To Tell the Truth or Not to Tell the Truth

I can't stand people who resort to lying or fabricating facts to win an argument! The moment you do it, the other person automatically wins. Yet, it never ceases to amaze me the number of people who will stoop to that level in an effort to make themselves look like they know what they're talking about and nine times out of ten, they end up getting caught in their own web of deceit.

A few months ago, I was working on a project with our entire office team and we invited a third party to come and review our work thus far. This third person began taking specific sections of our project apart, in a rather insulting way - at least, I thought so, as the section in question was one that I'd written exclusively. (BTW, I am sure I covered my propensity for sudden fits of immaturity in an earlier blog.)

What got me fired up was this person flatly stated, in front of my co-workers, that I didn't know what I was talking about. Oooooh, those are fighting words to any journalist of integrity, who follows the "have three separate sources" rule! I am one of those journalists, so needless to say, I was ready to fight!

I should also mention, that in addition to fabricating facts, I also am disgusted by people who are too stupid to know "who" they're speaking to, in advance! If I'm going to try and scam you, I am going to make sure that I know a lot about you, so that I don't get surprised by something in your personal background that tips you off immediately to the fact that I may be up to no good. Fortunately, I am not in the habit of trying to scam people, so this isn't a big concern for me... this third person, not so much the same story.

I won't go in to all the details of what this person tried to "bola, bola" me with, but will give you the one example that stood out most. An argument ensued over which island is the biggest in the Pacific, with Mr. Third insisting it was Guam. Our beautiful island is, indeed, the largest island in the Marianas and also in Micronesia... but not the entire Pacific. That would be New Zealand, which is made up of two islands, both of which singularly would qualify as being bigger than any other island in the Pacific.

Mr. Third insisted I was wrong. Why? Because, according to him, New Zealand is a continent. Actually, as most people who know anything about geography know, it isn't. New Zealand is an island nation of the Pacific and is, in fact, the largest island in the region. I know this because it is true and (this is what finally shut Mr. Third up) because I am a New Zealand citizen. I actually have dual citizenship, but regardless, I know a bit more than the average non-Kiwi when it comes to New Zealand.

I guess because, being raised on Guam, I don't have an accent, Mr. Third wasn't aware that he was trying to pull a fast one over on an actual New Zealander. It made him very look foolish to the people in the room and certainly proved to all of us that he is the type who will make something up rather than admit he's wrong. Not an endearing trait, but certainly one worth filing away in the "good to know" memory bank.

I got to thinking about that incident last night because of the current fiasco started by GTA Teleguam over their competitor, IT&E, recently winning the first part of a two-pronged federal grant. GTA's vice president stated publicly that the Governor of Guahan wrote a letter of endorsement for IT&E because his brother works there and that this is why they won the grant.

This might be very damning, except the Governor later pointed out that in January 2010 an email message was sent to ALL of Guam's telecommunication companies, including GTA, offering to write a letter of support. IT&E was the only company to take the Governor up on his offer.

In a local newspaper yesterday, the GTA vice president in question stated that GTA never received such an offer. Within minutes, the Governor's office produced a copy of the email which showed it was sent to three top executives at GTA and in fact, the message was sent to more representatives of GTA than any of the other telecommunication companies.

To make all of this even worse, in a press confernce yesterday, the Governor pointed out that NO letters of support were written for any company applying for the first part of the grant. The letter for IT&E, which GTA could also have requested, was written for the second part of the grant, which has yet to be decided. Ouch!

Lying is never a good choice. You always run the risk of getting caught and getting caught publicly is the worst!

The moral of this story: Don't ever call someone a liar, especially not in public, unless you know for damn sure what you're talking about! Otherwise, guess who ends up looking disingenuous and foolish?!


In closing, I have very many good friends who work for GTA and can say that most of my interactions with the company have always been positive. Hopefully, when reviewing this situation, people will simply think that GTA has the misfortune of having a bad employee in the person of this VP who makes accusations withough checking his facts and not that GTA is a bad company!