By
Nathan ‘Jolly’ Green. October 01, 2020.

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.

IMAGES (Supplied by author)

END

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