MEHTA, Suketu. "This Land Is Our Land. An Immigrant’s Manifesto"

[First published as Gideon Polya "Review: “This Land Is Our Land. An Immigrant’s Manifesto ” By Suketu Mehta – Trumping Trumpism", Countercurrents, , 26 July 2019: https://countercurrents.org/2019/07/review-this-land-is-our-land-an-immigrants-manifesto-by-suketu-mehta-trumping-trumpism ].

“This Land Is Our Land. An Immigrant’s Manifesto” by Gujarati Indian American author Suketu Mehta is an important argument for the right of immigrants (creditors) to migrate from the impoverished Developing World to today’s wealthy countries of the former brutal colonizers (debtors). Mehta argues cogently that the colonizers have run up an immense debt that must be met by their descendants, describes the present appalling treatment of migrants by US and European Trumpists, excoriates the neo-fascist Trumpist alliance between the mob and capital, and concludes with a passionate defence of multiculturalism.

Suketu Mehta’s “This Land Is Our Land. An Immigrant’s Manifesto” [1] is a passionately argued and well-documented polemic about the appalling maltreatment by the rich and exploitative North of refugee “creditors” from the ravaged and impoverished South. This important book should be in every national, city, town, suburban, university and school library for it is only through revelations about these appalling realities, including acute climate change threats, that there is any hope for humane treatment of our fellow human beings. Critically, Mehta describes the surge of irrational, anti-science, racist, anti-immigrant , Trumpist populism in America, Britain, Europe and US lackey Australia as “the alliance between the mob and capital” as exampled by 20th century fascism. Indeed the Stupidity, Ignorance and Egregious Greed (SIEG as in “Sieg heil”) of the global army of deplorable Trumpists and the rich One Percenters manipulating them is a massive threat to humanity.

However Mehta is unwittingly a victim of the truth-ignoring culture within which he lives (New York, USA) - for all its rare and admirable truth telling that will probably shock most Western readers, “This Land is Our Land” does not go far enough e.g. it does not mention the Elephant in the Room of 15 million people in the global South who presently die avoidably from deprivation each year on Spaceship Earth with America in charge of the flight deck, the 1,500 million people who have died thus since 1950 in an ongoing Global Avoidable Mortality Holocaust, the 1,800 million Indians who died avoidably from deprivation in a 2-century, British-imposed Indian Holocaust, and the direst estimates of 10,000 million people dying this century in an already worsening Climate Genocide.

Suketu Mehta was born in Calcutta into a Gujarati family that variously emigrated to Kenya, the UK and America. Mehta is an associate professor of journalism at New York University, is the author of “Maximum City: Bombay Lost and Found”, and has published in a range of American publications directed at an educated readership (e.g. “The New Yorker” and “The New York Times Magazine”).

However Mehta’s progressive, centrist, Mainstream narrative in “This Land Is Our Land ” weakens somewhat his otherwise laudably humane, cogent and passionate argument against the evils of the Stupid, Ignorant and Egregiously Greedy (SIEG as in “Sieg Heil”), anti-immigrant Western racists such as the anti-immigrant Trump deplorables, the anti-immigrant European populists whether of the mere right (e.g. the UK Brexiteers) or of the far right (the neo-Nazis), and the grossly refugee-violating, Trumpist majority of SIEG Australians – and of whom all but the neo-Nazis endlessly declare that “We are not racist but…”.

In short, Mehta is evidently conscious of finding a “respectful”, consensus position in his liberal readership constituency, and to my way of thinking accordingly does not go far enough in his analysis, for all that it may be regarded by many progressives as very strong . Thus , for example, not enumerated by Mehta, the 7 million Palestinian refugees constitute 10% of the world’s 70 million refugees and internally displaced persons (IDPs). Of 14 million Palestinians, 7 million are permanently exiled from their own country, a further 7 million Palestinians presently represent 50% of Apartheid Israel’s subjects (despite repeated episodes of massive ethnic cleansing in 1948 and 1967), and of these nearly 2 million are “lucky Israeli Palestinians living as Third Class citizens under over 60 race-based laws, and 5 million are Occupied Palestinians with zero human rights and highly-abusively imprisoned in West Bank ghettoes (3 million) or in the bombed, shelled, blockaded, and starved Gaza Concentration Camp (2 million). Of Apartheid Israel’s 50% Palestinian subjects, 74% are excluded from voting for the government ruling them (i.e. they are subject to the egregious crime of Apartheid) [3-12]. If Mehta had enumerated these atrocities it is very doubtful to me whether he would have found a publisher, let alone a New York publisher, in cravenly Zionist-beholden America.

However Mehta does mention the huge Palestinian Elephant in the Room, albeit briefly: “In the twenty-first century, your humanity is defined by your nationality. And those who have no nationality – the Palestinians , the Rohingya – are fucked” (page 42 [1]); “When he [Churchill] was colonial secretary, he also had a principal role in creating the most enduring border issue of the modern era. “Churchill literally created the kingdom of Jordan, for example, and the original Palestinian Mandate,” notes [Churchill scholar Warren] Docker” (page 69 [1); “Every majority is composed of a set of discrete minorities. When you go after Palestinians and Africans in Israel, the Reform Jews are next ” (page 119 [1]; cf Pastor Martin Niemöller’s famous poem “First they came… ” [2]); and “The 2016 median U.S. income for Indian [Indian Indian] Americans was $110,026, the highest of any group . Palestinian Americans earned $65,170” (page 137 [1]). There is no mention of the deadly and war criminal realities that the per capita GDP for Occupied Palestinians is a deadly $3,000 versus $40,000 for the Occupier Israelis, about 5,000 Occupied Palestinians die avoidably from violence, 10%, or imposed deprivation each year, and 2 .2 million Palestinians have died from violence, 0.1 million, or from imposed deprivation, 2.1 million, since the British invasion of Palestine in WW1 and commencement of an ongoing Palestinian Genocide [3-12]).

I certainly agree with Mehta’s assertion that the former colonial subjugations, devastating invasions, ongoing post-colonial hegemony and huge carbon pollution by Western European nations and the US are variously responsible for the present dire and worsening impoverishment of Developing countries, and that the West owes a huge and indeed growing debt to desperate refugees from these horribly devastated countries, who can legitimately claim of these Western countries that “This land is our land”. However, as discussed systematically below , (a) some of the Western crimes are far worse than stated by Mehta, and (b) there is no mention of desperately-needed population control in Developing Countries (minus China) (thus an impoverished Indian immigrant to America comes from a country with an average per capita of $2,000 to a US with a per capita GDP of $60,000) [13], a 30-fold greater carbon footprint in a carbon economy).

Thus from a global perspective, (a) 15 million people die avoidably from deprivation each year in the Developing World (minus China) on Spaceship Earth with the rich First World in charge of the flight deck [14], and (b) it can be cogently argued that presently there needs to be massive negative carbon pollution (to reduce the atmospheric carbon dioxide (CO2) to about 300 parts per million (ppm) from the present damaging and dangerous 415 ppm CO2, that the global population needs to be halved , and that economic activity must also be reduced by 50%, with the burden being disproportionately borne by rich countries [15].

A general critique of this well-researched, important and passionate book is that it is largely devoted to America (non-Americans are always variously amused or annoyed by American exceptionalism e.g. by the US baseball competition being called the World Series)

Lord Kelvin , a father of Thermodynamics and the Industrial Revolution, famously asserted that technical propositions most usefully involve use of numbers: “I often say that when you can measure what you are speaking about, and express it in numbers, you know something about it; but when you cannot measure it, when you cannot express it in numbers, your knowledge is of a meagre and unsatisfactory kind.” Mehta’s book adduces many appalling statistics but the Awful Truth about refugees from the Western-devastated global South is even worse than as set out in “This Land Is Our Land”.

Set out below is a detailed analysis of Suketu Mehta’s passionate and important book “This Land Is Our Land. An Immigrant’s Manifesto”, together with numerically-based pertinent Comments.

Part I. The migrants are coming.

Chapter 1, “A planet on the move” is a passionate excoriation of how the rich North has devastated and stolen from the impoverished South through brutal colonialism, post-colonial corruption and environmental pollution, but then was “Aghast when the poorest among us turned up on their borders” (page 4 [1]). Mehta observes that “I am now among the quarter billion people living in a country other than the one in which they were born (page 4 [1]), and recounts the history of his family as immigrants from Gujarat in India to Kenya, UK and the US. Mehta condemns the anti-immigrant rhetoric and actions of Trump, and quotes Articles of the Universal Declaration of Human Rights in relation to the right to move within, leave and return to one’s country (Article 13), the right to political asylum in other countries (Article 14), and the right to a nationality and the right to change that nationality) (page 12 [1]. Mehta then proposes Woodie Guthries’ Great Depression-born song “This Land is Your Land” as a universal migrants’ anthem (page 13 [1]).

Comment. Careful analysis reveals that Apartheid Israel deprives all of its 5 million horribly abused Occupied Palestinian subjects of all the Human Rights set out in the Universal Declaration of Human Rights [9].

