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By rt.com

The top US military official in the Pacific has warned Beijing off taking control over the disputed South China Sea, while an American think tank has published photos it says prove that China has installed weapons on seven separate manmade islands in the disputed maritime route.

“We will not allow a shared domain to be closed down unilaterally no matter how many bases are built on artificial features in the South China Sea,” the commander of the US Pacific Command, Admiral Harry Harris, said during a speech in Sydney, Australia. “We will cooperate when we can but we will be ready to confront when we must.”

Washington has urged Beijing to comply with the ruling of the tribunal, assembled under the auspices of the United Nations Convention on the Law of the Sea, which rejected China’s historical claims on the water mass. Beijing does not accept the authority of the tribunal.

Harris said that China “can choose to disregard the rule-based international order, or contribute to it as a responsible stakeholder.” Harris, who was appointed by President Barack Obama last year, promised that America’s “enduring interests” would not change after the inauguration of Donald Trump early next year.

Beijing has rejected US comments as interference in the international standoff, which also involves the Philippines, Malaysia, Indonesia, Brunei, Vietnam and Taiwan.

“We hope the United States can abide by its promises on not taking sides on the sovereignty dispute in the South China Sea, respect the efforts of countries in the region to maintain peace and stability in the South China Sea region and do more to promote peace and stability there,” Chinese Foreign Ministry spokesman Geng Shuang said in a public briefing in Beijing.

On Wednesday, the Asia Maritime Transparency Initiative (AMTI), a Washington-based research institute, published a report claiming that China is in the process of installing “significant point-defense capabilities, in the form of large anti-aircraft guns and probable close-in weapons systems (CIWS)” on the seven artificial islands it has created in the South China Sea.

These islands, which feature long runways, ports, and communications buildings, have been constructed in shallow waters since 2014, and now have a combined surface area of 1,300 hectares. AMTI says it spent “months” studying satellite photos of military structures that are being erected on the bases before going public.

“This is the first time that we’re confident in saying they are anti-aircraft and CIWS emplacements. We did not know that they had systems this big and this advanced there,” AMTI director Greg Poling told Reuters.

“This is militarization. The Chinese can argue that it’s only for defensive purposes, but if you are building giant anti-aircraft gun and CIWS emplacements, it means that you are prepping for a future conflict. They keep saying they are not militarizing, but they could deploy fighter jets and surface-to-air missiles tomorrow if they wanted to,” he added.

14 December 2016

By Deirdre Fulton

The Syrian government is reportedly in control of eastern Aleppo, according to news reports on Tuesday afternoon, with a deal having been reached to evacuate civilians and opposition fighters.

Damascus confirmed the evacuation deal and the United Nations envoy for Syria, Staffan de Mistura, reportedly told the Associated Press in a text message that the safe withdrawal of people from the besieged area was now “imminent,” amid reports of attacks on civilians. A senior Turkish official and rebel officials similarly confirmed the news to the Guardian.

“An agreement has been reached for the evacuation of the residents of Aleppo, civilians and fighters with their light weapons, from the besieged districts of east Aleppo,” Yasser al-Youssef, from the political office of the key Nurredin al-Zinki Syrian rebel group, toldAgence France-Presse.

He said the deal was “sponsored by Russia and Turkey” and would be implemented “within hours.”

Reuters reports:

“The fighters are going to leave the city,” Russian UN Ambassador Vitaly Churkin told reporters in New York.

Rebel officials said fighting would end on Tuesday evening and a source in the pro-Assad military alliance said the evacuation of fighters would begin at around dawn on Wednesday. A Reuters reporter in Aleppo said late on Tuesday that the booms of the bombardment could no longer be heard.

Fighters and their families, along with civilians who have thrown in their lot with the rebels, will have until Wednesday evening to quit the city, a Turkish government source said on Tuesday. The ceasefire was negotiated by Turkey and Russia.

The United States was not involved in brokering the deal, according to the U.S. State Department. The U.S. did reportedly call for international observers to be allowed in Aleppo to oversee the evacuation of civilians.

According to the Guardian, a “senior Turkish official said Ankara and Moscow would act as guarantors of the agreement, which would allow ‘civilians and moderate rebels with light weapons’ to leave Aleppo for Idlib province.”

The official said: “Once they reach Idlib, they will be free to relocate.”

Amid concerns about alleged attacks on civilians—the UN human rights office said it had reliable evidence that up to 82 civilians were shot on the spot by government and allied forces on Tuesday—Amnesty International warned that Aleppo’s civilian population may still be at risk.

“It is now crucial that independent monitors are deployed to ensure that the civilian population is protected and that humanitarian access is granted so that life-saving aid can reach all those in need,” said Lynn Maalouf, deputy director for research at Amnesty’s Beirut regional office.

UN High Commissioner for Human Rights Zeid Ra’ad al-Hussein echoed that charge in a statement, saying, “we are nowhere near the end of this cruel conflict.”

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First published in CommonDreams.org

14 December 2016

By Ralph Nader

Even for a failed gambling czar, Donald Trump has been surprisingly quick to show his hand as he sets the course of his forthcoming presidency. With a reactionary fervor, he is bursting backwards into the future. He has accomplished this feat through the first wave of nominations to his Cabinet and White House staff.

Only if there is a superlative to the word “nightmare” can the dictionary provide a description of his bizarre selection of men and women marinated either in corporatism or militarism, with strains of racism, class cruelty and ideological rigidity. Many of Mr. Trump’s nominees lack an appreciation of the awesome responsibilities of public office.

Let’s run through Trump’s “picks”:

First there are the selections that will make it easier to co-opt the Republicans in Congress. He has appointed Elaine Chao, the wife of Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell, for Secretary of Transportation. Ms. Chao does not like regulation of big business, such as those for auto, aviation, railroad and pipeline safety. Next is Congressman Tom Price (R-GA) to lead the Department of Health and Human Services. Price wants to dump Obamacare, turn over control of Medicaid to the states – including Governors who dislike Medicaid – and even privatize (eg. corporatize) Medicare itself into the hands of the business sector already defrauding just that program by about $60 billion a year.

Trump selected Congressman Mike Pompeo (R-KS) to be the Director of the Central Intelligence Agency (CIA). Pompeo is a cold war warrior who believes in a militaristic, interventionist CIA, especially toward Iran, taking that agency even further away from its original mission of gathering intelligence.

Then come the Generals. Notwithstanding the Constitutional imperative that there should be civilian control over the military, Trump has placed two generals in charge of foreign and domestic military theatres. For Secretary of Defense, Trump chose recently retired Marine General James Mattis. This “Mad Dog” believes Barack Obama to be too weak, indecisive and without a strategic plan for the Middle East. He looks very much like he is a believer in the American Empire and the U.S. being the policeman for the world.

The next general is retired Marine Gen. John Kelly, chosen to run the Department of Homeland Security. He is seen as a modern believer in the Monroe Doctrine over the Hispanic world south of Florida and the Rio Grande. He shares dangerous views on Iran and Islam with Gen. Mattis.

Inside the White House, retired General Mike Flynn is slated to take the post as national security adviser. His public statements against Islam being an ideological, existential threat to the U.S., and his proliferation of inaccurate conspiracy theories have alienated his former colleagues in the military, including reportedly the incoming Secretary of Defense.

Then there are the Trump nominees selected to run the departments whose numerous missions under existing law they want to dismantle. The proposed Secretary of Labor, Andrew Puzder, is a chain restaurateur adamantly against raising the federal minim wage of $7.25 an hour and his labor views are so extreme that a progressive group of restaurant owners organized to oppose his exploitative positions and argue for a fair minimum wage.  In another flagrant display of bureaucratic obstruction, Trump wants to appoint climate change denier Scott Pruitt to head the EPA, the same agency he, as Oklahoma Attorney General, fought tirelessly to undermine.

Another magnet for Trump’s nominations are those who made big donations to his campaign. For Linda McMahon’s $7 million to pro-Trump Super PACs, she gets to head the Small Business Administration. As a highly controversial professional wrestling CEO, she worked to monopolize the professional wrestling market and stifle competition.

For the Department of Education, school children and their teachers will face Betsy DeVos. From a billionaire family, she is a ferocious advocate of using taxpayer money in the form of vouchers for private schools. She makes no bones about her hatred of public schools and her desire to have commercial managers of school systems.

To lead the Justice Department, Trump has selected Senator Jeff Sessions (R-AL), who is big on police surveillance, weak on civil rights enforcement, a hard-liner on immigration and very mixed on corporate crime.

Add these strong-willed ideologues, coupled with Trump’s easily bruised ego, Twitter-tantrums on trivial matters and his penchant to always be the decision-making strongman, and you’ve got the making of an explosive regime with daily eruptions.

Whatever the media makes of the inevitable intrigue, in-fighting and likely resistance by the civil service to adhere to their lawful missions, it is the people who will be paying the price. President Trump will use the media to sugarcoat, falsify, distract, intimidate, glorify and massify the millions of people who believed, once upon a recent time, that he would “Make America Great Again.”

As the profiteers of Wall Street and the war hawks blend with the corporate statists, the super-confident Trump is telling us what their products will be like and that he’ll be their salesman.

