like food shortages and environmental degradation.
The scientists are supposed hunched in the uncountable labs all over the world are supposed to be professional not swayed by differences of political outlooks, citizenship or such things that haunt the rest of the society. Most of all they were supposed to be thousands of miles from politics or anything political. Leave the political science thing to the politicos and those interested. That was supposed to be the rule of the game. But alas! Over the past decades and especially since a few decades things seem to be changing as politics seems to have rammed its way into the science laboratories. For some scientist making new discoveries isn’t about inspiration, passion and the craving to make real difference but about the directives from the political and business elite and the mouth-watering money behind all this. And when you see the Russia-Ukraine wars and the likes, the test-firing of newer and more modern weapons, the military drills all over the place and the narratives of military brass of the ‘mighty’ one thing is sure; the scientists are busy making newer and more destructive weaponry.
A few of us, perhaps for the umpteen time, were talking about the Ukraine and Russia war and why it has come this far without real and serious peacemaking efforts being launched other than the recent Chinese suggestions. I can tell you it’s a very difficult issue to discuss because you’re not real frontline witnesses or don’t know others who’re close enough to see such things. So most of our knowledge rests on what we read and via the net. That, dear readers, isn’t a very nice scenario as we’re pummeled with deliberate and structured fake news. Until recent times most of us had our ‘favorite’ news channels or channels we think are dependable. Such outlooks unfortunately don’t take you to safer grounds. Because however our ‘admiration’ for certain news channels it’s usually one-sided stories and analysis we’d be hearing and watching. More and more we’ve come to understand the fact that there are independent privately owned media organizations doesn’t mean they actually are free! Free to think and free to act; free to tell the world what it should hear and not what the remote operators want it to hear; free from any sort of bias or favoritism.
These days as the cat comes out of the bag a paw at a time the true faces of what is called the free global mainstream media is becoming clearer. These organizations could say only what their owners or major financial backers want them to say and ‘fair and balanced reporting,’ as good as the term sounds, seldom leaves the paper it’s written on.
So what we are told about the Ukraine and Russia war from the so-called mainstream media the stories are always target-oriented to satisfy the wishes and whims of their owners and/or controllers. All the demonization and stories which sound like Hollywood flops are usually far from what’s actually happening on the ground.
One thing is sure; the real story of that war and the extent of destruction and loss of life on all sides is yet to come. From what our comrades living in the West and our surfing of the net indicates there’s much foul play in the whole process of reporting what’s going on. I mean, come on, with the entire western world ganging up against Putin and his country it’s only obvious what the so-called free and fair media in those places plays second fiddle. A friend somewhere in North America tells me it’s practically impossible to read about or listen to Russian versions.
“Why?”
“Because they’ll lose all their advertisers!” Ouch! So much for ‘information flow!’
Look things have turned so much ugly some of the big-time media outlets publish and air so-called stories which are nothing than simple and moronic outrages and few seem to care. If we go with what some of them have tirelessly it is said much of the Western world’s population don’t know that much about the war. If we go by the reporting of those media outlets by now a resurrected Dostoyevsky would have wondered, “Where the hell have they taken my country!” According to the western media’s stories and so-called analysis, Russia would have ceased to exist months back. Even some of the ‘top-notch’ media personalities unable to hide their hate descend to such depths of vulgarity you’d feel sorry for this unfortunate world. Unfortunately, in many places such people set the agenda! They’re so enthusiastic about the stories they structure in line with their own blueprints, you’d have thought the so-called demographic tremors could have already shaken the world real bad.
Now how did we end up talking about this issue having started talking about science and scientists a topic we lightly talked about sometime back! Yes we were talking about weaponry and the scientists busy making the more lethal.
In recent months there had been a lot of talk about the west’s plans to provide Ukraine with tanks which some have described are untouchables and could themselves cause damages so thoroughly they would-be the game changers of the war. Well maybe they are right; maybe these tanks are game changers; maybe Ukrainians really needed such weaponry. However, what is worrying is that the rhetoric accompanying such issues of modern weaponry are so unnervingly insensitive about the loss of human life which they seem to be taking as collateral damage!
What we’re saying is all this time the scientists are busy making more modern weapons which have most devastating effects. It appears that the effectiveness of the weapons is measured by the extent of damages caused. No wonder that many people are asking to start asking questions about scientific researches of modern days. You remember the executive of Pfizer who recently sang out some songs which took much of the world by surprise. With too much alcohol in his system he was talking about researches underway to create a more viral and more viral Covid virus. And it was one of the top pharmaceutical giants doing this? Now pharmaceutical companies are supposed to be about saving life sooner not infecting an entire world and gathering the profits for decades.
The most damaging scenario would be of people losing confidence in scientists and behind closed door scientific researches. You can call that ‘the science of doubting scientists.” You never know when and how a ‘fresh’ idea strikes!
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The Ethiopian Herald 5 March 2023