Chapter 2, “The fence: amargo y dulce” describes the human tragedies at the US-Mexico border (most horribly the separation of children from their mothers and abusive confinement of children) and the persecution of Hispanic refugees and illegal immigrants within the US that was increased by Obama and increased further by Trump. Mehta presents a devout Christian border guard’s view: “”We didn’t create the concept of deportation, so I think it was created in Genesis 3:23”. It wasn’t Obama, as his critics allege - it was God who was the deporter in chief And the first illegal aliens were Adam and Eve”(page 23 [1]). The point is made that these refugees are fleeing not just poverty but horrendous gang violence from Honduras to the US-Mexican border ultimately born of 150 years of violent American intervention in Central America, Latin America and the Caribbean in general.

Comment. Poverty kills and avoidable deaths from deprivation totalled 176,000 in US-dominated Latin America in 2003 as compared to zero (0) for socialist Cuba [14]. An updated estimate for 2018 is 1.5 million such deaths annually using UN Population Division data [16]. Trump American sanctions on the impoverished state of Venezuela have so far been associated with 5 million refugees and 80,000 excess deaths from deprivation in the last 2 years (alternative estimates are of 45,000 -173,000 such deaths). The Organization of American States predicts 8 million Venezuelan refugees by the end of 2020. Decent Humanity must utterly condemn and oppose this passive mass murder of Venezuelans by a morally degenerate Trump America [17].

Chapter 3, “Ordinary heroes” commences thus: “Before you ask other people to respect the borders of the West, ask yourself if the West has ever respected anybody else’s border. How often has the United States gone over its southern border or into the Caribbean or South East Asia? How often does it keep doing so , going over the borders of Iraq or Afghanistan?” (page 31 [1]). Mehta gives examples of African immigrants in New York, of undocumented Latin Americans in the US, and of South Asian and South East Asian workers slaving in the Gulf States for their families back home : “This is the future of citizenship: a hierarchical model as in the Gulf nations, in which 88 percent of the population work for the other 12 percent and has no rights whatsoever. All men are not created equal” (page 42 [1]). These workers are slaving for or otherwise have loved ones back home: “Every immigrant has left a love behind. Every immigrant has abandoned a lover or a child or a best friend and has made false promises of return” (page 35 [1]. )

Comment. Behind the brief comment by Mehta about US imperialism and quoted above lie the following appalling realities. The US has invaded 72 countries (52 since WW2) as compared to the British 193, Australians 85, France 82, the US 72 (52 after WW2), Germany 39, Japan 30, Russia 25, Canada 25, Apartheid Israel 12, China 2 and Korea arguably none [14, 18-23]. The US subverts every country on earth and has more than 800 military bases in 70 countries [24]. Post-1950 US Asian wars have been associated with 40 million Asian deaths from violence or war-imposed deprivation [14]. In the Korean War alone about 28% of the North Korean population was killed by US bombing [25]. 4 million Iranians have died from violence, 1 million or from sanctions-imposed deprivation in the ongoing, 4-deacde US War on Iran [26]. About 32 million Muslims have died from violence, 5 million, or from deprivation, 27 million, in 20 countries of the global South invaded by the US Alliance since the US Government’s 9-11 false flag atrocity [27, 28].

The US is among world leaders in terracidal carbon pollution that invades every country on earth through pollution of their common atmosphere and ocean [29-31], and the direst expert estimates are that only 0.5 billion people will survive this century if man-made global warming is not requisitely addressed, this translating to a Climate Genocide involving 10 billion deaths at an average of 100 million per year this century [32] . Presently 15 million people die avoidably from deprivation each year in a world dominated by a merciless American Empire [14], and 7 million people die annually from air pollution [33]. The world is existentially threatened by climate change and nuclear weapons [34], but Trump America under anti-science, pro-coal, climate change denier Trump has walked away from the 2015 Climate Change Agreement, and has walked away from the nuclear weapons ban agreement with Iran.

Chapter 4, “Two sides of a strait” describes the lot of people trying to get from North Africa to Spain to earn money that they can then repatriate to their families in Africa. Mehta: “According to World Bank estimates , the 25 million emigrants from sub-Saharan Africa remitted $37 billion in 2017; Nigerians alone sent back $22 billion” (page 57 [1]).

Comment. According to the UNHCR there are 70.8 million forcibly displaced people worldwide, of which 41.3 million are Internally Displace People (IDPs), 25.9 million are refugees, and 3.5 million are asylum seekers; 57% of UNHCR refugees came from 3 countries, namely Syria (6.7 million), Afghanistan (2.7 million), and South Sudan (2.3 million). About 80% of refugees are living in countries neighbouring their countries of origin, notably Sudan (1.1 million), Uganda (1.2 million), Pakistan (1.4 million), and Turkey (3.4 million) (a notable exception is Germany that hosts 1.1 million refugees). There are 3.9 million stateless people [35]. Forcibly displaced Muslims worldwide notably include 7 million exiled Palestinians, 3 million Somalis, 1 million people forced from Libya, 11 million Syrians, 5 million Iraqis, 3 million Afghans, 2 million Yemenis, and 1 million Rohingyas from Myanmar (these alone making 33 million in total). There are about 5 million internally displaced persons in the Congo as a result of decades of US-backed violence [14], and there are 10 million displaced persons in sub-Saharan Africa [36]. 3 million Venezuelans have fled poverty that has been compounded by deadly American sanctions [38] and there are about 6 million internally displaced persons in Colombia [39]. The war criminal US Alliance including Apartheid Israel has played a huge role in generating these IDPs and refugees. Former Australian PM Kevin Rudd described those helping refugees (called “people smugglers” in refugee-persecuting Australia) as “the "absolute scum of the earth" who should "rot in hell" [39] – how then should one describe the US Alliance and other war criminals who created 70 million forcibly displaced persons in the first place?

Part II. Why they’re coming.

Chapter 5, “Colonialism” commences thus: “When migrants move, it’s not out of idle fancy, or because they hate their homelands, or to plunder the countries they come to, or even (most often) to strike it rich. They move - as my [migrant] grandfather knew – because the accumulated burdens of history have rendered their homelands less and less habitable. They are here [in the US, UK, and France] because you were there” (page 61 [1]). Mehta summarizes the horrors of starving India under the British , the horrendous African slave trade to America, the Belgian colonization of the Congo in which 10 million Congolese were brutally killed, and the 4-century American Indian Holocaust: “When Columbus arrived in the Americas in 1492 there were up to 100 million people living on the continent. Within 100 years, there were only 3.5 million. They died of imported diseases or starvation, or were massacred by the colonizers” (page 75 [1]). Mehta concludes: “All told, in the colonial period, Europeans increased their share of global GDP from 20 to 60 percent, Hickel points out. “Europe didn’t develop the colonies. The colonies developed Europe”” (page 77 [1]).

Comments. Mehta describes the British colonization of India during which 10 million over-taxed Bengalis starved to death (1769-1770), and “Between 3 million and 5 million people died in that British-made famine” in Bengal in WW2 (1942-1945”, and “Another 29 million Indians under British rule died of famines in the nineteenth century, partly because India was forced to export 10 million tons of food a year” (page 67 [1]). Medical historian Dr Sanjoy Bhattacharya (Welcome Institute, London) estimated that 6-7 million Indians died in Bengal and in the adjoining provinces of Bihar, Assam and Orissa during the British -imposed and Australia-complicit WW2 Bengali Holocaust (WW2 Indian Holocaust , WW2 Bengal Famine) [40].

The British devastated China with imposed opium from British-enslaved India in the 19th century (up to 100 million Chinese died in the Opium Wars and the Tai Ping rebellion [14], with the Chinese GDP remaining almost the same between 1820 and 1950 and dropping from 30% of world GDP in 1820 to a mere 5% in 1950 ) [41, 42]. The Indians suffered a similar catastrophe under the rapacious British. Thus eminent Indian economist Professor Utsa Patnaik (Jawaharlal Nehru University) has estimated that Britain robbed India of $45 trillion between 1765 and 1938. I have estimated that if India had remained free with 24% of world GDP as in 1700 (like China) instead of similarly collapsing to 5% by 1950, then its cumulative GDP would have been $232 trillion greater (1700-2003) and $44 trillion greater (1700-1950) [43, 44].

Deprivation kills and it is estimated that 1.8 billion Indians died avoidably from egregiously imposed deprivation under the British (1757-1947) [43-50] – compare this horrendous Indian Holocaust with the awful WW2 Jewish Holocaust (5-6 million Jews killed through violence or imposed deprivation) [50-52]. The massive larceny of the British in India was massively deadly because tens of million British were only able to rule several hundred million Indians by keeping them close to the edge of starvation and employing millions of well-fed Indian soldiers (sepoys) to keep control [45]. Addressing the House of Commons in 1935, racist, imperialist and mass murderer Winston Churchill made an extraordinary confession in stating of the subjugated Indians: “In the standard of life they have nothing to spare. The slightest fall from the present standard of life in India means slow starvation, and the actual squeezing out of life, not only of millions but of scores of millions of people, who have come into the world at your invitation and under the shield and protection of British power” [53]. In addition it is estimated that 10 million Indians were killed by the British in the decade after the Indian rebellion in 1857 in reprisals for 2,000 British killed in the rebellion [54, 55].

