The man who sold the Eiffel Tower

And the greatest medical hoax of all time...

Frank Portelli 17 June 2010, 12:00am

3 min read

It may be hard to believe but the Eiffel Tower was originally meant to be a temporary structure built for the 1889 Paris Exposition – the initial plans were to relocate the tower once the Exposition was over.

But 36 years later the Eiffel Tower was still there and was showing signs of ageing, it required extensive maintenance work and there was talk of dismantling it completely. Many Parisians considered the Eiffel Tower an eyesore, which clashed with the grand classical buildings of Paris.

Enter Victor Lustig, a Bohemian con artist, posing as a French government official, claiming to have a government brief to dismantle the Tower. Lustig was nothing if not creative – he organized a meeting with a small group of metal scrap dealers and invited them to tender for the dismantling of the Eiffel Tower – emphasizing the government’s determination to remove this eyesore quickly by selling it as scrap. Lustig was a great judge of character and he targeted Andre Poisson, one of the scrap dealers, who attended the meeting, as the most likely candidate to fall for the scam.

Poisson was keen to conclude the deal quickly – and besides paying for the tower’s scrap metal, he lubricated the process by giving Lusting a considerable bribe. Lustig took the money (the value of the scrap metal as well as the bribe) and ran.

Mr Poisson was in a dilemma – he could not go to the police as he would have exposed himself to ridicule – and possibly to corruption charges as well. “Selling” the Eiffel Tower was probably the greatest scam of all time – until now that is.

One year ago – 11 June, 2009 – Dr Margaret Chan, Director General of the World Health Organization, announced to the world that a Swine Flu Influenza Pandemic had started. The Director General of WHO however failed to state that she had made this remarkable statement on the basis of the advice given to her by experts who had financial interests with pharmaceutical companies which were producing swine flu vaccines or anti-viral drugs!

A report from the Council of Europe issued this month found that Chan’s statement had:

1. Provoked unjustified fear amongst European Citizens

2. Caused dramatic distortion of priorities in public health services throughout Europe

3. Resulted in waste of huge amounts sums of public money.

The health authorities in Malta were also taken in by this scam. Many practicing doctors in Malta remained skeptical of the statements being made and felt that they were not part of the decision making.

The public too remained unconvinced – and in spite of a vigorous public health campaign, the uptake of the vaccines was only 28%, with 72% of the vaccines not being taken up. As a result we are now lumbered with unutilized vaccines which cost us between €2 million and €2.4 million.

So what to do now? The only logical thing to do now is to insist with the pharmaceutical companies that they must accept most of the vaccines back, on the grounds that we were sold these vaccines under false and unethical conditions.

We should also return most of the anti-viral medications we were conned to purchase. Lest anyone thinks we are throwing caution to the wind, I propose we should retain a small amount of both vaccines as well as anti-viral medication. Many consider that the director general’s position at WHO is not tenable and she should be held responsible for this swine flu pandemic hoax.

This was the greatest hoax in medical history – beating the selling of the Eiffel Tower for its audacity and unethical behaviour by a long chalk.

More from Frank Portelli

Angelo Cassar •

Don't forget the Y2K hoax! Good Point - but it did not last long once planes did not fall from the sky on the 1st of January. Swine Flu hoax is still ongoing. but good point thanks Frank Portelli apologies for delay in commenting

Luke Camilleri •

Let Public Properties be PUBLIC , developed for the public , to be enjoyed by the PUBLIC. we have enough flats, enough concrete, what we need is ountryside, to ramble, greenery , nature parks and a healthy environment . What's really new about this sports complex? Why can't it be a national Project by the Maltese for the Maltese by the Maltese?

Angelo Cassar •

The site was actually first vandalized between in 1980 only a few months after the British left Doors, even bath room suites, wall tiles, floor tiles and toilets were removed. It continued to degenerate to its present state over the years. Let’s wait and see what the proposals are and then we can comment meanwhile it is just conjecture I am interested in facts - and I will appraise them when they are available and criticize what is wrong Meanwhile it would be interesting to hear your suggestions as to what should have been done with the White Rocks --- because there are many public properties like this in Malta which need attention and your ideas might well apply to them l. Fort Campbell for instance One of the main reasons I started this blog is for all of us to search for ideas . Let’s have them Thanks Frank Portelli

Luke Camilleri •

With all due respect Dr, Frank - who let the site get degenerated ? If the foreign invesors with good and questionable qualities have these visions for such a prime site, with all the consultancies being given out By Dr. Gonzi, has no onbe put forth the idea that it could be a national Project by the Maltese for the Maltese and the land not given out and what a piece of land €200,000,000 worth of our heritage. The excuse for re-possessing land to be given to blue-eyed sustainers for developement has been used just too much and Gonzipn does not have the expertise to take the project in hand and develop it himself by tax-payer's money for the general Maltese public? I am quite sure that when the project is ready the man in the street willjust have fot fork out entrance fees, and most areas would certainly be rendered private and offlimits to the common citizen. And we are not only talking about British Baracks, I remember a field in Zebbug Malta taken over with the same excuse by MIchael Bonnici after developing a taste for farming......

Angelo Cassar •

I am always skeptical about doctors in administration who are not in clinical practice, telling practicing doctors what to do in their clinical practice. I feel that decisions on important issues such as mass vaccinations should be taken in association with GPs and other Doctors in Clinical practice. WHO Director-General Dr. Chang may yet have to resign --- if WHO hopes to regain credibility. Sports complex- white rocks. I would certainly hope that they involve sportsman like yourself Kirill. I would hope too that young people would be given free access - or at subsidized rates – to encourage them to take up regular exercise to fight off obesity and to encourage a healthy life style in sports regards Frank Portelli

doris cassar •

regarding the lie that was the swine flu vaccination, what irked me and many of my medical colleagues was not the fact that the local medical administration followed the WHO directives, as lets be honest , who would find it in themselves to seriously doubt the WHO, but rather the intimidatory letter sent to Maltese medical practitioners by the government officials. I found this extremely unethical and as time showed was based on erroneous data. Regarding the white rocks project, as a sportsperson I can only view it with hope. In the past we have been conned on a number of occasions so the whole sporting fraternity are keeping their fingers crossed that this is not a money making scheme for the ususal suspects but a genuine and concrete sporting venture. As with the swine flu hoax, time will tell.

Angelo Cassar •

Thorny I don’t know the details of this project yet as they have not been announced as yet I will comment on the project when the details are known I do know however that when we were a British Colony many people used to complain that the British kept the best part of the island to themselves The British left Malta 31st March 1979 --- 31 years ago --- and since then , under both Labour and Nationalist administrations these prime sites were left to go to rack and ruin I remember this site as a prime site The White Rocks site has been allowed to degenerated with the buildings having been ravaged by vandals ---and the site is now home to drug abusers and rats spreading disease. Frank Portelli

Luke Camilleri •

Could the White Rocks Sports Complex Vision be also “Con”? Could turning the Gonzi White Rocks area into a sports village vision be just another “CON” into giving away 200 tumoli of land valued at €1 million per tumolo to chosen speculators ? It appears that the €200,000,000 is a magic figure with the Gonzipn top brass, the cost of the new extention cost that much ..... commission included.

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Another big hoax that springs to mind is the Y2K scare, which The Wall Street Journal eventually described as the "hoax of the century". Lots of money was poured into buying new hardware and updating software, to avoid the doom of civilisation!