Africa's Coming Cyber-Crime Epidemic 142
jfruh writes "Those Nigerian spam scams of the last decade may have just been the first step in a looming African cyber-crime wave. Africa has the world's fastest-growing middle class, whose members are increasingly tech-savvy and Internet connected — and the combination of ambitious, educated people, a ceiling on advancement due to corruption and lack of infrastructure, and lax law enforcement is a perfect petri dish for increased cybercrime."
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really? check out the history of san francisco in the 1800's
they would entrap young men, drug them and put them on ships. then tell them to get to work or get dumped over board
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Impressment or 'Press ganging' http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Impressment [wikipedia.org]
Was a time honored tradition throughout the world until almost late-19th century. All sea faring nations practiced it at some time during their nautical histories.
It also was often coded into 'idleness' laws all over the world where one could be impressed into forced labor just for being seen on the street without clear leave to be there. Often with no judicial review at all.
And just like various forms of maritime piracy and privateer
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really? check out the history of san francisco in the 1800's
they would entrap young men, drug them...
I think they still do that.
Yeah, but men threatening other young men with dumping in San Francisco now is mostly related to a clash over Lady Gaga and not you know, indentured servitude.
Computers, in the future .. (Score:4, Insightful)
I guess it'll be safer to use the BBC Microcomputer [wikipedia.org] in the 'future'
No Laws, No Service (Score:2)
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I don't agree with the article myself. The middle class usually have something to lose, and are more likely to raise a fuss politically than engage in criminal pursuits for dubious gain. The glass ceiling imposed by corruption doesn't last long after the middle class grows strong enough.
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So why the hell do we not cut them off from the Internet?
Here's why, by analogy:
Statement: The vast majority of violent crime occurs in urban areas.
Response by your logic: Why don't we carpetbomb all urban areas to prevent violent crime?
See what you did there?
Generalization is the hallmark of the non-thinker.
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That's not my thinking at all.
Then you should be more clear to avoid confusion - intent is often difficult to infer from written text, and it is the duty of the writer to ensure his message is clearly stated.
What I'm saying, these countries don't abide by the laws that the rest of the world abide by, so why do we treat them as equal.
What are these international laws that "the rest of the world," which includes Russia, China, and the U.S., supposedly abide by? None I've ever heard of.
What countries like Africa are doing
Ah, a student of the Sarah Palin School of International Knowledge.
Explains a lot, actually.
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Shouldn’t Dick Heads like you be hanging out on at the Huffington Post?
Awww, an ad hominem attack, how quaint! Lemme guess, next you'll make some brainless accusation about me being a commie or socialist or some other term you bandy about but don't actually know the definition of, right?
Seriously, though - you're the one making broad, baseless generalizations, showing a complete lack of knowledge of international law, and who, apparently, doesn't know what the difference between a country and a continent is. If anyone is a dickhead in this particular situation, I got news
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"Generalization is the hallmark of the non-thinker."
People are at times killed by other people with guns. Solution: Ban all gun ownership by law abiding people.
So where then do you stand slashdotter?
I love guns, those gun wielding Anime girls are hot 'n sexy. Too bad most of them are lesbians...
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Women are raped by men with penises (penii?), I call for a comprehensive ban on all penises.
All drunk driving arrests involve people driving cars, I call for a complete ban on all automobiles, buses, motorcycles and golf carts.
I can do this all day.
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And the ones that aren't lesbians are fucking crazy. That's animu for you.
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Fuzzy reasoning is also the hallmark of a non-thinker.
Approximately 29 people a day are killed by other people with guns in the US. Of those, 80% (according to an FBI study in 1998) are possibly illegally owned guns. Ergo, at least 20% of the weapons used are legally owned. So banning gun ownership by law abiding people could potentially save 6 lives a day, or 1800 lives a year.
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Your fuzzy reasoning needs a shave...
We might as well include the potential lives saved by disinfecting the planet of the offender who would doubtless continue his crime spree past his last one if not prevented. Would you feel better if guns were outlawed and everyone reverted to knives, arrows, baseball bats? The will to death isn't exclusive to any particular tool.
Your next argument has far too many maybes to use for anything but a sieve.
