Submitted by Nathan ‘Jolly’ Green
Most Vincentian have heard or read the story which says, ‘Show me a liar and I will show you, a thief’. A remarkably interesting equation really when you think hard and put it into context.
Remember the story. He knew an old Vincentian man who used to cut sugar cain in Cuba. A man called Mr Doyle. One day while talking to Mr Doyle, Mr Doyle told him “show me a man that tells lies and I will show you a thief”. That was the story he told the Nation from parliament one day.
But what I found even more interesting is that a report I read today is more informative than that story. The median estimated body‐mass index of cabinet ministers is positively correlated with conventional measures of corruption, Transparency International Corruption Perceptions Index, World Bank worldwide governance indicator Control of Corruption, Index of Public Integrity. This result suggests that physical characteristics of politicians such as their body‐mass index can be used as proxy variables for political corruption when the latter is not available, for instance, at a very local level.
So, what the report says is if a politician is fat, according to statistics, they are more likely to be corrupt. If we add that information to the story we were told about liars being thieves, it must follow if a liar is also fat there is a double possibility of them being corrupt.
What an interesting correlation, so searching a little further, I discovered this.
The Berlin-based media company Business New Europe IntelliNews conducted amusing research, based on 299 facial images of 2017 cabinet ministers from the 15 post-Soviet states.
The study showed that only 10 of the former Soviet leaders had a “normal” BMI, and none were underweight.
The research revealed that the most corrupt post-Soviet states are Turkmenistan, Tajikistan, and Uzbekistan. The states with the highest median estimated ministers’ BMI are Uzbekistan, Turkmenistan, and Ukraine, while the countries with the lowest median estimated ministers’ BMI are Estonia, Lithuania, Latvia, and Georgia.
“Countries with relatively more obese cabinet ministers tend to have a relatively less overweight population. Ironically, this suggests that there might be a health benefit to the fat and grand political corruptions”, the researchers concluded.
I looked for such information specifically about the Caribbean and Americas. Before Hugo Chavez died from the Cubans medical treatment, he was as fat as a pig ready for the barbeque pit. He died fat; most people die thin unless they have a heart attack.
His whole family today are multi-millionaires. Yet before his presidency, they were all broke. His daughter today is the richest woman in the hemisphere.
Then he was replaced with Maduro who rapidly became a second for the pit. Both highly corrupt politicians.
The communists in the Americas and the Caribbean tend to be fat.
Are they all corrupt, they all tell lies, are they all thieves? Well, we know for sure these two are.
According to one Caribbean politician who is very fat indeed, the key is being a liar, to be a thief.
I put a verse into Google and found several pages’ Gonsalves said show me a liar, and I will show you a thief’.
I just read another story which I found interesting, but that is for another story on another day.
‘He killed the truth in Saint Vincent’
It appears in several publications throughout the Caribbean.
Patrick Manning said the same thing. “Show me a liar, and I will show you a thief”. https://youtu.be/phf-FnptGyA So perhaps it is true!
But before I go, I just found this which puts a doubt to the reliability of any Caribbean leader being the source of the saying, which indicates even more lies.
“Show me a Liar, and I’ll Show You A Thief” is a quote from George Herbert (1593-1633), an Anglican clergyman who wrote metaphysical poetry.
So, the original Mr Doyle story told in SVG may be a total crock of plagiaristic horses do-do, thou liar of the first magnitude.
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