Mehta deals with slavery, thus: “From 1761 to 1808, the British took 1,428,000 Africans away from their families and shipped them across the world” (page 76 [1]). However the overall 15th- 19th century, 4-century European trans-Atlantic African slave trade involved 13 million African slaves with about 2 million dying in transit [56]. A surprising omission from Gujarati Indian Suketu Mehta’s account is the abolition of slavery in the UK in 1807 (there was a huge domestic population of tens of millions of impoverished British to be worked to death in the factories of the Industrial Revolution) and the abolition of slavery throughout the British Empire (excepting India) in 1833 (African slaves were replaced by indentured labour – 5 year slaves – from devastated India and China) [57]. Indeed all the grandparents of my dear late wife, Zareena née Lateef , were indentured labourers (5-year slaves or “Girmityas” after mispronunciation of “Agreement”) who slaved on British and Australian sugar cane plantations in Fiji (her father, Abdul Lateef, was a lawyer and MP who was strongly committed by example to harmony and friendship between the Indians and the Indigenous Melanesian and Polynesian Fijians [58-62].

Shashi Tharoor reports ”Besides the Straits Settlements [Malaysia] and Mauritius, destitute Indians were also shipped as indentured labour to other British colonies around the world, from Guyana and the Caribbean Islands to South Africa and Fiji in the Pacific. Some 1.9 million to 3.5 million Indians (the numbers vary in different sources, depending on who is counted) moved halfway across the globe , most involuntarily, under the colonial project… On one route, Kolkata to Trinidad, the percentage of deaths of indentured labour on the transportee ships reached appalling levels : 12.3 per cent of all males, 18.5 per cent of the females, 28 per cent of the boys and 36 per cent of the girls perished , as did a tragic 55 per cent of all infants” [46, 47]. Winston Churchill notoriously commented on Chinese indentured labourers in the Transvaal: “The conditions of the Transvaal ordinance … cannot in the opinion of His Majesty’s Government be classified as slavery; at least, that word in its full sense could not be applied without a risk of terminological inexactitude” [46].

Chapter 6, “The new colonialism”, deals with the horrendous, corrupt and deadly post-colonial Western hegemony or “neocolonialism” in the global South. Mehta: “Corporate colonialism is the new colonialism. When the colonial regimes withdrew their soldiers and viceroys, they replaced them with their businessmen (page 79 [1])… The City of London effectively operates as the biggest tax haven in the world”(page 81 [1])… In 1960 when states were just beginning to emerge from colonialism, citizens of the world’s richest country were 33 times wealthier than people of the poorest country. By 2000, in a globalized world that was supposed to lift all boats, they were 134 times wealthier” (page 85 [1]).

Comment. For all his explosive truth -telling about colonialism and neocolonialism, Mehta ignores both the horrendous human cost of post-colonial inequity and the relatively low cost of preventing this carnage. Thus 15 million people in the global South die avoidably from deprivation each year with profligate America dominating the world, and 1,500 million people have died thus since 1950 in an ongoing Global Avoidable Mortality Holocaust [14]. The world’s 10% richest who have about 90% of the wealth of the World are in turn controlled by One Percenters who own about half the wealth of the World. As estimated in 2014, an annual global wealth tax of about 4% would yield $16 trillion annually and enable raising all countries to annual per capita incomes equivalent to the $6,000 per person per year of China and Cuba [63, 64], countries for which annual avoidable mortality is zero (0) [14]. One notes that Islam has had a 2.5% annual wealth tax (zakat) for 1400 years.

Mehta variously adverts to horrendous Western violence behind this state of affairs (see Chapter 3 and comments above). However John Perkins in his “Confessions of an Economic Hit Man ” [65] and Philip Agee in his “Inside the Company. CIA Diary” [66] variously indicate the successive stages: corporate requests and bribery, US Government requests and bribery, subversion, political assassinations, economic sanctions, attempted coups and finally US invasion with an appropriate “excuse” when all else fails [65, 66]. Outstanding expatriate Australian journalist John Pilger has stated that “Should the CIA stooge Guaido and his white supremacists grab power, it will be the 68th overthrow of a sovereign government by the United States, most of them democracies. A fire sale of Venezuela’s utilities and mineral wealth will surely follow, along with the theft of the country’s oil, as outlined by John Bolton. Under the last Washington-controlled government in Caracas, poverty reached historic proportions. There was no healthcare for those who could not pay. There was no universal education” [67].

Chapter 7, “War”, deals with the generation of refugees by past and present US Alliance wars. Mehta states: “War cause refugees, and it is important to follow the chain of responsibility. Millions of people have died in Muslim countries in recent decades as a direct result of our adventures abroad. We bomb them from the air and ground and from our warships. We kill indiscriminately and then lie about it; as a 2017 New York Times investigation of the casualties from coalition air strikes in Iraq showed, the death rate is 31 times greater than officially acknowledged” (page 99 [1]).

Comment. It is expertly estimated that 4.6 million Iraqis died from violence, 1.7 million, or from war-imposed deprivation, 2.9 million, in the period 1990-2011 during which Iraqis variously suffered under US Alliance sanctions and bombing and thence under US occupation - an Iraqi Genocide and Iraqi Holocaust [68, 69]. However the Australian Broadcasting Corporation (the ABC, Australia’s equivalent of the mendacious UK BBC) reported on the occasion of US withdrawal from Iraq in 2011 thus: “The withdrawal ends a war that left tens of thousands of Iraqis and nearly 4,500 American soldiers dead” [70] . Similarly grossly ignored are 7 million Afghan deaths from violence or deprivation under an 18 year US Alliance occupation - an Afghan Genocide and Afghan Holocaust that is part of a 32 million-victim Muslim Genocide and Muslim Holocaust [69, 71]. However Afghanistan is barely mentioned in merely several words in passing (pages 31, 93 and 169 [1]), to whit: “How often does it keep doing so [invading], going over the borders of Iraq or Afghanistan” (page 31 [1]); “There are wars that everyone knows about, such as in Afghanistan and Syria” (page 93 [1]); and “The words the tabloids and right-wing politicians use to describe these Afghan or Moroccan men” (page 169 [1]).

Of course the only holocaust mentioned in “This Land Is Our Land” is The Holocaust, the WW2 Jewish Holocaust (5-6 million Jews killed by violence or deprivation) that was part of a wider WW2 European Holocaust (30 million Slavs, Jews and Gypsies killed). There is s no mention of the following holocausts (deaths from violence or deprivation in brackets): the WW2 Chinese Holocaust (35 million), WW2 European Holocaust (30 million), the 1757-1947 Indian Holocaust (1,800 million), the 1930s Ukrainian Holocaust (Holodomor; 7 million), the WW2 Polish Holocaust (6 million), the WW2 Russian Holocaust (24 million), the WW2 Indian Holocaust and WW2 Bengali Holocaust (6-7 million; the first WW2 atrocity to be described in WW2 as a holocaust [72]), the post-9-11 Afghan Genocide and Afghan Holocaust (7 million), the 1990-2011 Iraqi Genocide and Iraqi Holocaust (4.6 million), the ongoing, post-9-11 Muslim Genocide and Muslim Holocaust (32 million), the post-1950 US-imposed Asian Holocaust (40 million), nor the post-1950 Global Avoidable Mortality Holocaust (1,500 million) [14].

One notes that on rare occasions American politicians admit to horrendous realities. Thus in 1996 on a “60 Minutes” segment anti-racist Jewish American journalist Lesley Stahl asked US UN Ambassador Madeleine Albright "We have heard that half a million children have died. I mean, that's more children than died in Hiroshima. And, you know, is the price worth it?", to which and Albright replied "We think the price is worth it" [73]. And recently President Trump, who has threatened to “totally destroy” North Korea and to “obliterate” parts of Iran, made the following admission: “I could win that [Afghan] war in a week, I just don't want to kill 10 million people. Afghanistan would be wiped off the face of the earth. It would be over in literally, in 10 days, and I don't wanna go that route, so we're working with Pakistan and others to extricate ourselves” [74].

However the awful reality of US passive mass murder of Afghans in Occupied Afghanistan is trumped by the hypothetical. Thus China (GDP per capita $8,000) has been hugely successful in radically reducing infant mortality and maternal mortality in Tibet and in China as a whole, but in stark contrast, the war criminal US Alliance occupation of neighbouring Afghanistan continues to be associated with an under-1 infant mortality and maternal mortality incidence that is 7 times higher and 4-12 times higher, respectively, than that in Tibet – evidence of gross violation by the US (GDP per capita $60,000) of the Geneva Convention and of Articles 55 and 56 of the Geneva Convention relative to the Protection of Civilian Persons in Time of War that unequivocally state that the Occupier must supply its Subjects with life-sustaining food and medical services “to the fullest extent of the means available to it” [75].

Chapter 8, “Climate change”, predicts that “In the twenty-first century, the number one driver of migration might be climate change” (page 101 [1])… According to the UN High Commissioner for Refugees, since 2008, 22.5 million people have had to flee their homes because of climate-related extreme weather events, like hurricanes or droughts” (page 105 [1])… Environmental pollution kills 9 million people per year … And who exactly is dying? Ninety-two percent of the deaths are in low-and middle-income countries. The creditors” (page 109 [1]).

Comment. Mehta is correct in raising the major threat to humanity - and especially to the impoverished and vulnerable global South - from man-made climate change, but follows the Mainstream narrative in understating the threat. Humanity is existentially threatened by (1) nuclear weapons (that can wipe out most of Humanity and the Biosphere in a nuclear winter), (2) poverty (that results in 15 million avoidable deaths from deprivation each per year), and (3) man-made climate change (that in the most direst expert estimates may mean 10 billion deaths this century in a worsening Climate Genocide from failure to requisitely tackle greenhouse gas (GHG) pollution) [34]. However “This Land is Our Land” (1) ignores the global nuclear threat (except for the mention of South Asian nuclear weapons and the massive fiscal diversion from food to suicidal arms (page 66 [1]) ; (2) fails to mention the 15 million avoidable deaths from deprivation annually in the ongoing Global Avoidable Mortality Holocaust [14]; and (3) while cogently describing climate change impacts, fails to mention the direst expert assessments of the worsening impacts of man-made climate change.

