Alhambra Pollock

Alhambra Pollock

Gideon Polya, “Alhambra Pollock” painting. Arab-Islam-West amity through Art”, MWC News, 24 April 2007.

For an image of the huge “Alhambra Pollock” painting (1.3 x 2.9 metres) see: http://www.flickr.com/photos/gideonpolya/4288352915/ .

Alhambra Pollock” painting. Arab-Islam-West amity through Art

ARAB-ISLAM-WEST amity and understanding is urgently needed at this time with anti-Arab anti-Semitism and Islamophobia entrenched in the West, American or US-surrogate forces partially or completely occupying a swathe of Arab culture, Islamic countries from Somalia to Afghanistan (Somalia, Palestine, Syria, Iraq and Afghanistan), with Iran under attack from Afghan opium smugglers and from US-backed Pakistani Baluchistan terrorists and Iran (population 70 million) also under acute threat of conventional or even nuclear attack by the US or by America’s Middle East surrogate, Apartheid Israel.

Small comfort that outstanding French Jewish writer Emmanuel Todd argues that the American Empire is in its last throes in his best-selling “After the Empire” (“Après l’Empire”; English translation Constable, London, 2004) - because he also indicates that a lot of innocent people will die in the process. Indeed as of December 2010, the post-invasion excess deaths (violent and non-violent avoidable deaths) in the Occupied Palestinian, Iraqi and Afghan Territories now total 0.3, 2.5 and 4.5 million, respectively; the post-invasion under-5 infant deaths total 0.2, 0.9 and 2.4 million, respectively (90% avoidable); and the refugees from these Occupied countries now total 7 million, 5-6 million and 3-4 million, respectively.

I have painted a huge painting “Alhambra Pollock” that attempts to enhance Arab-West and Islam-West amity through art. The painting arose from a series of other large paintings with a similar humanitarian, pro-Peace, pro-Woman and pro-Mother and Child messages that can be seen on the Web via Flickr, notably Qana, Sydney Madonna, Manhattan Madonna, Melbourne Madonna, and Truelove (see:

http://www.flickr.com/photos/gideonpolya/ ).

The bold vision of “Alhambra Pollock” was to create a beautiful painting conflating the most extreme form of contemporary Western abstract expressionism (that of American Jackson Pollock) with the ravishing colours and beautiful geometric forms of Islamic and Arab tile patterns (most wonderfully seen in the great mosques of Bokhara, Samarkand, Isfahan and elsewhere and the exquisite 13 th - 14th century Moorish Alhambra Palace in Granada, Spain). The simple message was that this conflation of such radical extremes – the post-war, alcohol-fuelled, radical, American abstract expressionism of Jackson Pollock VERSUS the pure Islamic, non-representational, tile pattern Art of the Golden Age of Islamic and Arab Art and Culture from Spain to Central Asia - demonstrates the essential unity of Man. If such conflation is possible between such extremes then there is no serious argument between Men - with PEACE, understanding and amity being the inexorable consequences.

Indeed PEACE is an Acronym for the essential ingredients of this specific kind of Artistic polemical which can be described as Pólya, Escher, Alhambra Cultural Ecumenism as outlined below.

My Great Uncle George Pólya (1887-1985) was a great Hungarian mathematician who spent much of his professional life at the Eidgenössische Technische Hochschule (ETH) in Zurich, Switzerland in the period 1914-1940 and thence at Stanford University, Palo Alto, California from 1953 until his death in 1985 at the age of 98 (see: here). He was a pacifist and was lightly punished by the Swiss by having to teach at a Gymnasium in WW1. Shortly after his return to the ETH he published a mathematical description of the 17 plane symmetry groups that describe the 17 possible types of tile patterns of the kind most wonderfully employed in Islamic and Arab Art. M.C. Escher was fascinated by such patterns found in the exquisite 13th-14th century Moorish Alhambra Palace in Granada, Spain and in the great mosques of the Islamic World from Spain to the Middle East, Iran, Central Asia, South Asia and South East Asia. M.C. Escher was alerted to George Pólya’s work, corresponded with him for many years and used these patterns in his wonderful lithographs (see Harold & Loretta Taylor, “George Pólya. Master of Discovery”, Dale Seymour, Palo Alto, 1993).

My painting arose out of discussions with dear Muslim, Muslim-origin and other friends. I knew it as a wonderful humanitarian and artistic idea and also knew how to approach the painting technically. However I really struggled for 4 months with the compositional solution to the problem. Great Uncle George published a wonderful book called “How to Solve it” (published in 1945, published subsequently in many languages and still in print) that is beloved of mathematics teachers and students. Mathematics is the technical core of the “Alhambra Pollock”. Specifically, the underlying design involves conflation of a particular kind of plane symmetry group (“wallpaper group” or tile pattern) with the Fibonacci Sequence-based Golden Rectangle (Da Vinci Code) geometry used by many artists over several millennia and most gloriously in the Italian Renaissance. Nevertheless a crucial artistic SPARK was missing.

Several weeks ago I returned to university teaching to help out a scientific department at a top university because a highly respected scientific colleague was ill. Lecturing and thinking about how to “get through” to his cohort of second year university science students evidently “opened doors in my mind” and – Eureka! – walking back from lectures and laboratory classes one day the solution suddenly crystallized. A similar process - precipitated by the excellent “Morning Pages” stream of consciousness exercise in Julia Cameron’s “The Artist’s Way” - led to the huge humanitarian paintings that are the precursors of “Alhambra Pollock”.

The solution involved adding a further layer of complexity to the underlying plane symmetry group (tile pattern) and Fibonacci Sequence geometry. Specifically, I added elongated figures akin to the elegant and beautiful Australian Aboriginal Bradshaw Figures found on rock paintings in the North West Kimberley Region of Australia and dated to over 17,000 years old. Perhaps the inspiration also came from seeing so many slim, young undergraduate students reclining, walking and playing on the university lawns and quadrangles. Excited, I created a first rough version of the painting and then hastened to the next stage of the huge 1.3 meter by 2.9 meter canvas. However the first version departed from my original conception – “the painting took over control” – and a beautiful, unique, ALTERNATIVE solution evolved. I then embarked on a second attempt in order to more precisely achieve my original conception, the painting again took over control -and the result was “Alhambra Pollock”.

In short, “Alhambra Pollock” describes one year in the life a human being - Winter, Spring, Summer and Autumn. The Four Seasons occupy a Double Golden Rectangle geometry (as in Picasso’s “Guernica” and my similarly-motivated, anti-war painting “Qana”) that lies between a lower strip (representing Earth, Fire and Water) and a smaller upper strip (representing Air and Sky). The figures of the large Central Strip evolve into Mermaids at the interface with the Lower (Water) Strip and Winged Fairies at the interface with the Upper (Sky) Strip. The colours match the mood and nature of the Four Seasons, which are in turn allegories for the moods and nature of Man. The three elements (tile patterns, Golden Rectangle Geometry and conflated figures) create a chaotic complexity – order in chaos, chaos in order – akin to both the abstract expressionism of Jackson Pollock and the Arabic Calligraphy often superimposed on great Islamic Art tile patterns.

According to a recent lecture by the President of the American Association for Advancement of Science (AAAS), the World faces three acute problems, namely nuclear weapons, global warming and poverty. Bush America is a major part of these problems – the US has the most nuclear weapons; the US is the world’s biggest greenhouse gas polluter, refuses to sign Kyoto and will not constrain carbon dioxide pollution; and the US is at the helm of Spaceship Earth on which 16 million people die avoidably each year (10 million of these avoidable deaths being those of under-5 year old infants).

These are acutely serious problems and the World needs to deal with them urgently by Rational Risk Management as most successfully applied in Aviation and successively involving (a) correct information, (b) scientific analysis involving the critical testing of potentially falsifiable hypotheses, and (c) systemic change to minimize the dangers. Instead, the 21st century has seen the Bush-ite and Racist Zionist promotion of anti-Arab anti-Semitism, Islamophobia, terror hysteria, war and imperialism and an overall approach involving (a) Goebellsian lies and propaganda, (b) anti-scientific spin involving use of asserted facts to support a partisan, prejudiced position and (c) blame and shame culminating in horrendous wars that have killed millions and seriously exacerbated the danger to the world.