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Would you feel better if guns were outlawed and everyone reverted to knives, arrows, baseball bats? The will to death isn't exclusive to any particular tool.
I'd rather be stabbed, arrowed or hit with a baseball bat than shot, as the odds of surviving are greater. There will always be people who will kill other people with their bare hands, but it's a lot, lot harder than shooting them half a dozen times with a semi-automatic pistol.
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Well , don't get stabbed, arrowed or batted to begin with. With a gun the odds are in your favor and you can do public service by eliminating the problem for all those who would follow you as criminal prey. Is there any GOOD reason I should tolerate someone threatening my life, when I can just put one between their eyes and laugh as I piss on their corpse.
At least with a gun your minimum chance is a theoretical 50/50 if they are equally armed. Lesser weapons, well, you know the one about bringing a knife to
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Maybe so, maybe not. Probably not. I wouldn't expect others to be able to either. Running isn't always an option.
Saving your life, maybe even a loved one as well can be readily done with a gun. At least you stand a better chance than getting a knife in the back as you run screaming like a coward. Remember the criminal that gets your money and life goes on to take more from others. With a gun, the buck stops HERE and NOW!
Like I said , your thin reason leaks like a sieve.
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People who own guns legally almost never commit crimes.
People who don't own any guns almost never commit crimes. What's your point?
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You mean felons? They aren't allowed to own guns, but go figure the recidivism statistics for crime.
Knives, chains, baseball bats, pocket stun guns or just a group of them following you out to the parking lot. What's your damn point?
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Assuming your statistics are valid, which isn't really important, you do not know how large the percentage of that 6 per day is the result of self protection and thus a desired outcome.
A human death is never a desired outcome.
When most people are armed, the consequence of self defence is much more likely to be an unnecessary death than in societies where most people aren't armed, simply because it's a lot easier to shoot and kill someone than stab, slash, punch or bludgeon someone and kill them.
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Why isn't there a scammers black list? We have ad lists for ad blockers and spam list for spammers. Why not a black list for ipaddress of known scammers?
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Why isn't there a scammers black list? We have ad lists for ad blockers and spam list for spammers. Why not a black list for ipaddress of known scammers?
Many anti-spam products keep a dynamic list of these, as well as grey-lists of IP blocks in common scam areas. SURBL keeps a list too.
The problem here is that known scammers are not located at IP addresses -- the Nigerian system is set up with mob bosses and a chain of command -- with the actual "scammers" usually being people sending scams via internet cafes or via cell phones who are being threatened by the mob or whose family members are being threatened by the mob (little "m"). Blocking an IP address
I wonder about small ISPs and security... (Score:4, Interesting)
Africa is a huge continent. The US gets flooded with pictures of kids starving on a constant basis, but in reality, there are a lot of countries with a middle class, with middle class problems.
What I wonder about is the concept of small, but agile ISPs, small enough to provide security on their end (firewalls, outgoing port 25 blocking unless it goes through a relay, even perhaps more active IDS/IPS items like blocking C&C hosts.) ISPs small enough that they can handle threats rapidly, but large enough to be fairly profitable.
Defense in depth is critical, but there are places where one gets more bang for their naira on the network topology, mainly the edge routers, as well as different user segments.
Just offering an "antivirus kit" won't help much, because of the difficulty of AV programs in catching zero-days. Ideally an IDS/IPS, with some way to allow subscribers to bypass it if they have some special requirement (like a personal mail server, or running some other incoming process) would help catch the larger attacks, and help protect against DoS/DDoS attacks which won't take down the ISP, but can take down a subscriber on DSL or cable.
Nothing is perfect, but this is better than nothing.
but is it better than BACON?!!! (Score:2)
Nothing is perfect, but this is better than nothing.
How can anything better than Nothing? You yourself just said Nothing was perfect.
