THE EUROPEANS’ phenomenal success in colonising the world is amazing. How could these people, physically and mentally average, move into countries with hostile climates, vastly outnumbered, and take over? Africa, Australia, India, the Americas, the West Indies . . . .
Gerald Durrell describes the situation in Mamfe, Cameroon, when he visited there: “A resident population of five white men, one white woman, and some ten thousand vociferous Africans.” Yet one 28-year-old colonial officer, with an assistant, was in full charge of an area the size of Wales.
You can say they had the backing of the British military, but that was many miles away. European bravado no doubt helped. And they did teach the natives the missionary position, which does have its advantages.
Anyway, the colonial empires fell. The European superiority myth was busted. So where does that leave us today? Exactly where we were back then. Europeans still direct world thought. And now their weapon of choice is science.
In 1966 I flew down to Trinidad to receive my degree from Princess Somebody of the Royal Family. We were the first-ever UWI graduates in Trinidad. And dutifully marched up for our red cylinder.
‘Scientific’ lies
Of course it didn’t have in any damn degree. This is the West Indies. Instead we got a note saying the degrees weren’t ready. They would be posted later.
But I was a Bachelor of Science, back when science was serious business. If something was declared a scientific fact, it meant that any other scientist could repeat the experiment and get the same result.
If then different “scientists” present completely opposite results, it isn’t science, it’s lies. Secondly, scientific analysis simply cannot handle some scenarios.
Alas, scientists soon realised that the big money was in “scientific” lies. And who can blame them? If lawyers, politicians and apparently the occasional historian bend the truth, why shouldn’t they?
US columnist Dave Barry is tired of reading how scientists have made a “major breakthrough with the discovery of an important new sub-atomic particle” that only they can see. He wonders if scientists in general “are pulling some kind of elaborate scam here”. And getting millions in federal grants.
The Europeans, and by that I mean the white big-ups who control the world, have found science to be just as effective a tool as military force. They have only to say “scientific research shows . . .” and they can direct what we eat, what roofing material we use. No one dares contradict.
It cannot be. Science can’t come in one decade and declare eggs will kill you, then come back later and say they’re the best thing on sliced bread.
Similarly, when EU Ambassador Mikael Barfod disgorged his twaddle that “scientific research has shown that the death penalty in no way acts as a deterrent to crime”, he should have been lambasted for insulting our intelligence.
Read for yourself the analyses on which that statement is based. In no way could that be considered scientific research. Use your common sense. Is Barfie saying that if a robber knows he will be executed if he kills his victim, it doesn’t discourage him from so doing?
Incidentally, much-admired Singapore makes extensive use of capital punishment. 95 percent approve. They know it’s effective.
Okay, so we have, presumably, honest scientists and we have lying scientists. We have scientific research, and we have scientific “research”. To some “scientists” global warming is a fact, to others, a myth. How do you tell who is which?
My rule of thumb is to distrust anything put out by white Europeans or Americans. That works for me. If you want to go further, find out who paid for the research. Get pictures of the researchers. Check their noses (the Pinocchio connection, long noses and liars).
Which brings me to my friend Wild Coot. Scientist Dr Russell Humphreys, who, let us note, holds a PhD in Physics and has won awards for scientific research, gave a lecture on a “young earth”. Letter-writers Frederick Johnson and Daley Reece disagreed.
The latter “warmed the cockles” of Wild Coot’s heart. Coot, probably after observing how many government departments operate, thinks humans evolved from snails.
Frankly few things interest me less than the age of the earth. But I would warn him against going off half-cockled until he himself can verify the facts on this issue.
Richard Hoad is a farmer and social commentator. Email porkhoad@gmail.com.