[ExI] Making [100 million] people smarter on the cheap.

[Damien Broderick]

At 11:21 AM 12/6/2008 -0800, spike wrote:

>The
>fact that they have done nothing suggests a specific intention to allow the
>problem to continue, perhaps out of malice, perhaps out of criminal apathy,
>perhaps a mistaken belief that iodine deficiency will somehow reduce
>population growth, or the notion that brain damaged people are easier to
>control, easier to keep down on the farm away from the crowded cities.

But note what the article sez:

<Until recently, 6 in 10 Pakistani schoolchildren were 
iodine-deficient. Iodine just wasn't on anyone's mind.

"I had never heard of iodized salt," said Haji Sajjawal Khan, a 
65-year-old owner of a small salt factory here, near the capital of 
Islamabad. Officials from the Micronutrient Initiative and other aid 
agencies reached out to factory owners like Mr. Khan and encouraged 
them to iodize salt, in part to help make Pakistanis healthier and 
more intelligent.

"It will prevent people's necks from being swollen and will make 
people smarter," Mr. Khan said. So he agreed to add an iodine drip 
into his salt grinder.>

It's hard to recall how *ignorant* people can be, especially for us 
with our 24 hour links to google and new-fangled way of always 
questioning traditional ways. In this case, just *informing* that guy 
seems to have done the trick.

Damien Broderick