If you think all this sounds predictable, there are going to be more than a few “black swans” (to use Nassim Taleb’s best-selling book title) coming over the horizon. It is time to mobilize as citizens in the Paul Revere mode.

This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-Share Alike 3.0 License

Ralph Nader is a consumer advocate, lawyer, and author. His latest book is The Seventeen Solutions: Bold Ideas for Our American Future. Other recent books include, The Seventeen Traditions: Lessons from an American Childhood, Getting Steamed to Overcome Corporatism: Build It Together to Win, and “Only The Super-Rich Can Save Us” (a novel).

13 December 2016

By Nauman Sadiq

During the last couple of months, two very similar military campaigns have simultaneously been going on in Syria and Iraq, while the Syrian offensive with Russian air support against the militants in east Aleppo has been reviled as an assault against humanity, the military campaign in Mosul by the Iraqi armed forces and Shi’a militias with American air support has been lauded as the struggle for “liberation” by the mainstream media.

Although the campaign in Mosul is against the Islamic State while in east Aleppo the Syrian regime has launched a military offensive against the so-called “moderate rebels,” but the distinction between Islamic jihadists and “moderate” militants is more illusory than real.

Before it turned rogue and overran Mosul in Iraq, the Islamic State used to be an integral part of the Syrian opposition against the regime and it still enjoys close ideological and operational ties with other militant groups in Syria. Keep in mind that although turf wars are common not just between the Islamic State and other militant outfits in Syria, but also among the rebel groups themselves; however, the ultimate objective of the Islamic State and the rest of militant outfits in Syria is the same: that is, to overthrow the Shi’a majority regime of Bashar al-Assad.

It is not a coincidence then that when the regime was on the verge of winning a resounding victory against the militants holed up in east Aleppo, the Islamic State came to the rescue of its brothers-in-arms by opening up a new front in Palmyra from where it had been evicted in March. Consequently, the regime has to send reinforcements from Aleppo to Palmyra in order to defend the city and thus the momentum of the military offensive in east Aleppo has stalled.

It defies explanation that while the US has announced the Phase II of the military campaign against the Islamic State in Syria and the Kurdish-led Syrian Democratic Forces (SDF) have amassed north of the Islamic State’s bastion in al-Raqqah, instead of buttressing its defenses against the SDF in the north, the Islamic State has launched an offensive against the Syrian regime in the south? In order to answer this perplexing question, we need to revisit the ideology, composition and objectives of the Islamic State in Syria.

Unlike al Qaeda, which is a terrorist organization that generally employs anticolonial and anti-West rhetoric to draw funds and followers, the Islamic State and the majority of militant groups in Syria are basically anti-Shi’a sectarian outfits. By the designation “terrorism” it is generally implied and understood that an organization which has the intentions and capability of carrying out acts of terrorism on the Western soil.

Though the Islamic State has carried out a few acts of terrorism against the Western countries, such as the high profile Paris and Brussels attacks, but if we look at the pattern of its subversive activities, especially in the Middle East, it generally targets the Shi’a Muslims in Syria and Iraq. A few acts of terrorism that it has carried out in the Gulf Arab states were also directed against the Shi’a Muslims in the Eastern province of Saudi Arabia and Shi’a mosques in Yemen and Kuwait.

Many biased political commentators of the mainstream media deliberately try to muddle the reality in order to link the emergence of the Islamic State to the ill-conceived invasion of Iraq in 2003 by the Bush Administration. Their motive behind this chicanery is to absolve the Obama Administration’s policy of supporting the Syrian opposition against the Syrian regime since the beginning of the Syrian civil war until June 2014 when Islamic State overran Mosul and Obama Administration made an about-face on its previous policy of indiscriminate support to the Syrian opposition and declared a war against a faction of Syrian opposition: that is, the Islamic State.

Moreover, such spin-doctors also try to find the roots of Islamic State in al-Qaeda in Iraq; however, the insurgency in Iraq died down after “the Iraq surge” of 2007. Al-Qaeda in Iraq became an impotent organization after the death of Abu Musab al Zarqawi and the subsequent surge of troops in Iraq. The re-eruption of insurgency in Iraq has been the spillover effect of nurturing militants in Syria against the Assad regime, when the Islamic State overran Fallujah and parts of Ramadi in January 2014 and subsequently captured Mosul in June 2014.

The borders between Syria and Iraq are quite porous and it’s impossible to contain the flow of militants and arms between the two countries. The Obama Administration’s policy of providing money, arms and training to the Syrian militants in the training camps located at the border regions of Turkey and Jordan was bound to backfire sooner or later.

Notwithstanding, in order to simplify the Syrian theater of proxy wars for the sake of readers, I would divide it into three separate and distinct zones of influence. Firstly, the northern and northwestern zone along the Syria-Turkey border, in and around Aleppo and Idlib, which is under the influence of Turkey and Qatar.

Both of these countries share the ideology of Muslim Brotherhood and they provide money, training and arms to the Sunni Arab jihadist organizations like al-Tawhid Brigade, Nour al-Din Zenki Brigade and Ahrar al-Sham in the training camps located at the border regions of Turkey.

Secondly, the southern zone of influence along the Syria-Jordan border, in Daraa and Quneitra and as far away as Homs and Damascus. It is controlled by the Saudi-Jordanian camp and they provide money, weapons and training to the Salafist militant groups such as al-Nusra Front and the Southern Front of the so-called “moderate” Free Syria Army in Daraa and Quneitra, and Jaysh al-Islam in the suburbs of Damascus.

Their military strategy is directed by a Military Operations Center (MOC) and training camps located in the border regions of Jordan. Here let me clarify that this distinction is quite overlapping and heuristic at best, because al-Nusra’s jihadists have taken part in battles as far away as Idlib and Aleppo.

And finally, the eastern zone of influence along the Syria-Iraq border, in al-Raqqah and Deir al-Zor, which has been controlled by a relatively maverick Iraq-based jihadist outfit, the Islamic State. Thus, leaving the Mediterranean coast and Syria’s border with Lebanon, the Baathist and Shi’a-dominated Syrian regime has been surrounded from all three sides by the hostile Sunni forces: Turkey and Muslim Brotherhood in the north, Jordan and the Salafists of the Gulf Arab States in the south and the Sunni Arab-majority regions of Mosul and Anbar in Iraq in the east.

The bottom line is that although the American efforts to stall the momentum of the Islamic jihadists’ expansion in Iraq appears to be sincere, but the Western powers and their regional allies are still pursuing the duplicitous policy of using the Syrian militants, including the Islamic State, to destabilize the Assad regime in Syria.

Nauman Sadiq is an Islamabad-based attorney, columnist and geopolitical analyst focused on the politics of Af-Pak and MENA regions, energy politics and Petroimperialism.

12 December 2016

By Nile Bowie

President-elect Donald Trump’s phone call with the president of Taiwan was initially reported as a protocol-shattering blunder initiated by the Taiwanese government rather than Trump himself.

American presidents have not directly communicated with Taiwan’s leadership since 1979 when the Nixon-era shift in policy established formal direct ties between Washington and Beijing.

Though many were skeptical of the administration’s explanation of the exchange as a routine congratulatory call, it has since been established that the conversation had been quietly planned months in advance by Trump’s advisors.

Former senator Bob Dole also played a key role coordinating between Taiwanese officials and the Trump campaign, reportedly lobbying as a foreign agent for the government of Taiwan behind the scenes.

This was a calculated signal that the incoming administration, which has associated itself with several prominent Taiwan proponents, is planning to break with the past in pursuit of a tougher recalibration of relations with China.

Trump obviously knew the call would antagonize Beijing but went ahead, reinforcing the gesture with an incendiary string of tweets channeling campaign rhetoric accusing Beijing of currency manipulation.

The president-elect was serving notice to Beijing that it is dealing with a different kind of president, one who seemingly equates traditionally adhered to gestures of respect for China’s interests with kowtowing to their leadership.

He also addressed detractors by pointing out the irony of a phone call being portrayed as controversial when the US has sold billions in arms to Taiwan’s government and long underwritten the island’s security as a matter of policy.

Several leading members of Trump’s transition team, including incoming chief of staff Reince Priebus, are considered hawkish on China and friendly toward Taiwan, with some even supportive of formalizing diplomatic recognition.

At the Republican National Convention in July, Trump’s allies reaffirmed support for Reagan-era assurances to Taiwan in the party platform, using much tougher language against China than the previous iteration four years ago.

John Bolton, the Iraq war-era former US Ambassador to the United Nations, now under consideration for the role of Washington’s top diplomat, is said to have encouraged the Taiwanese leadership to approach the president-elect.

Bolton has advocated a calculated escalation of the Taiwan dispute by officially receiving Taiwanese diplomats at the State Department in a lead-up to full diplomatic recognition to gain leverage over China.

It goes without saying that such a policy prescription would be an unmitigated shakeup of Sino-US relations with the potential even to trigger military tensions that would be detrimental to both countries and the global economy at large.

That Trump’s top advisers and contenders for Secretary of State are flirting with such ideas is very alarming. The United States gains nothing from engaging in polemics with its biggest trading partner and largest holder of US Treasury debt.

It is fundamental to understand that China sees Taiwan as an integral part of its territory, regarding it as a breakaway province and even threatening to use force to prevent Taiwan from declaring independence.

