Dear Zaki,
I'm alive, thanks for asking. It's been a while since Bhuj collapsed. Planet Earth twitched a muscle, and the ground heaved in response, collapsing under our feet while we watched in disbelief and awe. Cracks began, expanded and cut huge buildings down to size. People fell through floors, iron bars twisted themselves into unimaginable forms, and death ran uninhibited – all within a couple of hundred seconds.
I'm back in Mumbai now. And, while the brave people of Gujarat smile and pull their lives together, I am left with sadness and a lot of surprise, in the aftermath. Yes, everyone responded with money, food and anything else they could send across. In cyberspace, however, I find that tragedies like this spawn a different kind of response, with people hypothesising about probable causes.
If reactions posted on message boards are anything to go by, these self-proclaimed prophets are ingenious, if nothing else. Know-it-alls who blame everything and everyone from God to terrorists, for what happened.
A chat room I visited last week had a few guys blaming the Bhuj tragedy on an oil pipeline that was, apparently, used by terrorists to lubricate tectonic plates under Gujarat, causing the earth to shift. Others said that dynamite was used to blast select areas at regular intervals, effectively pressurising the fault lines into activity. Still others drew parallels with an article titled 'Earthquake Inducing Electromagnetic Weapons Used at Kobe?', analysing the massive earthquake that destroyed the Japanese city of Kobe on January 17, 1995.
Apparently, Shoko Asahara, the leader of the Japanese Aum Supreme Truth sect, had predicted a quake while stating that it would be initiated by a “a foreign power” utilising an electromagnetic (EM) weapons system. It goes on to report public observations of exotic cloud formations, unusually wet weather, and cloud ring complexes -- ostensibly proving beyond doubt the authenticity of the statement.
The term 'electromagnetic weapons' looms large in chat rooms where people throw the word 'earthquake' around in the same way they do 'Madhuri Dixit' and 'Kaun Banega Crorepati.' Another article asks whether or not electromagnetic weapons were being used in Yugoslavia in 1999; and explains in detail how these machines of destruction work.
In a nutshell, Electro-Magnetic (EM) weapons are one of the newest and most serious military developments in our world today. Relying on non-ionising radiation and bio-electromagnetics, they can be used with devastating effect to either harm the environment and living systems, or the human central nervous system. For the former to happen, large quantities of energy can be literally 'broadcast' to create certain special environmental effects (read weather changes, and earthquakes). For the latter, low energy density waves of particular frequencies can 'tune into' the human central nervous system (CNS) and permanently alter psychological states.
But enough of natural calamities. What I have realised, over the past couple of days is that, earthquake or no earthquake, some people love a conspiracy.
For example, a recent appeal was made in the District Court for the Southern District of New York, alleging a bizarre conspiracy hatched to enslave and oppress certain segments of society. The defendants were, supposedly, involved in what they called the ‘Iron Mountain Plan,’ and told the courts that they utilised weather control and earthquake technology to threaten other countries that objected to it.
More and more people now spend hours coming up with inspired, imaginative, and downright ridiculous theories that seek to explain natural calamities, political upheavals, assassinations and even Presidential elections.
Some links on issues involving ‘secret governments’, mind control, non-lethal weapons and the press can be found here. The page hyperlinks a number of documents ranging from information on the newest generation of weapons in development, to aspects of anti-personnel electromagnetic weapons, an article titled 'The Radiation Story No One Would Touch,' and lots more.
Miriam Joan Hill and Robert Anton Wilson's Encyclopaedia of Conspiracies Home Page lets you search for a specific conspiracy from the past or present, or pick one from its alphabetically indexed list.
For those who identify with this sort of thing completely, Make Your Own Conspiracy Theory is a perfect stop. It uses pull-down menus to help you make your own ‘Wacko Right Wing Conspiracy Theory’ that can be printed and sent out to everyone you know.
Finally, Conspiracy-Net is ideal for plots, schemes and plans that try and explain just about anything. It's got a ‘Conspiracy of the Week’, lots of archival information on aliens, UFOs, hackers, and even chat rooms for people with their own warped ideas to meet and discuss issues involving authenticity.
As for me, Zaki, I don't know about whether these theories are plausible or not. After Bhuj, I don't know if I want to know the truth. Because, to be honest, when something like this happens right before your eyes, blaming God is always so much easier.
Lindsay Pereira
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