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Aug 13 2008
The Sounds of Silence, 2008 Olympic Hype | Print |  E-mail
Editorial
By Gideon Polya   

Translation

Holocaust & Genocide DenialImage

The World was amazed by the Beijing Olympics Opening Ceremony and is now enthusiastically absorbed with the achievements of marvellous top athletes – which athlete gained gold by getting there 0.01 second faster and a deluge of other such sporting statistics. However the statistics that are not reported by Mainstream media  either during the Olympic Games, or at any other time for that matter, are those relating to global avoidable mortality (excess mortality, excess death, avoidable death, deaths that should not have happened) e.g.  the estimated 44,000 people (26,000 of them under-5 year old infants) who die avoidably each day due to deprivation and deprivation-exacerbated disease.

Indeed a Google Search for the phrases  “avoidable mortality” and its synonyms “excess mortality”, “excess death” and “avoidable death” (all important medical epidemiological terms) yield  about 25,000 to 250,000 URLs whereas “Olympic Games” yields 110 million and “War on Terra” (in horrible actuality an obscene  War for Oil and a cowardly, racist  War on Arab, Muslim, Asian and Non-European Women and Children) yields 14.5 million.

The Olympic hype has not been seriously diminished by the concurrent, genocidal invasion of South Ossetia by the US- and Apartheid Israeli-trained Georgian military and the counter-invasion of Georgia by Russian forces (the beginning of a new Cold War, the beginning of a new Asian war by the Zionists, Bush-ites and neo-cons?).

Pope Pius XII (1876-1958) has been deservedly much criticized for his silence during the World War 2 Jewish Holocaust but his holocaust ignoring and genocide ignoring was part of a much wider and indeed still continuing culture of entrenched holocaust ignoring and genocide ignoring.  Thus the whole World is familiar with the horrors of the World War 2 Jewish Holocaust (6 million dead, 1 in 6 dying from deprivation) but the World War 2 Western Theatre Holocaust in general (30 million Slav, Jewish and Roma dead) is largely ignored. The Eastern Theatre World War 2 Holocausts in Japanese-occupied China (35 million dead) and in British-occupied India (6-7 million Indians deliberately starved to death by the British in the man-made Bengal Famine) are still overwhelmingly ignored by the perpetrators, Western historians and the World in general.

Holocaust Ignoring and Genocide Ignoring – effectively Holocaust Denial and Genocide Denial – are entrenched in a world that simply wants to “look the other way”. Mainstream media, politicians, corporations and academics simply do not want to know and have entrenched a world culture of denial and ignoring. Yet the horrible data from the UN Population Division and the medical literature will not go away – about 44,000 people will die avoidably today (about 26,000 being under-5 year old infants), and tomorrow, and the next day …

40 years ago the Web did not exist and I did not have ready access to UN demographic data. However as an Australian biochemistry PhD student in 1968 I had enough appreciation of Humanity, history and cause-and-effect to drive around with the following big anti-war protest sign on my Volkswagen: “NAZIS KILLED JEWS – WE KILL ASIANS”.

Paradoxically the 1960s were a time of hope and change as evidenced by de-colonization, anti-war and civil rights protests, anti-racism and personal liberation. However, as argued in a recent article “America, Zionism, Israel and the 1968-2008 Orwellian Transformation“ (see: here ), the last 40 years have seen increasingly entrenched politically correct racism (PC racism) and lying by omission and commission in the Western Murdochracies: "1968 was also the year in which the US abstained from Security Council Resolution 252, demanding Israeli withdrawal from conquered Arab lands, and therein lies a malignancy that has spread to threaten the whole world in 2008." . 

Back then in the middle 1960s we were deeply moved by the song “The Sounds of Silence” about emptiness, alienation and not-saying. This song by Paul Simon and Art Garfunkel was released in 1966 (see: here ) and was used in the seminal film “The Graduate” (1967). The lyrics are as applicable in 2008 as in 1968:


Hello darkness, my old friend, I've come to talk with you again,
Because a vision softly creeping, Left its seeds while I was sleeping,
And the vision that was planted in my brain,
Still remains, within the sound of silence.

