race and intelligence

london
The chinese should be very pleased because based on IQ tests, the chinese comes out as most intelligent. I think it wont come as a surprise to the chinese as we chinese has long known we are the superior race. haha. Then next, the europeans, then the American indians or is it indians from india?(I did not hear it properly), blacks and at the bottom , aborigines.
But IQ tests, the tv program said, are tests of a person's ability to adapt to modernity, not a test of intelligence. Or so they hope. haha. If that is so, than the chinese will dominate the world in future as they dominate berkeley which took in students purely on the result of their SAT tests which is akin to IQ test and they now have 40% chinese students.So maybe the economists who predict that the future belongs to China may be right.
It has been found there is a link between high IQ and success. Since modern life equates success with ability to accummulate money, luxury goods,cars, yachts, expensive houses in expensive locations, leisure travel, eating out in expensive restaurants, belonging to exclusive golf clubs, it reinforces the relationship between IQ and the ability to negotiate the modern world and so make lots of money. To invent gadgets or ideas that exploit your fellow men , to find out their desires. This enable u to detect their most vulnerable points and use it to manipulate them to buy and so you make profit from their weaknesses.
thus, people invent complex financial instruments designed to part people from their savings enticing them by saying they can increase their wealth without any effort and seemingly with low risk. The low risk bit is a con of course.
Another way is to invent things, cars, etc which use natural resources,(oil for eg) depleting it as a result and selling it off and make profits. That is what modernity has done more than anything. It makes survival , finding food or avoiding predators, irrelevant nowadays. Whereas in the past we work with Nature and cooperate amongst ourselves, modernity is finding ways of parting our fellow men from their money.
But put this person in the australian outback and they will be dead. haha. So what price that person's IQ then? Get an aborigine, quick!!!

So our modern society favours a certain type of mindset, which gives those who are most able to adapt to it a definite advantage, and so they will thrive. IQ tests sorts these out from others who are less worldly, and more attuned to the natural world.
The nub of modern thinking is the ability to think in the abstract. The ability to make patterns out of seemingly unrelated things.
I myself wonder what the practical advantage is to being able to solve crossword puzzles, or sudoku. Modernity makes it not necessary to learn survival skills like being able to survive in a harsh outback, but to gain a kind of mental agility that can second guess what will attract fellow human beings, and find a way to make money out of it.
I am not saying it is good or bad. It just is. Living in man made cities and towns have made us quite safe from wild animals, but we prey on each other instead.
If a race cannot adapt it will go extinct, so i suppose the pure aborigine will disappear, and replaced by hybrids as the children become more in tune with the modern world.
The program says as blacks become more middle class, they too inculcate the strong desire to better their children by education and instill it into their children, so their children's IQ will rise. It leaves me still unsure how much genes come in to determine intelligence, and how much culture or nuture affect intelligence.
The study of separated twins suggest that they have the same IQ, even though brought up differently suggesting that nuture or culture is not important.
It might be better to test them for savvyness. Do one twin seem to read people better than the other, or a twin is better at making things and inventing things than the other, or a twin is quicker in learning new things, or willing to take in new ideas than the other. Or is one twin more timid than the other.These are not tested, and i think it is difficult to devise tests to assess these qualities. And yet those qualities are more important than just intelligence as marked by ability to do mental exercises and solve puzzles.
IQ tests do not test for social intelligence. That is why some geniuses are so hopeless in dealing with people.
This is a series of tv programs about race and I like british tv which is not afraid to make such sensitive programs.
Last night, I saw a tv program which suggests that some ethnic people are having cosmetic surgery to become more caucasion. Though the eg given, a chinese lady who wanted to have bigger breasts, a malaysian man who wants to grow taller,(in the end he rejected having surgery to lengthen his legs) and a black woman who wants breasts reduction all seem to me to be simply wanting to look better, not so much wanting to be white. There was also an eg of koreans (it was mentioned that he had a 2inch penis, presumably when it was flaccid. The operation will only lengthen the penis when flaccid, it will remain the same length when erect)wanting penis enlargement. Hope the Koreans wont feel offended that the tv has made everyone know that koreans have small cocks.haha.But it seems to me simply a man who thinks he has a small penis wanting a bigger one, and willing to pay for it. Nothing to do with wanting to be more white. It was implied they wanted to be white, but we all know not all whites have big cocks, haha. If anything, if we follow the thesis, we must conclude he wants to be more black, seeing most of us thinks blacks have bigger cocks. I know, dont write in to complain that i m stereotyping blacks.haha. So all the egs really show people wanting to be more normal, not so much wanting to be white.
It would seem to me that talking of race will offend everyone one way or another, so rather brave of them to make the program. I daresay they wont dare make too outrageous a claim, otherwise the shit will hit the fan.their lawyers must be terrified someone will bring a charge of racists on them.
It so happens that on the bbc, showing at the same time, there is a program about skin whitening though it did not link them wanting to be white. This shows Indians wanting to lighten their skin. In Indian,arabic, asian and chinese/japanese/korean cultures, traditionally the pale skin(they would call it fair skin) is always considered more desireable in women.The program was aimed at those races, I think. At one stage confronting the editor of a Asian beauty magazine that only features light skinned models. As far as whitening goes, Whites dont really have the same desire, preferring to go on holiday to get a tan, or go under the sunbed.
Personally i dont have any strong feelings for or against any of these people's actions. If their souls wants it, so be it.
Added 29.10.09 I will tell you what really is trying to be westernise... african women straightening their hair . They say it is to look fashionable, but is it really? one can only wonder.
http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/world/africa/8330701.stm
Added. read this article in the daily mail today about race being a red herring. I thought he made a good observation there.
Since the range of abilities, intelligence etc. within a race stretch from outstanding to hopeless, the colour of the skin in a person you are dealing with does not matter. Unless you want it to, of course.
The article also contain a thoughtful essay on the bankers.
For 30 years or so, successive U.S. governments cajoled banks and others to lend freely to those with poor credit ratings, especially for house-purchase. The result has been the mountain of toxic debt we now confront.
The chief motive of the politicians was not to promote general prosperity - that was a bonus if it resulted - but to purchase votes. If capitalism has not solved all its problems, neither has democracy.
http://www.dailymail.co.uk/debate/article-1223404/Yes-bankers-bad-guys-theyre-alone.html
http://www.channel4.com/programmes/race-and-intelligence-sciences-last-taboo