It’s Strange News of the week on this episode of Stuff They Don’t Want You To Know, so Ben Bowlin and Noel Brown take a deep dive into the late Prince Philip’s love for UFOs as well as the ongoing political situation in Myanmar. Apparently the Duke of Edinburgh was an alien enthusiast as far back as World War II; he had a massive collection of books about UFOs and subscribed to a quarterly UK magazine called Flying Saucer Review. Did he know something, as a royal head of state, that we don’t know? Was he privy to some classified information that supported his belief in extraterrestrial life? Or was he simply a human being, with human eccentricities and quirks?
Prince Philip charged his equerry – a kind of assistant to royalty – Sir Peter Horsley with looking into “credible accounts” of UFOs or alien encounters in 1953; the prince believed that if Horsley brought people to Buckingham Palace to tell their story, it would be “better than any truth serum” because no one “would dare lie” to a member of the royal family. Horsley himself believed he had met an extraterrestrial, who he called Mr. Janus. He told the Daily Mail that Janus seemed to have telepathic abilities and wanted to meet Prince Philip because he “was a man of great vision” who “understood the relationship between man and nature, which will prove to be of great importance in future galactic harmony.” Ben and Noel also get into the member of the royal family who got Philip interested in UFOs, the possibility that he was told classified information at state dinners or political functions, and the usefulness of money and social status to define you as a “noted eccentric” instead of a “raging lunatic.”
After that, the fun’s over as they get into the tricky situation in Myanmar. This country, nestled between Thailand and Bangladesh, was ruled by the military until 2012, when quasi-democratic rule was established, allowing for open elections. However, on November 8, 2020, the National League for Democracy won 83% of the seats in Parliament, leading the military to claim fraud and declare a national emergency, allowing them to rule the country for at least one year. Since then, peaceful protests have turned violent; the military has killed over 600 people and detained and tortured thousands more. They also began a secret trial for the party leader, Aung San Suu Kyi, without allowing her any legal representation. What do the other major powers in the region, like China, India, and Japan, think about this? What could be the military’s next move? Is democracy doomed in Myanmar? Who stands to benefit from Myanmar’s destabilization? Join Ben and Noel to find out on this episode of Stuff They Don’t Want You To Know.
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