Outstanding physicist Stephen Hawking has repeatedly stated the essence of the existential threats from nuclear weapons and climate change: “(2007, 2018): “We see great peril if governments and societies do not take action now to render nuclear weapons obsolete and to prevent further climate change” [76, 77]. Yet, for example, Stupid, Ignorant and Egregiously Greedy (SIEG as with Dr Strangelove and “Sieg heil”) Trump America has torn up the multilateral non-proliferation agreement with Iran, and has rejected the 2015 Paris Climate Agreement that aims for less than a catastrophic plus 2C temperature rise. Similarly, US lackey Australia – that is among world leaders in climate criminality and is properly cogently criticized by Mehta on this account (pages 108-109 [1]) – opposes a nuclear weapons ban and has recently re-elected an anti-science, effective climate change denialist, climate criminal, pro-coal, pro-gas and Stupid, Ignorant and Egregiously Greedy (SIEG) Coalition Government. The damage-related cost of carbon pollution has been variously estimated at $US200 per tonne CO2, this enabling calculation of the inescapable Carbon Debt we are leaving to be paid by future generations. A climate criminal Australia is among world leaders in 14 key areas relating to greenhouse gas (GHG) pollution, and with a population (25 million) that is only 0.3% of the world’s, SIEG Australia has an annual increase in Carbon Debt that is 6% of that of the world [78].

GHG pollution-wise, the world is remorselessly heading in the wrong direction – the atmospheric CO2 concentration has reached 415 ppm CO2 [79] whereas numerous coral and climate scientists and science-informed activists argue that it should be reduced to a safe and sustainable pre-Industrial Revolution level of about 300 ppm CO2 [80, 81]. However negative carbon emissions are very expensive. Thus for every US$30 per tonne CO2 released that is received by the coal industry there is a huge carbon pollution subsidy in the form of an inescapable Carbon Debt of US200 per tonne CO2-equivalent released that will have to be paid by future generations [78]. Professor James Hansen (of 96 Nobel Laureate Columbia University): “One ppm of CO2 is 2.12 billion tons of carbon or about 7.77 billion tons of CO2. Recently Keith et al. (2018) achieved a cost breakthrough in carbon capture, demonstrated with a pilot plant in Canada. Cost of carbon capture, not including the cost of transportation and storage of the CO2, is $113-232 per ton of CO2. Thus the cost of extracting 1 ppm of CO2 from the atmosphere is $878-1803 billion” [82].

Recent reports indicate the huge environmental damage already occurring in our present so-called Anthropocene Era [83-88]. The national commitments made at the 2015 Paris conference amount to a catastrophic plus 3.5C temperature rise. The latest IPCC Report indicates that at present rates of pollution plus 1.5C will be reached within the next 10 years [85-87]. Given the resolute inaction on GHG pollution, a catastrophic plus 2C is now effectively unavoidable, and this is underscored by the worsening threat from the Methane Bomb in the Arctic. Thus the Global Warming Potential (GWP) of methane (CH4) on a 20 year time frame and with aerosol impacts included is 105 relative to CO2, and the 50 Gt CH4 set to be released from the Arctic in coming decades corresponds to 50 Gt CH4 x 105 t CO2-e/ t CH4 = 5,250 Gt CO2-e , which in turn corresponds to a Carbon Debt (at $200 per tonne CO2-e) of $1,050 trillion or 3 times greater than the accumulated wealth of whole world [89, 90].

About 1 million people already die each year from climate change but the direst expert estimates imply that that about 10 billion people will perish this century in the absence of requisite action in a worsening Climate Genocide [32]. As many as 1 billion climate refugees are predicted by mid- century (page 101 [1]).

Part III. Why they’re feared.

Chapter 9, “The populists’ false narrative”, describes the hate-driven political success of the populist right in America and Europe that targets immigrants, and concludes: “Every majority is composed of a set of discrete minorities. When you go after the Palestinians and Africans in Israel, the reform Jews are next. When you go after the Muslims in India, Christians are next. When you go after Muslims and Mexicans in America, the Jews and gays are next. The early targets are easy to hit, under the cover of nationalism. But hate, once fed, grows even more ravenous. It is never satisfied” (page 119 [1]).

Comment. Over the last decade in Stupidity, Ignorance and Egregious Greed (SIEG)-dominated Australia, the Trumpist Coalition Government has highly abusively and indefinitely imprisoned boat-borne refugees without charge or trial in off-shore concentration camps on the Island Nation of Nauru and on Manus Island (Papua New Guinea). One recalls the poem of Pastor Martin Niemöller: “First they came for the socialists, and I did not speak out - / Because I was not a socialist. / Then they came for the trade unionists, and I did not speak out—/ Because I was not a trade unionist./ Then they came for the Jews, and I did not speak out—/ Because I was not a Jew./ Then they came for me—and there was no one left to speak for me” [2].

Chapter 10, “A brief history of fear”, briefly covers European and American fears, from the 18th century to the present, of being “swamped” by non-Europeans, these being variously related to variously problematical calls for population control, limitations on immigrants, and eugenics.

Comment. Mehta unfairly includes Paul and Anne Ehrlich (“The Population Bomb” [91] ) in this sketch for their quite sensible and ethical 1968 call for population control. Using coral reefs as a canary in the mine it can be determined that world coral stared dying off when the atmospheric CO2 reached 320 ppm CO2 , at which time the global population was 3.3 billion, this indicating that on this basis the world population (and attendant economic activity) should be halved [15]. Some scientists estimate that sustainable human population in 2100 should be about 0.5 billion [32]. A surprising omission from this analysis is Sven Lindqvist’s “Exterminate all the Brutes” that explores the racist ideology behind European colonialism up to and including the Nazi German lebensraum-driven colonization of eastern Europe with attendant, industrial-scale mass murder [92].

Chapter 11, “Culture: shitholes versus Nordics”, sketches past and present racial and cultural prejudice in America, and concludes “Trump tweets out his bigotry; his base listens and acts. Hate crimes against Muslims are now more widespread than at any other time in American history, including the period after 9/11” (page 135 [1]).

Comment. Extrapolating from the violent and deadly inter-tribal behaviour of our close cousins, the chimpanzees (98.4% genetic homology with humans), one might conclude that hatred of the Other is hardwired via genetically evolving through natural selection of mutating genes (DNA) in humans. However human behaviour has also evolved through societal selection of memes (ideas) favourable to societal reproduction and survival, notable and wonderful examples being Jesus’ “Love thy neighbour as thyself” and “Do unto others as you would have them do unto you” [93]. The marvellous tradition of secular Humanism demonstrates that man can overcome his “bad” evolved behaviours by application of reason predicated on love of fellow humanity.

Chapter 12, “The color of hate”, sketches white supremacist racial prejudice against non-Europeans and against non-European immigrants in particular. Mehta: “Between 2008 and 2017, white supremacists accounted for 71 percent of deaths in terror attacks in the United States. The researcher Lyman Stone calculated the ancestries of all 422 people charged with terrorism in America since 2001. More than half – 227- have “no foreign citizenship, parentage or identifiable ancestry of any kind.” That is, they’re Americans, in the generic sense, We have met the enemy, and he is us”” (pages 151-152 [1]).

Comment. In the post-9-11 US War on Terror, the Muslim victims of passive mass murder through imposed deprivation (27 million) vastly exceed those killed violently (5 million) [27]. Similarly, violent deaths from suicide and homicide constitute a small proportion (2.6%) of the 1.7 million preventable American deaths occurring each year from “life style” or “political choice” reasons, the breakdown (including some overlaps and updated to 2019) being (1) 443,000 ( smoking-related), (2) 440,000 (adverse events in hospitals), (3) 300,000 ( obesity-related), (4) 200,000 ( air pollution), (5) 75,000 (alcohol-related), (6) 70,000 (drug-related), (7) 45,000 ( lack of medical insurance), (8) 33,000 ( motor vehicles), (9) 31,000 (gun-related), (10) 30,000 (suicides with 7,000 being US veterans), (11) 21,000 (under-5 year old infant deaths), (12) 15,000 homicide, and (13) 4 (jihadi victims in America) [94]. A remorselessly neoliberal, climate change-denying and anti-science Trump aims to slash science, technology, international aid, and medical research funding in favour of extra funding for the military and nuclear terrorism. 30 Americans are predicted to die from terrorism in America in the next 8 years but over 14 million Americans will die preventably under a US- and world-threatening, 2-term Trump regime. US aid will be slashed to $20 billion pa for an impoverished world. Meanwhile corporate Mainstream media resolutely ignore the Awful Truth [95].

