Biological Puzzles
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Thursday, January 8, 2009
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Radley Balko asks, “Why does Tanzania have so many Albinos?”
I’m afraid I can’t offer much insight into that one. I do, however, know why the monkeys have no tails in Zamboanga thanks to Johns Ford and Wayne.
About James Joyner
This item is very “tyler cowen”
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It runs in families. Clearly, there are some family strains in Tanzania that are predisposed to it.
Albinism can be a pretty big problem, particularly in tropical countries. A variety of eye conditions, some serious, are associated with it and skin cancer is a definite risk.
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Let’s remember that Tanzania was the birthplace of the notorious communist and pan-Africanist Julius Nyerere who imposed his red ideology on the people with an iron fist for 20 years.
Given the penchant of commies to control society, the prevalence of albinos probably is part of some lamebrain liberal plan of Nyerere’s to promote “multiculturalism.”
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The non-loaded answer is “lower incidence of genetic recombination.”
The loaded answer is “higher rates of inbreeding.”
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Interestingly/oddly, there’s a section of the lower MD peninsula, around the towns of TB and Brandywine, that also has a high incidence of albinism.
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BTW, there’s an interesting NIH study on albinism as a public health issue in Africa. Apparently, the greatest prevalence of the condition there is among the Tonga tribe of Zimbabwe, 1/1,000.
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