Gideon Polya, “Global Carnage From Lies & Tyranny. Body Count. Global avoidable mortality since 1950”, MWC News, 17 June 2007, not cached by Google.
Global Carnage From Lies & Tyranny. Body Count. Global avoidable mortality since 1950
RATIONAL RISK MANAGEMENT involves a successive process of responding to a damaging or deadly event by (a) getting accurate information, (b) scientific analysis and (c) systemic change to minimize risk of repetition of a similar event. It has been application of this sort of thing that has made passenger aviation extremely safe. Thus in microcosm, imagine an air hostess spills coffee on a patron because of air turbulence – (a) the event is reported in great detail, (b) there is a scientific analysis of the circumstances and consequences and (c) there is no “blame and shame” of the air hostess and the system is changed to minimize a repetition (e.g. all are required to be seated on the approach to turbulence, coffee temperature is minimized to avoid skin burns after spillage …).
This sensible protocol has made the potentially dangerous areas of aviation, heavy industry, the nuclear industry and Western defence (actually Western-conducted war) extremely safe. However politics typically intervenes in other areas (from the individual level, to local community groups to the Halls of Power of Nations) to pervert Rational Risk Management as evidenced by the natural tendency to “hide things under the carpet” and resolute “denial”. Thus at the individual level we have the common phenomenon of “denial” (one of the biggest pluses of marriage is having someone who will tell you the truth) and at the global level we have the lying-promoted, violent and evil Bush-Blair "War on Terror" which in terms of mortality statistics is in horrible actuality a cowardly and racist War on Women and Children or more specifically a war on Arab Women and Children, a war on Muslim Women and Children, a war on Asian Women and Children and a war on Non-European Women and Children (the post-invasion excess deaths in the Occupied Iraqi and Afghan Territories now total 3.4 million, mostly Women and Children) (see MWC News: http://mwcnews.net/content/view/13099/26/ ).
DENIAL and LYING is responsible for horrendous global avoidable mortality (excess deaths, excess mortality, deaths that should not have happened). However lying means that our beautiful, internally peaceful Western democracies can happily go about their business of extravagant wealth accumulation at home and passive and active mass murder abroad unconcerned about the horrendous human consequences – the only thing now perturbing this lovely state of affairs is the evidence of our senses confirming the overwhelming scientific consensus that the Planet is warming up unacceptably. The carnage due to Western neo-colonialism, economic hegemony, invasions, occupations and both active and passive mass murder on Spaceship Earth with the First World at the helm is resolutely avoided by racist, lying, holocaust-ignoring Mainstream media.
Nevertheless silence kills and silence is complicity. Decent people are obliged to inform others about abuses of humanity in order that it ceases and is not repeated. I have been writing to MWC News and other media informing people of the Global Avoidable Mortality Holocaust that sweeps away 16 million people each year, two thirds being under-5 year old infants.
Despairing that my message was not getting through I turned to creating huge polemical paintings such as Qana, Sydney Madonna, Manhattan Madonna, Melbourne Madonna, Qana, Truelove, Alhambra Pollock and Isfahan Matisse, in an attempt to “say it in pictures” as an inspiration for Peace, Love and respect for Mother and Child (for links to these and other paintings see MWC News: http://mwcnews.net/content/view/14417/26/ ).
However while I was doing this I was operating as a Scientist and steadily researching and writing a huge book to comprehensively inform the world about the Global Avoidable Mortality Holocaust.
After a dozen years of research and 4 years of intensive research and writing this book is now published: “BODY COUNT. Global avoidable mortality since 1950”, 220 pages, 24 Tables, G.M. Polya, Melbourne, 2007) (for details see: http://globalbodycount.blogspot.com/ ). I am now in the process of sending copies of the book to major libraries and to outstanding humanitarian writers and scholars around the world - silence kills and silence is complicity.
The back of the book sums up the contents and moral essence of this huge book: “”
A major determinant is clearly war, involving foreign occupation and consequent increased disregard of rulers for their subjects. The last part of this book lists positive suggestions for addressing the Global Avoidable Mortality Holocaust which is fundamentally due to violence, deprivation, disease and lying.
This book also contains an invaluable core summary of the history of essentially all countries from the Neolithic period onwards and has been carefully designed for use by high school students, university students, scholars, journalists and humanitarian activists as well as for the general reader. Peace is the only way but silence kills and silence is complicity. We can all do something immediately by informing others and through ethical dealings with people, corporations and countries contributing to the continuing and horrendous Global Avoidable Mortality that kills 44,000 people daily.”
BODY COUNT documents post-1950 avoidable mortality for every country in the world and makes a shocking summation of post-1950 excess deaths totalling 1.3 million (for the World), 1.2 billion (for the Non-European World), and 0.6 billion (for the Muslim World, a Muslim Holocaust 100 times greater than the WW2 Jewish Holocaust or the “forgotten” WW2 Bengali Holocaust, the man-made Bengal Famine in British-ruled India in WW2). This book empowers decent folk to protest the continuing, racist carnage on "Spaceship Earth" with the horrendous numbers. Indeed body count commences with the following seminal quote from Nobel Laureate "Albert Camus", in his essay neither victims nor executioners (1946): ““Over the expanse of five continents throughout the coming years an endless struggle is going to be pursued between violence and friendly persuasion, a struggle in which, granted, the former has a thousand times the chances of success than that of the latter. But I have always held that, if he who bases his hopes on human nature is a fool, he who gives up in the face of circumstances is a coward. And henceforth, the only honorable course will be to stake everything on a formidable gamble: that words are more powerful than munitions.””.
Peace is the only way but silence kills and silence is complicity.
The final core conclusions of this huge, carefully documented reference text are as follows: “Poor but well governed countries like Cuba (infant mortality lower than that in the US despite 30-fold lower annual per capita income) provide hope that sensibly focussed investment (e.g. funded by an “economic efficiency credits scheme” to reward high efficiency countries such as Bangladesh), good governance, high female literacy and good primary health care can deliver very low avoidable mortality and thence, paradoxically, lowered population growth.
The continuing, horrendous global avoidable mortality is fundamentally due to violence, deprivation, disease and lying. We are one species confined to one planet and we revel in the richness of nature and human cultural diversity. The peace and cooperative community we commonly experience at the level of village, town, city and nation should apply internationally throughout Spaceship Earth. Intolerance of dishonesty, bigotry and violence, profound respect for human rights, international law and our common environment and commitment to truth, reason and a modestly decent life for everyone will end the global avoidable mortality holocaust and ensure that it will never be repeated.”