Along the years, --and in my case they are 54—we have
said so many things that sometimes there is a risk to be misinterpreted.
I remember the time when we started all in Uruguay. There were nobody dedicated to the UFO subject,
no investigation, no study, nor evaluation, nothing!
But people reported they have seen strange things in the
sky and sometimes landed.
What were those things?
People wanted to know and we took the responsibility to give them an
answer.
It was not easy. We started from the scratch. Nobody had
experience on the subject. We were obliged to read and learn from what the
Americans have done, privately (APRO, NICAP) and officially –Project Blue Book.
Being in Uruguay we get in contact with investigators in
Argentina (CODOVNI, Mr. Ariel Ciro Rietti, NCO Rualde Moyano, CEFAI, Dr.
Roberto Banchs, CIU, Mr. Guillermo Roncoroni, FAECE) and Brazil (CBPCOANI and
some individuals like Dr. Olavo Fontes, Dr.José Escobar Faría, Dr. Walter
Buhler, Dr. Flávio A. Pereira, Eng. Joao Martins).
But besides a bunch of UFO reports from those countries,
the only practical thing we were able to
get was an Interrogation Form that was used by the American organizations.
We were able to adapt and develop our own Interrogation
Form that we called Observation Sheet, and to develop the skills and strategy
for questioning the witnesses.
In those times –1958—nobody talked about UFOs. In our geographic
area they used to speak about “flying saucers” which sounded ridiculous and
nothing serious. One of our first battles was to convince de media to abandon
the practice of talking about “flying saucers” and start talking about UFOs. We
won.
But we were the laughingstock of the newsrooms. I still
remember the sly giggles of the journalists when someone announced “here are
the guys of the flying saucers!”
Yes, we went through that barrier of ridicule and jeer,
we made strides to endure it and finally to overcome it. But I can assure you
it was not easy.
Old generations have gone, new generations come to the
Ufological field knowing almost nothing of all the things we learned by
ourselves, of all the experience and expertise we have accumulated along the
years. They don’t have an idea of the many readings we have done, and the mail
and personal contacts we have enjoyed with the most prominent investigators and
scholars in de field.
And surely they have not investigated the amount of cases
we did, nor have they probably sacrificed time for leisure, the family and even
their own money, for the cause of trying to find the truth behind a UFO report.
Now they face a different world. The Internet is a
tremendous tool to find information, relate with other people, read the best
material, buy good books, and getting in contact almost with anyone in any part
of the planet.
They don’t need to learn from the scratch how to
investigate a UFO report, and what to do next. It is all explained in manuals. As
a matter of fact, I wrote one.
They don’t need to adapt and adopt an Interrogation Form;
they are already available. Once again, I developed one.
But…they lack of experience, and above all, they lack of
criteria.
Why? because anybody who wants to deal with the UFO
subject can do so. There is not a filter, not a process of selection, not an
academic title that prepares a person for the task. There is no one that analyzes the personality of the
individual to determine if he or she satisfies the requirements of an adequate
level of formal education, honesty, lack of financial interest, adherence to
the scientific methodology, and therefore is in conditions to be a good and
effective investigator.
In our experience in Uruguay, we dealt with many people
who were very passionate about the subject and said they wanted to investigate.
We first met them personally and had a deep conversation about UFOs and other
issues. We tried to know their personalities, the things they have read about
the subject, what did they think or know about some individuals involved with
UFOs, and what they thought about the whole subject, as well as their jobs,
academic achievements, etc.
We also tried to know about the neighborhoods where they
lived, their families, what instruments they have (e.g. binoculars,
walkie-talkies, cameras, compass, etc.,) if they have a vehicle, etc. and after
that we decided or not to invite them to join us at the level of Collaborators.
We explained them the way we faced the problem, how do we
investigate, what our work consisted of. We told them that UFO reports did not
happen every day but were sporadic; that we dealt meanwhile with a lot of administrative
and other issues, like international mail, publications, etc.
After a whole year attending all our meetings, dealing
with some UFO reports, investigating them with us and participating in our
analysis and evaluation of each case, we gave them the option to take the
decision: either they want to continue
with us or they won’t do it.
Some people who started as Collaborators became full
members, investigators and scholars.
Others, after a while step down. There was
a man who stood with us for a while and after he learned something about our
work, the way we did our investigation, the Interrogation Form that we had, he
decided to leave us and to start another organization by his own initiative. He
was a good man but was not able to share our criteria.
Along the time that organization that never reached the
efficiency and precision of ours split into two, and some people left that
institution to start another one. They were competing among themselves.
We continued without hesitation with our work that proved
to be the best.
Since the very beginning of our institution, we
established a relationship of cooperation with the Uruguayan Air Force. It worked perfectly.
Nevertheless, when the military took over the government
in Uruguay, they decided to create by themselves an official entity, and they
did it with the other two institutions which declared themselves non-existent
after been engulfed by the official structure. It was clear that the intention
was to eliminate the private institutions and get a direct control over the
issue and the people related to it.
Later, our organization was invited to join the official
commission. We first requested a clarification of the viewpoint of the
commission about the UFO subject and we demanded total transparency and a
policy of no secret, which at the moment was assured to us. Under those
premises we decided to participate in the official commission but retaining our
independence as an institution.
In other words, our relationship with the official
investigation would be between two institutions: the Uruguayan Air Force and
CIOVI. Regretfully, the lack of knowledge of the issue by the military and the
enthusiasm but lack of adequate criteria of the people of the other groups made
finally impossible to work together and CIOVI left the official commission.
