Oz taxpayer-funded ABC ignores 6 million US-complicit under-5 infant deaths

The taxpayer-funded Australian Broadcasting Corporation (the ABC) is Australia’s equivalent of the UK BBC. Like the UK BBC, the ABC has an appalling record of remorseless lying by omission and lying by commission. The extent of this travesty by the ABC can be readily assessed by using the ABC Search Engine that enables one to “search the entire ABC site” for patent falsehoods that the ABC promulgates and for horrendous truths that it refuses to report. The most appalling Awful Truth that the ABC refuses to report is horrendous global infant mortality and in particular infant mortality in countries subject to invasion and occupation by the US Alliance.

“Under-5 infant deaths” is a crucial parameter for assessing the consequences of political actions. The UN Population Division (see: http://esa.un.org/wpp/unpp/panel_po... ) and UNICEF (see: http://www.unicef.org/infobycountry/ ) provide regularly updated estimates of “under-5 infant deaths’ for every country in the World – the Awful Truth is just a few mouse-clicks away.

“Under-5 infant deaths” are about 0.7 of avoidable deaths from deprivation and deprivation-exacerbated disease in impoverished Developing Countries and accordingly if you know the annual “under-5 infant deaths” in a country such as US Alliance-occupied Afghanistan (currently 237,000 per year ) one can readily estimate annual avoidable deaths (currently 237,000 per year /0.7 = 339,000 per year in Occupied Afghanistan and roughly 3.4 million over 10 years).

In 2003 global avoidable mortality on Spaceship Earth with the US in charge of the flight deck totalled 16.0 million and under-5 infant deaths totalled 10.6 million (see my book “Body Count. Global avoidable mortality since 1950”: http://globalavoidablemortality.blo... ).

It is estimated from expert climate scientist assessments that 6 billion under-5 year old infants will die avoidably this century due to unaddressed man-made global warming (see “Climate Genocide”: https://sites.google.com/site/clima... ).

The Ruler is responsible for the Ruled. Thus under dictator Gaddafi Libya enjoyed the lowest under-5 infant mortality in Africa (18 deaths per 1,000 live births as compared to 8 in the US) whereas under US Alliance occupation the under-5 infant mortality in Occupied Afghanistan is 199 deaths per 1,000 live births (see WHO: http://www.who.int/countries/en/ ).

On this basis the corrupt, racist and genocide-complicit International Criminal Court (ICC) should have demanded arraignment before the ICC of Barack Obama and his US Alliance associates, notably George Bush I, Bill Clinton and George Bush II (US), Tony Blair, Gordon Brown and David Cameron (UK), Nicolas Sarkozy (France), Angela Merkel (Germany), Stephen Harper (Canada), John Howard, Kevin Rudd and Julia Gillard (Australia) and John Key (New Zealand).

Holocaust involves the untimely deaths of huge numbers of people but genocide is defined by Article 2 of the UN Genocide Convention thus: “In the present Convention, genocide means any of the following acts committed with intent to destroy, in whole or in part, a national, ethnical, racial or religious group, as such: (a) Killing members of the group; (b) Causing serious bodily or mental harm to members of the group; (c) Deliberately inflicting on the group conditions of life calculated to bring about its physical destruction in whole or in part; (d) Imposing measures intended to prevent births within the group; (e) Forcibly transferring children of the group to another group” (see: https://sites.google.com/site/musli... ).

The UN Genocide Convention demands prosecution of all those complicit in genocide. Further, Article 55 and 56 of the Geneva Convention Relative to the Protection of Civilian Persons in Time of War demands that at Occupier must provide life-sustaining food and medical services “to the fullest extent of the means available to it”. The US Alliance is clearly grossly violating the UN Genocide Convention and the Geneva Convention in Occupied Afghanistan as evidenced by horrendous post-invasion avoidable deaths (4.2 million) and post-invasion under-5 infant deaths (2.9 million, 90% avoidable and due to US Alliance war crimes).

However the US Alliance is violently occupying other countries and the post-invasion under-5 infant deaths now total 2.0 million (Iraq, 1990-2011), 2.9 million (Afghanistan, 2001-2011), 1.3 million (Somalia, 1992-2011), 0.2 million (Palestine, 1967-2011) and 0.2 million (Haiti, 2004-2011). this carnage totalling 6.6 million under-5 infant deaths, with 90% (about 6 million) being avoidable and due to war-maker war crimes.