Peace is the only way and this present contribution of PEACE – Pólya, Escher, Alhambra Cultural Ecumenism - through ART is one of many possible ways to increase empathy for the Other that underscores amity and understanding between human beings.

Apocalypse Now

Apocalypse Now

For an image of "Apocalypse Now" see: http://www.flickr.com/photos/gideonpolya/4289096468/ .

See Gideon Polya, “War on Terra – US Empire strikes back”, MWC News, submitted 24 February 2006 (but now updated as of February 2010).

http://sites.google.com/site/climatecrisisarticles/war-on-terra.

This article is well illustrated by my huge paintings "Terra":http://www.flickr.com/photos/gideonpolya/4289095912/ and "Apocalypse Now": http://www.flickr.com/photos/gideonpolya/4289096468/ .

War on Terra – US Empire strikes back

SCIENCE FICTIONS FANS are familiar with the Terrans who inhabit the one-moon planet Terra that orbits the medium-sized sun called Sol. A frequent theme is threat to Terra and Terrans from evil extra-terrestrial aliens as initiated by “War of the Worlds” by H.G. Wells (1898) and thence re-jigged in the famous, panic-inducing Orson Welles radio broadcast (1938), Byron Haskin’s film “The War of the Worlds” (1953) and Steven Spielberg’s recent movie “War of the Worlds” (2005).

The War on Terra has become a reality under the egregiously violent democratic imperialism (democratic tyranny, democratic Nazism) of the evil Bush Administration. Millions of Terrans are dying and Terra - the blue jewel of the Sol system and the only planet in the Galaxy or indeed in the whole Universe presently known to carry life - is terminally threatened.

Since World War 2 (WW2) the major European empires slowly retracted, albeit replacing explicit colonialism with neo-colonialism and continued First World economic domination. However as the British Empire retracted, so the US Empire has expanded. This is illustrated clearly by the following listings of countries actually occupied by the UK or the US in the post-war era.

Countries in which the UK was a major occupier in the post-WW2 era include Afghanistan, Bahamas, Bahrain, Bangladesh, Barbados, Belize, Bhutan, Botswana, Brunei, Cameroon, Cyprus; Diego Garcia, Egypt, Eritrea, Ethiopia, Fiji, Gambia, Ghana, Greece, Grenada, Guyana, Hong Kong, India, Iraq, Israel, Jamaica, Jordan, Kenya, Korea, Kuwait, Lesotho, Libya, Malawi, Malaysia, Maldives, Malta, Myanmar, Nepal, Nigeria, Occupied Palestinian Territories, Oman, Pakistan, Qatar, Saint Lucia, Saint Vincent & Grenadines, Sierra Leone, Singapore, Solomon Islands, Somalia, Sri Lanka, Sudan, Swaziland, Tanzania, Tonga, Trinidad & Tobago, Uganda, United Arab Emirates, Vanuatu, Yemen, Zambia, and Zimbabwe.

The UK is currently only a major occupier of Afghanistan, Diego Garcia and Iraq.

In contrast, before WW2 the US was in partial or complete military occupation of only Cuba, Guam, the Panama Canal Zone, the Philippines, Puerto Rico and the Virgin Islands

However, countries in which the US was a major occupier in the post-WW2 era include Afghanistan, Cambodia, Cuba, Diego Garcia, Dominican Republic, Federated States of Micronesia, Germany, Greece, Grenada, Guam, Haiti, Iraq, Japan, North Korea, Laos, Panama, Philippines, Puerto Rico, Somalia, South Korea, US Virgin Islands, and Vietnam.

Of course the US has had other major world-wide involvements in other violence (e.g. in Angola, the Congo, the Honduras-based Contra terrorism against Nicaragua and militarism elsewhere in Central America, South America, Africa and Asia) and the US has military bases in numerous countries throughout the world.

The post-war era began with the noblest of intentions, international agreement on the United Nations, the Universal Declaration of Human Rights and the Geneva Conventions. However these international conventions have been increasingly flouted by the US and its key military allies Israel, the UK and Australia.

The 1950s saw the independence of North African, Middle Eastern and South Asian countries but Zionist racism, militarism, colonialism and expansionism has had a catastrophic effect on the Middle East and South Asia was crippled by the legacy of 2 centuries of frankly genocidal British imperialism. The 1960s and 1970s saw the formal independence of a large number of African countries – but neo-colonial realities have made Africa a continuing nightmare. With increasing international concern over human rights abuses, the operations of the International Criminal Court came into effect in 2002 – with the notable absences of the US and Israel. With increasing international concern from scientists over global warming, the Kyoto Protocol was negotiated in Japan in 1997 and was subsequently ratified by nearly all countries of the world – with the notable exceptions of the US and its greedy lackey Australia, the world’s worst greenhouse gas producer per head of population.

The US Empire strikes back

The world currently has a population of about 6 billion and key resources are dwindling, notably arable land, forests, major ecosystems, fisheries, fresh water and oil.

The US Empire, its allies or surrogates conducted major military campaigns for world resource domination in East Asia (early 1950s), South East Asia (1950s-1975), Central Asia (1980s-present), the Middle East (1980s-present), Central America (all of the 20th century to the 1990s), South America (all of the 20th century until the 1990s via US-backed régimes), South Asia (backing of Pakistan militarization) and in Africa (since the 1960s via US-backed régimes and US-backed rebels).

The cost of Anglo-American violence and economic hegemony has been horrendous. The impact of mindless, racist Anglo-American greed can be gauged from 2 key parameters: (a) global avoidable mortality and (b) global warming.

(a) Avoidable mortality (excess mortality)

Avoidable mortality (excess mortality) is the difference between the ACTUAL deaths in a country and the deaths EXPECTED for a peaceful, well-administered country with the same demographics. Using United Nations (UN) data, avoidable mortality (technically, excess mortality) has been calculated for every country in the world since 1950. The post-1950 avoidable mortality totals 1.3 billion for the world and 1.2 billion for the non-European world, these figures being consonant with independently-calculated estimates of post-1950 under-5 infant mortality totaling 0.88 billion for the world and 0.85 billion for the non-European world (see: my book "Body Count. Global avoidable mortality since 1950", G.M. Polya, Melbourne, 2007: http://globalavoidablemortality.blogspot.com/).

In order to make comparisons, it is useful to calculate the “post-1950 avoidable mortality/2005 population” ratio for different countries and regions of the world: 2.7% (for Overseas Europe i.e. the US, Israel, Australia, New Zealand and Canada), 5.0% (Western Europe), 7.5 % (Eastern Europe), 9.4% (Latin America and the Caribbean), 10.9% (East Asia), 20.7% (Turkey, Iran and Central Asia), 23.0% (Arab North Africa and Middle East), 25.1% (South East Asia), 27.3% (the Pacific), 31.9% (South Asia) and 43.2% (non-Arab Africa).

The post-1950 avoidable mortality in countries in which the US and its key allies were MAJOR occupiers at some stage in the post-WW2 era is as follows (post-war occupations of Cuba, Germany and Japan excluded): countries occupied by Australia (2.1 million), Belgium (36.0 million), France (142.3 million), Israel (23.9 million), Netherlands (71.6 million), New Zealand (0.04 million), Portugal (23.5 million), Spain (8.6 million), Turkey (0.05 million), UK (727.4 million) and by the US (82.2 million).

The US and its major allies have been complicit in a substantial part of the horrendous, post-1950 Third World Holocaust involving a billion avoidable deaths.

(b) Global warming

Global warming is a reality for an international scientific consensus. According to NASA (2006), 2005 was the warmest year in over a century. Over the past century, the world has warmed by 0.8° C (1.44° F) – however, just over the last 30 years Terra has warmed by 0.6° C (1.08° F) (see: http://www.nasa.gov/vision/earth/environment/2005_warmest.html). The world is getting warmer with horrendous implications for a crowded planet. James Lovelock in his latest book “The Revenge of Gaia” (Penguin, London, 2006) says that fundamental planetary self-regulating mechanisms have been irreversibly damaged and that the Earth is in for a rough ride in the long term with average temperature set to rise by as much as 8° C in temperate regions and 5° C in the tropics over the next century (see: http://comment.independent.co.uk/commentators/article338830.ece).

