Opinion / Columnist
Zambia's vice president is proof intelligence in humans is same
02 Apr 2014 at 12:15hrs | Views
Vice President Guy Scott has proved wrong all white racists who in their sick effort to preserve White dominance claim that Africans have the lowest IQ (Intelligence Quotient). Over the years Scott has showed us that intelligence is adaptable by environmental input; that environment is elemental in the development of a given attribute. He has proved that how and where people live, their up-bring, their economic status, and culture have a substantial impact on the intellectual skills of a person.
Having laid the premise let me expound. Back in September 2011, what evoked great interest for Zambia in the West was not so much the headline "Victoria Station sweeper becomes president of Zambia," but the appointment of Guy Scott as Africa's second white deputy president after South Africa's Frederick Willem de Klerk. The Guardian's David Smith wrote of Scott: "He is outspoken, has the popular touch and just became the second most powerful man in Zambia. He also possesses something now rarely seen at the top of African politics: white skin."
The media also stressed that in addition to the color of his skin Scott was an Oxfordian trained scientist: "he graduated in economics from Cambridge, researched robotics at Oxford, and wrote a PhD in cognitive science before returning to Zambia at the dawn of multi-party politics in 1990." It was clear the ulterior motive of some of the writers was to draw a distinction between the white vice president and the black president—scientist and sweeper; day and night; white and black; European and African; all in their aversive racist effort to activate stereotypes of Whites as intelligent and Blacks as dull and lazy.
For those not familiar with the term "aversive racism," it is a type of subtle bias practiced even by well-intentioned white journalists and individuals in order to perpetuate negative feelings about Africans. It can be said that 99.9% of whites possess non-conscious aversive racism which can be dictated in their actions, comments and body language. I am including Scott in this category. They believe in the stuff peddled by eugenicist and unrepentant racist Richard Lynn and other pseudo scientists who continue to insist that the IQ of whites is higher than that of Africans no matter the level of education.
The Lynn garbage has been fed into our minds as well. It has created in us a lack of self-worth, and a feeling of not measuring to White standards. As a result we tend to subconsciously over-compensate Whites when we are in their presence. Scott, having been born in Zambia knows how we cherish him because he "possesses white skin." We, I mean most of us believe that he is more intelligent than we are. We believe that his engagement in various forms of reasoning is rapid, and he tackles problems by taking thought.
This goes for every white person. Some of us think white people are super smart; that that they are blessed with more intellectual gifts than us; that they have more natural innate intelligence; that they possess survival-orientated knowledge that allows them to achieve goals they personally desire. Whites know this and in order to sustain our impression of them, it is only natural that they retain an element of aversive racism.
In the case of Scott, it would not be far-fetched to claim that he is the reason some people are in the PF party. Wherever he goes, villagers and a good number of town dwellers flock to him and believe every word he says. Because they have been convinced a White has more wisdom and sight, the simply conclude "the muzungu has spoken." In actual fact, it is this belief that gave them a sense of hope when he became vice president. Perhaps a white man "at the top of African politics" would put things right and lead the way to prosperity, they said in their indoctrinated manner. He would make economic success and modernism the crests of the Zambian nation.
Scott is in the third year of his vice presidency. One would expect that his "high IQ" coupled with his academic achievements [PhD in cognitive science] would be clear testimony of Lynn's claims. If the IQ boloney is anything to go by, we would, by now, have seen Scott spearheading Zambia to first world status. Blessed with "sheer natural ingenuity" he would have found an intelligent way of ensuring that his uncontrollable boss understands that it is on the core values of democracy that the success of Great Britain [the country of Scott's origin] is dependent. We should have heard him threaten to resign due to Sata's failure to exercise legal equality, freedom of the press, and the rule of law.
Understanding a constitution is the defining essence of a country, Scott would have scoffed the "show me an animal-driven constitution" and side with those who are calling for the release of the draft. Being a "genius" Scott should fully understand that China is an external predator in a Venetian mask; that Chinese presence in Zambia is no different from that of Cecil Rhodes in early 1900s. He should be tutoring his boss on the dangers posed by Chinese investment and advising him to resist any exploitative deals.
