Thursday, October 25, 2007

Freedom of Speech or right to incite?

So this week had a massive row over race, genes and intelligence. See the following links below:

Independent

BBC News

Times Online

I find the response to Dr Watson a bit sad and his hounding was unjustified - mainly from those arguing from a position of passion and emotion. Dr. Watson should have been (and has been) challenged by other scientists on this basis and I think he should be left alone to defend himself. Of course, there will be nutters who will flock to his way of thinking but unfortunately, this is what we are.

Personally, I find his views dangerously seductive. Not for me mind, but for those closet racists who want nothing but snippets like this to build up an absurb mental picture of the world. Dr. Watson is (or was) a respected member of the scientific and even after all these years; his word still carries weight.

Now, let's try and look at some of the 'facts'. Yes, Africa is a mess and I like him, share a rather gloomy view of the continent. There will be areas of development but large swathes will be in continuous pain and conflict; at least for my life time. Is this due to some inherent, genetic flaw in the African people? In my view, no it is no. The situation is so much more complex than that. For me, its the obvious one: history. Once someone is down and in the bottom rung of life's ladder - those on top will try and keep him there, even if the ones higher-up have the desire to help out; they will not want to jeopardise their relative positions. Since the 19/20th Century, Africa has been lacking or been deprived of the tools and modern institutions of the modern age: a working government, democracy, consistent education and stable geographic borders to name four. There are others reasons not mentioned but equally as important. Some of the causes have been external others, internal.

These complex, interwoven factors have kept the entire continent bouncing from one crisis to another. For those countries who managed to get an educated middle-class at one time or another (Zamabia, Sierre Leone, Liberia and more recently Zimbabwe) most have ended up fleeing to richer pastures, depriving the country of their most valuable asset - the people. AIDS has been ravaging the continent, not helped by very blinkered views by their religious leaders on homosexuality and the means of transmission and therefore wacky 'cures' for which I blame South Africa on the latter. Powerful world organisations eager to maintain the current eminent positions of conglomerates and companies and therefore have locked up trade and commerce to the detriment of much of the world's poor has rigged the world market against much of the poor and therefore Africa.

While I believe nature plays a part, it only lays the basic foundation blocks of who we are. Of course, there are racial differences between people: those from Asian countries tend to be shorter than those in the west, certain diseases are more prevalent in Africans than others, certain mental disorders are almost exclusively in the white, western domain. There is a genetic disposition and distribution to certain traits to certain peoples and this may include intelligence but in my view, the actual threshold of intelligence is so low, it doesn't make a difference in the real world. We're all equally as stupid as the rest and have amply demonstrated this time and time again.

Ok, I hear most of you are saying - well, black people are better at certain things: sports to name the obvious one, surely there must be a genetic component to this? It is after all, something that will be staring at you in the face come the Olympics in 2008. It is highly likelythat the 100m sprints will be all black athletes and mainly American too. Same with the 200m, 110m hurdles (with the exception of China's Liu Xiang with other articles here and here) and other speed and strength dominated events. Interesting how many people (blacks and whites) do subscribe to the idea that 'white men can't jump' when it comes to certain sports.

Ahhh - that old chest nut.

Veering a little in this entry but if you have a significant portion of your population channeled into one occupational area due to other areas of employment being shut out from you due to a self-perpetuating cycle of denial and false positives, I can guarantee that you can churn out world champions. If the UK decided to force all those with ginger hair to be sprinters - am sure that in a decade of so, there will be a glut of those 'red haired devils' and all sorts of evidence, will be used to support that claim for a 'super fast red gene'.

How about the Soviet Union, they won so many gold medals and ALL their athletes were white. It has been found that most were doped up but I strongly suspect that their American (white and black) were probably just as guilty.

Anyway, too much to say and not enough time - Dr. Watson has the right to freedom of speech just as everyone else has the right to respond. With Dr Watson now banned from all public events - there is precious little we can do. However, I do believe in the inherent sensibilities and sense of decency of the average person on the street. His banning smacks of political correctness and this, in my view, strengthens the arguments of the racists and the bigoted and weakens the democracy we all live in.

Let Dr. Watson speak and try and defend himself and in so doing, trust that democracy can defend itself too.

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