As far as China is concerned, this is an issue of territorial integrity, sovereignty and war-and-peace. Discussion of the issue has always been non-negotiable and Beijing considers the ‘one-China principle’ to be the bedrock of Sino-US relations.

Should the Trump administration pursue a new approach toward China, it is crucial that both sides take care not to overplay their hand. China today is also far less-encumbered to assert to its interests in comparison to previous decades.

China’s state media in recent years has drummed up strong nationalist sentiment over the South China Sea disputes and territory issues. Public uproar on the Chinese government is already extraordinary, giving it little space to maneuver.

The Chinese leadership should remember it is dealing with a figure whose strongest attribute is generating controversy and courting the limelight. Trump is someone with no coherent political ideology and few fixed positions.

Despite his unpredictability, Trump does not intend to overturn international relationships. His appointment of Iowa Governor Terry Branstad – a friend of Chinese President Xi Jinping – as ambassador to China is an olive branch.

Still, there is real potential for an escalation if Trump believes raising political and even military tensions with China would increase US leverage to force Beijing to concede more economic benefits to American interests.

China is thus far taking a wait-and-see approach to Trump’s administration. It lodged a diplomatic protest urging careful handling of the Taiwan issue but has blamed Taiwan’s President Tsai Ing-wen for initiating the call.

Tsai leads the opposition Democratic Progressive Party, which has traditionally opposed the one-China policy as a basis for future relations with the mainland but is now increasingly reliant on China as the island’s largest trading partner.

Relations between Beijing and Taiwan’s previous government led by the Kuomintang party, which supports unification, were on their most cordial terms since the end of the Chinese civil war in 1949 when Tsai took office in May 2016.

Tsai has been ambiguous on the question of Taiwanese independence and has thus far taken care to preserve the status quo between Taiwan and the mainland as the island’s export-dependent economy continues to underperform.

Fearing Trump’s campaign rhetoric, Tsai likely sought affirmation from the president-elect that the US will shoulder its previous defense responsibility for Taiwan, all the more reason for Beijing to distrust Tsai’s administration.

Taiwan, the only ethnic Chinese society that has universal suffrage and democratic elections, is fiercely protective of its political system. The island’s autonomy and self-rule should be respected by Beijing.

It would also be a mistake for the Chinese leadership to place undue pressure on Tsai’s administration in the wake of the phone call. Should the Taiwanese continue open engagement with Washington, the response will be unflinching.

It is not Washington’s place to champion Taiwanese independence, which the vast majority of countries regard as an internal issue.  Doing so will enflame the dispute and upset the cooperation built up between Taiwan and the mainland in recent years.

10 December 2016

By Robert J Barsocchini

Fake news propagated by the US government and collaborating organizations such as the New York Times and Washington Post helped create an environment in which the US was able to illegally invade Iraq in 2003, killing at least one million and possibly upwards of two million people, including the deaths of some 4,500 US soldiers, according to a meta-study by Nobel-winning Physicians for Social Responsibility.

Just this November, nearly 6,000 people were killed in Iraq thanks to the conflicts that are still raging due to the invasion (which is ongoing), and it was not an atypical month – even more were killed in October.

Regarding the fake news that laid the groundwork for the US war of aggression, award-winning journalist Robert Parry notes that, for example, Judith Miller of NYT and Washington Post editorial page editor Fred Hiatt “repeatedly stated the ‘fact’ of Iraq’s hidden WMD as flat fact and mocked anyone who doubted the ‘group think.’”

Parry also traces the use of fake news by these outlets and the government to the present, raising interesting legal questions about whether and how the individuals who perpetrate fake news should be punished, and to what extent they are protected by the US first amendment.

Trevor Timm of The Atlantic cites a Supreme Court decision which ruled that speech is protected unless it “is directed to inciting or producing imminent lawless action and is likely to incite or produce such action”.

According to the highest UN officials and many others (including most of the world), the invasion of Iraq was a lawless action, which would make statements directed to precipitating it ineligible for protection under US law.

The next question that arises would be how to punish the offenders of the illegal speech.  Sticking to US legal precedent, we may note that the US, at Nuremberg, executed Germans who it determined had issued fake news in service of creating the conditions for Germany to invade other nations.  And though the death penalty has since been eradicated in most of the world, it has not been in the US.

Parry notes that none of the fake-news peddlers have yet faced any legal recourse for their apparent crimes.  Hiatt, for example, “remains the Post’s editorial-page editor continuing to enforce ‘conventional wisdoms’ and to disparage those who deviate.”  Miller and others maintain similar positions.

People at these outlets have recently begun to express that there should be limits on fake news.  However, they have only made such statements in reference to others, not themselves, perhaps illustrating the level of regard they have for the thousands of US soldiers and million-plus Iraqis that have died and are dying thanks in part to the fake news they disseminate.

Robert J. Barsocchini is an independent researcher and reporter who focuses on global force dynamics and has served as a cross-cultural intermediary for the film and Television industry. His work has been cited, published, or followed by numerous professors, economists, lawyers, military and intelligence veterans, and journalists. Updates on Twitter.

9 December 2016

By Sara Toth Stub

On a recent Sunday morning, Adeeb Jawad Joudeh Al Husseini was sitting on a bench just inside the sole public entrance to Jerusalem’s Church of the Holy Sepulchre. The doorway to the sprawling church, founded in the 4th Century, is where the 53-year-old Muslim has spent much of his life. His father, grandfather and dozens of generations of forefathers before them also dedicated most of their lives to sitting on this bench, guarding the church believed to contain the tomb of Jesus, Al Husseini said, pulling a 20cm-long iron key out of his leather jacket’s inner pocket.

This key is the only one that can unlock the church’s imposing wooden doors, a duty that was, according to Al Husseini, given to his family by Saladin, the sultan who captured Jerusalem from the Crusaders in 1187 – just one of many times that control of Jerusalem, coveted for its holiness by Jews, Christians and Muslims, has switched hands. Saladin wanted to make sure that the church was not harmed by his fellow Muslims, something that happened in 1009 when the Fatimid caliph al-Hakim ordered a number of churches in the Holy Land be burned, including the Holy Sepulchre. (Al-Hakim’s son approved the rebuilding of the church in 1128.)

“So Saladin gave our family the key to protect the church,” Al Husseini said. “For our family, this is an honour. And it’s not an honour just for our family, but it’s an honour for all Muslims in the world.”

Members of Al Husseini’s family, along with another Muslim family, the Nuseibehs, have become permanent fixtures in the complicated fabric of the Holy Sepulchre church. The complex is now used by six different ancient churches – Roman Catholic, Greek Orthodox, Armenian Orthodox, Syrian Orthodox, Ethiopian Orthodox and Coptic Orthodox – each of which has monks living there. Throughout history, relations have been fraught between the religious communities in this complex, sometimes leading to violence over which church controls which parts of the building. To this day, a 19th-century Ottoman decree attempts to keep these tensions in check by declaring that each church is limited to using the spaces in the building that they controlled back in 1853 when the decree was issued.

Every morning when the church’s doors open at 4 am, members of the two families – or a representative appointed by them – is present for what has emerged as a ceremonial act of cooperation. The Muslim representative unlocks the latch and pushes open one door, then a clergyman from the Roman Catholic, Greek Orthodox or Armenian Orthodox church – who take turns on a rotating basis – pull open the other door from inside, while clergy from the other denominations supervise. The same happens in reverse when the church closes at 7 pm.

The tourists and pilgrims who come here to kiss the stone slab revered to be the place where the body of Jesus was washed before burial, and enter the underground chamber believed to contain his tomb, all walk past these Muslim guardians, who sit on the bench much of the day in between tending to family and business. Historians cannot determine how long the role of these doorkeepers goes back, but they also haven’t made serious attempts to disprove the legacy – and most consider it central to the daily operations of the church.

“It’s basically like a lot of things in the church; it’s a tradition,” said Raymond Cohen, professor emeritus of international relations at The Hebrew University of Jerusalem, who has studied the church and written the book, Saving the Holy Sepulchre. “And I think it’s one of the gems of Jerusalem, really.”

While Al Husseini’s family holds the key, the Nuseibeh family is charged with the physical work of opening and closing the church’s door, a duty they trace back to 637 when the caliph Omar first brought Islam to Jerusalem, explained Wajeeh Y Nuseibeh, 67, who was sitting on the bench next to Al Huseini.

“Our family first arrived to Jerusalem with Omar,” and since then has been entrusted to protect the church from vandals, Nuseibeh said, handing me his business card, which declares he is “Custodian and door-keeper of the Church of the Holy Sepulchre”.

But Al Husseini insists that Nuseibeh’s family only entered the set-up later.

“This is not true what [Nuseibeh] says,” Al Husseini told me later, adding that shortly after his family received the keys from Saladin in 1187, they asked the Nuseibeh family to open and close the door, which involves climbing a ladder to reach the lock, while Al Husseini’s family remained the holder of the key.

“It was not honourable for our family to be climbing up and down ladders, because we were sheiks,” Al Husseini said.

Al Husseini’s card says he is “Keys Custodian of the Church of the Holy Sepulchre.”