US Empire and its allies - notably its loyal lackey Australia - bear a major responsibility for the developing disaster. Thus in 1999 the tonnes of carbon dioxide (CO₂) per capita were as follows for the following key players: Australia (27.9), Canada (22.2), US (20.7), Ireland (15.6), Netherlands (14.5), New Zealand (14.4) and Denmark (13.6) – with lesser values for Germany (11.6), UK (10.8), Japan (9.6), Italy (9.1), France (8.2), and Russia (7.6) (see: http://www.tai.org.au/WhatsNew_Files/WhatsNew/Percapita070802.pdf and http://www.smh.com.au/articles/2004/06/18/1087245110190.html).

The US and Australia are the world’s most profligate greenhouse gas producers but the US still refuses to sign the Kyoto Protocols for greenhouse gas control (Australia signed 10 years too late in 2007). Worse still, both the US and Australia are gagging top climate change scientists. Thus the Bush Administration attempted to gag NASA’s top climate change scientist Dr Hansen, longtime director of NASA’s Goddard Institute for Space Studies (see: http://www.theage.com.au/text/articles/2006/01/29/1138469606831.html). Australia is having an economic boom based significantly on coal-based electricity and huge coal exports to the burgeoning China economy. The corporate greenhouse gas producers have an extraordinary political influence in Australia as in the US. Australian authorities have been gagging public servants and indeed the very top Australian climate change scientists (see: http://www.abc.net.au/4corners/content/2006/s1566257.htm).

The War on Terra has to be won by ordinary humanity or Planet Earth is doomed. What can ordinary people do? Peace is the only way but silence kills and silence is complicity. Decent people around the world must (a) inform others to overcome the dominance of lying mainstream media and (b) behave ethically in all their personal and business dealings with the US Empire and its allies.

Just as Sanctions and Sporting Boycotts were ultimately successful against the Minority White Apartheid régime in South Africa, so these mechanisms can be applied very effectively to other SMALL – and hence vulnerable - players in the system of Anglo-American global hegemony and involved in the War on Terra. SMALL countries such as Denmark and Australia - that are major greenhouse gas polluters, are complicit in the egregious violence of US Empire in Iraq (post-invasion avoidable mortality now 0.5 million) and which violate effective free speech (by effectively blocking any media reportage of horrendous Coalition war crimes against Muslim women and children) – are good candidates for such international action.

The sine qua non of the neo-liberal US Empire is “free choice” and the “market place”. Would you buy soap made in Auschwitz? Would you deal in any avoidable way with politically correct racist countries involved in passive mass murder of Terran infants or threatening the very survival of Planet Earth through their War on Terra?

Bundoora Arabesque

Bundoora Arabesque

For an image of the huge “Bundoora Arabesque” (1.3 x 2.9 metres) see: http://www.flickr.com/photos/gideonpolya/4288353489/ .

Gideon Polya , “La Trobe University, “Bundoora Arabesque” And Australian Aboriginal Genocide” Countercurrents, 12 August, 2007: http://sites.google.com/site/aboriginalgenocide/-bundoora-arabesque-la-trobe and http://www.countercurrents.org/polya120807.htm .

“La Trobe University, “Bundoora Arabesque” And Australian Aboriginal Genocide”

La Trobe University (Bundoora, outer Melbourne, Australia is its main campus) ranks roughly #10 out of Australia’s 40 odd universities. It can boast past or present associations with some outstanding scholars in the areas of bioethics, gay rights, science and human rights. It is named after Charles Joseph La Trobe who was a governor of Victoria in the 19 th century. However La Trobe has an ambivalent history - he was a traveler, mountaineer and writer on the one hand but during his rule the notorious Native Police were involved in the Aboriginal Genocide that delivered the rich agricultural lands of Victoria to European settlers. Indeed this ambiguity is possibly behind a statue of Governor La Trobe at La Trobe University which is UPSIDE DOWN (i.e. head on the ground, feet and plinthe in the air!).

This same dichotomy arises now. I have painted a huge painting (1.3 metre x 2.9 metre) called “Bundoora Arabesque”. For an image of the huge “Bundoora Arabesque” painting (1.3 x 2.9 metres) see: http://www.flickr.com/photos/gideonpolya/4288353489/ .

I am using this Art to inform people around the world about the appalling, ongoing Australian Aboriginal Genocide. In this process of Art versus Genocide I have been doubly inspired by La Trobe University – I have been inspired by the beauty of Bundoora in which it is set and in which I live (Bundoora means “the country kangaroos like” in the Aboriginal language of this region – try to spot them, in the painting!) and by the example of an outstanding La Trobe University academic, Professor Robert Manne, who has led the scholarly fight against right-wing Denial of the Australian Aboriginal Genocide.

Professor Robert Manne of La Trobe University is widely regarded as one of Australia’s leading public intellectuals and in recent years he has been particularly forthright and articulate in his defence of Australia’s downtrodden Aboriginal community. One of the world’s and Australia’s leading experts on genocide, Professor Colin Tatz (University of New South Wales, formerly of Macquarie University), has described what happened to Australia’s Indigenous Australians as the Aboriginal Genocide – the Indigenous population fell from about 1 million to 0.1 million in the first century after European invasion (mainly through introduced disease, deprivation and horrendous violence); a policy of forcible Aboriginal child removal (0.1 million “Stolen Children”) continued up to about 1970; Indigenous Australians were not even “counted” or able to vote as Australians until after a referendum in 1967 that permitted the Federal Government to legislate about them; and horrendous Aboriginal Genocide through deprivation and discrimination CONTINUES (9,000 Aborigines die avoidably every year out of a population of 500,000 due to deliberate, sustained Federal and State Government neglect).

Professor Robert Manne has been a leading figure in the so-called Australian “History Wars” in which many Australian scholars have pitted themselves against writers and politicians who claim that there was NO Aboriginal Genocide. Indeed the extreme right-wing, Bush-ite Australian Government refuses to say “sorry” for the past atrocities. A very notable publication is a major academic anthology edited by Professor Robert Manne entitled “Whitewash: On Keith Windschuttle's Fabrication of Aboriginal History”, Melbourne, Black Inc, 2003. (for more a detailed list of relevant scholarly comments see "Aboriginal Genocide": http://sites.google.com/site/aboriginalgenocide/ ). However we live in an Orwellian Age in which “money buys truth” and in which “all the news that’s fit to print” means “fit to print by the corporate Mainstream media” – denial of the Aboriginal Holocaust is alive and well in White Australia.

This has been dramatized by very recent events in Australia. In response to shocking anecdotal reports in 2006 of Aboriginal child sexual abuse in Australia’s Northern Territory (NT), the NT Government set up an expert Inquiry. The subsequent Northern Territory (NT) Report “Little Children are Sacred” concluded that from a QUALITATIVE perspective Aboriginal child sexual abuse IS occurring and this and other serious Aboriginal circumstances must be URGENTLY addressed but sensibly and with community CONSULTATION.

However the Report (p57) states that “it is not possible to accurately estimate the extent of child sexual abuse in the Northern Territory” while DOCUMENTING that 34% of females and 16% of males in Australia as a whole experience child sexual abuse (Dunne, M.P., Purdie, D.M., Cook, M.D., Boyle, F.M. & Najman, J.M.(2003), Is child sexual abuse declining? Evidence from a population-based survey of men and women in Australia, Child Abuse & Neglect, vol. 27 (2), pp141-152)
(see: http://www.nt.gov.au/dcm/inquirysaac
/pdf/bipacsa_final_report.pdf ).

Yet the Bush-ite Australian Federal, “Coalition” Government and Mainstream media have been commenting extensively and in very strong terms about this without actually knowing about the ACTUAL extent of NT aboriginal child abuse (for all we know it is far LESS than in Australia as a whole).The Government is simply INCORRECT in implying that it knows of the horrific extent of the NT child abuse problem when it does NOT actually know the NUMBERS - just as it was INCORRECT about children overboard (it won the 2001 election by falsely claiming that Muslim refugees had thrown their children into the sea); Iraqi weapons of mass destruction (WMDs) (a falsehood used to “justify” the illegal, war criminal Australian invasion if Iraq); ignoring and denying Australian Wheat Board (AWB) bribes to Saddam Hussein; and denying huge civilian casualties in Occupied Iraq and Occupied Afghanistan (post-invasion excess deaths now total over 3.4 million).

