Will the world as we know it change at the end of June 2021? Will religions implode; will faith in our elected leaders collapse entirely (well, you could say in many places, that’s happened already); will world-wide confusion and uncertainty and terror set in?

Probably not. Because, all we will learn is what we still don’t know. And that is a humbling thing. And this has happened before, anyway.

What we’re talking about here is the release to the USA Congress the week, of the military files on UAPs – Unidentified Aerial Phenomena. Previously known by the unfortunate acronym UFOs. The operative word common to both these labels is ‘unidentified.’

For this is what these newly-released files – and the summary so far made public – will reveal, just like ex-president Barrack Obama did in a recent television interview. The bottom line remains: we just don’t know what these things are. We can’t even call them ‘vehicles.’ They are unidentified phenomena. But they are real.

The UFO acronym has fallen into disuse, because it has led to a ridiculous – and ridiculed – stock response that these must be alien spaceships. But in reality, this remains what can best be called the ‘extra-terrestrial hypothesis.’ Which means unproven. Which means, again, unidentified.

The American reveal wasn’t to be earth-shattering. Simply because something like this has happened before. The French and Belgian governments have previously shown their citizens all they know about UAPs before, as a gesture of transparency. And yes, the thing that keeps coming up is that we just don’t know the provenance, the intent, and the reality of these things.

What we do know can be summed up in five broad statements:

1. There exists in the skies of the world (not just the USA), a solid, physical phenomenon that appears to under intelligent control and is capable of speeds, manoeuvrability and luminosity beyond current known technology. And no, it is definitely not some secret US, Russian or Chinese technology on limited display (though the USA report this week still holds to this possibility).

2. UAP incursions in restricted airspace can cause aviation safety hazards. But the UAPs – despite being fired on by fighter jets – have never shown overtly hostile acts.

3. The USA government has, so far, kinda ignored the phenomenon; and has on occasions offered almost laughably false explanations. At least now, the Office of the Director of National Intelligence in the USA is big enough to say simply, ‘we don’t know.’

4. The extra-terrestrial hypothesis is a rational one, given the data we have. As is the one about possible ‘inter-dimensional origin.’ But the real origin and nature of UAPs remains unknown.

5. Given the potential world-wide implications of UAPs, we really should do systematic scientific investigation of them, as part of an international co-operation.

So that’s about where we stand on this. And the USA reveal will probably not significantly affect these five considerations.

Which leaves us with the tuck shop lady – actually an old friend of mine. One of the most significant UAP encounters happened at a rural primary school in Zimbabwe in 1994. Significant because it has a high number of un-biased (or let’s say less-biased) witnesses, the closest physical approach, and the most intriguing possible motivation.

The school staff were inside having a meeting. The only adult in contact with the kids at the time was my friend Alison. A vehicle landed in the scrub just beyond the school playground. Most of the kids rushed up to have a dekko. What they saw was a landed ship, and a few figures dressed all in black, who had large eyes. They all agreed on this. One child got to within one metre of one of the figures. No words were spoken, but all the children later (independently) reported to an (independent) researcher, Dr John Mack, an American author, psychiatrist, professor and winner of the Pulitzer Prize, that they all felt a silent communication, something about fixing the state of the world and the environment.

One of the kids came running back to tell Alison about the thing. She didn’t believe the little girl, previously a notorious teller of tall tales. And so she told the message-bearer to go out and just be polite to the visitors. And so missed her greater part in human history. Alison’s own daughters were at the other end of the playground, so did not see the ship or its passengers – only a scorch mark on the grass afterwards.

Dr Mack was taken by the differences in interpretation among the kids from different cultures. Some white kids thought these being were high-tech gardeners (because they were all in black); some kids thought they were manifestations of the tokoloshe, a trickster figure in traditional folklore. But Dr Mack was more struck by the things they all agreed on: what the ship and the beings looked like, how long it stayed during the lunch break, how it took off, and what was communicated. But what’s most intriguing is that these ‘others’ chose a multi-cultural primary school in the developing world to pass on their message to all mankind. Maybe it time we all took heed of it. Perhaps we are all the tuck shop ladies for all of us, our environment and our mokopuna. It’s time we listened to the kids.

*

UAPs and the Zimbabwe incident are best addressed in the sober documentary film by James Fox, The Phenomenon. You can watch it free, online, here https://www.documentaryarea.tv/player.php?title=The%20Phenomenon