Nuseibeh smiled at Al Husseini’s version of the story, then repeated his own version, going back to Omar, who ruled the city more than 500 years before Saladin. Sitting side by side, they told me that the matter is a friendly debate and something they often laugh about, an account confirmed by a mutual friend, Ibrahim Attieh, 75, a retired tour guide who joined them on the bench to chat.

“Yes, they are friends, and I am a friend of both of them,” said Attieh, who was one of the many friends, priests, tourists and even Israeli police officers (who oversee security in the church) to join Al Husseini and Nuseibeh on their bench during the day.

In addition to surviving the whims of Jerusalem’s governing powers, including hundreds of years when the caliphate charged pilgrims large sums of money to enter, the church has also been torn by inner conflict. Throughout history there have been clashes – sometimes violent – between various denominations over control of certain areas of the church, and the local powers, especially during Ottoman times, were often involved in redistributing rights and territories inside the building.

Occasionally, these disagreements even threatened to spark conflict between world powers. In 1853, Russia threatened to invade Turkey if its Ottoman government, which also controlled Jerusalem, granted France’s request to give part of the Greek Orthodox area of the church to the Roman Catholics. This caused the Ottoman sultan Abdulmecid I to issue the decree saying that there would be no more transferring of property and rights inside the church.

Today, this so-called status quo that was imposed on the denominations still governs every facet of life in the church, from the scheduled times of services, to the languages of the Masses, to the route a procession takes. Any change to the routine risks discord and violence, last demonstrated in 2008 when a brawl broke out between Greek Orthodox and Armenian Orthodox clergy over the route of a procession, leading to arrests. The delicate nature of keeping the status quo means that renovations and repairs are rare, Cohen explained.

“It’s no simple task to keep the peace,” he said.

But after decades of negotiations, Roman Catholic, Armenian and Greek Orthodox leaders recently came to a historic agreement to repair the structure covering what they believe is Jesus’ tomb, which architects have long warned is in danger of collapse. The square structure, known as the Edicule, located under the church’s main rotunda, is now covered in scaffolding. Ladders, stone slabs, plywood and other building supplies have been scattered around the centre of the church since June 2016. This is first repair work to be done to the tomb’s chapel in more than 200 years and the first significant project for any part of the building since the edifice was restored, beginning in the 1960s.

But even though the churches may now cooperate better than in the past, and can rely on the Israeli police to keep order, the doorkeepers are an embodiment of how long-held traditions and the involvement of outsiders has determined much of the course of the Holy Sepulchre’s history.

“Things are like a wool sweater here; if you start unravelling it, the whole thing falls apart,” Cohen said.

At 6:30 pm on Sunday evening, half an hour before the church’s scheduled closing, a loud clanging pierced the quiet in the church. This was the sound of Omar Sumren performing the ritual banging of the knocker, then shutting one of the double doors in preparation for the final closing. Sumren and his brother, Ishmael, have worked on behalf of Al Husseini for 25 years, performing the opening and closing duties when Al Husseini is busy.

Just before 7 pm as the last visitors were leaving, Ishmael picked up the ladder resting inside the church’s doors and moved it outside. Two Catholic Franciscans clad in their signature brown gowns with rope belts, along with Greek and Armenian Orthodox priests dressed in black, stood inside the threshold, observing every move. An Israeli policeman, wearing a yarmulke, or Jewish skullcap, was also present for the daily ritual. Ishmael shut the door then ascended the ladder to close the upper latch. He climbed down, folded up the ladder and passed it back to the priests inside through a small hatch in the door.

As the monks began another night inside the church compound, Omar, entrusted with the key from Al Husseini, retired to a small room just off the main courtyard in front of the church. Each night one of these men tasked with the door and key duties sleeps here, ready to perform the regimented opening in the morning.

“This for me is a second house,” Al Husseini said.

28 November 2016

By Mike Ives

HONG KONG — Members of the Rohingya ethnic group face chronic discrimination in access to medical care in Myanmar and other Asian countries, with severe consequences for health and mortality rates, a study has found.

The report, published online by the British medical journal The Lancet on Dec. 1, said the Myanmar government’s role in the situation could arguably be characterized as genocide or ethnic cleansing.

The study analyzed health care indicators in Myanmar, Bangladesh, Malaysia and other countries where about 1.5 million Rohingya live. The researchers compiled data from governments, human rights groups and other sources. It found that the indicators were consistently worse for the Rohingya, a Muslim ethnic group, than for other populations living in the same areas.

The researchers were especially critical of the government of Myanmar, which faces international pressure to address a continuing humanitarian crisis in Rakhine State, a region on the border with Bangladesh, where advocacy groups say the authorities have killed dozens of Rohingya after an attack in October on a police border post.

“The part played by the Myanmar government in restricting Rohingya reproductive rights, and in the high morbidity and mortality of the Rohingya people, could arguably be advanced as a charge of genocide, or at the very least as ethnic cleansing,” the report said, referring to what it said was a pattern of health-related discrimination that stretched back decades.

In Maungdaw and Butheetaung townships, in the area of Rakhine State where much of the recent violence against Rohingya people has occurred, there was only one physician per 158,000 people, compared with one physician per 681 people in the Buddhist-majority area around Sittwe, the state capital, the study said, citing the government data from 2013.

Dr. Htun Tin, director of the Disaster and Public Health Emergency Response Unit at Myanmar’s Health Ministry, pushed back against the report in a telephone interview on Monday.

“We never restricted Bengalis reproductive rights,” Dr. Htun Tin said, using a term for Rohingya that is common in Buddhist-majority Myanmar. Many there consider the Rohingya to be from Bangladesh, even if their families have been in Myanmar for generations.

“We are trying our best to give health care to all people in Rakhine State,” Dr. Htun Tin added.

Myanmar has denied the Rohingya citizenship under a 1982 law that excludes them from a list of 135 approved “national races.” Between 300,000 and half a million Rohingya are now believed to live in Bangladesh. The government there began its first census of undocumented Rohingya refugees in June.

The Lancet study, by researchers at Harvard University Medical School and the School of Public Health, cited examples in several countries, beginning in the late 1970s, in which the Rohingya suffered from poor access to obstetric care and a high prevalence of waterborne illnesses, among other health problems.

Stunting, or lower-than-normal height because of malnutrition, affects 60 percent of Rohingya child refugees in Bangladesh, a rate 50 percent higher than among the country’s general population, the study said, citing data from 2002 and 2012 collected by Doctors Without Borders and the United Nations. It also documented rates of diarrhea among children that were far higher for Rohingya children in Bangladesh, Malaysia and India in recent years than they were in the general populations of those countries.

Diarrhea is a leading cause of malnutrition in children under 5, according to the World Health Organization. It can also be life-threatening, especially in young people who are malnourished or who have compromised immune systems. It kills about 760,000 children under 5 each year, the agency says.

But the study paid particular attention to health problems in Rakhine State, which has more than one million Rohingya people and where about 140,000 Rohingya have been living in camps for internally displaced people around Sittwe, since a spasm of communal violence in 2012 left them homeless.

In recent weeks, human rights groups have relayed allegations of rape and arbitrary killings of Rohingya people by the authorities in northern Rakhine State, as satellite images show villages burned to the ground. Thousands of Rohingya have fled to neighboring Bangladesh, and the United Nations human rights agency has said abuses against them may be crimes against humanity.

The Lancet study, citing a 2013 government report, said there was just one latrine per 37 people in the Sittwe camps on average, and that diarrheal illness affected 40 percent of Rohingya children under 5 who live in the camps — five times the rate for other children in Rakhine State.

The mortality rate for children younger than 5 in Maungdaw and Butheetaung was 135 and 224 deaths per 1,000 live births, compared with 77 deaths per 1,000 live births in the Sittwe area, the study added.

In a statement on Monday, Mark Cutts, the head of the United Nations Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs in Myanmar, said that humanitarian organizations in the country had long called for improved access to health services for Muslims and other vulnerable groups that face restrictive policies.

Although access to basic health services was historically low for both Buddhists and Muslims in Rakhine State, he added, “Muslim people face a number of additional barriers in accessing health care because of movement restrictions” and inadequate emergency referral procedures.

Dr. Thaung Hlaing, the director of the Rakhine State Public Health Department’s Strategic Health Operations Center, said in a telephone interview on Monday that all of the state’s hospitals were functioning well.

But he suggested that the government should not be blamed for not providing health care in the state’s restive northern townships.

“We wouldn’t dare to go and give health services in villages where the conflict happened” because of security concerns, he said. “If villagers from that area can come to hospital, we can give full service.”

Saw Nang contributed reporting from Mandalay, Myanmar.

5 December 2016

By Charles F. Moreira

The Republic of Cuba submitted a resolution entitled “Necessity of Ending the Economic, Commercial and Financial Blockade Imposed by the United States of America Against Cuba” before the United Nations General Assembly on 26 th of October, 2016.

This is the 25 th consecutive time Cuba has submitted such resolution before the U.N. General Assembly and most often, the vast majority of U.N. General Assembly member countries, including Malaysia have voted in support of the resolutions, with the only exceptions being the United States of America and Israel voting against.

When Cuba submitted a similar resolution last year it was supported by 191 member countries, with only the United States and Israel against.

