‘While the COVID-19 positive cases balloon to scores of thousands of suffering Filipinos, the corrupt continue to steal and kill, wheel and deal.’
BY the time Adolf Hitler had offered “peace or destruction” to Great Britain, Walt Disney’s “Pinocchio” had been released in the United States, United Kingdom, Australia, New Zealand, Argentina and Mexico. Hitler (who had a copy of Disney’s “Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs” and may have sketched his version of Pinocchio himself) told the Reichstag: “There are the possibilities presented by the acquisition of inestimable spoils and the exploitation of territory occupied by us…Ten months of war has served only to strengthen our zeal. It is a misfortune that world opinion is not formed by men who see things as they are, but only by men who wish to see them as they wish.” [My Last Appeal to Great Britain:
A Great Empire Will Be Destroyed, July 19, 1940; https://historynewsnetwork.org/article/50025; https://www.reuters.com/article/us-norway-hitler-idUSL2181222020080222]
The Allies, undismayed, did not fall for the trick. British: “We are fighting by ourselves alone; but we are not fighting for ourselves alone. Here in this strong City of Refuge which enshrines the title-deeds of human progress and is of deep consequence to Christian civilization…it is a war of peoples and of causes.” [Winston Churchill, “War of the Unknown Warriors,” BBC Broadcast, London, July 14, 1940] French: “One thing is certain. The day will come when France, restored to freedom, will punish the men responsible for their country’s disasters, the men who brought her to her present plight.” [Charles de Gaulle, “On The Eve Of France’s National Day,” London,13 July 1940]
Disney’s “Pinocchio” and the War of Speeches between the Foreman of Fascism and the Aces of the Allies boomed 80 years ago. At that same time (16 July 1940) in the Philippines, some Manila Americans (headed by W.R. Babock, J.B. Stapler, Edgar Snow, W.R. Bradford, E.E. Carter) cabled Secretary of State Cordell Hull: “Rumored United States yielding to Japan on Burma road, Formosan consulate, Shanghai marines questions. If this is done merely from desire to protect us in Orient, please note we are unwilling, even if result aimed at is obtainable, to buy temporary precarious security at expense of Chinese citizens and American prestige. But far from believing security thus obtainable, believe yielding to Japanese pressure is surest way of sealing fate of all of us. Request strong attitude on part of American government.” Other Americans (50 in Baguio, 17 July 1940) dispatched another cable to President Franklin D. Roosevelt: “Fear closure Burma road may result Chinese if lacking American support will capitulate to Japan or join Japan anti-western alliance. Either means eventual flooding world markets with slave-labor goods if not direct aggression against us. As Americans we ask clarification of our position and denial of rumors we are joining Britain in Oriental Munich.” [News Summary: July 16 — August 15, 1940, Philippine Magazine, 37(9), 332-334]
With us in the present, the Nimitz and the Ronald Reagan Carrier Strike Forces had been conducting dual carrier operations in the South China Sea, providing power projection and commitment to a free and open Indo-Pacific. The object of the aircraft carrier USS Ronald Reagan (CVN 76), CVW-5, the guided-missile cruiser USS Antietam (CG 54), and the guided-missile destroyer USS Mustin (DDG 89) is “Peace Through Strength.” [https://www.navy.mil/submit/display.asp?story_id=113470;
https://malaya.com.ph/news_news/us-navy-carriers-conduct-south-china-sea-drills-as-chinese-ships-watch/]
Here is another line from Disney’s Pinocchio: “We must diagnose this case at once. Quick, Doctor, your notebook…Just as I thought. A slight touch of monetary complications with bucolic semilunar contraptions of the flying trapezes.” — Honest John. The line somehow echoes the crapola spurting from the bureaucrats, Dr. Henry (Harry) Jekyll, Dr. Giggles, Hannibal Lecter, PhD., and other narcissists.
[https://malaya.com.ph/news_news/more-deaths-weigh-down-record-covid-recoveries-discrepancies-in-cases-deaths-recoveries-fixed/]
We bring up Disney’s “Pinocchio” in celebration of National Children’s Book Day this July of 2020 and in recollection of the dangers for youngsters during the Blitz (Peter, Susan, Edmund and Lucy Pevensie before they discovered Narnia). This was journaled: “I went to a meeting yesterday morning of the Refugee Children’s Committee and, as usual, was impressed by the horrid legal details which enter into doing anything between governments. I came away feeling that all I could possibly cope with was something perfectly concrete and simple, such as finding homes into which to put children when they arrive.” [My Day by Eleanor Roosevelt, July 13, 1940]
“If we play our cards right, we’ll be on easy street! Or my name isn’t Honest John!” — J. Worthington Foulfellow to Gideon. And Ace of Spades it was. “The Death Card.” While the COVID-19 positive cases balloon to scores of thousands of suffering Filipinos, the corrupt continue to steal and kill, wheel and deal.
[https://malaya.com.ph/news_news/cidg-swamped-with-300-complaints-vs-sap-abuses/; https://coconuts.co/manila/news/makati-cops-arrest-50-chinese-nationals-1-myanmar-citizen-in-illegal-pogo-raid/]
“I knew it! Compound transmission of the pandemonium with percussion and spasmodic frantic disintegration.” — Honest John. It was reported: “Secretary Joey Concepcion, presidential adviser on entrepreneurship, said stricter quarantines should only be implemented when cases of the new coronavirus 2019 disease cases are ‘sky high’.” How high? Will 18-29 million cases by December of 2020 suffice?
[https://malaya.com.ph/news_business/pooled-testing-set-new-lockdown-bucked/]
“I insist! Your health comes first. Come! The coach departs at midnight!” — J. Worthington Foulfellow to Pinocchio. And the hospital system crawls toward exhaustion. [https://www.interaksyon.com/politics-issues/2019/10/31/156892/pgh-philippine-general-
hospital-conditions-budget/; https://malaya.com.ph/news_news/doh-healthcare-capacity-in-6-regions-in-warning-zone/] Hand-washing and masks are NOT safe enough: “How can airborne transmission of COVID-19 indoors be minimized?” Environment International 142 (2020).
“You see, Pinocchio, a lie keeps growing and growing until it’s as plain as the nose on your face.” — Blue Fairy. They failed the Pinocchio Test: https://malaya.com.ph/news_news/77-of-pinoys-say-china-withheld-info-on-covid/
We await the day of reckoning. “Like a bolt out of the blue, fate steps in and sees you through” [When You Wish Upon A Star, first sung by Jiminy Cricket (Cliff Edwards), signature song written by Leigh Harline and Ned Washington].
