Pouring (stolen) oil on a troubled nation

● Fake news is not new. For generations, home cooks have believed that adding oil to the pot when cooking pasta will stop the water from boiling over. This is not true.

Famous Italian pasta manufacturer Barilla states on its website: “Contrary to popular myth, adding oil into the water does not stop pasta sticking together. It will only make the pasta slippery which means your delicious sauce will not stick. Instead, add salt to the pasta water when it comes to the boil and before you add the pasta.”

Washington’s Smithsonian Institution endorses the science: “Olive oil is said to prevent the pot from boiling over and prevent the pasta from sticking together. But the general consensus is that it does more harm than good ... Since oil is less dense than water and is composed of hydrophobic molecules, it creates a layer across the top of the water. When the pasta is drained, it is poured through this oiled layer and leaves a coat of oil on the pasta.”

The belief that oil would conquer turbulent water is an old one. Roman statesman Pliny wrote in the first century that “everything is soothed by oil”. About 500 years later, Irish missionary St Aidan “foretold to certain seamen that a storm would arise, and gave them some holy oil to calm it”.

According to Wordhistories.net, the belief is even more ancient: “The earliest recorded observations of adding oil to water seem to date back to the 18th century BC in Babylon. The phenomena observed when oil was poured into a bowl of water were seen as omens for the future.”

In our times, oil of the thicker and less palatable variety has not had such good press (let’s not mention Valdez or any other unfortunate spills). Aside from occasionally killing fish and birds, however, oil drives the world’s economy. The war in Ukraine, among other factors, has driven fuel prices up, as anyone who drives a vehicle will know to their cost.

This is not the only oil under fire. In recent months, the price of cooking oil obtained from sunflower seeds has risen to around R100 for a 2-litre container.

Last week, “a substantial amount” of sunflower oil for cooking was stolen from a Kempton Park warehouse. Sowetan writer Palesa Dlamini reported that Willowton Group, the oil producer, “has offered a R100,000 reward for any information that would lead to the successful apprehension of the perpetrators and/or recovery of the stolen goods”.

The reward remains on offer, even though one of the three trucks filled with oil was swiftly apprehended by police, its driver arrested and its contents returned to the owners.

To we who decry the state of lawlessness in SA, this is nothing short of miraculous.

Oil has long been seen to have mystical properties. Google “essential oils” and you will find hundreds of pages of hoodoo and hoodwinkery. Whether or not one believes in the healing properties of oils infused with basil, lavender and Japanese knotweed, noone can deny the part played by oil extracted from beneath the Earth’s crust for fuel, or extracted from plants, seeds and fruits for cooking.

The fact that a truck full of purloined sunflower oil was recaptured by the authorities made South Africans disproportionately happy. Comments on social media reveal the joy felt by observers who saw justice carried out and stolen goods retrieved.

You could say that this incident, which in a small way ameliorated the angry mindset of many South Africans, was like pouring oil on troubled waters.

Bridge Over Troubled Water, by Simon and Garfunkel, was one of the most popular songs of the 1970s and 1980s. The duo used the original singular form of the idiom in their song. The Phrase Finder tells us that “troubled waters” became the more common form from the 18th century, citing this quote from philosopher Benjamin Rush in 1798: “His presence and advice, like oil upon troubled waters, have composed the contending waves of faction.”

To pour oil on troubled water, or waters, has come to mean the settling of an argument, or the calming of anger, by means of pacifying words. When words become action, that peace is more profound.