However, news agency Reuters reports that the United States for the very first time abstained in its vote on 26 October 2016 and so did Israel.

http://www.reuters.com/article/us-usa- cuba-un- idUSKCN12Q259

Whilst U.N. General Assembly resolutions are non-binding, hopefully, this should be an encouraging development in the process of normalisation of U.S. – Cuba relations, since the United States imposed this embargo against Cuba on 19 th October 1960, two years after the victory of the Cuban Revolution which deposed the dictatorial, pro-U.S. Batista regime and nationalised U.S.- owned oil refineries, which is Cuba’s right as a sovereign nation.

This comes after the United States and Cuba restored diplomatic relations on 20 July 2015 and after U.S. President Barack Obama’s official visit to Cuba where on 22 nd March 2016 Obama acknowledged that this embargo is obsolete, harms rather than helps the Cuban people and called upon the U.S. Congress to end this embargo.

No real change yet

However, despite all that rhetoric, this economic, commercial and financial embargo against Cuba continues with continued debilitating effects to Cuba’ s economy, despite several minor amendments to regulations related to this embargo in 2015 and 2016.

Also, despite what he said in his speech in Cuba, on 11 th of September 2015, President Obama again renewed sanctions against Cuba under the Trading with the Enemy Act of 1917, which constitutes the laws and regulations that make up the embargo, alleging foreign policy interests.

At a media presentation on the 25 th of September 2016, Her Excellency Ibete Fernandez Hernandez, Ambassador of the Republic of Cuba to Malaysia said that the U.S. continues to ban exports to Cuba of products and equipment important to key sectors of the Cuban economy, whilst at the same time, the continuation of the embargo prevents Cuba from freely exporting her products and services to the U.S. and cannot have direct banking relations with the U.S. Also, except of U.S. investments in Cuba’s telecommunications sector, Cuba cannot receive U.S. investments in other sectors of her economy.

Cuban Ambassador Ibete briefs Malaysian journalists on Cuba’s U.N. resolution and on the embago on 2016-09- 27

Also, Cuba is banned from opening corresponding accounts in U.S. banks and has been unable to make either cash deposits or payments in U.S. dollars in third countries and this hampers trade, since most international payments for goods and services are denominated in U.S. dollars.

Up until the conclusion of the writing of the resolution which was submitted to the U.N. General Assembly, the United States' announced authorisation of Cuba’s use of U.S. dollars in international transactions has not materialised, nor the possibility for U.S. banks to provide loans to Cuban
importers of authorised U.S. products. Furthermore, finnacial institutions and U.S. suppliers of such products continue to fear being fined for having transactions with Cuba.

Stiff penalties

Worse still, the risk of heavy fines by the U.S. has deterred many non-U.S. banks opening accounts for Cuban companies and handling trade-related financial transactions with Cuba, even in non-U.S. currencies.

The list is long, so only some examples of penalties, blocked or refused transactions since 17 th December 2014 are listed below:-

On 6 August 2016, the U.S. Department of the Treasury’s Office of Foreign Assets Control (OFAC) levied a fine of U.S.$ 271,815 on U.S. maritime insurance company – Navigators Insurance Company for violating the embargo by paying U.S.$21,736 in interest for a Cuban national.

On 18 and 23 September 2015, an Australian bank refused to make two transfers in Australian dollars to the Cubatur travel agency for for payment of services for a group of 19 travelling to Cuba.

In November 2015, the U.S.-based PayPal online financial payments company blocked the account of German company Proticket, used by its customers to pay for tickets for the musical comedy Soy Cubano and a concert by Cuban singer Addys Mercedes on grounds that it violated the U.S. embargo. Proticket sued PayPal and on 19 April 2016 a court in Dormund, Germany ruled against PayPal, forcing it to unblock Proticket’s account, failing which PayPal had to pay Proticket 250,000 euros compensation.

On 12 February 2016 a branch of Standard Chartered Bank in Uganda informed Cuban doctors working at Mbarara University that they had until 15 th February to withdraw their money from their accounts with the bank, since as Cubans theye were not allowed to have accounts with the bank. The doctors tried to open an account with the British Barclays Bank but after doing so were informed that they could not make transactions to or from Cuba.

On 18 March 2016, it became known that Japanese bank Mitsui Sumitomo SMBC Trust refused a funds transfer by a Japanese citizen to pay for a tourist card fom the Cuban consulate in Japan.

On 3 May 2016, it became known that funds collected by the Asociacion de Cubanos in the United Kingdom had been retained by the bank of U.S. company Eventbrite because it had sold tickets for a classic music concert organised by the Association whose funds would go towards the purchase and donation of a piano for the Amadeo Roldan Music Conservatory in Cuba.

Cuba is developing her petroleum industry and on 25 February 2016, OFAC fined CGG Services S. A. of France U.S.$614,250 for having supplied spare parts and equipment originating from the U.S. for gas and oil exploration to ships operating in Cuban territorial waters. Furthermore, the Venezuelan subsidiary of CGG Services S.A. had carried out five transactions related the processing of information for seismic research conducted by a Cuban entity in Cuba’s Exclusive Economic Zone.

Free medical care for all

As a socialist country, Cuba provides free medical care for all her citizens and this care is said to be the best in Latin America and Cuba is also noted for her internationally respected biotechnology and biomedical industries.

As a result of this embargo, Cuba’s public health services have been unable to obtain from the U.S. the required medicines, reagents, spar parts for diagnostic and treatment equipment, medical instruments and supplies necessary for these services to function.

For example in February 2016, the U.S. company General Electric would not sell medical equipment for the study of the peripheral nervous system to Cuba, citing the embargo

Also, the Farmacuba company requested four U.S. suppliers of protection means and chemical and biotechnological products to manufacture medicines in Cuba and amongst the four, the multi- national company Sigma-Andrich refused to entertain the request due to complications arising from this embargo.

This has forced Cuba to source these through intermediaries from further afield which results in higher costs.

Altogether, this since 1960, this embargo has cost Cuba’s public health services over U.S.$2.6 billion and over U.S.$82.7 million over the 2014 – 2015 period, an increase of about U.S.$5 million over the 2013 – 2014 period.

Poaching talent as a weapon

Besides these high costs, since 2006, the United States has been waging an aggressive campaign through the “Parole for Cuban Medical Professionals” programme aimed at inciting Cuban medical professionals working at an international mission outside Cuba to defect. Not only does resulted in a brain drain which adversely affects Cuba’s medical services but also denies patients in these thir countries from benefiting from their services, and this still goes on despite supposedly improved bi-lateral relations between the U.S. and Cuba.

Biotechnology

In biotechnology, the National Products Centre which comes under the National Centre for Scientific Research was unable to two chromatographs by U.S. company Agilent used for quality control of products being researched and developed at the Centre.

AICA Laboratories Enterprise faced difficulties obtaining spar parts and technical assistance to repair a machine from Bosch Pharmaceuticals Company in the U.S. used fo rthe production of carpules – i.e. injectable vials with an open bottom used in odontology (dentistry and craniofacial research) or for insulin doses. This has had financial repercussions worth close to U.S.$1.76 million.

Impact on food, education and national culture

Repercussion so fthis embargo has cost Cuba’s food production sector U.S.$605.7 million in the 2014 – 2015 period due to increase price of seeds, fertiliser, spare parts for agricultural equipment and other consumables due to Cuba having to acquire these items through intermediaries in third countries. In some cases, the longer lead times between order placed and fulfilment has resulted in substantial repercussions on Cuba’s food production.

Free education is a right of Cuba’s citizens and with not being able to acquire essential educational equipment from the U.S., Cuba has had to sources these from further afield, resulting in losses for Cuba’s Minsitry of Education of close to U.S.$ 1.25 million in 2014 – 2015.

The difficulty in obtaining the required equipment for professional sports has adversely impacted Cuba’s sports sector and the embargo has cost Cuba’s culture sector close to U.S.$29.5 million in the 2014 – 2015 period.

A major aspect of the embargo which seriously affects Cuba’s foreign trade is the prohibition of ships from docking at U.S. ports within 180 days of having docked at a Cuban port.

This has been a major deterrent to ships docking in Cuba to deliver or take on cargo, since it is not cost effective for a to carry only one set of cargo types for Cuba, since they will also carry cargo for other destinations in the region, including the United States.

This forces Cuba to resort on trans-shipment through neighbouring countries, which introduces delays and adds to cost.

Since 1960, the embargo has cost Cuba the equivalent of close to U.S.$125.9 trillion and between March 2015 and March 2016, it has cost Cuba U.S.$4.68 million.

Opposition to the embargo

A hopeful sign for Cuba is growing pressure from U.S. corporations, industry associations, chambers of commerce, businessmen of Cuban origin in the United States, respective state governments, groups of legislators, religious leaders, non-governmental bodies, Republican and Democrat politicians and others, for the U.S. to end its embargo against Cuba.

According to polls of U.S. society conducted by CBS News, AP-GfK, the PEW Research Centre, the Engage Cuba lobbying group, the Atlantic Council think-tank and others, on average 70% of U.S. citizens support the lifting of the embargo against Cuba, with the majority of Democrats supporting President Obama’s policy towards Cuba.

Whilst the ending of this embargo and its associated legislation such as the Torricelli Act, the Helms-Burton Act, the Trade Sanctions Reform and Export Enhancement Act of 2000 which prevents U.S. citizens from travelling to Cuba as tourists and the Trade Sanctions Reform and Export Enhancement Act of 2000 which the financing for sales of U.S. agricultural products to Cuba and these can only be repealed by Congress.