These estimates corresponding to total avoidable deaths from deprivation of 2.9 million (Iraq), 4.2 million (Afghanistan), 1.8 million (Somalia), 0.3 million (Palestine) and 0.2 million (Haiti). By way of comparison, post-invasion estimated violent deaths total 1.7 million (Iraq), 1.4 million (Afghanistan) and 0.4 million (Somalia) (see “Muslim Holocaust, Muslim Genocide”: https://sites.google.com/site/musli... ).

Yet this carnage goes essentially unreported by the Western Mainstream media , including Australia’s taxpayer-funded ABC. Thus a search of “the entire ABC site” for the term “under-5 infant deaths” yields only 3 results linking to only 2 items, and both of them due to me (see: http://search.abc.net.au/search/sea... ).

Item #1 was a broadcast talk I gave on the ABC Radio National Ockham’s Razor program in 2005 about the horrendous civilian deaths associated with the Iraq War (Gideon Polya, “Australian complicity in Iraq mass mortality”, ABC Radio National Ockham’s Razor, 28 August 2005: http://www.abc.net.au/rn/ockhamsraz... ). This talk was later published as chapter entitled Gideon Polya, “Australian complicity in Iraq mass mortality”, in Robyn Williams (editor), “Lies, Deep Fries & Statistics”, ABC Books, 2007, pp97-103: http://shop.abc.net.au/products/lie... .

Some key quotes from this talk relevant to “under-5 infant deaths”: “The post-1950 avoidable mortality has been 1.3 billion for the world, 1 billion for the Third World and 0.5 billion for the Muslim World, a Muslim Holocaust 100 times greater than the Jewish Holocaust or the contemporaneous but ’forgotten’ Bengal Famine in British-ruled India. These figures are horrendous and demand some kind of corroboration. To achieve this I have independently calculated the post-1950 under-5 infant mortality for every country in the world. The post-1950 under-5 infant mortality has totalled about 0.9 billion for the world, 0.8 billion for the non-European world and 0.4 billion for the Muslim world. One can calculate from United Nations demographic data that about 90% of the non-European under-5 infant mortality has been potentially avoidable…

The latest UNICEF report in 2005 estimates that for the year 2003 the under-5 infant mortality was 110,000 in occupied Iraq, 292,000 in occupied Afghanistan and 1,000 in the invading and occupying country Australia (noting that these countries have populations of about 25-million, 24-million and 20-million respectively). Using publicly available United Nations and medical literature data one can readily calculate that there have been about 0.4 million avoidable deaths in post-invasion Iraq…

The US, UK and Australia are clearly complicit in horrendous avoidable mortality and infant mortality in a swathe of invaded Asian countries in the post-1950 era. This now raises the philosophic issue of responsibility. The occupying ruler is responsible for the ruled, (noting ’occupation’ includes military, economic and political hegemony and rule by client indigenous regimes). Further, whether an adult or child is killed violently or dies non-violently from deprivation or avoidable disease, the end result is the same and the culpability the same. In 2004 the estimated per capita medical expenditure was only $US37 in occupied Iraq, but $US3,100 in the invading and occupying country, Australia. This roughly one-hundredfold difference in per capita medical expenditure is reflected in a one-hundredfold difference in under-5 infant mortality. The provision of grossly inappropriate medical assistance in occupied Iraq at only about 1% of the per capita level in the occupying Coalition countries is criminal and genocidal…

Jihadist violence has taken roughly about 5,000 Western civilian lives over the last 20 years, with most of the victims dying on 9/11 (about 3,000) and the remainder including murdered Israeli civilians and the victims of atrocities such as Madrid, Lockerbie and Bali. However this jihadist violence has had immensely bloodier consequences through the hysterically and dishonestly promoted War on Terror that has been associated with post-invasion avoidable deaths in Iraq and Afghanistan alone that total 1.6 million. The War on Terror has substantially helped to produce a post-9/11 extra profit for the US military-industrial complex of about $US500 billion. The annual world death toll from car accidents and smoking-related causes is about 1 million and 5 million respectively. One can see why there is no War on Cars nor a War on Cigarettes.”

Item #2 was my comment (buried among 5,505 comment thread comments but reproduced below) adding my name to an Open Letter to pro-war, pro-Zionist, pro-US imperialism Australian Labor PM Julia Gillard in support Australian hero and Wikileaks founder Julian Assange (see Jeff Sparrow and Elizabeth O’Shea, “Open Letter: to Julia Gillard, re Julian Assange”, The Drum, 7 December 2010: http://www.abc.net.au/unleashed/419... ):

“Dr Gideon Polya: 08 Dec 2010, 9:15:09 am

A 5-decade career scientist, I fully support this letter over Julian Assange, an Australian and World hero for defending freedom of information that is vital for science-based risk management in an increasingly dangerous world.

