Hannah Taiwo '25
The city of Newark, New Jersey has reportedly been scammed into becoming a “sister city’’ with a fake Hindu nation that claimed to be off the coast of Ecuador.
As most people know, sister cities are a good way for promoting each other's businesses and cultures to enrich and educate others, which is what New Jersey tried to do, not knowing they were walking into a trap.
The mayor decided to invite “Kailasa” to Newark for cultural exchange, but she soon found out it was all a lie. Swami Nithyananda is behind this embarrassment towards New Jersey. He is a scam artist and fugitive from India. He has also been on the run from rape charges according to CBS News.
This incident has turned out to be a huge embarrassment and shame to New Jersey since there was even live footage of city officials signing documents in preparation for becoming a “sister city’’ with this fake nation. It leads us to wonder what precautions need to be taken when trying to become sister cities.
Celebrities have joined in to mock New Jersey for falling for this ridiculous trap. “No one at the city council in Newark thought, ‘Hey, I've never heard of this country. What's their food like? What's their clothing look like? Let me just do a Google search before we get these guys into a room and make them our sister city.’ No. Instead, they ran with it," said Jesse Watters.
Newark officials claim this negotiation only lasted 6 days and, thankfully, there was no exchanging of money going on between them.
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