Stephen Hawking on Afrika

 
Astrophysicist Stephen Hawking
Who can forget the disturbing comments made by James Watson about the incapacity of people of African descent to reach the same levels of achievement as white people? It is a genetic reality, suggested Watson, that Black people simply do not have the same intellectual capacity as their white counterparts.

How refreshing it is, then, to read of physicist Stephen Hawkings comments upon visiting Cape Town, South Africa. Said Hawking, The world of science needs Africas brilliant talents, and I look forward to meeting prospective young Einsteins from Africa in the near future.
Hawking, 66, understands that academic performance is, in the end, more closely tied to opportunity than to some sort of genetic predestination; and this was evidenced in his statement that he would be delighted if his visit, as part of the African Institute for the Mathematical Sciences science talent search (for the next Einstein), opened up greater opportunities for young people on the continent to enter math and science fields.

Posted by Ajuan Mance