Thursday, March 29, 2007

Lie travels faster than the truth?

Last month has seen two major rumours showing the power of communication, especially if it is a lie. I remember what Mark Twain once said, “A lie can travel halfway around the world while the truth is putting its shoes on.”

The rumour of deaths by mobile phones travelled all across the northern region within one day, while a week back, the rumour of 'impending earthquake' kept many people out of their homes the whole night. My enquiries revealed that most of the people received phone calls from friends or relatives informing that an 'earthquake is expected so rush out'. The entire Panjab, Rajasthan, Haryana, was affected within a matter of hours...and it all happened between 1am and 3am.

The question is: who started it? And how come majority of the people believed it, without realising that the mankind has yet to reach a stage to be able to predict earthquakes.

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