Thus there were actually NO children thrown overboard; there were NO WMDs; everybody knew of the need for Iraqi wheat sale bribes from the mid-1990s onwards (the $250 million in Australian bribes diverted from the UN Oil for Food Program are estimated to have killed up to 21,000 Iraqi infants); post-invasion excess deaths in the Occupied Iraqi and Afghan Territories total 1.0 million and 2.4 million, respectively, and post-invasion under-5 year old infant deaths total 0.5 million and 1.9 million, respectively (largely avoidable and due to war criminal Occupier mass child-abuse in gross violation of the Geneva Convention; see: http://mwcnews.net/content/view/13099/26/ ).

The racism and neglect of the Conservative (Coalition) Australian Federal Government has created appalling Aboriginal living conditions. My recent book “Body Count, Global avoidable mortality since 1950” (G.M. Polya, Melbourne, 2007: http://globalbodycount.blogspot.com/ ; copies in major libraries around the world) estimates that the “annual death rate” (2003 figures) is 2.2% (for Aboriginal Australians) and 2.4% (for Aboriginal Australians in the Northern Territory) – as compared to 0.4% (what it should be for a comparable high birth rate society), 2.5% (for pre-drought sheep in paddocks of Australian sheep farms), 0.7% (for White Australians), 1.7% (non-Arab Africa), 2.6% (Occupied Iraq under-5 year old infants), 6.5% (Occupied Afghanistan under-5 year old infants) and 10% (Australian prisoners of war of the Japanese in World War 2).

This is happening in one of the richest countries of the world because of deliberate and sustained neglect – Australian Aboriginal health services are funded at about 50% of what they should be according to the Commonwealth Grants Commission (2001) report “Report on Indigenous funding” (quoted by a recent and very detailed report on Indigenous Australian Health by N. Thomson et al: “Overview of Indigenous Health, 2004”: http://www.healthinfonet.ecu.edu.au/html/html_bulletin/
bull_44/reviews/thomson/reviews_thomson_1.htm ).

The World Health Organization (WHO) estimates “total per capita medical expenditure at average exchange rate ($US)” (2004) as $14 (US-UK-Australia-Occupied Afghanistan) and $58 (US-UK-Australia-Occupied Iraq) versus $3,123 (Occupier Australia) (see: http://www.who.int/nha/country/Annex%202.pdf ). With an Indigenous population of about 0.5 million that is funded at roughly the national average (despite huge morbidity and remote location problems) the EXTRA funding required is about US$1.5 billion annually – as compared to the US$0.4 billion now offered, and this largely for Army and bureaucratic personnel and infrastructure.

Let us be clear about what this legislation does and how it grossly violates the 1975 Racial Discrimination Act, International ant-racism conventions and indeed the Universal Declaration of Human Rights 1948 (specifically Articles 1, 2, 6, 7, 8, 9, 17, 19, 22 and 30; see: http://www.un.org/Overview/rights.html ). Racist White Australia is proposing to grossly abuse the human rights of NT Aboriginals in a racially-specific way.

Thus: NT Aboriginals will be circumscribed about what they can read, see, drink, use, consume and purchase in ways that do NOT apply to White Australians; their welfare payments will be withheld by the Government; they will not be able to litigate to protect themselves – the Racial Discrimination Act is suspended in a racially-specific way; a Permit system, vital for keeping drug- and alcohol-pushers from remote Aboriginal communities will be abolished; NONE of the 97 recommendations of the expert NT Report will be addressed and indeed the key #1 Recommendation of URGENT ACTION WITH CONSULTATION is fundamentally violated; their Land (Sacred to Indigenous Australians) and their Communities will be seized and controlled for years by the Federal Government which currently presides over 9,000 avoidable Aboriginal deaths annually and which still refuses to say “sorry” for the past horrendous Aboriginal Genocide and Ethnocide. Indeed the Aboriginal Genocide continues – it took 90,000 lives in the last 11 years alone of rule of Australia by the Coalition Government.

According to the Australian Human Rights Commission (see: http://www.humanrights.gov.au/about_
the_commission/legislation/index.html#rda ) the Racial Discrimination Act 1975 gives effect to Australia's obligations under the International Convention on the Elimination of All Forms of Racial Discrimination. Its major objectives are to (1) promote equality before the law for all persons, regardless of their race, colour or national or ethnic origin, and (2) make discrimination against people on the basis of their race, colour, descent or national or ethnic origin unlawful.

Sanctions and Boycotts were applied successfully against the racist Apartheid régime in South Africa which had an “annual avoidable death rate” of 0.4% overall in 1993 as compared to 2.0% for Northern Territory Aborigines in Australia TODAY. The head of the Australian Human Rights and Equal Opportunity Commission (HREOC) says that the Federal Government's legislation for intervention in Northern Territory Indigenous communities could face an international back-lash (see: http://www.abc.net.au/news/stories/2007/08/08/2000137.htm ).

The Nazis wiped my family from the face of Europe. I am married to a Black Australian. The Jewish Holocaust and the Aboriginal Genocide both instruct that there must be ZERO TOLERANCE FOR RACISM. The racist Bill has already passed the House of Representatives with bi-partisan support – only Senate approval is now needed but the Senate is overwhelmingly dominated by the 2 major parties that support the Bill (only the minority Greens and Democrats oppose the Bill). Australians have been given just a few days to present submissions to a One Day Senate Inquiry into the 500 page NT Intervention Bill and about 70 submissions have been made (for details - my submission is #35 – see: http://www.aph.gov.au/senate/committee/
legcon_ctte/nt_emergency/submissions/sublist.htm ). I and others have urged all Senators to vote against this Bill – a vote for this Bill is a vote against a non-racist Australia and the international reputation of this country.

The World should be watching. Tell everyone you know about the horrendous, continuing Aboriginal Genocide and the resurgent, bi-partisan-backed, politically correct racist (PC racist) New Racist White Australia.

Dr Gideon Polya 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). He has just published “Body Count. Global avoidable mortality since 1950” (G.M. Polya, Melbourne, 2007).

Also see Gideon Polya, “Racism in Australia – La Trobe, “Bundoora Arabesque” & Aboriginal Ethnocide”, MWC News, 8 August 2007 (partly cached by Google): http://sites.google.com/site/aboriginalgenocide/-bundoora-arabesque-la-trobe . .

For an image of the huge painting “Bundoora Arabesque” (1.3 x 2.9 metres) see: http://www.flickr.com/photos/gideonpolya/4288353489/ .

Racism in Australia – La Trobe, “Bundoora Arabesque” & Aboriginal Ethnocide

“Bundoora Arabesque” is a huge 4-seasons abstract expressionist painting that represents an ecumenical and amity-promoting fusion of Islamic, Renaissance Italian and contemporary styles overlaid with abstract expressionist figurative elements reminiscent of Jackson Pollock and of 20,000 year old cave paintings from Europe and Australia. “Bundoora” is my local area and means “the country that kangaroos like” in the Aboriginal language of this region. Indeed I often see kangaroos in the early morning and evening in the local bushland (see if you can spot them as well as local bird life in this complex painting).

Bundoora is the Outer Melbourne suburb in which La Trobe University is located. La Trobe ranks about #10 among Australia’s 40 odd universities and some major scholars with international reputations have variously been associated with La Trobe. The university is named after 19th century Victorian governor Charles La Trobe, a traveler, mountaineer and author who is also notorious for setting up the Victorian Native Police who were involved in the Aboriginal Genocide in South East Australia. This ambiguity is reflected in a life-size upside-down statue of La Trobe at La Trobe University in which the head is on the ground and the plinthe in the air.

My “Bundoora Arabesque” painting was inspired by the beautiful local area through which I walked frequently some months ago when I was delivering a big theory and practical course to second year science students at La Trobe University. The painting has a quite unintended ”Aboriginal” feel to it in striking support of Australian feminist guru Germaine Greer’s idea that European Australians have become unwittingly imbued with love of land that is so intrinsic to Indigenous (Aboriginal ) Australian culture.

Unfortunately completion of this huge (1.3 x 2.9 metre) painting has coincided with the appalling MILITARY invasion of Aboriginal communities in Australia’s Northern Territory (NT) by the extreme right-wing, Bush-ite Australian Federal Government. The “excuse” was an expert NT Report “Little Children are Sacred” that detailed huge problems of alcohol, violence and poverty in NT Aboriginal communities. However the media and right-wing politicians have run with the revelations of appalling NT Aboriginal child sexual abuse that provided the climate for the Federal Government “invasion” of isolated NT aboriginal communities using soldiers in camouflage dress.

