Land of Oz

Liars in High Places

As if Detroit doesn't have enough problems lately, it seems the zoo's director is a liar. The director said he had a doctorate on his resume, but in fact only had a Bachelor and Master's degree. He's keeping his job with one month's pay being forfeited. One of the council directors says: "I'm delighted he's going to stay on the job. The zoo needs him and the community needs him. And it's not like he made up his doctoral thesis. He did the work. It's a paperwork issue."

I've got an Associates, Bachelors and Masters degree - nope, I'm not claiming a doctorate just yet - and they are all paperwork issues. That's what a degree is, it's a piece of paperwork. That's how you get it, you fill out paperwork, submit paperwork, and get a piece of paper back. I do think that a doctorate also requires some verbal defense stuff, but I'm not sure. But basically a degree is paperwork.

"He [the zoo director] said he began work on it at Hebrew University in Jerusalem in the mid-1980s and thought he had finished." How does one not realize they didn't finish a doctorate's requirements? For my Masters I made damn well sure I filled in all the blocks, crossed all the i's and dotted all the t's in my paperwork - and my paperwork was a multi-media CD. Even my Bachelors with Honors degree required a thesis (a 100-plus page software manual) and I made sure all those blocks were filled - even having to argue with the university administration over some courses I took.

So how does someone who should be even smarter not realize they didn't get their paperwork in order. Sorry, but I don't buy that. This type of thing just seems to be a reflection on today's values. Basically whatever one can do to lie, cheat and steal their way to the top is cool as long as they aren't caught. I can expect that from some cheap hood holding up a 7/11, but I shouldn't have to expect it from our society's leaders.