While perusing another of my favorite blogs, littlegreenfootballs, I came across a link to this article.
The author writes about the psychological trauma of growing up in the PLO-controlled areas of the West Bank/Gaza.
An excerpt:
“Survival in such a culture necessitates some numbing. But this psychological component might be insignificant relative to the neurobiological effects of being beaten and tortured in childhood. It was Harvard researchers who first revealed that stress hormones released when children experience physical and sexual abuse actually impede development of that part of the brain responsible for empathy and conscience. ”
Brain scans of those who suffered through events common in the childhood of Palestinian children reveal an underdeveloped hippocampus and vermis. Among the behaviors associated with this sort of brain damage: impulsivity, sadism, and suicide.”
The conditions of the West Bank and Gaza certainly mirror some African societies. So, we come back to the chicken-and-egg question. What part of Africa’s woes are genetic and what part are environmental? Which came first? The best “control” we have continues to be the African diaspora–where we still see blacks continuing to do more poorly in measures of cognitive skills. However, they do better in America than their (malnourished) African counterparts living in war-torn countries. What would Africa be like with an “equality of opportunity”? What is the potential? After decades of mismanagement, will some countries like Ghana eventually join the world economy and trade in proportion to its size? After all, Russia’s economy is currently size of Holland’s after Communism’s reign. Or is Africa doomed to labor with a genetically determined cognitive deficit?
Just some Saturday ramblings.
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