Learn Statistics. Car sales increase car accident (Score:5, Interesting)
The highest growth rates in internet access, during the past 10 years, have been in nations earning about $3000 per year, or 1/10 the average GDP of "rich" nations. As more and more people get internet, we can expect the use of "cybercrime" to expand, just as we can expect car accidents to increase in nations where cars become affordable. Meanwhile, loans to Africans through organizations like Kiva.org are repaid at a higher rate than bank loans in America. I do a lot of business in the developing (or more aptly named, Emerging) world and find the "petri dish for increased cybercrime" alarmist. The rapid, rapid education and rise of geeks of color is a "petri dish" for film, art, photography, software development (see MEST in Ghana), blood banks, laughter, tears, hugs, etc. Yes, cyber crime will increase, like everything else will increase. The article is stupid.
By the way, in case you missed it, the stories about "80-90% of e-waste exports" being burned by primitive African children has also been disproven by 3 separate studies. Africa has had television since I lived there in the 1980s, and the junk filmed burned at African landfills was in use for years, it's the same generation of waste as goes to our own landfills. Three studies showed that 80-90% of used computers imported are successfully reused and repaired. Articles like this one lead to profiling and arrests of good people as "e-waste criminals". The "other-ization" of geeks of color is really shameful.
John Allen Paulos (Score:2)
Mathematics (Chair?) at Temple University, does a little writing.
Try 'A Mathematician Reads The Newspaper'.
I think the first of his books was 'Innumeracy: Mathematical Illiteracy and Its Consequences', great gift book.
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Eh westerners did, smuggling e-waste out of the EU is big business. Look up some of the customs reports.
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"Geeks of colour"? What colour are they? Blue? Green?
Is it so hard to use the word "black"? I've worked in Africa. Guess what word Africans use to refer to themselves. I give you a clue, it's not "colour".
Racism will only be over when little shit like this doesn't matter any more.
Funny thing: they call me "white" or "pula" in Africa. In my own country or other countries in Southern Europe I'm simply yet another white guy. In the US or Northern Europe, I'm not considered white. Pretty stupid, isn't it
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The rapid, rapid education and rise of geeks of color is a "petri dish" for film, art, photography, software development (see MEST in Ghana), blood banks, laughter, tears, hugs, etc. Yes, cyber crime will increase, like everything else will increase.
Fascinating, but this discussion is about cyber crime, not about the other stuff you mention.
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Wait, Wait, Wait. (Score:1)
Where do these "facts" come from. It was my understanding that it was India that "has the world's fastest-growing middle class, whose members are increasingly tech-savvy and Internet connected — and the combination of ambitious, educated people, a ceiling on advancement due to corruption and lack of infrastructure, and lax law enforcement"...
Anyone losing anything to Nigerian or other African scammers is a nit wit. Africa offers no greater threat than they ever have, which is to say nearly nil.
us or them? (Score:2)
members are increasingly tech-savvy and Internet connected — and the combination of ambitious, educated people, a ceiling on advancement due to corruption and lack of infrastructure, and lax law enforcement
They talking about us or them? Doesn't seem fair to pick on the africans when its not really any different in the USA or any number of other places.
Are you sure it's Africa? (Score:1)
You said "ambitious, educated people, a ceiling on advancement due to corruption and lack of infrastructure, and lax law enforcement".
Are you sure this isn't the US?
Wait, my bad, right up front you mentioned "ambitious, educated people", not the US.
World did not end (Score:2)
Score is now Earth 1, Mayans 0.
Politically incorrect (Score:1)
African cyber-crime wave.
Thats racist(tm)(c) and completely non-politically correct. Not quite as bad as using the N word but still inappropriate. Should have been written:
African-American cyber-crime wave.
There now thats the politically correct term.
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That would only be politically correct if said Africans were in America.
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Yeah, thats kind of the point. Been there seen this on dailyWTF or sociological images or whatever, clowns forcing black people living in europe/africa to identify themselves as "afro-americans" despite having nothing to do with the USA. A great LOL. Almost as funny as my pale pasty white high school friend who immigrated from south africa demanding to be called an afro-american and get in on all the racial quota deals and scholarships and stuff at colleges. Always wondered what happened to that guy.
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That sounds completely ridiculous, but probable.
Got any links to examples I can laugh at?
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Yeah, thats kind of the point. Been there seen this on dailyWTF or sociological images or whatever, clowns forcing black people living in europe/africa to identify themselves as "afro-americans" despite having nothing to do with the USA.
