A worthy cause

I received a letter last week requesting immediate aid for an extremely important cause. The situation is dire and requires the unlimited attention and monetary donations from humanitarians like myself. I am devoting this column to that cause in the hopes fellow IU students will be moved to open their wallets and help those in need. Here is the situation:\nPrincess Jane Etete, the daughter of King Oti Etete of the Ogoni Kingdom in Nigeria, is in trouble. Her father's untimely death following a military coup left her destitute. According to Nigerian tradition, she cannot take possession of her father's wealth, valued at $23,560,000, because she does not have a male sibling.\nThankfully, her father was a noble man. He secretly gave her the relevant documents needed to invest the money overseas. In order to achieve this, she needs our aid in purchasing a bungalow for her and her mother to live in while the transactions take place.\n"By the special grace of God," she begs, help her in this trial and she will reward you with a portion of her father's riches.\nRight next door in the Cote d'Ivoire, Felix Kamara sends an even more urgent request. The son of the director of finance for the Sierra Leone Diamond and Mining Corporation now lives in exile because of his military service to the former Sierra-Leone regime. The new government of Sierra Leone requested that the Cote d'Ivoire expel Kamara and freeze his assets totaling $9 million. To keep this from happening, Kamara will give $1.35 million in exchange for your account name, account number and bank address.\nKamara's e-mail came from a Hotmail account. Princess Etete's request originated from either the United Kingdom or Italy, depending on which version you read. \nThe princess's plea causes me to ponder the benefits of the 37-cent stamp.\nStamps provide checks on the flow of mail washing up against our doors. When mail costs money, you at least know the sender is serious even if the proposal is ridiculous.\nThese days, any random Joe Schmo can conjure up the most bizarre fantasies and then share them for free with the rest of the world. There are no checks on the content or on the validity of the producer. Subsequently, the amazing possibilities of mass communication via the Internet deteriorate rapidly as rubbish proliferates cyberspace.\nTeachers warned you throughout high school that Web sites cannot be trusted, and it is easy to see why. Nine out of 10 have no redeeming social value whatsoever. I'm sure there is plenty of useful information out there somewhere, but how can you discern the important kernel from the surrounding garbage?\nThe above buggery is an extreme example, and I pray no one is gullible enough to fall for it. But what about the more subtle forms of fraud? If a Web site is maintained by a Ph.D, is it accurate? What if the Ph.D lives in prison and is a doctor of phooey?\nThe point is, you can put anything in a Web site or e-mail message and claim it as fact. I admit you can do this in printed media, but the costs act as a filter for the filth.\nYeah, yeah, it's everyone's right to put out information, even if it is false. But do we really want to exercise that right? The Internet could be absolutely invaluable as an educational tool, but by polluting the waters so much we're making a mockery of mass communication. If we want the Internet to have a shred of usefulness in 20 years, let's exercise some discipline and take out the trash.