Chapter 13, “The alliance between the mob and capital”, explores increasing wealth inequality in America and the utter absurdity of the down-trodden White American working class from the rust-belt states voting for a billionaire, Donald Trump, who then speedily, and as promised, gave gigantic tax cuts worth a total of $1.5 trillion that disproportionately helped the the tax-avoiding wealthy. Mehta: “Income inequality in the United States rises, in part, from radically different systems of education for the rich and the poor. Only 20 to 30 percent of the children of the poorest 10 percent go to college; but 90 percent of the kids of the top 10 percent do” (page 157 [1]). Mehta powerfully concludes thus: “In “The Origins of Totalitarianism” , [anti-racist Jewish philosopher] Hannah Arendt called it the “alliance between mob and capital.” When the rich see that anger is building in their countries about economic deprivation, they inflame or create anger and resentment against scapegoats – like foreigners, during Arendt’s’ time [1930s Germany], and immigrants or Muslims or African-Americans today – which makes the mob change direction, turn their attention from demanding redistribution of wealth, and focus on the politically weak, the newcomers, the minorities. The new robber barons have come to power, and intend hold on to it, on the wings of xenophobia” (page 159 [1]).

Comment. Hannah Arendt and Suketu Mehta are dead right here. In the May 2019, compulsory voting Federal elections in US lackey, neoliberal Australia, just 52% of the electorate returned a Stupid, Ignorant and Egregiously Greedy (SIEG) Coalition Government that campaigned for “business as usual”, huge tax cuts for the rich, continuing anti-Muslim terror hysteria, and gross maltreatment of refugees. The Centre-Left Opposition Labor Party at last found its social conscience and campaigned for social fairness and a “fair go” for the young, the sick, the elderly, the disabled, the homeless, the poor, the cancer sufferers ,the tooth decay sufferers, and the unemployed, but were rebuffed by a 52% Stupid, Ignorant and Egregiously Greedy (SIEG) of the electorate. Australia has a preferential voting system in which the votes of the minor parties are distributed according to their second preferences to the 2 major parties. The SIEG Coalition was returned with the preferences of the extreme right wing, xenophobic, anti-Asian, anti-Indigenous, anti-Asian and anti-Muslim One Nation Party and of the United Australia Party of right-wing billionaire Clive Palmer who reportedly spent an unprecedented (for Australia) $60-80 million in a nation-wide election campaign [96].

Like the US and other Western democracies, US lackey Australia is a Kleptocracy, Plutocracy, Murdochracy, Lobbyocracy, Corporatocracy and Dollarocracy in which Big Money buys people, politicians, parties, policies, public perception of reality, votes, more power and hence more private profit. Thus misled, no doubt many poor and disadvantaged would have voted against their own interests for the SIEG Trumpist Coalition in Australia and for SIEG Trumpism in the US for the benefit of the ruling One Percenters.

Chapter 14, “The refugee as pariah”, describes the maltreatment of refugees from the Trump policy of forcibly separating and incarcerating children away from their refugee mothers to the obscene Australian policy of indefinitely and highly abusively incarcerating refugees (men , women and children) without charge or trial in remote, offshore concentration camps.

Comment. Words fail in the face of such child-abusing evil. The innocent refugees may be treated as “pariahs” but the real pariahs should be the evil, refugee-abusing and SIEG Trumpist administrations of the US, Europe and of US lackey Australia. Of course these SIEG European countries are democracies and thus are damned by each having a circa 50% of their voting population who are Stupid, Ignorant and Egregiously Greedy (SIEG).

Part IV. Why they should be welcomed.

Chapter 15, “Jaikisan Heights”, describes the magical multiculturalism, tolerance and safety of immigrant communities such as Mehta’s own suburb of Jackson Heights in New York. Mehta: “A walk around the extraordinarily safe metropolis illustrates the data: places with more immigrants have lower crime. Thirty-eight percent of New York’s population is foreign-born, and crime rates have fallen to what they were in the 1950s” (page 177 [1]).

Chapter 16, “Jobs, crime, and culture: the threats that aren’t”, presents interesting social data, showing, for example, that the crime rate of native-born Americans in Texas is 2 times bigger than for illegal immigrants and 7 times bigger than for legal immigrants (page 187 [1]). And there is increasing inter-marriage, thus Mehta: “In 1970, only 1 percent of American babies were descended from parents of different races . By 2013, that number had risen tenfold” (page 192 [1]). Mehta tells an inspiring story of how Guyanese immigrants to New York transformed the depressed industrial New York State city of Schenectady (pages 193-194 [1]). Mehta concludes “Whether Trump or Orbán [Hungary’s Trumpist PM] likes it or not, immigrants will keep coming, to pursue happiness and a better life for their children. To the people who voted for the populists: Do not fear the newcomers. Many are young and will pay the pensions for the elderly, who are living longer than ever before… They will make their new countries richer, in all senses of the word. The immigrant armada that is coming to your shores is actually a rescue fleet” (page 197 [1]).

Comment. I thoroughly endorse Mehta’s enthusiasm for multiculturalism as a very happy citizen of a prosperous, multicultural Australia, with a multicultural family and living in multicultural Melbourne, a city that vies with Vancouver and Vienna for being the most liveable city in the world. However let not these real and acknowledged delights hide some stark realities. Thus in 2019 Australia is enjoying its record 27th year of uninterrupted economic growth [97, 98], but that growth continues to be driven by planet-killing exports of coal, gas and methanogenically-derived meat, as well as an annual intake of about 200,000 immigrants who need to be employed, fed, housed and otherwise serviced in an immigration-based economic Ponzi scheme. Australia is among world leaders in 14 areas of climate criminality, to whit (1) annual per capita greenhouse gas pollution, (2) live methanogenic livestock exports, (3) natural gas exports, (4) recoverable shale gas reserves that can be accessed by hydraulic fracturing (fracking), (5) coal exports, (6) land clearing and deforestation, (7) speciescide – species extinction, (8) coral reef destruction, (9) whale killing and extinction threat through global warming, (10) terminal carbon pollution budget exceedance, (11) per capita carbon debt, (12) GHG generating iron ore exports, (13) climate change inaction, and (14) complicity in worsening climate genocide [96, 99]. With huge areas devastated by drought, major rivers reduced to putrid puddles, world-leading animal species extinction, world-leading land clearing, and massive housing and infrastructure deficiencies in the major cities, Australia is manifestly grossly over-populated. Ditto the similarly profligate consumer of limited world resources, climate criminal America.

Mehta’s claim that “There is enough space in the United States alone to hold all 7 billion of our species” (page 196) is utterly wrong. Thus at the present level of environmental impact the world population needs to be reduced by about 50% to about 3.3 billion [15]. Professor Dabo Guan (School of International Development, University of East Anglia, UK) (2016) has commented thus on inescapable limits to growth: “For everyone in the world to have an American lifestyle, we would need seven planets, and three to live as Europeans” [100]. At the level of environmental impact likely by 2100 the surviving world population remnant would be as low as 0.5 billion [32].

Chapter 17, “We do not come empty-handed”, sketches the great and disproportionate success of immigrants to the US. Mehta: “Immigrants are 13 percent of the U.S. population, but they started a quarter of all new businesses and earned over a third of all the Nobel Prizes in science given to Americans. One out of every four U.S. tech companies established since 1995 was founded by an immigrant , and a third of Silicon Valley workers are immigrants” (page 198 [1]). Specifically in relation to Indians (i.e. Indians deriving from India), Mehta states: “Indian Americans are the most successful group of any kind in the United States: we have the highest per capita incomes, the highest educational attainment, and the lowest crime rate. Seventy-seven percent of us over the age of twenty-five have a college degree (which is two and a half times the American average); more than half have a postgraduate degree. We are 8 percent of American doctors. Around a fifth of all start-ups in Silicon Valley were founded by Indians. As a minority we are the model. But it’s not because Indians are some sort of master race; if that were the case, what explains India? America skims off the “creamy layer” , as we used to call the elite of the lower castes of India, from other nations. Most of the immigrants who come here are substantially better educated and richer than the countrymen they left behind. We do not come empty handed, mine host!” (Pages 206-207 [1]).

Comment. A similar story can be told about Australia. Thus a decade before the abolition of the White Australia Policy in 1974, perhaps about 5% of the population were non-European (Indigenous and Torres Strait Islander Australians, Chinese and descendant of Melanesian slaves). Today due to immigration and intermarriage, 76% of Australians are “White” and 24% are “non-White”( although non-Whites only make up 5% of Australians in senior executive positions in corporations, institutions or government )[101, 102]. The “immigrant phenomenon” in Australia or the US means that immigrants try harder to “make it”. Thus at a medical degree award ceremony 20 years ago at a top Australian university, half the graduates were Asian. Half the 200 specialists listed for a large, multi-practice medical specialist centre in Melbourne are Asian (Asia beginning with Turkey). In my own immediate family (my mother from 19th century Scottish immigrant refugees from the English-imposed Scottish Highland Clearances , my father a Jewish Hungarian refugee from Nazism) all the 5 children were university graduates (2 with PhD)s, and of me and my surviving siblings (all “White”) and our children and grandchildren, presently 50% are of Asian heritage.

Chapter 18, “Immigration as reparations”, argues that “Migration is a form of reparations. But the countries that are paying aren’t necessarily the ones that are directly linked with the people they are absorbing; the vast majority of migrants move from a poor to less poor country. Fair immigration should be based on how much the host country has ruined other countries. Thus Britain should have a quotas for Indians and Nigerians; France , for Malians and Tunisians” (page 209 [1]) . Mehta goes further : “You want to go in and start a war that costs, according to The Lancet, six hundred thousand Iraqi deaths [by 2006]? Okay, the consequence should be that you’ll be taxed; you’ll have to let in to your country an equal number of living persons – six hundred thousand Iraqis. For each person that you kill on an overseas adventure, you give one person a chance at a new life” (page 215 [1]).