Whilst the U.S. President cannot repeal these acts, he however has the executive power to modify the implementation of aspects of the embargo against Cuba, to allow Cuban banks, companies and so forth to open accounts with U.S. banks; end the financial persecution of Cuba; authorise exports of U.S. products to Cuban companies; permit the import into the U.S. of Cuban products and services such as tobacco, rum, biotechnology products, as well as products manufactured in third countries which contain raw materials from Cuba such as nickle or sugar; authorise U.S. companies to invest in Cuba; authorise U.S. citizens to to receive medical treatment in Cuba and end the 180 days prohibition of ships which have docked in Cuba from docking in the U.S.

However, despite the promises to mitigate the effects of the embargo in his speeches, President Obama has done very little in this regard and Cuba believes that he can do more.

However, with Obama coming close to the end of his two terms as President very soon, Ambassador Ibete believes that if Hillary Clinton is elected the next President, she will continue with Obama’s legacy, though quite probably at a slower pace.

On the other hand, Ambassador Ibete is less certain of Donald Trump’s policy towards Cuba should he be elected as president, since during his election campaigning, Trump’s has flip-flopped between saying that he will reconcile relations with Cuba and at other times saying that he break relations.

In a post on Twitter dated 28 November 2016, President-elect Donald Trump wrote, “If Cuba is unwilling to make a better deal for the Cuban people, the Cuban/American people and the U.S. as a whole, I will terminate the deal.

During his election campaign, Trump said he planned to reverse Obama’s executive orders on Cuba. These include allowing direct flights between the two countries and lifting limits on the amount of cigars and rum that American travelers can bring back to the U.S. for personal consumption, unless the Cuban government grants more political freedom to Cuba’s people, including allowing them religious and political freedom and the freeing of political prisoners.

As President, Trump could order the State Department to place Cuba back on the list of “state sponsors of terrorism” and break off diplomatic relations with Cuba but such measures could well come against objections from industries which have already begun to take advantage of the business and trade opportunities with Cuba, such as the restoration of direct flights between the US and Cuba.

According to John Kavulich, the president of the US-Cuba Trade and Economic Council, the Trump administration could well face opposition, including lawsuits from the airline industry if Trump were to do what he threatens, since airlines have already made substantial financial investments based upon the new regulations from the Obama administration.

For instance, American Airlines and JetBlue have already begun flights between the U.S. and Cuba, so stand to lose such business.

Also, tour and travel companies such as Airbnb, Carnival Cruise Line, and Starwood Hotels have also begun to expand into Cuba, hoping to take advantage of what promises to eventually become a booming new tourist destination. Trump could also come up against objections to such reversal from fellow Republicans in the Congress.

So it’s left to be seen if a President Trump will actually implement such measures which would amount to bullying and a continuation of American hegemonic attempts to undermine Cuba sovereignty and interfere in Cuba’s internal affairs.

However, if Trump indeed carries out its threats, Cuba will continue to have the support of the freedom and peace loving people and countries of the world, who have helped Cuba to survive the difficulties imposed upon her during the 50 or so years of this cruel and unjust embargo, whilst U.S. imperialism and hegemony will continue to be condemned.

A legacy of the Cold War

The embargo against Cuba is a legacy of the Cold War and unlike heavily armed Russia, China and North Korea today, as well as the various terrorist groups, Cuba in no way threatens the existence of the United States.

It’s known that the continuation of this embargo is very much influenced by pressure from Cubans loyal to the deposed dictator Batista who fled Cuba to the U.S. and they constitute a considerable electoral vote base which U.S. politicians feel they must please, however it is also known that more amongst the descendants of these exiles favour ending the embargo and reconcilliation between the U.S. and Cuba.

So what does the U.S. have to fear from normalising relations with Cuba, unless it fears that with Cuba’s determination to continue along its socialist path and its fierce sense of national independence and sovereignty; if the embargo is lifted, one wonders wther the U.S. fears that Cuba’s resultant progress and prosperity will serve as an inspiration to other Latin American countries resulting in the U.S. losing its geo-strategic dominance of the people’s of this sub- continent south of the United States, many of whom would like to get the Yanquis of their backs.

Malaysia maintains close relations with Cuba and many Malaysian students have studied or are studying in Cuba.

Charles F. Moreira is a JUST member.

30 November 2016

By Dr Gideon Polya

Vale Fidel Castro (1926-2016). Despite decades of illegal US sanctions, and an average per capita GDP of only circa $7,000 as compared to $56,000 for the US, Cuba has good primary health care, 100% literacy, a Western life expectancy, and an under-5 infant mortality of 6 deaths per 1,000 live births, the same as for the US. True democracy fundamentally means expression of the will of the people and in Castro’s one-party Cuba that has meant  ecosocialism and the survival of infants for a decent, healthy, literate, educated and long life.

Fidel Castro’s socialist Cuba has been a model for civilized development in the Third World that respects the fundamental human right, the right to life, and is in ideological opposition to ecologically unsustainable, greed-driven, neoliberal globalization that disproportionately rewards the One Percenters at the expense of Humanity and the Biosphere.  The achievements of  Fidel Castro’s socialist Cuba are outlined below:

1. Fidel Castro and socialist Cuba survived criminal US hostility, terrorism, invasion and economic blockade.

Fidel Castro and his fellow socialist revolutionaries overthrew the US-backed Batista dictatorship in 1959. Fidel Castro (Fidel Alejandro Castro Ruz) subsequently governed the Republic of Cuba for 47 years as Prime Minister (1959 to 1976)  and thence as President (1976 to 2006) [1, 2].  The US emplaced an illegal economic blockade against Cuba in 1961 that still persists despite a recent partial diplomatic rapprochement by US President Barack Obama that extreme right-wing US President-elect Donald Trump has vowed to reverse. The US embargo prevents exports to Cuba except for food and medicine under threat of up to 10 years’ imprisonment.  Since 1992 the UN General Assembly has passed a resolution every year condemning the embargo as violating the Charter of the United Nations and international law. Thus, for example,  in 2014 out of the 193 nations of the UN General Assembly,  188 countries voted to condemn the US embargo, with   the US and Apartheid Israel voting against and the US lackey Pacific island micro- nations Palau, Marshall Islands and Micronesia abstaining. Amnesty International, Human Rights Watch and the Inter-American Commission on Human Rights have condemned the US embargo [3]. The US under President John Kennedy responded militarily to Castro’s Cuba with the abortive Bay of Pigs invasion in 1961. When Castro permitted Soviet nuclear-armed missiles in Cuba, US President John Kennedy brought the world to the brink of nuclear annihilation and the missiles were withdrawn [1, 2] . The CIA and  CIA-backed Cuban exiles unsuccessfully mounted about 600 criminal plots to assassinate Fidel Castro [4, 5].  Cuba backed revolutionary movements in Africa and Latin America to which the US responded with war criminal invasions, the backing of extreme  right-wing dictatorships, and the training and funding of death squads, with Fidel Castro’s fellow revolutionary   Che Guevara being a notable victim [2, 6, 7].

2. US and Cuban human rights and incarceration in context.

From a human rights perspective, a one-party, Communist Cuba can be legitimately criticized for one-party rule, suppression of dissent and imprisonment of dissidents. However those actions by the Castro regime must necessarily be seen in the context of the sustained economic embargo, violent hostility, state terrorism, non-state terrorism and endless subversion in relation to Cuba by an exceptionalist, serial invader  and serial war criminal US “rogue state” that regards itself as above international law and  indeed dominates and subverts the whole world (2, 6, 7).  In terms of incarceration rate measured as “prisoners per 100,000 people”  the US is a world leader with 693  as compared to Cuba’s 510, Iceland’s 45  and US-backed Apartheid Israel’s 265 (37,300 if one includes all Occupied Palestinians and 15,900 if one simply considers the 2 million Palestinians imprisoned in the Gaza Concentration Camp) [8, 9]. The US has 4% of the world’s  population but has 25% of the world’s circa 10 million prisoners [10]. Millions of Americans are excluded by felony laws from voting in the US Establishment’s 2-party electoral farce [11-13]. Free speech is vital for social advance but  a new democratic socialist Cuba would need to protect democracy by promotion of vigorous scientific and other expert, scholarly opinion, and mechanisms to stop Big Money corporate  subversion that has turned Western Democracies into Lobbyocracies and Corporatocracies, and by way of example, turned the British parliamentary Labour Party into neoliberal, Blair-ite New Labour.