This has now culminated in passage of a 500-page Bill (with cowardly Labor Opposition support) that allows for racially-specific expropriation of NT Aboriginal land; race-based constraints on what Aborigines can read, see, drink, consume and purchase; and race-based withholding of NT Aboriginal social welfare payments.

This Bill involves breaching the 1975 Racial Discrimination Act 1975 that (among other things) stopped Federal violation of Aboriginal Australians who had suffered 2 centuries of what genocide experts call the Aboriginal Genocide. The Indigenous population dropped from about 1 million to 0.1 million in the first century of European colonization; the 20th century saw the forcible removal of 0.1 million Aboriginal children from their mothers; and indeed Aborigines were only finally “counted” as Australians after a Referendum in 1967. Their long struggle to regain Land Rights has been compounded by conservative opposition and horrendous living conditions in one of the richest countries in the world.

According to the Australian Human Rights, the Racial Discrimination Act 1975 gives effect to Australia's obligations under the International Convention on the Elimination of All Forms of Racial Discrimination. Its major objectives are to (1) promote equality before the law for all persons, regardless of their race, colour or national or ethnic origin, and (2) make discrimination against people on the basis of their race, colour, descent or national or ethnic origin unlawful.

The obscenely-rushed racist legislation prompted an Editorial in the liberal conservative Melbourne newspaper The Age entitled” “Legislate in haste, PM, and you may repent in leisure” (Wednesday 8th August, 2007; links to the Age.)

This editorial goes on to observe that the Opposition only had 24 hours to peruse the 500-page Bill; that the Federal Government will be seizing control of 73 NT Aboriginal communities; the Bill fails to adopt any of the 97 recommendations of the NT Report “Little Children are Sacred” which provided the ostensible excuse for the Federal Government action; and that cost will be A$587 million for the first year of operation.

The militant, extremist, extreme right wing, Federal Australian Government already weeks ago sent soldiers in battle dress camouflage into NT Aboriginal communities. Now with cowardly and unprincipled Opposition support it has brought in profoundly dangerous and offensive racially-discriminatory legislation that grossly violates Australia’s Racial Discrimination Act 1975 that gave effect to Australia's obligations under the International Convention on the Elimination of All Forms of Racial Discrimination and which formally ended 2 centuries of race-based discrimination underlying the Aboriginal Genocide.

This is happening in one of the richest countries of the world because of deliberate and sustained neglect – Australian Aboriginal health services are funded at about 50% of what they should be according to the Commonwealth Grants Commission (2001) report “Report on Indigenous funding” (quoted by a recent and very detailed report on Indigenous Australian Health by N. Thomson et al: “Overview of Indigenous Health, 2004”).

The World Health Organization (WHO) estimates “total per capita medical expenditure at average exchange rate ($US)” (2004) as $14 (US-UK-Australia-Occupied Afghanistan), $58 (US-UK-Australia-Occupied Iraq) versus $3,123 (Occupier Australia)

With an Indigenous population of about 0.5 million that is funded at roughly the national average (despite huge morbidity and remote location problems) the extra funding required is about US$1.5 billion annually – as compared to the US$0.4 billion now offered, and this largely for Army and bureaucratic personnel and infrastructure…

Bundoora Eucalyptus

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Bundoora Eucalyptus Gideon Polya, “Australia’s Secret Genocide History. La Trobe, “Bundoora Eucalyptus” & Black Crimes of White Australia”, MWC News, 30 April 2008. For an image of the huge “Bundoora Eucalyptus” painting see: http://www.flickr.com/photos/gideonpolya/4318154968/ . Revised and updated, 2010. Australia’s Secret Genocide History. La Trobe, “Bundoora Eucalyptus” & Black Crimes of White Australia. La Trobe University, Bundoora, Melbourne is one of Australia’s top dozen universities with particular expertise in paramedical training and an excellent reputation for research and teaching in the humanities and biological sciences in particular. The main campus is set in beautiful bushland about 20 kilometers north of Melbourne at Bundoora. Bundoora means “the country kangaroos like” in the local Indigenous Australian Wurrundjeri language and indeed one can often see kangaroos grazing and hopping about in the outskirts of La Trobe University in the evening and early morning. La Trobe University is named after a former Lieutenant-Governor of Victoria, Charles Joseph La Trobe (1801-1875), who administered the colony of Victoria from 1839-1854. However there are 2 sides to this man that reflect a continuing dichotomy of good and evil in Australia as a whole. Thus Charles La Trobe was a gentle, cultured man and a mountaineer, adventurer and writer. However he was a poor administrator and his rule over the British colony of Victoria was associated with 2 major failures: (1) the Eureka Stockade rebellion of gold miners that was brutally put down by British soldiers and (2) the expansion of the Aboriginal Genocide with ethnic cleansing of Indigenous (Aboriginal) people involving the notorious Native Police set up under La Trobe. This paradoxical good/evil duality is perhaps behind the statue of Charles La Trobe at La Trobe University that is exhibited standing on its head! The beautiful La Trobe Bundoora landscape with its wonderful gum trees (Eucalyptus species), birds and kangaroos is the inspiration for my huge (1.3 metres x 2.9 metres) “Bundoora Eucalyptus” painting which also illustrates the dark/light, good/evil dichotomy of Charles La Trobe and of Australia as a whole. On the one hand Australia is a prosperous, educated, democratic society that was one of the first countries to have women’s suffrage, trade unions, and compulsory State-provided education. On the other hand, Australia has a shocking secret history of involvement in appalling genocides that continues to this day. Thus in 2008 Australia is involved in Palestinian Genocide, Iraqi Genocide, Afghan Genocide, Biofuel Genocide and Climate Genocide. Before going further it must be clearly stated that the term “Genocide” used here is “Genocide” as precisely defined by Article 2 of the UN Genocide Convention (see: http://www.edwebproject.org/sideshow/genocide/convention.html ): “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.” Further, in assessing deaths from particular policies of invasion, occupation and dispossession one notes that deaths can be violent (from bombs and bullets) or non-violent (from deprivation and deprivation-exacerbated disease). Both kinds of avoidable death (death that should not have happened) are included within the term “excess death” used below (see “Body Count. Global avoidable mortality since 1950” (G.M. Polya, Melbourne, 2007). The following catalogue of Australian involvement in Genocide as defined by the UN Genocide Convention – and notably in British- and American-imposed genocides - is given below in roughly chronological order from 1788 (the year of European Invasion and First Settlement) to 2008. A key reference is my book “Body Count. Global avoidable mortality since 1950”; other relevant books are Chalk, F. and Jonassohn, K. (1990), The History and Sociology of Genocide. Analyses and Case Studies (Yale University Press, New Haven & London); Tatz, C. (2003), With Intent to Destroy. Reflecting on Genocide (Verso, London); and Blum, W. (2006), Rogue State, A guide to the world’s only superpower (Zed Books, London)). . 1. 18th-19th century Aboriginal Genocide (the Indigenous Aboriginal population dropped from about 1 million to 0.1 million in the first century after invasion in 1788). 2. Tasmanian Aboriginal Genocide (the “full-blood” Indigenous population dropped from 6,000 to zero in 1803-1776; however there are several thousand “mixed race” decendants of Tasmanian and Mainland Aborigines still living in Tasmania today). 3. British Indian Genocide (post-invasion excess deaths 0.6 BILLION, 1757-1837; 0.5 BILLION, 1837-1901 under Queen Victoria; 0.4 BILLION, 1901-1947. 4. European Chinese Genocide (10-100 million deaths in the European imperialism-driven Tai Ping rebellion period; Australia was involved in suppressing the Boxer rebellion). 5. Maori Genocide (Maori population dropped from 0.1-0.2 million in 1800 to 42,000 in 1893; Australia was involved in the 19th century Maori wars). 6. African Genocide (scores of million perished over 5 centuries of European slavery and colonialism; Australians participated in the Sudan War, 1881-1898). 7. Pacific Genocide (there was a catastrophic population decline due to introduced disease and slavery; thus 40,000 Fijians died from measles out of a population of 150,000 in 1876; “blackbirding” slavery was conducted by Australians in the late 19th century). 8. Boer (Afrikaaner) Genocide (1899-1902; 28,000 Afrikaaner women and children died in British concentration camps; Australians participated in the Boer War as immortalized in the movie “Breaker Morant”). 9. Armenian Genocide (1.5 million killed; the Australian invasion of Gallipoli as part of an Anglo-French force in 1915 helped to precipitate this atrocity; indeed April 24 is Armenian Genocide Day and April 25 is the day of the Australia invasion in 1915 and also a sacred war dead remembrance day for Australians and New Zealanders – it is called Anzac Day after the Australian and New Zealand Army Corps (ANZAC) which stormed ashore on that first Anzac Day at Gallipoli in 1915). 10. Bengali Genocide (6-7 million perished in the “forgotten” man-made Bengal Famine atrocity in Bengal and adjoining provinces in British India, 1943-1945; Australians were there and indeed the Governor of Bengal in 1944 was an Australian, R.G. Casey: http://www.open2.net/thingsweforgot/bengalfamine_programme.html ). 11. British post-1950 Third World Genocide (1950-2005 excess deaths in countries subject to British occupation as a major occupier in the post-war era totalled 727 million; Australia has the same Head of State as the UK and continues to be a loyal military ally of the UK in Occupied Iraq and Occupied Afghanistan). 12. US post-1950 Third World Genocide (1950-2005 excess deaths in countries subject to US occupation as a major occupier in the post-war era totalled 82 million; Australia participated in all post-1950 US Asian Wars in Korea, Indo-China, Iraq and Afghanistan with Indigenous Asian excess deaths now totalling 25 million). 13. Australian Colonial Genocide (1950-2005 excess deaths in countries subject to Australian occupation as a major occupier in the post-war era, namely Papua New Guinea and the Solomon Islands totalled 2.1 million). 14. 20th century Aboriginal Genocide (total excess deaths clearly of the order of 1million; 0.1 million Stolen Generations Aboriginal children forcibly removed from their Mothers in the 19th and 20th centuries; excess deaths in the 11 years of the Bush-ite Coalition Government totalled 90,000 for 1996-2007). The following Australian genocide involvements in this catalogue of horrors are ON-GOING. 15. Palestinian Genocide (post-1967 excess deaths 0.3 million, post-1967 under-5 infant deaths 0.2 million and 7 million refugees; with bi-partisan agreement Australia provides diplomatic, financial and haven support for Israeli state terrorism – even when directed against tens of thousands of Australian citizens as in Lebanon in mid-2006 - and up to life imprisonment for anyone giving support to the Hamas Party that overwhelmingly won the 2006 Occupied Palestinian elections). 16. Iraqi Genocide (4.4 million excess deaths 1990-2010; 2.5 million post-invasion excess deaths, 0.9 million post-invasion under-5 infant deaths and 5-6 million refugees; Australia militarily involved since 1990(as of December 2009). 17. Afghan Genocide (3-7 million post-invasion excess deaths, 2.3 million post-invasion under-5 infant and 4 million refugees; Australia involved militarily since 2001). 18. Ongoing Aboriginal Genocide (9,000 excess deaths annually; 90,000 excess deaths in the last 11 years of Bush-ite Coalition rule). 19. Biofuel Genocide (16 million die avoidably each year but this is increasingly biofuel-impacted as the legislatively-mandated US, UK and EU biofuel perversion forces up global food prices; Australia is a major sugar cane grower and sugar exporter with 60% of sugar going to bioethanol production worldwide; Australia has biofuel-promoting legislation and is a major canola grower, this being a major source for biodiesel ). 20. Climate Genocide (16 million die avoidably each year ALREADY from deprivation and deprivation-exacerbated disease; Professor James Lovelock FRS says that over 6 billion will perish this century die to unaddressed climate change; on a per capita basis Australia is among the very worst greenhouse gas (GHG) polluters – in terms of 2004 figures for “fossil fuel-derived annual per capita CO2 pollution” Australia is about 40 times worse than INDIA and 160 times worse than Bangladesh if you include Australia’s world number 1 coal exports). Yet politically correct racist (PC racist) Australia steadfastly “looks the other way” and its past and present involvements in the above atrocities are overwhelmingly NOT reported by racist, lying, holocaust-ignoring Mainstream media NOR taught in Australia’s schools and universities. PC racist White Australia just cannot see the “Elephant in the room” – its continuing involvement in over 2 centuries of horrendous genocide. Australians are trapped in an Orwellian dream - Australia will only stop doing it when it is INFORMED that it is doing it. Please inform everyone you can.

