Great Britain and the British Commonwealth are celebrating the Diamond Jubilee of Her Majesty Queen Elizabeth II, the 60th anniversary of her accession to the throne as Queen of Great Britain and various other countries and head of the British Commonwealth . However the enthusiastic celebrations for a much-admired and much-loved monarch should not hide the Awful Truth of the over 727 million avoidable deaths linked to British imperialism and neocolonialism over the last 60 years.
The most useful parameter for assessing the success or otherwise of social policy is avoidable death (excess death, excess mortality, avoidable mortality, deaths that did not have to happen) which for a country over a given period can be defined as the difference between deaths actually occurring and deaths expected for a peaceful and decently run country with the same demographics (the same population and age distribution). Avoidable deaths can be determined for all countries since 1950 using data available from the UN Population Division. Most of the victims of colonialism and neocolonialism die not from bullets or beating but from deprivation and deprivation-exacerbated disease.
A useful parameter is 1950-2005 avoidable mortality/2005 population expressed as a percentage and is (m = million) 9.750m/ 366.7m = 2.7% (Overseas Europe i.e. Australia, Canada, Apartheid Israel, New Zealand and the US), 19.680m/ 394.4m = 5.0% (Western Europe), 25.578m/ 338.8m = 7.6% (Eastern Europe), 50.579m/ 540.0m = 9.4% (Latin America and Caribbean), 168.585m/1,544.5m = 10.9% (East Asia), 49.147m/ 237.4m = 20.7% (Turkey, Iran and Central Asia), 70.536m/ 306.0m = 23.0% (Arab North Africa and Middle East), 140.222m/ 558.2m = 25.1% (South East Asia), 2.347m/ 8.6m = 27.3% (Pacific), 465.320m/ 1,459.0m = 31.9% (South Asia), and 300.8m/ 696.5m = 43.2% (non-Arab Africa).
The 1950-2005 avoidable mortality totals 1,300 million for the whole world, 1,200 million for the non-European World and about 600 million for the Muslim World, these estimates being consonant with independently determined under-5 year old infant mortality in the same period totaling 880 million for the whole world, 850 million for the non-European world and 400 million for the Muslim World. Data from the UN Population Division indicate that avoidable deaths in the Developing World (excluding China) currently total about 18 million per year, a global avoidable mortality holocaust much greater than the WW2 Jewish Holocaust (5-6 million killed, 1 in 6 dying from the deprivation) and the “forgotten” WW2 Bengali Holocaust (6-7 million Indians starved to death by the British in 1942-1945 with Australian complicity) but less than the Zionist-ignored WW2 European Holocaust (30 million Slavs, Jews and Gypsies killed) and the WW2 Chinese Holocaust (35 million Chinese dying under Japanese occupation) (see my book “Body Count. Global avoidable mortality since 1950” that usefully provides a mortality-related history every country in the world since the Neolithic era and which is now available for free perusal on the Web: http://globalbodycount.blogspot.com.au/ ) .
The summary data provided below is of 1950-2005 avoidable mortality/ 2005 population (both in millions, m) and expressed as a percentage (%) for the UK, for each country occupied by the UK since WW2 (listed alphabetically) and as a total for all the countries subject to occupation by the UK in the post-1945 era.. The asterisk (*) below indicates a major occupation by more than one country in the post-WW2 era (thus both the UK and the US were major occupiers of Afghanistan , Iraq and Korea , leaving aside the many other minor participants). The data derive from Chapter 3 of my book “Body Count. Global avoidable mortality since 1950” http://globalbodycount.blogspot.com.au/2012/01/chapter-3-correlates-and-causes-of-post.html .
