|
Saudi Arabian News Updates |
|
|
|
18 April 2009 JEDDAH: The feverish search for
Singer sewing machines driven by a superstitious
notion that they possessed mysterious powers to
fulfill every human wish has lost its tempo as the
common man is slowly realizing that it is another ploy
to dupe the naive public, particularly in Saudi Arabia
and Jordan.
Nobody has yet been arrested on the charge of
launching the hoax claiming that red mercury inside
the machines can capture a wish-granting genii and
convert its owner to an Aladdin with the Magic Lamp, a
fantasy almost every child in the Middle East knows.
However, it is yet a mystery how the sewing machine
has been elevated to the status of the magic lamp.
Interior Ministry spokesman Mansour Al-Turki
described the rumors “as false and deceptive” in a
recent statement.
Following the rumor, the price of a Singer machine
reportedly catapulted last week.
“There is no such thing as red mercury except in
the world of superstition and magic,” said Khaled
Kamakhi, former rector of the Institute of Research
and Consultancy at Taiba University in Madinah.
According to rumors going around on the Internet, a
sewing machine can be proved to contain red mercury if
a phone signal cuts off when held close by. Buyers
from street stalls were using their mobile phones to
test the machines, Al-Watan newspaper reported
yesterday.
Commenting on the rumor Kamakhi said, a strong
static electricity field could be the cause of
disruption in the mobile line.
According to conspiracy theorists, red mercury was
developed by Soviet scientists in the 1980s, but its
existence has since been covered up by US military
because of its potential use as a weapon of mass
destruction.
Ahmad Bushaala, a teacher of inorganic chemistry at
Taiba University, said the rumors about red mercury
were circulated by Russian scientists in the early
1980s after developing a smart nuclear bomb that could
kill people without harming the buildings and streets.
According to an article in the Russian newspaper
Pravda in 1993, red mercury was a superconductive
material used for producing high-precision
conventional and nuclear explosives.
It was also reported that Russian businessmen
offered red mercury for sale throughout Europe and the
Middle East and found many buyers who would pay almost
anything for the substance even though they had no
idea what it was all about.
The tendency of easily being carried away by rumors
has been lampooned by messages appearing on mobile
phones and websites, such as “I adore you more than
red mercury” or “I love you more than an old Singer
machine.” Another message suggested the name Singer
for a new baby. |