Clarrification re "Low IQs are Africa's curse, says lecturer" Online Petition

Tue Nov 14 19:26:23 UTC 2006

Dear all,

Thanks to the keen eye of one of the list members a significant issue has been noted regarding the petition, namely its eligibility criteria - Students and staff of UK universities. 
A strong argument was made by a list member stating that "it strikes me as curiously ethnocentric that only UK-based signatories are permitted to sign. One would think that in these days of 'international' education, the luminaries of LSE might be even more sensitive to external criticism". The person who initiated the petition is in agreement with this argument and is in the process of updating the website to correct the oversight. 

However, it should be noted that while this eligibility criteria was stated on the petition website, it is not in fact enforcable, as a number of the 'university attended' of signatories attest to.

Once again, if you are in agreement with the general premise of the petition, your signature of support would be appreciated.

With thanks,

Carlos Bruen

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Dear all,

Firstly, apologies for cross-posting.

Secondly, detailed below is a request from a colleague at the London School of Economics to sign an online petition, addressed to the LSE Governing Body, in relation to a recent paper by Satoshi Kanazawa, titled 'Mind the gap
in intelligence: Re-examining the relationship between inequality and health', published in the British Journal of Health Psychology. This paper argues for the existence of a link between ill-health/poverty and low IQ. The paper suggests that low IQ among populations, e.g. countries on the African continent, is the reason why infant mortality is high and life expectancy low. Many are beginning to voice their rejection of the paper, a rejection that is based both on a questioning of the methodological design and evident flaws, as well as its implications for scientific racism and maintaining racist associations and assumptions.

As you can imagine, this has caused significant controversy, both within the Social Psychology and Methodology Institutes, LSE, as well as sparking a more university-wide and public debate, and a public distancing from the claims made in the paper, e.g. http://www.lse.ac.uk/collections/government. Various paths of action are being discussed in relation to responses to the publication of the paper. This request to sign the online petition, independant of any institution or formal group, is but one response.

Once you have had an opportunity to read the attached document and links to further information, and should you agree with the premise of the petition, please consider signing it and forwarding it to your friends.

With thanks,

Carlos Bruen

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PhD Candidate
Institute of Social Psychology
LSE
UK
c.p.bruen at lse.ac.uk

Teaching Fellow
UCD School of Social Justice
University College Dublin
Ireland
carlos.bruen at ucd.ie

-----Original Message-----
Subject:  "Low IQs are Africa's curse, says lecturer"

PLEASE SIGN and FORWARD TO YOUR FRIENDS: http://www.PetitionOnline.com/lse2006/petition.html [http://www.PetitionOnline.com/lse2006/petition.html]

Hi everyone,

I am a student at the LSE and I am writing to you

about the research of one of our LSE staff members, Satoshi Kanazawa.

Please find attached his article, in which he refers to correlations between IQ and health

and in some simple way, argues that ill health is based on low IQ and not on

issues of social policy, infrastructure, GDP etc.

This is the link to an Observer article, Sunday 5th November,

referring to the journal article of Satoshi Kanazawa.

http://observer.guardian.co.uk/uk_news/story/0,,1939891,00.html

I understand that the Observer article is a bit simplistic and

I also understand that academic freedom is important -

but this freedom comes also with certain responsibilities.

Many of us

(especially non-white students who form the majority of

the school body and also the financial backbone of the school)

felt deeply offended by the methodological weaknesses.

I attach the original journal article as well as a blog that deals with this issue:

http://scienceblogs.com/pharyngula/2006/11/africa_is_filled_with_people_t.php

The reason why I mention the blog is that it gets around 24,000 visitors per day.

According to Nature, it's the number one blog written by a scientist world-wide.
Background on the blogger:

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/PZ_Myers [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/PZ_Myers] <http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/PZ_Myers>

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pharyngula_(blog) <http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pharyngula_(blog)>

Thanks,

Eri Park

"Ein Herz für Kinder" - Ihre Spende hilft! Aktion: www.deutschlandsegelt.de
Unser Dankeschön: Ihr Name auf dem Segel der 1. deutschen America's Cup-Yacht!