By now Zambians should be applauding Scott for devising a most feasible solution to our economic and unemployment woes. We should be seeing clear signs of Zambia embracing globalization, free market capitalism, education, and strict pragmatic policies. Scott, by now, should be connecting us to the developed world and convincing their nationals to resuscitate our mines and reclaim our ranking as the second highest producer of copper in the world after Brazil. We should be giving him credit for allowing Western investors to manufacture in Zambia and thanking him for the training of unskilled workers in information technology.
It is clear Scott has not done any of such, and to imagine he is going to is wishful thinking. His degrees in Economics and Science hang on his wall like those of other educated Zambians. There is no scientific innovation to his credit. There has not been since he graduated and returned home. His comments and statements are no different from say Wynter Kabimba's. In his recent television interview Scott said the following: "The Constitution is not a magic formula to take the place of governance. Good Governance is more important than the Constitution which entails that the people who lead you have to be sincere, genuine and take seriously the obligations of setting up schools, hospitals, roads, etc."
From the time he took the oath of office, we have been watching Scott eat his own words. Most of the stuff he wrote in his Post column in 2010-11 is coming back to haunt him. He once wrote: "The press provides the means for reporting events and expressing views that represent checks and balances on our elected leadership. A competition amongst the media - such as we are seeing in Lusaka FM radio stations - contributes greatly to quality, and the public also deliver their checks and balances against poor quality nonsense through their patronage." Sadly, today Scott is part of the system that is shuttering online publications, intercepting radio programs, and jailing dissident journalists and activists.
Scott even went as far as lecturing us on why Africa is so disorganized. "There are two schools of thought," he wrote. "The first, which I will characterize as "English speaking," tends to believe it is due to inexperience and immaturity on the part of Africans and/or African institutions…" the other school of thought, tending to be "French speaking," says that Africans are perfectly good organizers and managers. It is just that they have discovered that deliberately-induced chaos can be a useful tool and they tend to use their managerial abilities to bring it about. Chaos, disorder, whatever you want to call it, is a useful instrument for achieving many goals including stealing money, evading justice and, above all, maintaining political power."
Both lines of thought are very true and they are Scott's heartfelt impression of African politicians. Sadly, Scott is no different from the Africans he deprecates. To our dismay, we have watched him become part of the chaos and disorder. A dealer of misinformation and image-repairer of his capricious boss, Scott has mastered the technique of rapid rebuttal, often with a Pinocchio nose and finds pleasure in evading justice in order to maintain power.
What does this tell us? It tells us that Guy Scott, born and bred in Zambia, is no different from us. He is one of us. Like all of us he was provided with the Zambian social and environmental stimuli during his childhood. Although being white he was reared in favorable environs and buffered by his well-to-do parents, his scholastic aptitude is no different from intelligent Zambians with similar qualifications.
It can therefore be concluded that how and where one was raised plays a pivotal role in one's intelligence. For instance, had Scott stayed at Oxford as a researcher or worked in a robotics company in England it is possible he would have become part of Britain's distinguished inventors. Why? Because of the various opportunities for enlarging knowledge and the availability of appropriate tools that make imagination an important part of intelligence. This is a fact that Lynn and his legion of followers choose to intentionally ignore. Ladies and gentlemen we are but the same people.
Please Note: I have created a website www.aruwebooks.com on which you can access all my articles, essays, books, and my autobiography. On it you can also learn more about the books I have written and read snippets of chapters. You can buy chapters or the actual books at a discount. The website also features interesting articles like "Why I hate being a Black man" and topical videos. Watch JP Rushton and David Suzuki debate IQ at the University of Western Ontario, Canada. The site will be updated weekly. Contact me, blog, or join in the debate.
Field Ruwe is a US-based Zambian media practitioner, historian, and author. He is a doctoral candidate at George Fox University. ©Ruwe2012
Source - Field Ruwe
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