Civilization (aka Genes and Memes)

Civilization (aka Genes and Memes)

Gideon Polya, “State Terrorism -"Genes and Memes" or “Civilization” Painting & the New Barbarism”:, MWC News, 16 November 2007.

For an image of the huge “Civilization” (aka “Genes and Memes”) painting (1.3 x 2.9 metres) see: http://www.flickr.com/photos/gideonpolya/4289096920/ .

State Terrorism -"Genes and Memes" or “Civilization” Painting & the New Barbarism

Man's behaviour has evolved through two major mechanisms, the Darwinian natural selection of particular Genes (DNA-based alleles or gene variants) and the non-genetic selection and social transmission of Memes (socially-transmitted ideas and behaviours).

For a seminal account of this dual Genetic and Memetic transmission of behaviour determinants (e.g. for altruism) see Professor Richard Dawkins' book "The Selfish Gene" (Oxford University Press, Oxford, 1976).

To illustrate this dichotomy I have painted a huge painting called “Civilization” or "Genes and Memes", of which more later. In short, running through the painting are images of the DNA double helix (the molecular basis of our genes) and of the Memetic evolution of human behaviour from first steps and thence animalistic abandon to violent warfare and thence introspective consciousness of, for example, the nakedness of Ourselves and of Others.

Darwinian selection at the genetic level involves mutation yielding variant forms of particular genes (alleles). If particular gene variants (alleles) confer a "selective advantage" for survival to reproduction age then "Nature red in tooth and claw" ensures the evolutionary selection of such genes. Thus alleles contributing to human altruism towards infants will be selected for if such altruism promotes survival of the carriers to reproductive age. This sort of evolution is at the level of Genes that are constructed chemically of DNA molecules.

In contrast, human behaviour can be selected for by non-genetic mechanisms involving the social selection of ideas or behaviours (Memes) that contribute to societal survival. Thus ideas such as "thou shalt not kill" and "love thy neighbour as thyself" are very useful socially and minimize internecine strife. Such Memetic selection of human behaviour is clearly very important.

However whether it is hard-wired, DNA-based, gene-based altruism or the brotherly love Memes that are passed to us orally or in the written word, there is a tussle between greed and self-preservation on the one hand (our most basic animal instincts) and genetic or memetic altruism on the other. Further, when it comes to altruism in primates the care we offer to others diminishes markedly as we go from our immediate family group to more distant social groupings.

Thus our close cousins the chimpanzees (with 99% genetic identity ourselves) show great altruism towards their infants and other members of their tribe but can commit horrendous atrocities on "foreign" chimpanzee interlopers (e.g. pulling off their arms and legs and leaving them to die as a dire warning to others straying into the tribal territory).

We see this same decline in human altruism as we go from family to distant foreigners. Thus I have recently published a huge book entitled "Body Count. Global avoidable mortality since 1950" (G.M. Polya, Melbourne) that details the terrible impact of "foreign occupation" or "foreign hegemony" on excess deaths (avoidable deaths, avoidable mortality, deaths that should not have happened) in subjugated countries.

When we consider 1950-2005 excess mortality in the world it steadily increases as we go from the "best case" countries of Overseas Europe (the US, Canada, Australia, New Zealand and Israel - countries that have never been invaded but which have a sustained and continuing record of invading and occupying other countries) to the "worst case" countries (that have typically never invaded and occupied other countries but which have been subject to centuries of brutal and often genocidal violence from European countries or Japan).

Without being immersed in the detailed history, the modestly informed general reader can see this for himself/herself by considering the RATIO of 1950-2005 excess deaths to the 2005 population expressed as a percentage (%) for the major regions of the world, from "good outcome" to "worst outcome": Overseas Europe (2.7%), Western Europe (5.0%), Eastern Europe (7.6%), Latin America and Caribbean (9.4%), East Asia (10.9%), Central Asia Iran and Turkey (20.7%), Arab North Africa and Middle East (23.0%), South East Asian (25.1%), Pacific islands (27.3%), South Asia (31.9%), and Non-Arab Africa (43.2%).