Comment. As detailed in comments about Chapter 3, invasion deaths include violent deaths and deaths from war-imposed deprivation. Since imposition of Sanctions in 1990 to the US withdrawal in 2011 , 4.6 million Iraqis died from violence, 1.7 million, or from, war-imposed deprivation , 2.9 million [68, 69]. Further, Iraq had been wrecked and continued to suffer horrendous excess deaths from deprivation as well as further bloodshed from re-invasion by the US Alliance, with 40,000 Iraqis dying during the “liberation” of Mosul [103] and huge numbers dying in the third US “liberation” of the city of Fallujah in 2016 [104]. Indeed it is estimated that Iraqi deaths from violence or imposed deprivation total 9 million since the British invasion in 1914. Similarly, one can estimate that in the 4-decade US War on Iran (recently threatened with partial “obliteration” by SIEG Trump), violent deaths have totalled 1 million and avoidable deaths from deprivation due to sanctions total 3 million [105].

Where does one draw the line between violent and non-violent deaths, and between such deaths associated with occupation or with post-occupation foreign hegemony? Mehta’s well-intentioned, 1-for1 swap naivety is utterly swamped by consideration of 1950-2005 avoidable deaths from deprivation in countries occupied by the following bloodthirsty countries in the post-WW2 era: UK (727 million), France (142 million), the US (82 million) and Apartheid Israel (24 million) [14]. The bottom line is that racism is evil, war is the penultimate form of racism, and genocide is the ultimate in racism. There must be zero tolerance for racism. Decent humanity must respond by demanding ICC prosecutions and must demand Boycotts, Divestment and Sanctions (BDS) against war criminal countries.

“Epilogue: family, reunified – and expanded”, considers the interesting matter of “immigrant networks” in host countries and the culinary romance of multiculturalism.

Comment. With agricultural productivity and humans threatened by inter-country transmission of diseases - and in particular of multidrug-resistant bacteria - Mehta is dangerously wrong in disputing border biosecurity: “The vast majority of the gifts the migrants are carrying from their home countries is food: ham, za’atar, chilies, custard apples. Custom’s official and agricultural inspectors are our enemies” (page 213 [1]) – dangerous nonsense in an otherwise very useful, humane and important book.

Mehta concludes sentimentally by praising the neighbourliness of ordinary community Americans “Who’ve rallied to help their Bengali American neighbour get elected because they believe in his politics, and because he is their neighbour and they know he is a good and honest man, wherever he may be from. He is now family, and his family is their family. This is my America. It is my land – and our land” (page 242 [1]]. To which 7.3 billion people in the rest of the world variously subverted, perverted, polluted, threatened, bombed, invaded and devastated by America will say: “If it is so marvellous, then just stay there”.

Final comments.

“This Land Is Our Land. An Immigrant’s Manifesto ” by Suketu Mehta is a very important, humane and truth-telling book that should be in every library for spelling out the moral obligation of invading, devastating and colonizing US Alliance countries (the Debtors) towards the 70 million refugees generated by these atrocities (the Creditors). The horrible reality is that refugees are treated with an awfulness by the rich Perpetrators that matches the atrocities the refugees are fleeing.

The bottom line is that racism is evil, war is the penultimate form of racism, and genocide is the ultimate in racism. There must be zero tolerance for racism. Decent humanity must respond by demanding International Criminal Court (ICC) prosecutions and demand Boycotts, Divestment and Sanctions (BDS) against war criminal countries. In relation to refugee-generating US wars in Central America, across the globe, and then specifically to the war criminal US Alliance invasion and occupation of Iraq, anti-racist Jewish British Nobel Laureate Harold Pinter declared: “How many people do you have to kill before you qualify to be described as a mass murderer and a war criminal? One hundred thousand? More than enough, I would have thought. Therefore it is just that Bush and Blair be arraigned before the International Criminal Court of Justice” [106]. 4.6 million? More than enough, I would have thought.

Mehta properly excoriates the hate speech of US President Trump and powerfully describes the scary rise of neo-fascist populism in the US and Europe as due to “The alliance between the mob and capital”. The paradoxical but powerful political union between angry, disempowered and frightened workers of America and a mendacious, populist billionaire is a dangerous political reality that has spread to Europe and Australia. The Trumpists are Stupid, Ignorant and Egregiously Greedy (SIEG as in “Sieg heil”) but are gaining power thanks to the mendacious Mainstream media (notably the Murdoch Media Empire) persuading poor and disempowered SIEG workers to scapegoat minorities from refugees to scientists and vote for ruthless billionaires whose interests are antithetical to those of ordinary humanity.

Only resolute truth-telling can defeat the xenophobic and neo-fascist alliance between the mob and capital, and “This Land Is Our Land” by Suketu Mehta strikes a mighty blow for reasoned, decent and informed democracy.

References.

[1]. Suketu Mehta , “This Land Is Our Land. An Immigrant’s Manifesto ”, Farrar, Straus and Giroux, New York, 2019.

[2]. “First they came…”, Wikipedia: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/First_they_came_... .

[3]. Kevin Barrett, “Palestinian Genocide has killed 2.2 million”, Veterans Today, 10 June 2019: https://www.veteranstoday.com/2019/06/10/new-evidence/ .

[4]. “Palestinian Genocide”: https://sites.google.com/site/palestiniangenocide/ .

[5]. Gideon Polya, “70th anniversary of Apartheid Israel & commencement of large-scale Palestinian Genocide”, Countercurrents, 11 May 2018: https://countercurrents.org/2018/05/11/70th-anniversary-of-apartheid-israel-commencement-of-large-scale-palestinian-genocide/ .

[6]. Gideon Polya, “Apartheid Israel’s Palestinian Genocide & Australia’s Aboriginal Genocide compared”, Countercurrents, 20 February 2018: https://countercurrents.org/2018/02/20/apartheid-israels-palestinian-genocide-australias-aboriginal-genocide-compared/ .

[7]. Gideon Polya, “Israeli-Palestinian & Middle East conflict – from oil to climate genocide”, Countercurrents, 21 August 2017: https://countercurrents.org/2017/08/21/israeli-palestinian-middle-east-conflict-from-oil-to-climate-genocide/ .

[8]. Gideon Polya, “End 50 Years Of Genocidal Occupation & Human Rights Abuse By US-Backed Apartheid Israel”, Countercurrents, 9 June 2017: https://countercurrents.org/2017/06/09/end-50-years-of-genocidal-occupation-human-rights-abuse-by-us-backed-apartheid-israel/ .

[9]. Gideon Polya, “Universal Declaration of Human Rights & Palestinians. Apartheid Israel violates ALL Palestinian Human Rights”, Palestine Genocide Essays, 24 January 2009: https://sites.google.com/site/palestinegenocideessays/universal-declaration-of-human-rights-palestinians .

[10]. Susan Abulhawa, “Israel’s “nation-state law” parallels the Nazi Nuremburg Laws”, Al Jazeera, 27 July 2018: https://www.aljazeera.com/indepth/opinion/israel-nation-state-law-parallels-nazi-nuremberg-laws-180725084739536.html .

[11]. “Discriminatory laws in Israel:, Adalah, https://www.adalah.org/en/law/index?page=4 .

[12]. John Dugard, “International Convention on the Suppression and Punishment of the crime of Apartheid”, Audiovisual Library of International Law: http://untreaty.un.org/cod/avl/ha/cspca/cspca.html .

[13]. “Per capita GDP (nominal) by country”, Wikipedia: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_countries_by_GDP_(nominal)_per_capita

[14]. “Gideon Polya, “Body Count. Global avoidable mortality since 1950”, including an avoidable mortality-related history of every country from Neolithic times and is now available for free perusal on the web : http://globalbodycount.blogspot.com.au/ .

[15]. Gideon Polya, “How much negative carbon emissions, negative population growth & negative economic growth is needed to save planet?”, Countercurrents, 28 November 2018: https://countercurrents.org/2018/11/28/how-much-negative-carbon-emissions-negative-population-growth-negative-economic-growth-is-needed-to-save-planet/ .

[16]. UN Population Division: https://population.un.org/wpp/ .

[17]. Gideon Polya, “Criminal US sanctions & passive mass murder of Venezuelans by state terrorist Trump America”, Countercurrents, 10 July 2019: https://countercurrents.org/2019/07/criminal-us-sanctions-passive-mass-murder-of-venezuelans-by-state-terrorist-trump-america .

[18]. Gideon Polya, “The US Has Invaded 70 Nations Since 1776 – Make 4 July Independence From America Day”, Countercurrents, 5 July, 2013: http://www.countercurrents.org/polya050713.htm .

[19]. Gideon Polya, “British Have Invaded 193 Countries: Make 26 January ( Australia Day, Invasion Day) British Invasion Day”, Countercurrents, 23 January, 2015: http://www.countercurrents.org/polya230115.htm .

[20]. Gideon Polya, “As UK Lackeys Or US Lackeys Australians Have Invaded 85 Countries (British 193, French 80, US 70)”, Countercurrents, 9 February, 2015: http://www.countercurrents.org/polya090215.htm .