Now, at the very beginning we were really subsidiaries of
the ideas and viewpoints developed in the United States, mainly by Donald E.
Keyhoe (a retired Major of the US Marine Corps) whose book “Flying Saucers from
Outer Space” came to us in its version in Spanish and at the time was the
“Bible” for every Ufologist in the region.
But there was a problem of which we become aware many years later: Keyhoe
was the spokesman of the military intelligence and he openly promoted the idea
that UFOs were coming from outer space.
We accepted that position, we thought it was nearly the
only one reasonable and realistic; we fought fiercely the skeptics that said that
UFOs did not exist, that they were not real, or just of psychological nature.
Along the years we learned that NICAP –the organization
founded by Keyhoe was a child prodigy of the C.I.A., and that there were other
hypothesis and positions to be taken into account.
We learnt that one is the thing the witnesses see and
another one is the interpretation provided by the culture that usually goes
along with what has been systematically instilled by all the media, magazines
and books included; and now preponderantly by the Internet.
We learnt that the press exaggerates an even distorts the
tale of a UFO report in order to sell it better to the public, affecting the
work of the investigators.
We learnt that when there is a live TV program where the
anchor deals regularly with the UFO subject, the amount of UFO reports
increases concomitantly.
We learnt that even the most outstanding and respected
scholars dedicated to the UFO subject (Dr. J. Allen Hynek and Dr. Jacques
Vallée) did not subscribe to the idea of aliens visiting Earth.
But we certainly know that UFOs are still going around.
Not in the amount that supposedly did before, and surely not in the amount the
enthusiasts of the issue pretend us to believe, with photographs and videos
that day in and day out upload to YouTube.
We certainly recognize that there are material objects,
with an ovoid shape that fly the skies and they do not belong to the countries
where they are seen. And that there are the so-called Anomalous Luminous Phenomena which are very intriguing and are currently
the specific subject of field investigation and study for about 40 scientists
and technicians throughout the world, in what constitutes the most relevant
expression of the latest development in UFOlogy, what I personally call the New
Ufology.
This New Ufology demands the use of some sophisticated
instruments and the direct observation, registration and measuring of the
A.L.P. in the places where they occur.
All said, the UFO field is nowadays and particularly in
certain countries exceedingly populated by ignorants, people without sufficient
formal education, without any experience and knowledge of the issue, its
history, who is who, what have been done, what we already know and what we
still don’t know.
There is too much
enthusiasm, a pretentious discrimination against the people who do not agree
with the “ET dogma”, there is a conspiranoic tendency that tends to think that
everything that is coming from an official source is suspicious or a lie, and
that all the governments of the world, no matter how antagonistic they could be
among themselves, nevertheless participate in a planetary cover-up to hide the
“truth” that we have visitors from outer space.
This position and attitude is not only unscientific, but
do not comply with the minimum requirements of an intelligent intellect and a
logical way of thinking.
We find people that consider themselves “UFOlogists” but
accept at face value almost anything that comes to their knowledge, be it a
photograph, a video, a tale of “men in black”, crop circles, the “chupacabras”,
underworld creatures, whatever!
Well, it is time to be rigorous; it is time to apply a
responsible filter to the tales going around and not to relate all of them with
the UFO subject. It is time to apply a filter to the people that have not
learned what imply to be a serious, responsible and effective investigator and
scholar specialized in the UFO subject.
Certainly not anyone has the right to call him or herself
an UFOlogist!
That is why, due to the terrible distortions that we
verify nowadays, in the same way that we decided not to speak any longer about
UFOs, due to the disseminated idea that UFO is equivalent to extraterrestrial
ship, and we talk about Unusual Aerial Phenomena, or Anomalous Aerial Phenomena,
by the same token we decided not to call us any longer Ufologists but
investigators and scholars, or experts in UAPs.
This is a measure to take distance and clearly
differentiate the subject or our investigation and study and ourselves, with
the popular versions of both of them.
We think that there are still many reasons to investigate
and study the UAPs, and that we are possibly on the verge of an outstanding
scientific breakthrough.
But certainly it will not come from the pseudo documentaries
of some channels, or from some radio or TV program, or from popular round
tables where any issue could be discussed, or from YouTube and speculations
about “ancient astronauts” and a world conspiracy.
It will come from the silent, nearly secret work of a
group of dedicated people throughout the world that works without blinders,
without prejudices or the assumption of any belief, but with the honest purpose
to find the truth, whatever it could be.
In the meantime, what can we do with the new generations
of people really and seriously interested in the UAP subject?
One of the main problems that have created the current
turmoil around the subject is the lack of involvement of the scientific establishment.
Seen as something fantastic, unreal, not worth of investigation, the truth is
that ever has been allocated enough money as to develop a wide and deep study
of the subject.
The scientific community, those investigators at
universities and colleges are always in desperate need of funds to develop
their work. No nation in the world –that I am aware of- has ever established a
permanent fund to do research in the UAP area.
Had it been done, there wouldn’t be any longer
charlatans, merchants, and people exploiting the credulity of others to get
their money, but the truth and only the truth. We would be permanently informed
of the progress done in the area, and finally an answer would be reached that
definitely would be able to put the whole issue at rest.
The lack of this situation determines all the uncertainties
and all the speculation and fantasy that we currently suffer.
We think it is time to put an end to this kind of circus,
and understand that this is a matter scientists have to get by their own once
and for all.
Some of them are already doing that privately. But it has
to be done by official or private universities and with enough funds.
What we investigators and scholars of the UAP subject can
do, is to give all our support and cooperate with those scientists.
This is our opinion.
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