Formally non-racist, typically highly educated, prosperous, ostensibly "democratic" and free speech-observant Western countries have a moral blind spot about what they have done to Indigenous people of occupied countries in the past and indeed what they are doing at this very moment.

This selective amnesia is best illustrated by Western understanding of World War 2 atrocities. Thus Westerners are universally aware of the Jewish Holocaust (6 million victims) but are much less aware of the Holocaust in general in Eastern Europe (some 30 million Russian, Ukrainian, Lithuanian, Polish, Byelorussian, Bulgarian, Serbian, Bosnian and Slovakian victims) or of the horrendous Japanese crimes in China (35 million Chinese war dead).

Perhaps only 1% of Westerners in my experience as a lecturer on the subject are even aware of the World War 2 Bengali Holocaust, the man-made Bengal Famine in British India (4 million victims; associated with horrendous sexual abuse of starving women and girls and a 1940s Bengal demographic deficit of over 10 million; possibly due to a deliberate British "scorched earth policy" to forestall Japanese invasion from Burma; and , of course, almost completely rubbed out of British history and from general public perception) (see my book "Jane Austen and the Black Hole of British History. Colonial rapacity, holocaust denial and the crisis in biological sustainability":

Similarly, Western countries complicit in the horrendous, ongoing US and Apartheid Israel Asian wars have populations that - thanks to lying, racist Mainstream media, academics and politicians - are generally unaware of the horrendous human cost of the ongoing Palestinian Genocide, Iraqi Genocide and Afghan Genocide (post-invasion excess deaths 0.3 million, 2.0 million and 6.0 million, respectively; post-invasion under-5 infant deaths 0.2 million, 0.6 million and 2.2 million, respectively; and refugees totaling 7 million, 4 million and 3.7 million, respectively).

While Westerners generally appreciated the importance of national independence and self-determination in the 1970s, this anti-colonialist and anti-imperialist position has been steadily eroded by the example of Apartheid Israel's abusive confinement of (presently 4 million) Occupied Palestinians in an increasingly abusive Concentration Camp for over 40 years and the poisonous virulence of the traitorous Racist Zionist (RZ) Lobbies who cry "anti-semitism" when any decent anti-racist humanitarian Jew or non-Jew voices any objection. Indeed the once-liberal, post-Enlightenment West has now degenerated to a horrible Mainstream position of horrendous holocaust commission under the aegis of US State Terrorism jn a swathe of countries including Haiti, Somalia, Palestine, Lebanon, Syria, Iraq and Afghanistan.

This Western holocaust commission and genocide commission is coupled with holocaust denial, holocaust ignoring, genocide denial and genocide denial. We have indeed entered into a New Barbarism informed by and exampled by racist, genocidal US State Terrorism (USST), UK-US State terrorism (UKUSST), Israeli State Terrorism (ISST) and US-Israeli State Terrorism (USIST).

"Memes and Genes" sums up where we have come to in the Genetic and Memetic Evolution of Man's Sense and Sensibility. This HUGE acrylic painting (1.3 meters x 2.9 meters) has a central DNA double helix motif indicative of the genetic hard-wiring evolution of Genes. However a 4 seasons motif indicative of Youth (Spring), Maturation (Summer), Acquisition (Autumn) and Introspection (Winter) illustrates (albeit somewhat disingenuously) our Memetic Evolution through successive stages of Arising (Youth), Wild Abandon (Maturation), Violence (War and Acquisition) and Consciousness of our Nakedness and that of Others (a metaphor for the empathic introspection of Ourselves and of the Other that is required of decent, civilized Humanity according to News' wonderful correspondent Professor Walter Davis in his book "Death's Dream Kingdom.

Unfortunately the Humanitarian Nirvana promised by the 18th century European Enlightenment (and indeed achieved domestically in many prosperous countries) has been reversed by the horrendous violence of the Racist Zionists and Racist Bush-ites in recent decades. A simple Google Search today on the Web reveals 163,000 hits for the obscene phrase "nuke Iran" and 675,000 URLs for the phrase "bomb Iran" – Iran being a peaceful, remote, democratic, NPT-signatory , NPT-observant, IAEA-complicit, anti-racism and anti-nuclear weapons country of 70 million people, half of them Children and three quarters of them Women and Children.

What happened to the Memes "thou shalt not kill Children" and "thou shalt not kill Women" or indeed "thou shalt not kill?" Do not despair – spread the message of hope, of zero tolerance for racism and violence. Perhaps this glowing painting "Genes and Memes" - involving a conflation of Medieval Islamic, Renaissance Christian, ancient Indigenous cultures and modern Abstract Expressionism traditions or "Memes" - can help achieve Peace and Amity where words have failed. Help spread this Meme for Love and Peace and link this "Genes and Memes" image to everyone you can.

Clean Energy World

Clean Energy World

Gideon Polya, "“Clean Energy World” Painting. NASA’s Dr Hansen Pleads for NEGATIVE CO₂ Emissions”, MWC News, 9 June 2008.

For image of “Clean Energy World” Painting: http://www.flickr.com/photos/gideonpolya/4290160934/ .

“Clean Energy World” Painting. NASA’s Dr Hansen Pleads for NEGATIVE CO₂ Emissions

Top US climate scientist Dr James Hansen has written a letter to the newly-elected PM of Australia, Mr Kevin Rudd, urging global cessation of net carbon dioxide (CO₂) pollution (letter dated 27 March 2008: http://www.columbia.edu/~jeh1/mailings/20080401_DearPrimeMinisterRudd.pdf ).

Before summarizing what Dr Hansen said it is useful to summarize who Dr Hansen is: he is Director of the NASA Goddard Institute for Space Studies (GISS) and Adjunct Professor at the Columbia University Earth Institute, New York; he is a member of the prestigious US National Academy of Sciences; and he has received numerous awards including the American Association for the Advancement of Science (AAAS) 2007 Award for Scientific Freedom and Responsibility (see: http://www.ens-newswire.com/ens/feb2008/2008-02-19-092.asp ) and the World Wildlife Fund’s Duke of Edinburgh Conservation Medal from Prince Philip.

In addition to citing the latest scientific take on the “looming climate crisis” facing the world in a detailed attachment entitled “Fossil Fuel Facts”, Dr Hansen gave the following unequivocal message to Australian PM Rudd:

“The conclusion that net carbon emissions must be cut to a fraction of current emissions must be stunning and sobering to policy makers. Yet the science is unambiguous: if we burn most of the fossil fuels, releasing the CO₂ to the air, we will assuredly destroy much of the fabric of life on the planet. Achievement of required near-zero net emissions by mid-century implies a track with substantial cuts of emissions by 2020. Aggressive short-term fostering of energy efficiency and climate friendly technologies is imperative for mitigation of the looming climate crisis and optimization of the economic pathway to the eventual clean-energy world.”

And as for the “science is unambiguous”, Dr Hansen provides the following sobering summary: “Global climate is near critical tipping points that could lead to loss of all summer sea ice in the Arctic with detrimental effects on wildlife, initiation of ice sheet disintegration in West Antarctica and Greenland with progressive, unstoppable global sea level rise, shifting of climatic zones with extermination of many animal and plant species, reduction of freshwater supplies for hundreds of millions of people, and a more intense hydrologic cycle with stronger droughts and forest fires, but also heavier rains and floods, and stronger storms driven by latent heat, including tropical storms, tornados and thunderstorms.”

Indeed in a paper written by Dr Hansen and 8 other climate science colleagues variously from the US, France and the UK (see: http://arxiv.org/ftp/arxiv/papers/0804/0804.1126.pdf ) the summary states that “If humanity wishes to preserve a planet similar to that on which civilization developed and to which life on Earth is adapted, paleoclimate evidence and ongoing climate change suggest that [atmospheric] CO₂ will need to be reduced from its current 385 ppm to at most 350 ppm”.

Dr Hansen provided a summary Appendix in his letter to PM Rudd entitled “Basic Fossil Fuel Facts” and I have provided below a Summary of the 6 Figures provided in that Appendix together with the obvious major conclusions from the data [my own additions are in square brackets].

Figure 1 shows that it takes a long time for atmospheric CO₂ to be dissipated - even after a century 33% of the CO₂ is still in the air and 20% is still in the atmosphere after 1,000 years.

Message: CO₂ pollution has long-term consequences even after zero emissions is attained i.e. the sooner and better we act the better.