In restless dreams I walked alone, Narrow streets of cobblestone,
'neath the halo of a street lamp, I turned my collar to the cold and damp
When my eyes were stabbed by the flash of a neon light
That split the night, and touched the sound of silence.

And in the naked light I saw, Ten thousand people, maybe more.
People talking without speaking, People hearing without listening,
People writing songs, that voices never share.
And no one dared, Disturb the sound of silence.

"Fools" said I, "You do not know, Silence like a cancer grows.
Hear my words that I might teach you, Take my arms that I might reach you."
But my words like silent raindrops fell,
And echoed, In the wells of silence.

And the people bowed and prayed, To the neon god they made.
And the sign flashed out its warning, In the words that it was forming.
And the sign said, "The words of the prophets are written on the subway walls
And tenement halls." and whisper'd in the sounds of silence.


In 2007 I published a book entitled “Body Count. Global avoidable mortality since 1950” (G.M. Polya, Melbourne, 2007: http://mwcnews.net/Gideon-Polya) in which I reported estimates from UN Population Division data of avoidable death for every country in the World since 1950. My intuitive mid-1960s estimation that something appalling was going on in US-devastated Indo-China was borne out by analysis of the mortality statistics 40 years later: excess deaths in Laos, Cambodia and Vietnam associated with the US Indo-China War totalled 13 million.

Analysis of the latest UN Population Division data and medical literature data yielded the following mid-2008 estimates about avoidable mortality in the Occupied Palestinian, Iraqi and Afghan Territories - post-invasion excess deaths 0.3 million, 2 million, and 3-6 million, respectively; post-invasion under-5 infant deaths 0.2 million, 0.6 million and 2.3 million, respectively; refugees totalling 7 million, 4.5 million and 4 million, respectively) (see: here).

“Holocaust” is an appropriate descriptive for events involving  huge mortality. However when such huge mortality is race- or religion-specific and involves sustained, deliberate, remorseless abuse of humanity, “Holocaust” also becomes "Genocide" as defined precisely by Article 2 of the UN Genocide Convention.

"In the present Convention, genocide means any of the following acts committed with intent to destroy, in whole or in part, a national, ethnic, racial or religious group, as such: a) Killing members of the group; b) Causing serious bodily or mental harm to members of the group; c) Deliberately inflicting on the group conditions of life calculated to bring about its physical destruction in whole or in part; d) Imposing measures intended to prevent births within the group; e) Forcibly transferring children of the group to another group."

The continuing Palestinian Holocaust, Iraqi Holocaust, Afghan Holocaust – the continuing Palestinian Genocide, Iraqi Genocide and Afghan Genocide as defined above – are overwhelmingly ignored by global media, corporations, politicians, academics and writers. Apart from myself, as far as I know the only writers on Earth (population 6.6 billion) actually referring to the Iraqi Holocaust and/or the Iraqi Genocide are Dr Mark Weissbrot (Just Foreign Policy), Dr Paul Craig Roberts (Father of Reaganomics), John Pilger (outstanding Australian-UK writer) and Tariq Ali (outstanding Pakistani-UK writer). Apart from myself, as far as I know, the only scholar referring to the Afghan Genocide is US law professor Ali Khan.

The Sounds of Silence indeed.

Dear Reader, you must know of great men and women and, through “six degrees of separation”, know people who know people, who know people … who know great men and women.  Please do your bit to ensure that important men and women speak out about the continuing massacre of the innocents and are prepared to use terms appropriate to the remorseless, criminal, racist carnage – Holocaust and Genocide.  