UK [4.411m/59.598m = 7.4%] – Afghanistan* [16.609m/25.971m = 64.0%], Bahamas [0.007m/0.321m = 2.3%], Bahrain [0.054m/0.754m = 7.2%], Bangladesh* [51.196m/152.593m = 33.6%], Barbados [0.015m/0.272m = 5.5%], Belize [0.014m/0.266m = 5.3%], Bhutan [0.908m/2.392m = 38.0%], Botswana [0.443m/1.801m = 24.6%], Brunei [0.020m/0.374m = 5.3%], Cameroon* [6.669m/16.564m = 40.3%], Cyprus [0.054m/0.813m = 6.6%]; Egypt* [19.818m/74.878m = 26.5%], Eritrea* [1.757m/4.456m = 39.4%], Ethiopia [36.133m/74.189m = 48.7%], Fiji [0.054m/0.854m = 6.3%], Gambia [0.606m/1.499m = 47.6%], Ghana [6.089m/21.833m = 27.9%], Greece* [0.027m/10.978m = 0.2%], Grenada* [0.018m/0.121m = 14.9%], Guyana [0.086m/0.768m = 11.2%], Hong Kong [0.125m/7.182m = 1.7%], India [351.900m/1096.917m = 32.1%], Iraq* [5.283m/26.555m = 19.9%], Israel [0.095m/6.685 = 1.4%], Jamaica [0.245m/2.701m =9.1%], Jordan* [0.630m/5.750m = 11.0%], Kenya [10.015m/32.849m = 30.5%], Korea* [7.958m/71.058m = 11.2%], Kuwait* [0.089m/2.671m = 3.3%], Lesotho [0.951m/1.797m =52.9%], Libya [0.785m/5.768m =13.6%], Malawi [6.976m/12.572m = 55.5%], Malaysia [2.344m/25.325m = 9.3%], Maldives [0.015m/0.338m = 4.4%], Malta [0.019m/0.397m = 4.8%], Myanmar [20.174m/50.696 = 39.8%], Nepal [10.650m/26.289m = 40.5%], Nigeria [49.737m/130.236m =38.2%], Occupied Palestinian Territories [0.677m/3.815m = 17.7%], Oman [0.359m/3.020m =11.9%], Pakistan [49.700m/161.151m = 30.8%], Qatar [0.029m/0.628m = 4.6%], Saint Lucia [0.012m/0.152m = 7.9%], Saint Vincent & Grenadines [0.018m/0.121m =14.9%], Sierra Leone [4.548m/5.340m = 85.2%], Singapore [0.113m/4.372m = 2.6%], Solomon Islands* [0.050m/0.504m = 48.5%], Somalia* [5.568m/10.742m =51.8%], Sri Lanka [0.951m/19.366m = 4.9%], Sudan [13.471m/35.040m = 38.4%], Swaziland [0.471m/1.087m = 43.3%], Tanzania [14.682m/38.365m =38.3%], Tonga [0.020m/0.106m = 18.9%], Trinidad & Tobago [0.052m/1.311m = 4.0%], Uganda [11.121m/27.623m = 40.3%], United Arab Emirates [0.087m/3.106m =2.8%], Vanuatu [0.037m/0.222m = 16.7%], Yemen [6.798m/21.480m = 31.6%], Zambia [5.463m/11.043m = 49.5%], Zimbabwe [4.653m/12.963m =35.9%], total = 727.448m/2247.711m = 32.4%.
The 727 million avoidable deaths linked to British imperialism and neocolonialism over the period 1950-2005 can be compared to Indian avoidable deaths that totaled about 600 million (1757-1837), 500 million (under Queen Victoria, 1837-1901) and 400 million (from 1901-1947). The largest death toll associated with 55 years in the New Elizabethan Age is due to the much larger populations involved. The 727 million avoidable deaths linked to the UK in the period 1950-2005 can be compared to those in the same period in countries variously subjugated at some point since 1945 by other imperialist nations e.g. 142 million (due to France), 82 million (due to the US) and 24 million (due to Apartheid Israel).
The carnage continues. 18 million Third Worlders die avoidably on Spaceship Earth with the UK and its prosperous Anglo colonial offshoots of the US , Canada , Australia , New Zealand and Apartheid Israel having a major say on the running of flight deck. The UK has a major complicity (variously as the former colonial power and through diplomatic and military input) in the ongoing Palestinian Genocide (0.1 million violent deaths and 1.9 million avoidable deaths from deprivation, 1936-2012, and 7 million refugees), the ongoing Somali Genocide (0.4 million violent deaths and 1.8 million avoidable deaths from deprivation, 1992-2012, and 2 million refugees), the ongoing Iraqi Genocide (1.7 million violent deaths and 2.9 million avoidable deaths, 1990-2012, and 5-6 million refugees), the ongoing Afghan Genocide ( 1.4 million violent deaths and 4.2 million avoidable deaths, 2001-2012, and 3-4 million refugees), and the ongoing Libyan Genocide (0.1 million violent deaths, 2011-2012, and 1 million refugees) (for the Awful Truth see “Muslim Holocaust, Muslim Genocide”: https://sites.google.com/site/muslimholocaustmuslimgenocide/ ).
Of the 12 million Muslims killed since 1990 in the US-UK War on Muslims and of the 20 million Muslim refugees generated about half have been children. Thou shalt not kill children. Peace is the only way but silence kills and silence is complicity. Please tell everyone you can – because the Mainstream media of the Western Murdochracies and Lobbyocracies certainly won’t but will continue with holocaust-ignoring, genocide-ignoring censorship, lies of commission, and lies of omission. The celebrations for the much-loved Queen Elizabeth II hide an awful ongoing reality of British involvement in deadly neocolonialism and genocidal wars, with Syria and Iran likely to be the next victims.
By Dr Gideon Polya
07 June, 2012
@ Countercurrents.org
Dr Gideon Polya has been teaching 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/rn/science/ockham/stories/s1445960.htm ) 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.open2.net/thingsweforgot/ bengalfamine_programme.html ). 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/ .