I am a skeptic of many things. Miracles, especially major biblical ones. Silver coin sales. An afterlife, nah. The oldest person in the world? I actually wrote an entire chapter on Eternal Life, in SIMPLE SOLUTIONS for Humanity, so, if anything, I think someday science will neutralize the "aging gene," and we should be able to live, maybe not forever (sickness, accidents, etc.), but for a very long time.
The latest supercentenarian is Carmelo Flores Laura (above) from Bolivia being 123 years old, which would break the record of Jeanne Calment (France), who was verified to be 122 years and 164 days when she passed away in 1997.
As Calment smoked for 96 years, Flores has chewed coca leaf all his life. Here is Bolivia's President Evo Morales pleading the case for this practice (note the lei he is wearing is made of coca leaf). Flores has never been seriously ill and has traveled as far away as La Paz, 50 miles distant.
I don't think Carmelo Flores Laura is 123 years old:
- Birth certificates did not exist in Bolivia until 1940.
- Bolivia's civil registrar, Eugenio Condori, indicated that Flores (he is referred to by this name) was born on 16July1890, the evidence being a Roman Catholic baptism certificate...BUT COULD NOT SHOW IT BECAUSE IT IS A PRIVATE DOCUMENT!
- Says Flores, "I should be 100 years old or more." However, one of his surviving children, Cecilio, is 67 years old, which means his father, Flores, was 56 at birth, which is certainly not out of the question.
- In recorded history, fewer than 100 people can be documented to have reached the age of 114, and nine up to 116, with only one undisputed, Jiroemon Kimura (above) from Japan, who just passed away two months ago.
Says Guinness, all the cases of individuals reaching 113, 114 and 116 (the case for Kimura has not yet been heard) were discredited. Further:
No single subject is more obscured by vanity, deceit, falsehood and deliberate fraud than the extremes of longevity.
There are three other supercentenarians who have claimed to be the oldest:
- Jose Coelho de Souza of Brazil: 129 years, 164 days (photo above)
- Leandra Becessa Lumbreras of Mexico: 125 years, 355 days
- Pedra Bento of Brazil: 124 years 53 days
There is no supporting evidence.
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