Olympics/Endless Joys of Yahoo Answers Sidenote

For those knuckleheads who still think that athletic ability, especially in a certain sport, is in any way a matter of genes instead of culture, I give you, Pau Gasol....

and of course.....

Here, on the other hand, is how b-ball teams from Sub-Saharan Africa finished at the last five Olympic games....

2008 Men:  Angola, 0 wins, 5 defeats, -156 point difference

2008 Women:  Mali, 0 wins, 5 defeats,  -147 point difference

2004 Men:  Angola, 0 wins, 5 defeats, -100 point difference

2004 Women: Nigeria, 0 wins, 5 defeats, -87 point difference

2000 Men:  Angola, 0 wins, 5 defeats, -107 point difference

2000 Women:  Senegal, 0 wins, 5 defeats, -184 point difference

1996 Men: Angola, 0 wins, 5 defeats, -99 point difference

1996 Women:  Congo, (Legally still Zaire At the time) 0 wins, 5 defeats, -160 point difference. 

1992 Men:  Angola, (Drum Role) 1 win, 4 defeats, -68 point difference 
 (The win came against Spain, hard as that may be to believe today, and once you factor in the infamous salt-the-earth beatdown that team suffered in the Dream Team's debut the point difference is eminently  reasonable. This Angola squad also won a game against China in the 'Avoid last place' bracket, back when they still had that. Downright competitive these guys. ) 


Culture as Mitt Romney said the other day, certainly does count for quite a lot in human affairs.  Which is not to say that culture is some sort of magical essence.(as he seemed to be suggesting).  And certainly not in the matter of more per-capita wealth being proof of moral supremacy, (As he was quite obviously suggesting.  If that were true, Israel would somehow be culturally superior to Palestine while at the same time being deeply inferior to Kuwait, the U.A.E, and Qatar.