The US lackey Australia Labor Government has fundamentally betrayed Australia in supporting censorship of WikiLeaks.

Actually the Wikileaks US documents re pro-war Rudd are unexceptional (we already knew that Labor is pro-war, pro-US and anti-Asian).

The REAL WikiLeaks scandal is that Mainstream media, academics and politicians will simply NOT report the WHO-, UN- and UNICEF-documented 2.6 million post-invasion under-5 infant deaths in US Alliance-occupied Afghanistan (90% avoidable due to Geneva Convention- and UN Genocide-violating US Alliance war crimes for which complicit Australian MPs and others should be arraigned, tried and punished).”

The Australian taxpayer-funded ABC is complicit in holocaust commission, genocide commission, holocaust ignoring and genocide ignoring, noting that holocaust ignoring is far, far worse that repugnant holocaust denial because at least the latter admits the possibility of public discussion.

Through its lying by omission and lying by commission the ABC has become an accessory after the fact to an Australia-complicit Iraqi Holocaust, Iraqi Genocide, Afghan Holocaust and Afghan Genocide, yet searches “of the entire ABC site” for these terms results in ZERO (0) results. Yet a massive lie of commission is the ABC’s view of itself: “The ABC is Australia’s most trusted, independent source of news. Our network of more than 500 journalists at home and abroad provide unrivalled coverage of the news events that affect Australians” (see: http://topsy.com/www.abc.net.au/4co... ).

ABC journalists around the World should be brought to account for their cowardly inhumanity and their silence in the face of the US Alliance mass murder of Muslim children. Lord Haw Haw (William Joyce) was hanged by the British for his complicity as a journalist in Nazi crimes but civilized people are opposed to the death penalty and indeed any constraints on freedom of speech. How then should ABC journalists be brought to book as accessories to mass murder?

The correct and humane direction is provided by Dr Mahathir who as PM of Malaysia gave that country on of the lowest under-5 infant mortality rates in the World that is currently (in terms of under-5 infant deaths per 1,000 live births) is 6 as compared to 5 (UK), 5 (Australia), 6 (Canada) and 8 (the US).

Dr Mahathir suggested a non-government non-UN war crimes tribunal of eminent World citizens (akin to the War Crimes Tribunal on Iraq that included brilliant, humanitarian Indian writer Arundhati Roy) and punishment of the perpetrators merely by the ignominy of public exposure for involvement in the mass murder of children – they would always carry the label “War Criminal, Killer of Children, Liar”.

As reported by the Perdana Global Peace Organization: "The former Malaysian prime minister Mahathir Mohamad hosted the conference and won applause yesterday for calling for the leaders to be tried by an unofficial tribunal for war crimes in Iraq. He said the war had caused more terror than al-Qaeda."We should not hang Blair if the tribunal finds him guilty, but he should always carry the label ’War Criminal, Killer of Children, Liar’," said Dr Mahathir in a speech illustrated by pictures of wounded children, deformed babies and tortured men. "And so should Bush and the pocket Bush of the Bushland of Australia," he said, referring to the [Australian] Prime Minister, John Howard" (see “Can children save the World’s children” (through school genocide and war crimes tribunals ), Countercurrents, 10 October 2009: http://www.countercurrents.org/poly... ).

Peace is the only way but silence kills and silence is complicity. The Occupy Movement currently exposing the violation of the 99% by the 1% in the Western Murdochracies and Lobbyocracies must also expose the mass paedocidal crimes of the Necon American and Zionist Imperialists (NAZIs) who are still devastating much of the Muslim World (post-1990 US war-related Muslim deaths now total 12 million).

All decent people must (a) inform everyone they can – including MPs and media - about US Alliance mass murder of Muslim children and (b) take action through sanctions and boycotts against the perpetrators and their media accomplices.

The World is facing a worsening climate crisis (for a collection of expert opinions see “Are we doomed?”: http://gideonclimate.blogspot.com/) and we can no longer tolerate mainstream media lying, whether by commission or omission. The Australian ABC is not exceptional in its remorseless lying by omission and commission but the West’s worst is the Murdoch Media Empire lead by former Australian Rupert Murdoch and accordingly we all should Boycott Murdoch Media (see: https://sites.google.com/site/boyco... ).