I. Don't. Believe. You.
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whoosh...
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Your "whoosh" indicates that I am missing vitally important information that every other person on this earth knows except for me.
Mind enlightening me?
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Your "whoosh" indicates that I am missing vitally important information that every other person on this earth knows except for me.
Mind enlightening me?
It's because the assclown you were replying to with his ridiculous attempt at a "ha ha look how funny political correctness is" comment obviously wouldn't have any examples, because it's made up bullshit. No doubt there are some examples somewhere where people have made mistakes and called Africans "Afro-Americans" or something, but as a rule it just doesn't make sense.
That phrase, "fastest growing"... (Score:2)
Translation for people who didn't major in math: Africa has almost no middle class.
When something is really really small, even the tiniest amount of growth appears quite large when expressed as a percentage. It's like when I say that the game my friends and I invented is the fastest-growing game in the world, because two nights ago there were only two of us playing it, but last night we had a party and played it with eight of our friends, so it exper
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In fact, I believe there are more than eight people in the middle class in Nigeria alone.
Which brand of Christmas cracker did you pull that gem from? I'll make a note to boycott it.
epidemic? (Score:3)
Why is Africa always having epidemics?
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Why is Africa always having epidemics?
Same reason everyone else is... it makes for good press coverage.
A Pandemic, on the other hand, is much more rare, as it's not news; everyone has already experienced it.
OLPC (Score:2)
....kinda backfired on us didn't it.
Re:OLPC (Score:4, Funny)
One Laptop Per Criminal?
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How so?
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Turnabout (Score:2)
Considering what the West has done to Africa, it's hard to condemn these people for a little retaliation. Nothing they could steal from us will ever come close to matching the damage done by Colonialism.
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I disagree:
- These kinds of wounds don't heal quickly: We're still dealing with the after-effects of American slavery 150 years after it was outlawed, American Indian nations have never recovered from being conquered by Europeans, Ireland is still dealing with the after-effects of English rule, etc.
- One of the effects of colonial rule is that the borders of African nations sometimes bear no relationship whatsoever to who's living there. That's exactly the kind of setup that leads to internal revolts and te
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Hmmm, then why was the brutally colonized Korea (the Southern part, anyway) able to do it? Why were Germany and Japan, which were almost literally bombed back to the stone age able to do it?
But even more importantly:
Why do black nations which were free forever or for a long time (Libera, Haiti, Ethiopia (no, the 6 years of Italian occupation don't count) or were barely touched by colonialism (most landlocked areas barely had any real contact with Europeans, Chad
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Considering what the West has done to Africa, it's hard to condemn these people for a little retaliation. Nothing they could steal from us will ever come close to matching the damage done by Colonialism.
Oh Bullshit! Colonialism ended 60 years ago. There where plenty of other colonial countries too. America, India, parts of south east Asia, and South America. Why is it only Africa that is constantly having problem?
We all know the answer to it, just nobody wants to say it. Colonialism probably was one of the best things that happened to these countries. It bought highways, medicine, railroads and modern science to primitive and backwards peoples. Yes, they where primitive and backwards.
When col
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Colonialism in the Americas: Europeans were brought in and decimated the way of life of the original inhabitants. Europeans stayed and prospered.
Colonialism in Australia/NZ: Europeans were brought in and decimated the way of life of the original inhabitants. Europeans stayed and prospered.
Colonialism in Asia: Europeans were brought in and failed to decimate the way of life of the original inhabitants. Europeans left and infrastructure helped natives recover (slowly).
Colonialism in Africa: Europeans were
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Oh Bullshit! Colonialism ended 60 years ago.
You've either never studied history, or are 13 or something.
60 years (in actual fact more like 50) is really not that long in the real world.
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60 years (in actual fact more like 50) is really not that long in the real world.
Yeah, its not is it. So in 50 years India went from a colony to sending probes to the moon, a nuclear power, and being the largest call center in the world. Where Africa went right back to mud huts and clubbing each other over the head. Less in some areas if you count the downward spiral of South Africa.
So what has India got that the whole continent of Africa is lacking?
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Hmm, built roads, railroads, brought medicine, electricity, spend huge sums of the White taxpayer's money for aid...
