--- Eustaquio Santimano <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> wrote: > >The Indian school where he says he sat the >preliminary exam along with 200,000 others does not >exist. The Bansal institute, where he says he >studied mathematics, has never heard of him. >
This is a perennial problem with reporting in the popular press, especially in India. They never bother to check their facts before reporting on or giving publicity to somebody. One can cite many such cases. A couple of years ago, wide publicity was given to some doctor in Bangalore who was supposed to have been awarded $500,000 by an international foundation for finding a cure for diabetes. The facts turned out to be completely different. No newspaper bothered to find out these facts, and issue retractions of their initial reports. I could check the facts quite easily by calling the "Foundation" myself, and did so because of a controversy generated on one of the Goan mailing lists. Samir and Jose are well aware of this episode. I cannot for the life of me understand why people who are otherwise incredulous and shrewd do not regard such stories with a modicum of skepticism. No wonder there is such a large supply of popular, mistakenly well-respected or pious folk who are actually frauds, poseurs and quacks in India and elsewhere today. Cheers, Santosh