Dr Gideon Polya,  MWC News Chief political editor, published some 130 works in a 4 decade scientific career, most recently a huge pharmacological reference text "Biochemical Targets of Plant Bioactive Compounds" (CRC Press/Taylor & Francis, New York & London, 2003), and is currently writing a book on global mortality ---
Other articles by this author 


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Comments (7)
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1. 15-08-2008 12:21
Merton
Thomas Merton in the 1960s made some observations about society he lived among, the US society, but could have been talking about many western societies. 
What he said is so clear to those who somehow were not indoctrinated. See insert below: 
 
In American culture the most damaging machine is the propaganda machine; it is "a huge machine for lying;" it is "the machinery of alienation." When we were infants, we made our own "free cries." But in learning to speak, we learned to say what was expected and began to conform. We adopted the clichés of our society, and each cliché includes an automatic pattern of behavior. In learning a language the child takes on the "demands" of culture, for there comes "with words themselves a kind of servitude" . The child soon becomes involved in "public relations" and uses language to "engineer consent." Propaganda has taken over the child's mind; it will enable the child to go places. Public opinion takes care of the rest. 
 
I pasted this because it is so damn true. 
 
Mike.
Registered
2. 15-08-2008 14:52
Silence culture engineers consent
Very accurate observations, Mike, that sum up a key basis for the extraordinary lying by omission about the Iraqi Genocide and the Afghan Genocide in the Western Murdochracies.
Guest
gpolya@bigpond.comNOSPAM! ">Dr Gideon Polya
3. 15-08-2008 23:58
Beat goes on
Great article. In unison with Mikes are statements made by an American black writter James Baldwin in a speech 1979 and again at an awards speech in 1986 one year before his death. He declared that we should have a national holiday for history of the white man to insure people are educated about their history. That until the white man understands where he comes from and who he is his history will repeat itself. That history is a predisposition to answers with genocide. Any one wanting to question or validate this, converse with an american indian. The video can be watched at C-SPAN3 http://www.c-spanarchives.org/library/index.php?main_page=index adn under series and American Writers. While both speeches are deeply insiteful to race relations and some hints towards war monguring. The 1979 speech I find applicable since it has some roots closer to the vietnam war. In the US or not one should be able to link in and watch the video, even though it is planned to air tommarow on cable and satelite C-SPAN 3. I try to inform people of the genocide numbers and pictures of the birth defects from the UD bombs. And now the conflict they have been building in Georgia and its outlaw states. As someone once said, \"the center cannot hold\". And as James Baldwin said, \"Somethings got to give\". Every conflict is full of hidden massive death. Now to continue to try to pull NATO more than it has already. We are truly on the edge of massive dissaster. Our two presidential canidates both endorse some sort of disastrous foriegn market domination and militarily little differance. The two party US elections offer nothing but corporate and corparate sponsered media facists for the people to choose from, color of skin is not relative. All other voices are allowed to speak once and then drowned out, with silence. I cannot believe these two parties are still in business. Dispite disapproval they will, like sheep pick one of the evils, and give their last free speech away. Because it\'s not about that, its about having the winning last say. Right or wrong.
Guest
SCJ
4. 16-08-2008 01:16
Obama, McCain & Afghan Genocide
Well said, SCJ. 
 
Obama promises to get out of Iraq (1990-2008 excess deaths 4 million; 4.5 million refugees) but to continue in Afghanistan (2001-2008 excess deaths 3-6 million; 4 million refugees ). McCain will continue both holocausts, both genocides and possibly more. 
 
Americans may well be pleased with the recent enthusiastic reception of Uncle Tom Barack Obama in Europe. However they need to know what they are actually voting for – either 50% less killing (if a President Obama does get out of Occupied Iraq but not Occupied Afghanistan ) or possibly 100% more killing (if a President McCain decides to devastate Iran as well as continuing the Iraqi and Afghan Holocausts) (see: Obama, McCain, Iraqi Genocide & Afghan Genocide ). 
 
