Truth is contrary to hearsay

Other Voices

By Ahmad alsarraf Goebbels – the German Nazi politician and Reich Minister of Propaganda of Nazi Germany – said: “When I hear the word culture, I reach for my gun”. When I hear who says “I understand how?” I put my hand on my heart expecting the worst.”

In the mid-eighties I was partner and director of a small company in London. The company’s offices were located in a building run by us, and one day a tenant complained about the lack of toilet paper and soap in the bathrooms. I accompanied him and showed him his mistake and he apologized politely. I told him before we parted that we are a company with a capital of 3 million pounds and do not seek to save half a pound the value of toilet paper and soap.

A few days later, income tax inspector visited our office, examined our books and found nothing. I repeated that the capital of our company is three million and we are serious about our work. A week later came the Value Added Tax (VAT) inspector, and he heard from me the same amount, and how we are not subject to that tax.

It was time to hold the company’s board meeting, so I asked the accountant to complete the budget statement on Friday and leave it on my desk because the meeting was the next day. I returned to the office in the evening and discovered that the company’s capital in the budget is a million and a half and not three million.

It was too late to call the accountant in his office, and because of the importance of the matter I called him at his home. His wife replied saying that it is Saturday and he cannot answer the phone, as is usually the case with hard-line Jews.

I suggested to her to show him the mistake he has made in writing down the company’s capital and I wanted a solution. She promised to talk to him and call me back and she did a

alsarraf

few minutes later and read from a paper written down by her husband the share of each partner and confirming that the company’s capital is actually a million and a half, and not what I said.

I found out that my repetition of the three million pounds took hold in my mind, and I believed my lie even though I did not benefit from mentioning it but I was saying it to make a good impression of the company, and it was a good experience from which I learned a lot.

I remembered the incident which took place almost 35 years ago while listening to a part of an interview with some of those who think they are philosophers and thinkers, and how they lived with a lie similar to my case, but permanent. They believed in the imaginary stories they repeated but the difference was that they continued repeating the lies and lived with them more seriously.

In this context, a colleague and lawyer Bassam Al-Asousi wrote an article on Friday 27/9 and said: “Fame has types ... Understand how? There are notable figures in science, thought and literature, and there are others known for clowning.

I do not understand why some choose the path of fraud and maneuver and turn the facts to enter the world of lights and stardom by continuing to appear in television programs considered as a return of the clinically dead to political life by being hosted to talk in the intellectual pocus and illogical analysis, and the promotion of expired goods.”

There is a person, who does not have a firm opinion of any issue, and his main goal is to incite the lowest classes and the ordinary people and they are a lot in our societies.

”I listened to one of the episodes “You see how I understood” and I received several observations and comments from dear readers about many of the fallacies. I have chosen to finish listening to all the episodes before commenting on them, and this article is only to warn against believing all that is contained in those interviews. The truth is often contrary to what is being said.

e-mail:

habibi.enta1@gmail.com