[21]. Gideon Polya, “President Hollande And French Invasion Of Privacy Versus French Invasion Of 80 Countries Since 800 AD”, Countercurrents, 15 January, 2014: http://www.countercurrents.org/polya150114.htm .

[22]. “Stop state terrorism” : https://sites.google.com/site/stopstateterrorism/ .

[23]. "State crime and non-state terrorism": https://sites.google.com/site/statecrimeandnonstateterrorism/ .

[24]. David Vine, “Where in the world is the US military?”, Politico, July/August 2015: https://www.politico.com/magazine/story/2015/06/us-military-bases-around-the-world-119321.

[25]. Michel Chossudovsky, “Know the facts: North Korea lost close to 30% of its population as a result of US bombings in the 1950s”, Global Research, 27 November 2010: http://www.globalresearch.ca/know-the-facts-north-korea-lost-close-to-30-of-its-population-as-a-result-of-us-bombings-in-the-1950s/22131 .

[26]. Gideon Polya, “4 Decade US War On Iran - Opiate Holocaust & 4 Million Iranian Deaths From Violence & Imposed Deprivation”, Stop state terrorism, 21 July 2019: https://sites.google.com/site/stopstateterrorism/2019-07-21 .

[27]. Gideon Polya, “Paris Atrocity Context: 27 Million Muslim Avoidable Deaths From Imposed Deprivation In 20 Countries Violated By US Alliance Since 9-11”, Countercurrents, 22 November, 2015: https://countercurrents.org/polya221115.htm .

[28]. “Experts: US did 9-11”: https://sites.google.com/site/expertsusdid911/ .

[29]. “Carbon Debt Carbon Credit”: https://sites.google.com/site/carbondebtcarboncredit/ .

[30]. Gideon Polya, “Revised Annual Per Capita Greenhouse Gas Pollution For All Countries – What Is Your Country Doing?”, Countercurrents, 6 January, 2016: https://countercurrents.org/polya060116.htm .

[31]. Gideon Polya, “Exposing And Thence Punishing Worst Polluter Nations Via Weighted Annual Per Capita Greenhouse Gas Pollution Scores”, Countercurrents, 19 March, 2016: https://countercurrents.org/polya190316.htm .

[32]. “Climate Genocide”: https://sites.google.com/site/climategenocide/ .

[33]. “Stop air pollution deaths”: https://sites.google.com/site/300orgsite/stop-air-pollution-deaths .

[34]. “Nuclear weapons ban, end poverty & reverse climate change”: https://sites.google.com/site/300orgsite/nuclear-weapons-ban .

[35]. UNHCR: https://www.unhcr.org/en-au/figures-at-a-glance.html .

[36]. “10 million internally displaced persons in sub-Saharan Africa in 2018{“, Relief Web, 10 May 2019: https://reliefweb.int/report/world/10-million-people-internally-displaced-across-sub-saharan-africa-2018-enfr .

[37]. Gideon Polya, “Criminal US sanctions & passive mass murder of Venezuelans by state terrorist Trump America”, Countercurrents, 10 July 2019: https://countercurrents.org/2019/07/criminal-us-sanctions-passive-mass-murder-of-venezuelans-by-state-terrorist-trump-america .

[38]. “Internally displaced person”, Wikipedia: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Internally_displaced_person .

[39]. Emma Roberts, “Rudd wants people smugglers to “rot in hell””, ABC News, 17 April 2009: https://www.abc.net.au/news/2009-04-17/rudd-wants-people-smugglers-to-rot-in-hell/1653814 .

[40]. Michael Portillo, presenter, “Bengal Famine”, Open Learn, BBC, 14 January 2008: http://www.open.edu/openlearn/history-the-arts/history/social-economic-history/listen-the-bengal-famine .

[41]. “Historical GDP of China”, Wikipedia: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Historical_GDP_of_China .

[42]. “Angus Maddison statistics of the ten largest economies by GDP (PPP)”, Wikipedia: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Angus_Maddison_statistics_of_the_ten_largest_economies_by_GDP_(PPP) .

[43]. Gideon Polya, “Legacy of colonialism: Britain robbed India of $45 trillion & thence 1.8 billion Indians died from deprivation”, Global Research, 19 December 2018: https://www.globalresearch.ca/legacy-of-colonialism-britain-robbed-india-of-45-trillion-and-thence-1-8-billion-indians-died-from-deprivation/5663351 .

[44]. “How much money did Britain take away from India? About $45 trillion in 173 years, says top economist”, Business Today, 19 November 2018: https://www.businesstoday.in/current/economy-politics/this-economist-says-britain-took-away-usd-45-trillion-from-india-in-173-years/story/292352.html.

[45]. Gideon Polya, “Jane Austen and the Black Hole of British History. Colonial rapacity, holocaust denial and the crisis in biological sustainability”, G.M. Polya, Melbourne, 1998, 2008 that is now available for free perusal on the web: http://janeaustenand.blogspot.com/ .

[46]. Gideon Polya, “Review: “Inglorious Empire. What the British did to India” by Shashi Tharoor”, Countercurrents, 8 September 2017: https://countercurrents.org/2017/09/08/review-inglorious-empire-what-the-british-did-to-india-by-shashi-tharoor/ .

[47]. Shashi Tharoor, “Inglorious Empire. What the British did to India”, Scribe, 2017.

[48]. Gideon Polya, “Economist Mahima Khanna, Cambridge Stevenson Prize And Dire Indian Poverty”, Countercurrents, 20 November, 2011: https://countercurrents.org/polya201111.htm .

[49]. Gideon Polya, “Australia And Britain Killed 6-7 Million Indians In WW2 Bengal Famine”, Countercurrents, 29 September, 2011: https://countercurrents.org/polya290911.htm .

[50]. Gideon Polya, “UK Zionist Historian Sir Martin Gilbert (1936-2015) Variously Ignored Or Minimized WW2 Bengali Holocaust”, Countercurrents, 19 February, 2015: https://countercurrents.org/polya190215.htm .

[51]. Martin Gilbert “Atlas of the Holocaust”, Michael Joseph, London, 1982.

[52]. Martin Gilbert, “Jewish History Atlas”, Weidenfeld and Nicolson, London, 1969.

[53]. Winston Churchill, speech to the House of Commons about Indians (1935); 1. Hansard of the House of Commons, Winston Churchill speech, Hansard Vol. 302, cols. 1920-21, 1935.

[54]. Amaresh Misra, “War of Civilisations: India AD 1857”.

[55]. Randeep Ramesh, “India’s secret history: :A holocaust, one where millions disappeared”, Guardian, 24 August 2007: https://www.theguardian.com/world/2007/aug/24/india.randeepramesh .

[56]. “Atlantic slave trade”, Wikipedia: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Atlantic_slave_trade .

[57]. “Abolitionism”, Wikipedia: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Abolitionism#Great_Britain .

[58]. Rajendra Prasad, “Tears in Paradise. Suffering and struggle of Indians in Fiji 1879-2004”(Glade, Auckland, New Zealand, 2004).

[59]. Gideon Polya, “Review: “Tears In Paradise. Suffering and Struggle Of Indians In Fiji 1879-2004” by Rajendra Prasad – Britain’s Indentured Indian “5 Year Slaves””, Countercurrents, 4 March, 2015: https://countercurrents.org/polya040315.htm .

[60]. Kavia Ivy Nandan (editor), “Stolen Worlds. FijiIndian Fragments”, Ivy Press International , 2005.

[61]. Gideon Polya, “Anti-Indian subversion of Fiji by Apartheid Israel, Pro-Apartheid Australia & pro-Apartheid America”, Countercurrents, 20 October 2017: http://www.countercurrents.org/2017/10/20/anti-indian-subversion-of-fiji-by-apartheid-israel-pro-apartheid-australia-pro-apartheid-america/ .

[62]. “Abdul Lateef”, Wikipedia: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Abdul_Lateef_(Fijian_lawyer) .

[63]. Gideon Polya, “4 % Annual Global Wealth Tax To Stop The 17 Million Deaths Annually”, Countercurrents, 27 June, 2014: http://www.countercurrents.org/polya270614.htm ).

[64]. “1% ON 1%: one percent annual wealth tax on One Percenters” website ( https://sites.google.com/site/300orgsite/1-on-1 .

[65]. John Perkins, “Confessions of an Economic Hit Man”, Penguin, 2006.

[66]. Philip Agee in his “Inside the Company: CIA Diary”, Farrar Straus & Giroux, 1975.

[67]. John Pilger, “John Pilger: the war on Venezuela is built on lies”, Green Left Weekly, 1 March 2019: https://www.greenleft.org.au/content/john-pilger-war-venezuela-built-lies .

[68]. Iraqi Holocaust, Iraqi Genocide”: http://sites.google.com/site/iraqiholocaustiraqigenocide/ .

[69]. “Muslim Holocaust Muslim Genocide”: https://sites.google.com/site/muslimholocaustmuslimgenocide/ .

[70]. Anne Barker ,”US military marks end of its Iraq war”, ABC News, 16 December 2011: https://www.abc.net.au/news/2011-12-15/us-military-marks-end-of-its-war-in-iraq/3733982 .

[71]. “Afghan Holocaust, Afghan Genocide”: http://sites.google.com/site/afghanholocaustafghangenocide/ .

[72]. N.G. Jog, “Churchill’s Blind-Spot: India, New Book Company, Bombay, 1944.

