PC bullies from the Immigrant Council of Ireland swing into action against Kevin Myers

From yesterday's Irish Times:

Tuesday, July 15, 2008
ICI claims article was 'racially offensive'

CHARLIE TAYLOR

The Immigrant Council of Ireland (ICI) is to make an official complaint to the Garda Síochána today about the publication of what it considers to be a racially offensive article that appeared in the Irish Independent last week.

The ICI said it believed the publication of the article, “Africa is giving nothing to anyone – apart from AIDS ”, which was written by columnist Kevin Myers and published last Thursday, breached Section 2 of the Prohibition of Incitement to Hatred Act 1989.

Section 2 of the Act says it is an offence to publish or distribute written material if it is threatening, abusive or insulting and intended to, or having regarding to all of the circumstances, is likely to, stir up hatred.... [link]

Here is the original piece by Myers.

The ICI people (and, I'm sure, loads of PC folks) seem to have missed the main point that Myers was making -- we should question ourselves as to how moral it is to support societal systems in which more and more people will inevitably suffer.

Well, how moral is it? It doesn't seem very moral to me. It just seems as though we are coddling our own, personal moral sentiments and avoiding truly tough decisions. I don't really blame anyone for this though, for we are probably "wired" to think/feel in these ways thanks to the evolutionary track that we happened to follow.

It's too bad Myers didn't offer some alternative suggestions as to what to do about the problems in Africa. I don't have any answers, but some intelligent (and brave) folks out there do. As I said in the comments in a previous post:

The West has treated -- and still is treating -- Africans abominably, there is no doubt about that. But our behaviours do not account for why sub-Saharan Africans do poorly in terms of nation building or on the international political/economic scene.

The explanation lies in intelligence (IQ) as well as temperament....

[I]f we really want to help Africans, we need to find out the true root of their problems and if we don't discuss the IQ we will never be able to rule it in or out as one of the things that needs to be fixed or at least mediated (of course we also need to do other things to help Africans like engage in proper trade with them, etc.)

More specifically, from Steve Sailer:

Of course, if, like most American opinion-leaders, you never allowed yourself to think about IQ, then you wouldn't know that the sad state of Africa stems in part from IQ deficiencies.

Nor would you know that it's likely that Africa's average IQ could be raised.

Indeed, the heavyweight psychometricians backed by the much-denounced Pioneer Fund, such as Lynn, the late Hans Eysenck, and Arthur Jensen, have long pointed to vitamin and mineral deficiencies in Third World diets as a likely contributor to low average IQs.

The Pioneer Fund website says specifically:

"Some research has demonstrated that food supplements have the potential to enhance cognitive ability. Most non-genetic explanations for IQ deficits in non-developed countries have focused entirely on cultural factors such as prejudice, poor education, and poverty. The biological, but not genetic contribution to cognitive ability has largely been ignored. However, we do know that minute daily additions of essential amino acids, minerals, vitamins, and other trace elements can be critical. (Malnutrition in childhood is a different phenomenon.) There may even be group differences in the optimal daily requirements of these substances. Research of this kind carried out in developing countries such as South Africa could pay great dividends."

Now, in a stunning vindication for IQ realists, the Associated Press has reported (March 25):

The brainpower of entire nations has diminished because of a shortage of the right vitamins, and slipping nutrients into people's food seems to be the only solution, a new U.N. survey says."

This survey, co-produced by UNICEF and the Micronutrient Initiative, begins:

"Few outside specialist circles are aware of the scale and severity of vitamin and mineral deficiency, or of what it means for individuals and for nations. It means the impairment of hundreds of millions of growing minds and the lowering of national IQs… And it means the large-scale loss of national energies, intellects, productivity, and growth."

For Sailer's links and to read the whole piece click here.

The ICI and other PC thinkers will do Africans (or other disadvantaged peoples) no favours by stiffling the discussion of the problems in Africa. What they will be doing -- as nearly all PC thinking does -- is to continue to prolong the suffering of Africans, just as the never ending donations do. But that, then, is perhaps the point -- if we don't ever truly help these people, they won't ever become our economic competitors.

Email the ICI folks to let them know what you think.

Previously: Kevin Myers on charity to Africa

Update >>

Letters to the Independent. I count 16 that are pro-Myers and 4 anti-Myers (there is sometimes more than one letter per webpage):

Western aid not helpful
Well done for saying it as it is
They must care for their own
Let's face up to brutal reality of Africa (3 letters)
Thanks for brave article on Africa
Life is not always worth preserving
It's high time we cut all African aid
Refreshing view...Bono and Bob...PC mob...Nasty people... (5 letters)
Starving people betrayed by own rulers (2 letters)

Wishing death on children is sick
This is not an Africa I recognise
Mr Myers wants the final solution
Why attack the people of Africa?

Also, in the Irish Times, a commentary by Bryan Mukandi: "Intolerant words starve Africans of the chance they deserve"

This is not a hate site