Does that mean I get some aid-money from Africa? Will they bring me some advanced technology?
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Who said anything about slavery?
William Gibson "Count Zero" (Score:2)
As alluded to by the father of cyberpunk himself:
"The Wig reasoned that all that obsolete silicon had to be going somewhere. Where it was going, he learned, was into any number of very poor places struggling along with nascent industrial bases. Nations so benighted that the concept of nation was still taken seriously. The Wig punched himself through a couple of African back-waters and felt like a shark cruising a swimming pool thick with caviar. Not that any one of those tasty tiny eggs amounted to much, bu
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Except in reality, it seems to have worked out in reverse: those "tiny tasty eggs" with their "obsolete silicon" turned out to be a lot smarter than the "shark in caviar" thought.
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It's easy to think that because these modern things were hard to get for people in the west, therefore they will also be for the rest as well. As if the poor people in Africa would buy old BBNs and DEC PDP-11s and make their own ARPANET, instead of buying state of the art equipment, which is cheaper and better by the day.
For some things (like medical infrastructure or education), the way ahead may still be hard for many of those countries. But for information technology, that doesn't really apply
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caused by Europeans? (Score:3)
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Bullshit (Score:2)
I call bullshit on this article. What this is: Cheer-leading and whitewashing for a U.S. government press release that promises more entanglement and "anti-terror" activity (by way of the UN) in foreign countries. Here is the meat of the article, all the way at the very end of the article, if you have the patience to get there:
At least on the African continent, change is coming. In addition to aid from the U.S. and others, groups like the Cyber Security Africa and the International Institute for Counter Terrorism (ICT) are setting up regional workshops and conventions to address problems like cyber crime in Africa.
Western nations are helping out, also. In December, the U.S. Department of State has granted $250,000 to combat transnational cybercrime in East African nations. That money will be used to train law enforcement, judges and prosecutors on cyber crime prosecution, with cooperation from the US Justice Department. Still, a State Department spokesperson said the money will be spent on "fundamentals" - laying the groundwork for intra-government and international cooperation on cyber crime, as well as 'basic laws that criminalize cybercrime conduct, laws on handling electronic evidence."
It approvingly portrays a Kenyan push to require static IPs on all mobile devices to better permit tracking:
The Communication Commission of Kenya (CCK) is pushing for mobile operators to assign static IP addresses to smart phones and tablets to "help track and monitor user activity," according to statements from Bitange Ndemo, the Information and Communication Permanent Secretary there.
It includes delightful broken-window fallacies, basically in support of US-
Re: I call bullshit on this article (Score:2)
I second your call ...
--
MOD ++10
Scambaiter's paradise (Score:2)
Waste their time. They can send a million emails at the touch of a button. Set up a bait email account and email them back. Digging through a million replies would bury them Even better is to find ones using Magic jack to pretend to be at the airport with your consignment box. Call them to ask how to use western union, How long can you wait at the airport? etc. Bury them in chaff. I use my bait gmail account with Google Voice to call them. No need to have them call my cell or home phone at all hours
About time (Score:2)
At this stage (Score:1)
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I can't remember which book it was, I think a William Gibson novel one of the characters made a lot of money exploiting old security exploits on old equipment that the African nations purchased collapsing their economies.
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COUNT ZERO
Count Zero (Score:2)
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CyberThanks!
FTFY :P
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Please offer a substitute for the prefix "cyber"
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Please offer a substitute for the prefix "cyber"
Shiter... As in - "Man the Shiter-space sure is full of ass-hats today."
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Please offer a substitute for the prefix "cyber"
"facebook"
After all, that's the internet for most people nowadays.
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What other pathway to prosperity does a Nigerian resident have?
They could sell the personal information of scammers.
I know some people who are interested.
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Kirk Cameroon?
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What a disgusting way to look at it. But remember, as infant nutrition improves, so will IQ. That should make you shiver in your (jack)boots.
Not really. Even in the US with all its fat little pickaninnies and a healthy dose of Caucasian genes, black IQs still only manage to average 85. That leaves them with an almost nonexistent right tail above IQ 120 in the intelligence bell curve.