[ExI] Protected Elites

[painlord2k at libero.it]

Il 17/05/2009 4.48, Lee Corbin ha scritto:



> Moreover almost all allegedly lazy people are in reality only highly
> uninterested in mundane activities such as boring and repetitive
> work. This is the classic difference between the Celts and the more
> modern cultural groups (such as the Ancient Romans and the Anglo
> Saxons) that pushed them out of western Europe. Time and again the
> Celtic ("southern") traits of high honour, bravery in battle,
> drunkenness, "laziness", extended kin groups, and on and on, while
> serving them well in individual battles, was not so good for group
> selection.

The studies about ADD and genetics concerning the members of the same
tribe in Kenya, that lived in cities and in the countryside show these
are adaptations to the habitat they evolved in.

The comparison with Souther culture could be more correct than expected.
Gauls won many battles and destroyed many legions initially, but were
unable to win Rome. The Romans continued to form and send Armies, until
they found the right leader and won and wiped out their enemies.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Gaius_Marius#Cimbri_and_Teutones

Gaius Marius --> Ulysses S. Grant + Sherman


> (What would happen over and over again, whether it was against
> Caesar's legions or the English kings' armies, was that the Celtic
> cultural patterns provided too few "warriors" that were satisfied
> with "mere" logistical or provisioning duties. They all wanted to be
> in the front lines heroically dealing death and destruction to the
> enemy. They would lose ever war, just as the South lost against the
> North---and for exactly the same reasons.)

This usually is show in how often the winning battle is fought by a
smaller but much more organized and disciplined army that route a larger
but indisciplined and less organized army.

> No, it is up to whites (e.g. you and me) to speak of the realities
> concerning differences between Asians and Whites, or Jews and
> gentiles.

Could we speak about the nascent immigration of African blacks in China
and the consequences?

>>> http://www.news-medical.net/news/2005/04/26/9530.aspx Racial
>>> Admixture Studies. Black children with lighter skin, for example,
>>> average higher IQ scores. In South Africa, the IQ of the
>>> mixed-race "Colored" population averages 85, intermediate to the
>>> African 70 and White 100.

> It does need to be constantly stressed in these forums that
> statistical stereotypes, whether valid or not, pertain only, of
> course, to statistical averages, and have no implications whatsoever
> for individuals.

I suppose it is wise to do so, as too much people is bend to
misinterpret what they read if fit their world view or is expedient.

> He told rather marvellous stories about the small village in the
> Cameroon he grew up in. He didn't come from any elite; his parents
> were farmers, but evidently of superior intelligence since they both
> became school teachers (that's how they met, and he was the issue).

In Italy, there is a proverb that sound like this:
"Farmer: big shoes, sharp brain."
What mental traits are useful for successful farmers?
I would suppose that are mainly the same that do a good workers and learner.

> His IQ almost surely is 130 or above. He combined that "sufficient
> intelligence" (Jensen) with a strong work ethic, an ability to
> concentrate steadily, and probably a capacity for learning fairly
> quickly. Such traits are what have made him the engineer he is,
> besides overall having a good disposition.

I agree that good disposition is a trait I find more frequently in
migrants (Black, Asian and East Europeans) than nationals.

> Now wait! The studies report that the sub-Saharan IQs of black people
> is two standard deviations below that of white people (although the
> experts estimate that five to ten points of that deficit is probably
> due to a combination of various environmental effects including poor
> nutrition).

Agree that a part of the gap is environmental.

> But what are the odds that such an individual would come to my
> attention? Something seemed seriously wrong.

What is seen and what it is not seen.
We see what we can, we don't see what we can not see.

> So far as I know, it's mainly coincidence. Let's suppose that indeed
> 10 or more points can be attributed to environment in this case. Then
> we still have the unlikely case of someone picked apparently at
> random (who parents were certainly not a part of any kind of elite)
> who is three to four standard deviations above average for his group!
> Remarkable, but not impossible. There are people, I think, on this
> list who are also so relatively smart in comparison with their own
> ethnic group.

I would contest that two teachers, in Cameroon, are not "elite".
This could be said about their farmers families.
They could not be rich or elite for our standard, for sure, but how
better are they compared with the rest of the local population?

Next, they do assortative mating, so, it is not strange they obtain an
higher IQ offspring. Less strange if they have many children. Average
fertility in Cameroon is around six.

 From the other side, what I really would like to know is how flat or 
spiked is the curve of distribution of IQ. If IQ depend on different 
mutations and adaptations of different genes, we could have very 
different distributions.


> Well, whatever the correct explanation of this particular case is,
> (and we do remember to merely use examples to illustrate---and never
> to make---theses), there is something quite tragic going on in
> countries like the Cameroon.

Brain flight is one of these things.
The higher wages and the better living condition in the western
countries attract an important part of the gifted from these countries, 
depleting their human resources in a disproportionate way.

http://strangemaps.files.wordpress.com/2007/10/276540-poster594x420mm_eng.jpg
> “This poster (published in September 2007) hangs on the wall of
> waiting rooms at the doctor. This way we let Dutch people know how
> privileged they are when it comes to medical care, and thus how
> appropriate it would be for them to help Doctors of the World help
> the less privileged.”

Italy 1:240 US: 1:390 Cameroon 1:5300 Tanzania 1:50.000
I just note the numbers of Italy and US: do you think this is a part of 
the reason healthcare cost more in the US than in Italy and physicians 
earn lot less in Italy than in the US?

In England, talking with an high-up nurse at the St.Tomas and Guy 
Hospital, she told me that they rely in large part on immigrant nurses 
from North Europe, Philippines and other places. Many English nurses 
migrate to the US to work and many immigrants in the UK do so after the 
master the language and the trade.

This is the globalization, and we can do nothing about this apart making 
it worse.

> He mentions in particular the nations of Africa, who seem to have
> missed their best chance to escape all the "traps" in the 1980s. The
> fact that now east Asian countries are providing very cheap labour to
> the whole world through the ongoing globalization, gives them a head
> start that Africa almost surely will not be able to close.

Could I note that we didn't give the same level of "help" to these 
countries as we did to Africa?

> But another salient fact: African countries are losing more and more
> of their talented people, who manage to escape and make it to the
> corruption-free west. And this process, of course, merely makes the
> situation in Africa itself all the more dire and more hopeless. Our
> friend from the Cameroon, who'll surely never emigrate back,
> illustrates this perfectly.

It flashed in my mind now:
The Affirmative Action laws are really different from the "natural 
resource curse"?

Mirco
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