Thursday, February 11, 2016

Conspiracy Theories

Is it paranoia if they're really out to get you?
Harry A. Greaves Jr., former Managing Director of the Liberia Petroleum Refinery Corporation (LPRC), whose naked body was found behind the old Ministry of Planning and Economic Affairs in Monrovia, died of drowning, according to the just completed autopsy performed by two pathologists from the U.S.-based Nebraska Institute of Forensic Science.

A more recent report says the marks on the body and condition of it were normal for someone tossed about in the surf. The ocean currents indeed are quite treacherous. The owner of Thinker's Village told us he tended to lose a guest a year to accidental drownings.

So nothing to see here, right? He'd been making waves complaining about a privatization deal and what the National Oil Company had been doing with all the money they spent, but it's just a drowning. (So far nobody has discovered any oil, but it isn't just the oil companies spending money.)

Funny thing. Liberians aren't big on swimming. An alleged girlfriend said she was with him when he decided to go swimming, so maybe the object wasn't the backstroke. Or maybe the tale involving the mysterious car and the second body is accurate. Or maybe none of them.

The truth often shows a certain elasticity there. (A little like the internet) Government officials sometimes indulge in extra-legal action, and a matter has to be obviously far removed from any personal or financial interests of theirs for there to be a presumption that they tell the truth. And you don't always know what their financial interests are.

Under the circumstances, conspiracy theories seem reasonable. Even if almost all of them are wrong.

1 comment:

Assistant Village Idiot said...

People attempt conspiracies all the time, so they aren't unlikely in that sense. The problem is succeeding at them.