3. Cuban true democracy versus US plutocracy.

As amply demonstrated by the recent US Presidential Race, the US is dominated by the rich One Percenters that are variously described as the Establishment, the Deep State or the Oligarchy. The US Establishment  and its captive Mainstream media overwhelmingly backed serial war criminal  and neoliberal Hillary Clinton in the recent US presidential election.   Clinton’s opponent, neoliberal billionaire Donald Trump,  portrayed himself as an opponent of the Establishment and defender of “ordinary Americans”.   However the fewer  than 50% of “ordinary American” voters  who voted for Trump will eventually realize that they have voted for a  massive, circa  $1 trillion per year tax cut for the rich, a hypothetical economic improvement driven by increased but pointless military expenditure, a free hand for terracidal fossil fuel corporations, terracidal climate change inaction, health insurance uncertainties with an adumbrated abolition of Obamacare, and, of course, racism, bigotry, misogyny and the winding back of hard-won rights of women and minorities. The Establishment  won with  Trump just as it would have won with Clinton. “Ordinary Americans” would have done vastly better with the pro-environment, free college education and universal health care provided by the socialist policies of Bernie Sanders (eliminated with the help of the Democrat Establishment) or by  the socialist program of the Mainstream media-ignored Dr Jill Stein (American Green Party) who gained a mere 1% of the vote [14].

Communist Cuba is ruled by the Communist Party for the benefit of all Cubans whereas the US is ruled by and for the One Percenter Establishment. In the US Democracy has become a Plutocracy, Kleptocracy, Murdochracy, Lobbyocracy, Corporatocracy and Dollarocracy in which Big Money buys people, politicians, parties policies, public perception of reality, political power and hence more private profit for the plutocrats. “Manufacturing consent” by One Percenter-owned Mainstream media ensures that of those Americans who are not excluded from voting and who actually bother to vote, nearly all will vote for the Establishment’s  Republican or Democrat candidates [14].

Indeed one must consider what we mean by “democracy”.  In its most profound sense, “democracy” or “rule by the people” surely means acceding to the most fundamental wishes of the people e.g.  a long,  healthy and fulfilling life  and survival of one’s children, goals that are achieved by peace, good governance, equity, good health care, 100% literacy and good education.  In this sense, altruistic socialism under Fidel Castro provided “true democracy” for the Cuban people by delivering on these fundamental wishes of ordinary people [15].

4. US imperialism  involves mass infanticide  but US-impoverished socialist Cuba has remarkably achieved the same low infant mortality as the wealthy US.

It is instructive to consider  “under-5 infant  mortality” in units of “under-5 year old infants per 1,000 births” (2015) [16]  and “per capita GDP” in US dollars ($; UN, 2015) [17] (a) for Cuba and the US,  (b) for Caribbean  countries invaded by the US  in living memory  (Dominican Republic, Grenada, Haiti, and Panama), (c) for Caribbean countries subject to violent, US-backed civil conflict in living memory (Colombia, El Salvador, Guatemala, Honduras, and Nicaragua) and (d) for other countries invaded by the US in living memory.

(a) Cuba (7 under-5 year old infants per 1,000 births; $7,274 per capita GDP; unsuccessfully invaded by the US in 1961), US (7; $54,306). By successfully resisting US invasion and US embargo and by good governance, good education and good health care,  US-impoverished Cuba has achieved the same low infant mortality as the wealthy US.

(b) Caribbean  countries invaded by the US  in living memory – Dominican Republic (28; $6,147; invaded by the US in 1965) ,Grenada (13; $8,313; invaded by the US in 1983); Haiti (77; $813; invaded by the US in 2004);  Panama (20; $12,712; invaded by the US in 1989).

(c) Caribbean countries subject to violent, US-backed civil conflict in living memory – Colombia (25; $7,904; US-backed civil war, 1964-2016), El Salvador (20; $4,120; US-backed civil war, 1972-1992), Guatemala (32; $3,673; US-backed civil war, 1954-1999), Honduras (40; $2,449; US-backed civil war, US-backed military rule from the 1920s to the 1980s; US-subverted “democracy” that violently subverted its neighbours for the US,  1982-2009; 2009, US-backed coup), and Nicaragua ( 24; $1,963; US-backed civil war, 1979-1992).

(d) Other countries variously invaded by US forces since 1950 – Afghanistan (93; $668; US-backed coup in 1978 leading to war with US-backed jihadis versus Russian invaders and their allies, 1979- 1989; US occupation, 2001-present); Cambodia (30; $1,095; US war, 1965-1975, that precipitated the Cambodian Genocide, 1976-1979),  Iran (16; $6,391; US-backed coup and installation of pro-US Shah, 1953-1979; failed US military raid, 1979; US-backed Iraq-Iran War, 1980-1988; deadly US and thence UN sanctions against zero-nuclear-weapons Iran  on behalf of 400-nuclear-weapons Apartheid Israel, 1979-2016 ), Iraq (36; $6,391; US-backed Iraq-Iran War, 1980-1988; US-led Gulf War, 1990-1991; US-led UN Sanctions, 1990-2003; US Alliance invasion, 2003-2011; US Alliance involved in Iraq civil war, 2014-present); Laos (54; $1,756; US subversion and war, 1958-1975, with saturation bombing by the US, 1964-1975), Libya (27; $6,602; France-UK-US (FUKUS) destruction of Libya, formerly the most prosperous African country, 2011- present), North Korea (26; $696; US Alliance Korean War 1950-1953 with 28% of the population killed; continuing threat and sanctions); Pakistan (83; $1,358; US bombing, 2001-present including drone attacks, 2004-present; US invasion to allegedly kill Osama bin Laden, 2011), Philippines (29; $2,871; US special forces  making war in Mindanao, 2012-present despite current Philippine Government opposition), Syria (19; $1,418; various key US Alliance support for Syrian rebels including  ISIS, 2011- present), Vietnam (23, $2,015; US Vietnam War, 1955-1975), Yemen (70; $1,821; US involved with Saudi-led Alliance war in Yemen, 2010- present). One notes that US-backed Apartheid Israel (4; $38,261) violently rules over Occupied Palestine (23; $2,811).

It should be noted that (i) the US has  bases in about 75 countries; (ii) the US actively subverts all countries; (iii), the US has been involved in numerous civil wars in Africa, Latin America and Asia;  (iv), the joint US-Australia Pine Gap electronic spying facility in Central Australia targets US drone strikes in Libya, Somalia, Yemen, Syria, Iraq, Afghanistan and Pakistan; (v)  40 million Asians have died from violence or imposed deprivation in post-1950 US Asian wars; (vi) about 32 million Muslims have died from violence (5 million) or from imposed deprivation (27 million) in 20 countries invaded by the US Alliance  in the US War on Muslims (aka the US War on Terror) since the US Government’s 9-11 false flag atrocity in 2001 [9, 18-22].

5. Zero annual avoidable deaths in Cuba, China, Japan and Western countries.

For a country in a given period, avoidable mortality (avoidable death, excess mortality, excess death, deaths that should not have happened) is the difference between the actual deaths in a country and the deaths expected for a peaceful, decently governed country with the same demographics [2]. The UN Population Division provides detailed demographic data for essentially every country in the world since 1950 i.e. data on  population, death rate, birth rate, population breakdown, under-5 infant mortality rate [16]. For “good outcome”, low avoidable mortality,  high birth rate Developing countries, the death rate is about 4 deaths per 1000 population per year and accordingly for high birth rate Developing countries “avoidable death rate” (in “deaths per 1000 population per year”)  = actual death rate – 4 .Using data from the  UN Population Division it has been possible to calculate 1950-2005 “avoidable deaths” (avoidable mortality, excess deaths, excess mortality, deaths that did not have to happen)  for every country in the World. The 1950-2005 avoidable mortality totals [and independently estimated 1950-2005 under-5 infant mortality data in square brackets] are 1,303 million [878 million] (the World); 1,248 million [853 million] (the non-European World]; 55 million [25 million] (the European World); and 0.6 billion  [0.4 billion] (the Muslim World) – a Global Avoidable Mortality Holocaust, a Third World Holocaust and a Muslim Holocaust that is 100 times greater than the World War 2 Jewish Holocaust (5-6 million dead, 1 in 6 dying from deprivation) or the “forgotten” World War 2 Bengali Holocaust, the man-made 1943-1945 Bengal Famine in which the British with Australian complicity deliberately starved 6-7 million Indians to death in Bengal and the adjoining provinces of Assam, Orissa and Bihar [23, 24]. On this estimation basis, “annual avoidable death” as a percentage of population is approximately  0%   in socialist Cuba, pluralist  China, Japan and in Western countries, but is 0.4% in South Asia, 0.6% for Indigenous Australians, and 1.0% for non-Arab Africa [2].

6. Cuban-style altruistic governance and a global annual wealth tax could abolish the Global Avoidable Mortality Holocaust.

Castro’s Cuba provides an excellent model of rational, humane and altruistic governance and for how humanity can stop the Global Avoidable Mortality Holocaust in which 17 million people die avoidably each year from deprivation in the Third World (minus China) [2].  Thus the Global Avoidable Mortality Holocaust is happening on Spaceship Earth with the flight deck under the control of the 10% richest who have about 90% of the wealth of the World and who in turn are controlled by One Percenters who own about 50% of the wealth of the World. An annual global wealth tax of about 5% would yield about US$20 trillion annually and enable raising all countries to annual per capita incomes equivalent to the circa $7,000 per person per year of China and Cuba, relatively poor countries for which annual avoidable mortality is zero (0) due to competent and  altruistic governance [25].  This is a feasible option for stopping the Global Avoidable Mortality Holocaust. Indeed a progressive annual wealth tax ranging up to 10% for the richest has been proposed for democracy and economic sustainability  reasons by French economist Professor Thomas Piketty in his important book “Capital in the Twenty-First Century”  [26, 27].  France has an annual wealth tax of up to 1.5% and for 1,400 years Islam has had an annual wealth tax (zakat) of 2.5% as one of its 5 Pillars of Wisdom  [28].