[73]. Lesley Stahl and Madeleine Albright quoted in “Madeleine Albright”, Wikipedia: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Madeleine_Albright .

[74]. “Trump says he could end Afghanistan war in 10 days, but he doesn’t want to kill 10 million people”, CBS News, 23 July 2019: https://www.cbsnews.com/news/trump-afghanistan-us-could-end-war-10-days-kill-10-million-afghans-call-for-explanation-today-2019-07-23/ .

[75]. Gideon Polya, “China Tibet health success versus passive mass murder of Afghan women and children by US Alliance”, Global Research, 7 January 2018: https://www.globalresearch.ca/chinas-tibet-health-success-versus-passive-mass-murder-of-afghan-women-and-children-by-us-alliance/5625151 .

[76]. Professor Stephen Hawking quoted in Will Dunham, “Nuclear, climate perils push Doomsday Clock ahead”, Reuters, 22 January 2007: https://www.reuters.com/article/idUSN17314370 .

[77]. Stephen Hawking, “Brief Answers to the Big Questions”, John Murray, 2018, Chapter 7.

[78]. Gideon Polya, “Climate criminal Australia ignores its hugely increasing Carbon Debt & massive subsidies for GHG pollution”, Countercurrents, 8 June 2019: https://countercurrents.org/2019/06/climate-criminal-australia-ignores-its-hugely-increasing-carbon-debt-massive-subsidies-for-ghg-pollution .

[79]. NOAA, “Trends in atmospheric carbon dioxide”: https://www.esrl.noaa.gov/gmd/ccgg/trends/ .

[80]. 300.org: . https://sites.google.com/site/300orgsite/300-org .

[81]. “300.org – return atmosphere CO2 to 300 ppm CO2”: https://sites.google.com/site/300orgsite/300-org—return-atmosphere-co2-to-300-ppm .

[82]. James Hansen, “Climate change in a nutshell: the gathering storm”, Columbia University, 18 December 2018: http://www.columbia.edu/~jeh1/mailings/2018/20181206_Nutshell.pdf .

[83]. William J. Ripple et al., 15,364 signatories from 184 countries, “World scientists’ warning to Humanity: a second notice”, Bioscience, 13 November 2017: https://academic.oup.com/bioscience/advance-article/doi/10.1093/biosci/bix125/4605229 .

[84]. Gideon Polya, “Over 15,000 scientists issue dire warning to humanity on catastrophic climate change and biodiversity loss” ”, Countercurrents, 20 November 2017: https://countercurrents.org/2017/11/20/over-15000-scientists-issue-dire-warning-to-humanity-on-catastrophic-climate-change-and-biodiversity-loss/ .

[85]. IPCC, “Global warming of 1.5 °C”, 8 October 2018: http://www.ipcc.ch/report/sr15/ .

[86]. IPCC, “Global warming of 1.5 °C. Summary for Policymakers”, 8 October 2018: http://report.ipcc.ch/sr15/pdf/sr15_spm_final.pdf .

[87]. Gideon Polya, “IPCC +1.5C avoidance report – effectively too late but stop coal burning for “less bad” catastrophes”, Countercurrents, 12 October 2018: https://countercurrents.org/2018/10/12/ipcc-1-5c-avoidance-report-effectively-too-late-but-stop-coal-burning-for-less-bad-catastrophes/ ,

[88]. Andrew Glikson, “The IPCC’s final warnings of extreme global warming”, Countercurrents, 10 October 2018: https://countercurrents.org/2018/10/10/the-ipccs-final-warnings-of-extreme-global-warming/ .

[89]. Gideon Polya, “Inescapable $200-$250 trillion Carbon Debt increasing by $16 trillion per year”, Countercurents, 27 April 2019: https://countercurrents.org/2019/04/inescapable-200-250-trillion-global-carbon-debt-increasing-by-16-trillion-annually-gideon-polya .

[90]. Methane Bomb Threat”: https://sites.google.com/site/methanebombthreat/ .

[91]. Paul Ehrlich (and Anne Ehrlich), “The Population Bomb”, Sierra Club, 1968.

[92]. Sven Lindqvist’s “Exterminate all the Brutes”, Granta, 2002.

[93]. Richard Dawkins, The Selfish Gene”, Oxford, 1975.

[94]. Gideon Polya, “West Ignores 11 Million Muslim War Deaths & 23 Million Preventable American Deaths Since US Government's False-flag 9-11 Atrocity”, Countercurrents, 9 September, 2015: https://countercurrents.org/polya090915.htm .

[95]. Gideon Polya, “Over 14 million Americans will die preventably under a 2-term Trump presidency”, Countercurrents, 22 March 2017: https://countercurrents.org/2017/03/over-14-million-americans-will-die-preventably-under-a-2-term-trump-administration .

[96]. Gideon Polya, “ABC & Mainstream media lying by omission enabled Trumpist & climate criminal Australian Coalition victory”, Countercurrents, 28 May 2019: https://countercurrents.org/2019/05/abc-mainstream-media-lying-by-omission-enabled-trumpist-climate-criminal-australian-coalition-victory .

[97]. Sanae Ouahib, “Australia has its 27th year of economic growth however it faces tremendous challenges”, SBS, 26 February 2019: https://www.sbs.com.au/yourlanguage/arabic/en/audiotrack/australia-27-years-economic-growth .

[98]. Mathias Cormann, Australia; 27 years of economic growth and counting”, Foreign Policy, 2019: https://foreignpolicy.com/sponsored/australia-27-years-of-economic-growth-and-counting/ .

[99]. Gideon Polya, “Offences of Pentecostal Christian Scott Morrison, PM after Australia’s fourth PM-removing coup in 5 years”, Countercurrents, 18 September 2018: https://countercurrents.org/2018/09/18/offences-of-pentecostal-christian-scott-morrison-pm-after-australias-fourth-pm-removing-coup-in-8-years/ .

[100]. Irene Banos Ruiz , “China’s new love affair with dogs – as pets, not food – presents environmental problems”, DW, 21 June 2016: https://www.dw.com/en/chinas-new-love-affair-with-dogs-as-pets-not-food-presents-environmental-problems/a-19197523 .

[101]. Gideon Polya, “Review: “Leading for change” – corporate cultural diversity deficiency & Australian financial scandals”, Countercurrents, 3 May 2018: https://countercurrents.org/2018/05/review-leading-for-change-corporate-cultural-diversity-deficiency-australian-financial-scandals .

[102}. Tim Soutphomassane, Greg Whitwell, Kate Jordan and Philipp Ivanov, “Leading for Change. A blueprint for cultural diversity and inclusive leadership revisited”, 2018.

[103]. Gideon Polya, “Mosul Massacre latest in Iraqi Genocide - US Alliance war crimes demand ICC & BDS”, Countercurrents, 24 July 2017: https://countercurrents.org/2017/07/mosul-massacre-latest-in-iraqi-genocide-us-alliance-war-crimes-demand-icc-bds .

[104]. Ross Caputi, Richard Hill and Donna Mulhearn, “The sacking of Fallujah. A people’s history”, University of Massachusetts Press, 2019.

[105]. Gideon Polya, “4 Decade US War On Iran - Opiate Holocaust & 4 Million Iranian Deaths From Violence & Imposed Deprivation”, Stop state terrorism, 21 July 2019: https://sites.google.com/site/stopstateterrorism/2019-07-21 .

Dr Gideon Polya taught science students at a major Australian university for 4 decades. He published some 130 works in a 5 decade scientific career, most recently a huge pharmacological reference text "Biochemical Targets of Plant Bioactive Compounds" (CRC Press/Taylor & Francis, New York & London , 2003). He has published “Body Count. Global avoidable mortality since 1950” (G.M. Polya, Melbourne, 2007: http://globalbodycount.blogspot.com/ ); see also his contributions “Australian complicity in Iraq mass mortality” in “Lies, Deep Fries & Statistics” (edited by Robyn Williams, ABC Books, Sydney, 2007: http://www.abc.net.au/radionational/programs/ockhamsrazor/australian-complicity-in-iraq-mass-mortality/3369002#transcript

) and “Ongoing Palestinian Genocide” in “The Plight of the Palestinians (edited by William Cook, Palgrave Macmillan, London, 2010: http://mwcnews.net/focus/analysis/4047-the-plight-of-the-palestinians.html ). He has published a revised and updated 2008 version of his 1998 book “Jane Austen and the Black Hole of British History” (see: http://janeaustenand.blogspot.com/ ) as biofuel-, globalization- and climate-driven global food price increases threaten a greater famine catastrophe than the man-made famine in British-ruled India that killed 6-7 million Indians in the “forgotten” World War 2 Bengal Famine (see recent BBC broadcast involving Dr Polya, Economics Nobel Laureate Professor Amartya Sen and others: http://www.open.edu/openlearn/history-the-arts/history/social-economic-history/listen-the-bengal-famine ; Gideon Polya: https://sites.google.com/site/drgideonpolya/home ; Gideon Polya Writing: https://sites.google.com/site/gideonpolyawriting/ ; Gideon Polya, Wikipedia: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Gideon_Polya ) . When words fail one can say it in pictures - for images of Gideon Polya's huge paintings for the Planet, Peace, Mother and Child see: http://sites.google.com/site/artforpeaceplanetmotherchild/ and http://www.flickr.com/photos/gideonpolya/ .