On ‘Prevarication’

Prevarication is defined as ‘the attempt to avoid giving a direct and honest answer or opinion, or a clear and truthful account of a situation, often by telling a lie’. And how many times have each of us been guilty of such an action? Innumerable times, no doubt – unless you’re some kinda unique entity. For sure, the ‘degree’ of the ‘untruth’ uttered is often used as justification – a ‘white lie’, as some term it – and used, they righteously assert, to cause less harm than may otherwise have been caused. The purists, though, will have none of that crap – a lie is a lie is a lie, they will insist.

So, do the effects of ‘prevarication’ vary in terms of impact on the individual or, in a larger context, on society? It sure as hell does – affecting all and sundry across the spectrum and to varying degrees. The vote of ‘no confidence’ presented in parliament against the government spokeperson for his prevarication regarding the eviction of Tamil lodgers from Colombo is a case in point.

Waaaz da big deal maaan? Dese dudes be tellin notting but lies mos of da time, so how com dey don do dis sheeet more often, huh? Dis spokesperson dude, he be talkin such a load of toro pupu mos of da time, dat mos folk don believe his ass anyways. An I be guessin mos govermens roun da world hav dere spin doctors doin dere ‘spammin an jammin’, (as our ol fren Leon say) anyways – dat’s how it be maan – all aroun da world. Dey jus don want dere asses caught doin it, right? An dat ex-prez of ours – what did dat journalis dude call her? ‘Da mudder of all liars’ or somting like dat. Maaan could she stretch dat truth – she be stretchin it sooo muckin fuch dat it look like a totally differen beast by da time she get don, huh? Remember? I be guessin dat all dese politico types – anywhere on dis planet, be doin da same, so we jus hav to live wit dis ‘prevaricashun’, seein as how all of us be guilty of it at som time or anodder.

Java finishes his little spiel on the subject and heads for the sound.

Well, I guess Java is right on the ball. What’s the big deal he asks – and I’m hard put to answer him. It’s just that when the legal draftsmen did their thing all those eons ago with the Roman-Dutch law that filtered down through colonial times and spread their effects around the world, truth was held to be a standard of morality that was meant to be inherent in the responsibilities that those elected by the people to public office would be bound to uphold, and their oaths on entering office would include these conditions. So when a ‘spokesman for the government’ informs the country of a particular situation, he is bound to tell the truth and to wifully mislead the country’s citizens (and indeed the world), would be a gross violation of the trust imposed in the individual. And what is the penalty for this violation? I’m not much into the legal technicalities, but apparently the vote of ‘no confidence’ put forward by the opposition has asked that the ‘spokeperson’ be evicted from parliament. If this comes to pass – as unlikely as it may seem, for pessimists like Java, it will set a precedent (correct me please if I am in error) and perhaps serve as an example to future ‘spokepersons’ to watch their butts.

However, be that as it may, what strikes me is that it is sort of unlikely that the spokesperson would have devised this whole strategy by himself without at least discussing it with his superiors (whoever he/she/they may be) and if this was the ‘official’ statement, why should only the ‘spokesman’ take the fall? Shouldn’t anyone else also be held accountable? And who could possibly have told the ‘spokesperson’ to lie about the bussing? Your guess is as good – or as bad – as Java’s and mine.

Dat’s right maaan, all we be hopin fo is fo dis ting to end wit even a sem-blance of prop – how yo say dat word maaan? Yeah, dat’s right, prop-pri-ety, seein the sorry-ass state of our leaders an where dis country be headin.

Oh well, perhaps there’s hope for us yet. Let ‘prevarication’ get on that ‘endangered species’ list, at least for the elected representatives of us all. Haven’t we had enough of being lied to and taken for a pack of idiots by folk who don’t have the intelligence to tell the truth when even they know that we know that they know they are lying to us? This, as Java says, is ‘so-in-yo-face-blatant’ that we are expected to accept anything that is passed down without a murmur. But it looks like enough is enough – at least let’s hope this gets the ball rolling towards a more democratic state of affairs.

Java has Weather Report doing Zawinul’s classic ‘Birdland’, gets his stash out and we look forward to the rest of the evening in the cool climes of Flowerbook.

Sex ain’t always what it seems – to them critters anyway

It’s the second straight gloomy day at Flowerbook, but the light morning drizzle did nothing to inhibit the early morning walkabout the land with Buster, Rocky, Bruiser and the new addition to the canine troupe – Sally – just around twelve weeks old. There’s something invigorating about these cold, damp mornings, but damned if I can put my finger on it. Anyway, in the course of the walk I checked out the fruit-fly traps I had devised yesterday and found to my delight, a whole slew of those pesky critters trapped inside – no matter that they were all males.

The thing about organic agriculture is that any chemical – fertilizer, pesticide, fungicide or weedicide, is a major no-no, so that getting rid of fruit-flies is the one problem that I find hard to combat. The slugs, aphids and other such ground-bound critters can be subdued with all manner of home-made concoctions, but fruit-flies are a different kettle of critter due to their aerial abilities. Anyway, a long time ago I heard about the CISIR developing a fruit-fly pheromone and managed to contact the scientist involved to score a small quantity of the concentrated liquid. And it worked – like a charm.

Now for those of you who may not be familiar with the term – a ‘pheromone’ is defined as ‘a chemical that triggers an innate behavioral response in another member of the same species’. And if you google for it you will find that there are quite a few different categories. The initial finding however, had to do with sex and was found in the late fifties resulting from experiments with silkworms. So, in short, a pheromone released through the innate genetic makeup of a creature serves the purpose of attracting another of the same species for mating. Bitches in heat are a good example.

Anyway, the fruit-fly pheromone is synthesized in a lab and is used to mimic the chemical put out by the female to attract the males. A simple trap consists of a plastic bottle with two holes (just enough to allow the fly entry) bored on either side of it, with a swab of cotton on which is dabbed a minute quantity of the synthetic signal. The holes allow the males to enter, with the intention of impregnating the female and having done their thing – with the cotton swab instead of with the real Mac Coy, the mini-brained critters don’t have what it takes to find their way out. And so they die, after a few days of searching for the escape route. This results in fewer males being able to fertilize the females, who, in the usual course of their lives bore holes in fruit and certain vegetables in which they lay their eggs. When the eggs hatch, the larvae proceed to eat their way out of the fruit, or vegie, which of course makes the host inedible. So you could well imagine the huge problem an organic gardener has with fruit-flies.

I had tried the CISIR after the first batch of synthetic pheromone finished; however, they had stopped making it. Anyway, after many years and in some desperation, I tried again last week and lo and behold – they had done it again – which is how this post originated. And now there’s some hope for the zucchini, cucumbers, tomatoes, pumpkin and other produce, as fewer females in this territory will be fertilized and less of them will need to bore those minute holes to lay those miniscule eggs that ruin the fruit.

There’s a whole lot more in my head about pheromones – especially the ones that apply to us humans, but that’s best left for later. Back at the laptop and gazing out of the window I see the drizzle has abated, but a stiff breeze has all the branches moving and the leaves doing shimmies in the blowing. The dogs are lying around me and WorldSpace has some Latino music that somehow fits the mood.