7. Fidel Castro’s legacy of eco-socialism.

Fidel Castro has provided a final legacy of eco-socialism for a world acutely threatened by man-made global warming, a worsening  climate emergency and a worsening climate genocide.   Fidel Castro’s Cuba has demonstrated that competent and  altruistic  governance in a socialist society can provide a decent  life for all with good   health care, 100% literacy, a Western life expectancy, and very low  infant mortality in a country with a per capita GDP of only about $7,000,  or about 8 times less than that of the US. However economies need to be not only equitable and energy efficient but also sustainable in relation to our acutely threatened Biosphere.  Environmental sustainability  is the great existential  challenge to Humanity today, and must be met by an environmentally sound eco-socialism.  Fidel Castro on the very survival of human society threatened by First World-imposed global warming (Copenhagen, 2009): “The youth is more interested than anyone else in the future. Until very recently, the discussion revolved around the kind of society we would have. Today, the discussion centers on whether human society will survive. These are not dramatic phrases. We must get used to the true facts. Hope is the last thing human beings can relinquish. With truthful arguments, men and women of all ages, especially young people, have waged an exemplary battle at the Summit and taught the world a great lesson” [29].

8. Socialist Cuba’s high literacy, high female literacy and truth-telling.

A massive achievement of the 1959 Cuban revolution was to rapidly increase literacy. The Cuban  Literacy Campaign got into high gear in 1961 and subsequently  had a big global impact  [30].  Literacy is now 99.7%  (i.e. almost 100% ) in socialist Cuba as compared to 60.7% in US-invaded and Western-occupied Haiti [31]. High  female literacy is crucial for good primary  health care and infant care, and this is reflected in the Western-style low infant mortality,  zero avoidable mortality and long life expectancy in relatively poor Cuba.  High literacy is vital for science-based rational risk management that is crucial for societal safety, and successively involves (a) accurate information, (b) science-based analysis , and (c) science-informed systemic change to minimize risk. Such risk management at both societal  and global levels is crucial for effective climate change action in a world in which catastrophic plus 2 degrees Centigrade temperature rise is now unavoidable [32, 33].

About 14% of Americans are functionally illiterate to the extent that  they are unable to perform everyday basic prose reading and prose writing [34, 35] and one supposes that a much higher percentage of Americans, perhaps  circa 50%, can’t read and write prose properly (e.g. 46% of Australians are functionally illiterate in that sense and 53% are functionally innumerate) [36].  This functional illiteracy has appalling consequences e.g. a recent poll found that 42% of Americans believed that  God created human beings pretty much in their present form at one time within the last 10,000 years or so, that a further 31% believed that man evolved but with God guiding  the process, and that only 19% believed in human evolution with God having no part in the process [37]. One suppose that it was such  functionally illiterate,  scientifically illiterate and impoverished “ordinary Americans” who voted in droves for an anti-science, climate change denying, neoliberal billionaire  Donald Trump. About 1.7 million “ordinary Americans” die preventably each year from all sorts of causes from smoking to suicide, but successive US Governments have committed to the fiscal perversion of a  long-term accrual cost of $6 trillion   for the US War on Terror, committing   trillions of dollars to killing millions of Muslims abroad rather than keeping millions of Americans alive at home [38, 39]. In his movie “Sicko” , Michael Moore dramatized this  depraved indifference  of the US Establishment  to the lives and deaths “ordinary Americans” when he took some seriously ill 9-11 first responder heroes to Cuba for free medical treatment that they could not access at home [40].

Concluding comments.

Fidel Castro (1926-2016) not only liberated Cuba from a vicious, US-backed dictator but also liberated the Cuban people from poverty, corruption, illiteracy, poor health, untimely infant death and untimely death in general. Fidel Castro’s Cuba has provided a good model for Third World development. Indeed Cuba’s example of good, altruistic governance shows how Humanity can end the Global Avoidable Mortality Holocaust in which 17 million people die avoidably from deprivation each year. Under extraordinary  pressure from relentless US state terrorism,  Cuba has been a one-party state but free speech is vital for scholarship, science and social advance.  A democratic eco-socialism must have free dissent but needs robust, science-based truth-telling and strong mechanisms to constrain corporate perversion of democracy.  Cuban-style high economic efficiency (excellent outcomes for a low per capita income country) coupled with mandatory environmental sustainability and equity, point toward an eco-socialism-based alternative to the neoliberal, corporate  greed that is existentially threatening Humanity and the Biosphere.

References.

[1]. “Fidel Castro”, Wikipedia: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Fidel_Castro .

[2]. Gideon Polya, “Body Count. Global avoidable mortality since 1950”, 2007, a book that includes  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/  .

[3]. “United States embargo against Cuba”, Wikipedia: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/United_States_embargo_against_Cuba .

[4]. “638 ways to kill Castro”, Wikipedia: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/638_Ways_to_Kill_Castro

[5]. “Assassination attempts on Fidel Castro”, Wikipedia: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Assassination_attempts_on_Fidel_Castro .

[6]. William Blum, “Rogue State: A Guide to the World’s Only Superpower”, 2000.

[7]. Philip Agree, “Inside the Company. CIA Diary”, 1975.

[8]. “List of countries by incarceration rate”, Wikipedia: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_countries_by_incarceration_rate .

[9]. “Palestinian Genocide” :  http://sites.google.com/site/palestiniangenocide/ .

[10]. “Incarceration in the United States”, Wikipedia: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Incarceration_in_the_United_States .

[11]. Michelle  Alexander, “The New Jim Crow: Mass Incarceration in the Age of Colorblindness”, The New Press, 2010.

[12]. Michelle  Alexander, “The war on drugs and the New Jim Crow”, Race, Poverty, Environment, Vol. 17, No. 1 | Spring 2010: http://reimaginerpe.org/20years/alexander .

[13]. Gideon Polya, “Truth & Boycotts, Divestment & Sanctions (BDS) Can Overcome Huge Inequities Suffered By African Americans Under American Apartheid”,  Countercurrents, 29 September, 2014: http://www.countercurrents.org/polya290914.htm .

[14]. Edward Herman and Noam Chomsky, “Manufacturing Consent”, Pantheon, New York, 2002.

[15]. Sam Jones, “Castro’s legacy and the envy of many nations: social care in Cuba”, Guardian, 28 November 2016: https://www.theguardian.com/world/2016/nov/27/castros-legacy-and-the-envy-of-many-nations-social-care-in-cuba .

[16]. UN Population Division, World Population Prospects, 2015 revision: https://esa.un.org/unpd/wpp/DataQuery/ .

[17]. “List of per capita nominal GDP for countries and dependencies”, Wikipedia: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_countries_by_GDP_(nominal)_per_capita .

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

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

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

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

[22]. 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: http://www.countercurrents.org/polya221115.htm .

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

[24]. Bengali Holocaust (WW2 Bengal Famine) writings of Gideon Polya”, Gideon Polya: https://sites.google.com/site/drgideonpolya/bengali-holocaust .

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

[26]. Thomas Piketty, “Capital in the Twenty-First Century” ( Harvard University Press, 2014).

[27]. Gideon Polya, “Key Book Review: “Capital In The Twenty-First Century” By Thomas Piketty”, Countercurrents, 01 July, 2014: http://www.countercurrents.org/polya010714.htm .

[28]. “1% ON 1%: annual one percent tax on One Percenter wealth”: https://sites.google.com/site/300orgsite/1-on-1 .

[29]. Fidel Castro, “The truth of what happened at Copenhagen Summit “, Countercurrents, 21 December 2009: http://www.countercurrents.org/castro211209.htm .

[30]. “Cuban literacy campaign”, Wikipedia: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cuban_Literacy_Campaign .

[31]. “List of countries by literacy rate”, Wikipedia: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_countries_by_literacy_rate .

[32]. “Are we doomed?”: https://sites.google.com/site/300orgsite/are-we-doomed .

[33]. “Too late to avoid global warming catastrophe”: https://sites.google.com/site/300orgsite/too-late-to-avoid-global-warming .

[34]. “Functional illiteracy”, Wikipedia: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Functional_illiteracy

[35]. Robert Roy Britt, “14 percent of U.S. adults can’t read”, LiveScience, 10 January 2009: http://www.livescience.com/3211-14-percent-adults-read.html

[36]. Josh Fear, “Choice overload. Australians coping with financial decisions”. The Australia Institute, Discussion paper 99, section 3.1 : http://www.tai.org.au/documents/dp_fulltext/DP99.pdf  .

[37]. Yasmine Hafiz, “Over 40% of Americans believe in creationism, survey says”,  Huffington Post, 6 March 2014: http://www.huffingtonpost.com.au/entry/creationism-america-survey_n_5434107 .

[38]. 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: http://www.countercurrents.org/polya090915.htm .

[39]. Gideon Polya, “American Holocaust, Millions Of Untimely American Deaths And $40 Trillion Cost Of Israel To Americans”,  27 August, 2013: http://www.countercurrents.org/polya270813.htm

[40]. Michael Moore, “Sicko”, a movie.

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/ .

1 December 2016