The distinction between the racist, mass murdering Bush-ite Republicans and the racist, mass murdering neo-Bush-ite Democrats is merely a matter of DEGREE. 
 
Shame on partly African Obama who won’t even defend his own. Thus the only Obama criticism of the British in Kenya I have found is that his grandfather was called “boy” by his British masters – whereas the shocking 1950s reality involved the following: “1944, Jomo Kenyatta started the independence movement; 1952-1960, Mau Mau Emergency, Kikuyu Mau Mau insurgency against the British, 0.3 million Kikuyu held in concentration camps, 1 million held in “enclosed villages”, 0.1 million were either killed or otherwise died in custody, horrendous British atrocities, Kenyatta imprisoned (1952-1960 excess mortality 1.1 million); 1963, independence with Kenyatta as leader but the UK retained a military base in Mombasa;” (consult my summary in Chapter 7, “Body Count. Global avoidable mortality since 1950” (G.M. Polya, Melbourne, 2007: Body Count. Global avoidable mortality since 1950 ).
Guest
gpolya@bigpond.comNOSPAM! ">Dr Gideon Polya
5. 23-08-2008 00:32
Obama, McCain & Afghan Genocide
Dr. Polya, I quess the biggest offense that Obama drives home with me is he mentions moving troops over to Afganistan which is another illegal war with a puppet president installed. To me he is only moving combat troops and calling for another 65000 new troops and an additional 25,000 marines. But the 14 US military bases in Irag will not be closed down and require, I believe 50,0000 troops to maintain? Nor stop the building of the worlds largest US embassey in Bagdad. The dynamics of a first time black president will hype up black nationalism which in a time of need and possible severe recession = more black enlistments and spanish and poor whites. This dirty trick with the war monguring that is going on with the US and its followers. Again in th ehiostory of the world, it is the poor who pay the biggest price. But it is the essence of this crime and the lie I feel Obama is running on. He has voted in favor of every corporate break favoring bill and immunity to corparations for spying on americans. So back against the wall if I were to vote for one of these men it would be a more of the same with McCane. He won\'t have the enhansing effect to attract the ethnic youth. But I currently do not intend to vote for either of these two war monguring men. I feel it is corporate capitalism greed driving the free world to a facsist state, that may be extreme but I concider these genocides extreme. The libertarian embracement of the free market system dose not adress this. For me when people say follow the money for corruption it goes beyond the corporate stool pigeon politician to the politicians keeper. I am sorry my country is the leader of this parade. It seems spain is the only country who's elections took their contry away from this total war of US and its followers. And speeking out becomes more difficult. Look at what happened to the Dixie Chicks when they spoke out, and numerous writers have been black balled. But we must strive to keep the message alive.
Registered
6. 24-08-2008 03:42
The gutter.
Steve, what the world is witnessing is the expansion of an empire, strings of bases around the world, virtual protectorates Afghanistan, even a country like Australia, that was taught to mind its p\'s and q\'s in the 1970s. 
When a system is set up, where the parties that one votes for are, essentially the same, is that a democracy, or a huge con? 
Mahatma Gandhi was walking with a friend in India at the hight of the British Raj, when they were forced to step into the gutter by two swaggering British officers coming from the other direction,Gandhi remarked, that these people do not realise that all empires have fallen, and this one(British) will without a doubt will fall also. 
He was correct in the whole statement. The US is stretching itself too far, it will collapse for 
sure. 
 
Mike
Registered
7. 24-08-2008 08:26
The gutter.
While I have no idea of the pain a collapse will bring, the sooner the better. While I am not an expert seems conflict stimulates war manufacturing, but what ever will help to bring the collapse on, I hope it is soon. The democratic party meets next week, I have red of numerous anti war protests prepared to try to embarass both conventions, and that numerous jail ware housing is also sets barren waiting occupation of people whose voices will also not be herd or reported with little if any coverage. This is the sensoring again of our corporate owned and controlled media.
Registered

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