South vs North

02/17/2010 - 07:43

This morning I read an article about Italy and I was very negatively surprised about what I was reading. The article dealt with a research of differences between South and North Italy and explains why the South is more stupid than the North. According to Mr. Lynn South Italy is less delevoloped because people there are ignorant and their IQ is much lower than the Norther people. Reasons: attributable to genetic admixture with populations of the near Ear and North Africa. But this is not the only idiocy he mentions: food in the south is crummy, studies are not common and people of the south do not care about their children. I do not have to explain why I think it is complete nonsense. And I wonder why that guy writes such crappy things. guess his low IQ and aboe all sense of humor come out in the article... you cannot write such idiocies if you don't live a country with all its cultural background, but just talk big. True that there are many differences between south and north, but this has nothing to do at all with IQ or genetic mixture! My grandparents and parents are from the south and I can assure they have an "advanced mentality" Why doesn't everybody stop thinking that South Italy is like Middle Ages? Familiar relations have long traditions in the south rather than the north, 80% of foodstuffs you can get i the north is from the south and in my opinion the genetic mixture is a huge advantage rather than disadvantage...for very many reasons! Last but not least, have you everthought about the fact that most of the people who live in the norther regions actually are south Italians ??? So, dear Mr. Lynn, why don't you just shut up and try to do some more efficient research? Sorry folks, but these things hurt me a lot!

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Culture

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here's a list of people who has showed to have a HIGH IQ level.. all from Sicily Salvatore Quasimodo - nobel for literature Giovanni Verga - writer Vitaliano Brancati - writer Luigi Pirandello - nobel for literature Tommaso Campailla (scientist) if it's not enough: http://it.wikipedia.org/wiki/Siciliani unluckily I got knowledge about sicilian people - maybe other members that visited more southern regions could be able to provide more names

forgotten to add a news published today, authored by Pat Eggleton: http://www.italymag.co.uk/italy/life-style/southern-italians-less-intell...

Hi Monica, As a terrone myself, I would like to suggest Richard Lynn has a little look at the history of southern Italy. Before it was "taken over" by the Piedmontese royal family during the risorgimento, it was a prosperous area - far more so than the north of Italy, in fact. As an area it certainly suffered at the hands of various conquerors - the Spanish came easily to mind in the period immediately prior to the Borbone family rule - but was slowly finding it's feet. There were huge social improvements taking place (after the Spanish years) involving land reforms for the benefit of the people living there. Piedmontese rule resulted in all this stopping. The banks in the south of Italy all experienced losing their assets to the northern government and land reform was halted immediately. The north gave ownership away to those people that had done "favours" - all of them from the north, of course - resulting in the absentee landlords that then held power over the peasants of the land. They had no liking for the "africans" living in the mezzogiorno, much as many northerners have no respect at all for southerners today. Yes, I'm a bit biased, but I know my history and that of my own family. The north has only ever stolen from the south, without any compassion at all. It is this that has created the criminality that is often to be found in the south, which is the largest earner of foreign cash that Italy has - unfortunately. So, certainly southerners are hugely disadvantaged by the actions taken against them by the north over the past 150 years. But, to say that southerners are not as intelligent as northerners is merely exhibiting the ingorance of the writer of the piece - and an obvious love of the ignorant northerners that vote Lega. In my opinion, that is... Beery.

One of the more famous sons of Sicily was the "greek" mathematician, Archimedes. He was born and lived most of his life in Syracuse. Presumably Richard Lynn has never heard of him... Beery.

Is Mr. Lynn the same person who [in the last Millennium] allegedly did a survey that showed the IQ in Ireland was very low - because anyone with any sense had emigrated years ago!? It seems to be of a similar standard [I've just seen - Mr Lynn comes from Ulster - seems to bear out the first survey]

Beery I totally agree with you... Was just thinking about some other famous persons of souther Italy...well not to mention culture and monuments... Think about Empedocles the philosopher or Quasimodo, which won the nobel in literature. Lets talk about Bellini, the opera composer, or Tornatore, the famous director. I really can't believe that people waste their time to come up with such stats...ridiculous!!!

Obviously, the author has not researched the topic thoroughly. The south has a rich and varied mixture of cultures and what has been said about its cuisine is total nonsense. The South is different from the North; however, this does not mean that their culture is inferior to any other one. They are just different and, as the French say: "Vive la différence!" You can add to the list of famous writers from Sicily Giuseppe Tomasi di Lampedusa, the Palermo born author of "Il Gattopardo", (The Leopard), one of the best books ever written about Sicilian society at the time of the Reunification. This book is a must for anyone interested in history. Also, you can watch the marvelous movie directed by Luchino Visconti, featuring Burt Lancaster, Alain Delon and Claudia Cardinale. A real delight!

..and her stories of her Italian boyfriend's family's trek from Southern Italy to find work in the North. Shows the intelligence and tenacity they required, as well as the hostility and racism they encountered from the supposedly better educated North Stereotyping a group of people - a lazy tactic employed by inadequates to impress the idiots. (Sorry - large glass of Talisker talking....)

It's just the same in England - only the other way round - the Southerners think they are superior to the Northerners!

I have rarely read such rubbish - its up there with the antievolutionists as poppycock. It may be that the southerners are less educated than the northerners, you only have to witness the teaching standards in schools to realise that in the south of Italy the education system leaves alot to be desired, but lower intelligence? On what grounds? A Siclian can't quote Dante chapter and verse? - but I bet they can calculate possible profits and offset gains quicker than an Umbrian. The southerners are born businessmen, despite their Arabic influence - what is this pseudo scientist saying -that Arabs are less intelligent than white Anglo Saxons - it seems to be a good piece of not so well disguised racism rather than a scientific study. Or looking at his track record, it is probably more of an attempt to say that protestant Irish are more intelligent than any catholic!

I'm still trying to get hold of the anti-antievolutionists badge that reads :"Gravity...... only a Theory" Any ideas for a similar riposte to this load of cr*p?