Figure 2 has 2 pie charts, (a) showing that of today’s CO₂ emissions, 39% come from coal, 42% from oil and 19% from gas and (b) that of the CO₂ in the air today 50% has come from coal, 37% from oil and 13% from gas.

Message: coal, oil and gas are the overwhelmingly major sources of CO₂ pollution and zero emissions means cessation of the burning of these fossil fuels [noting that clean energy substitutes for electricity, heating and transport are technically available now at costs per kilowatt hour (kWh) of electricity of less than the “true cost”

of electricity of fossil fuel burning: http://climateemergency.blogspot.com/ ].

Figure 3 summarizes estimates of the world fossil fuel reserves, specifically of oil, gas, coal and other sources (methane hydrates, shale and tar sands). Proven reserves (in Gt or billions of tons of carbon) are about 270 for coal (about 110 already used); 120 for gas (20 used already); 1220 for coal (with 140 used already); and perhaps 1200 for methane hydrates, shale oil and tar sands.

Message: Avoiding dangerous atmospheric CO₂ levels requires long term curtailing of coal burning, coal being overwhelmingly the greatest future source of CO₂ of those sources being currently used.

Figure 4(a) is a pie chart showing the breakdown of “2006 World annual fossil fuel CO₂ emissions”:19.5% (the US), 19.5% (China), 5.3% (Russia), 4.9% (India), 4.1% (Japan), 2.6% (Germany), 1.9% (the UK), 12.1% (the rest of Europe) and 21.7% (the rest of the World), 3.2 % (Canada and Australia) and 5.2% (ships and air transport).

Figure 4(b) is a pie chart showing the breakdown of the “1751-2006 cumulative fossil fuel CO₂ emissions”: 27.5% (the US), 8.2% (China), 7.4% (Russia), 6.6% (Germany), 6.0% (the UK), 3.9% (Japan), 2.5% (India), 18.0% (rest of Europe), 3.1% (Canada and Australia) and 4% (ships and air transport).

[The 2005 populations of these countries or regions are (in millions): 300.0 (the US), 1,322.3 (China), 141.6 (Russia), 1,096.9 (India), 127.9 (Japan), 82.6 (Germany), 59.6 (the UK), 32.0 (Canada), 20.1 (Australia), 464.0 (rest of Europe), 1,100 (Europe and Overseas Europe), 5,350 (the non-European World), and 6,450 (the whole World)].

Message: Ignoring their ship and air travel contributions, of the countries and regions listed, the major industrial countries listed (including Europe, Japan, India and China) are overwhelmingly responsible for about 78% of “2006 world annual fossil fuel CO₂ emissions”; European countries are responsible for 44.6% and Anglo countries (the US, the UK, Canada and Australia) are responsible for 24.5% of annual fossil fuel CO₂ emissions [while having only 6.4% of the world’s population; 2005 data].

Ignoring their ship and air travel contributions, of the countries and regions listed, the major industrial countries (including the rest of Europe, Japan, India and China) are overwhelmingly responsible for about 87% the “1751-2006 cumulative fossil fuel CO2 emissions”; European countries are responsible for 81.8% and Anglo countries (Anglo countries (the US, the UK, Canada and Australia) are responsible for 36.6% the “1751-2006 cumulative fossil fuel CO₂ emissions” [while having 6.4% of the world’s population; 2005 data].

Figure 5 (a) lists the “2006 annual per capita fossil fuel CO₂ emissions” (in tons of Carbon per person per year) for the major polluters as bar graphs; 5.5 (the US), 1.3 (China), 0.4 (India), 3.1 (Russia), 2.7 (Japan), 2.7 (Germany), 5.4 (Canada), 2.2 (the UK).

[Multiplying by a 3.73 correction factor yields the same 2006 data in “tonnes CO₂ per person per year”: 20.5 (the US), 4.8 (China), 1.5 (India), 11.6 (Russia), 10.1 (Japan), 10.1 (Germany), 20.1. (Canada), 8.2 (the UK), 4.9 (the World, as estimated using data from Figure 4) - and 20.2 for Australia using US Energy Information Administration (US EIA) data.

By way of corroboration, using US Energy Information Administration data for 2004 and UN Population Division 2005 population data we get the following estimates for 2004 of “tonnes CO₂ per person per year”: 19.7 (the US), 3.6 (China), 11.9 (Russia), 9.9 (Japan), 10.4 (Germany), 18.4 (Canada), 9.7 (the UK), 4.2 (the World) and 19.2 (Australia).]

Message: the annual contribution from China is still below the World average “annual per capita CO₂ emissions” and that of India is over 3 times lower than the World average.

Figure 5 (b) lists the “1751-2006 cumulative fossil fuel CO₂ emissions” in tons carbon per person” based on the 2006 population data: 305 (the US), 20 (China), 170 (Russia), 265 (Germany), 330 (the UK), 100 (Japan), 5 (India) and 210 (Canada).

[Multiplying by a 3.73 correction factor yields the same “1751-2006 cumulative fossil fuel CO₂ emissions” data in “tonnes CO₂ per person”: 1,138 (the US), 75 (China), 634 (Russia), 988 (Germany), 1,231 (the UK), 373 (Japan), 20 (India), 783 (Canada) - and the figures for Australia and the World are 660 and 192, respectively as estimated below.

Using data in Figures 4 and 5 and assuming a world population of 6,450 million (2005), one can estimate the “1751-2006 cumulative fossil fuel CO₂ emissions” in tonnes CO₂ per person as 1,241,100 Mt/6,450 million persons = 192 tonnes CO₂ per person. The figure for Australia and the World just for 1900-1999 and dividing by the 2005 population are 10,026 Gt/20.1 million = 499 and 933,686 Gt/6,450 million = 145, respectively. Proportionality, noting Australia’s constant rate of increase in fossil fuel usage over the last quarter century, indicates a “1751-2006 cumulative fossil fuel CO₂ emissions” figure for Australia of about 660 tonnes CO₂ per person.]

Message: the historical per capita contribution of CO₂ pollution by China and India [noting the devastation of these countries by European colonialism from the 18th century onwards: “Body Count. Global avoidable mortality since 1950” , G.M. Polya, Melbourne, 2007: http://mwcnews.net/content/view/1375/247/ ) is well below the World average and negligible compared to that of the US, Russia, Germany, the UK, Canada and Australia.

Figure 6 plots the ratio of “observed atmospheric CO₂ increase” to “fossil fuel CO₂ emissions” as an “annual mean” (very noisy), a “7 year mean” (a much less noisy wobbly line) and a “1958-2006 mean” (a straight line) over the period 1950-2006.

Message: on average over the last 60 years, the increase in CO₂ in the atmosphere has been 57% of the fossil fuel emissions – 43% of the fossil fuel emissions has been taken up by the ocean, soil and biosphere [however the Great Southern Ocean recently ceased to be a net CO₂ absorber; current agricultural practices militate against carbon storage in soil; global warming threatens ocean phytoplankton crucial to ocean life and cloud formation; and major deforestation also limits biosphere CO₂ sequestration, and contributes about 18% of annual greenhouse gas pollution].

Summary

Dr Hansen pragmatically appreciates the enormous weight of the present carbon-based energy economy and argues that Governments must urgently recognize the dominant place of coal in the current and “business as usual” energy mix. He suggests phasing out of coal use that does not capture emitted CO₂ coupled with appropriate pricing of fossil fuels to drive the uptake of requisite renewable and clean-energy technologies.

Dr Hansen concludes his summary for the PM of Australia with the following comment: “Perhaps the most important question is this: can we find the leadership to initiate the tipping point among nations? Can we find a country that will place a moratorium on any new coal-fired power plants unless they capture and store CO₂? Unless this happens soon, there is little hope of avoiding the climate tipping points, with all that implies for the planet.”

Unfortunately Dr Hansen’s plea to Australia via its extreme right wing, Bush-ite Prime Minister Rudd will have fallen on deaf ears. Coal is King in climate criminal Australia. The Rudd Labor Government came to power at the end of 2007 with the promise to continue Australia’s world leading coal exports and to merely reduce Australia’s greenhouse gas pollution by “60% by 2050” – a promise that simply means that, with Australia’s world-leading coal exports included, the projected “annual per capita fossil fuel CO₂ pollution” will actually INCREASE from a 2007 value of 43 tonnes per person per year to 65 tonnes per person per year. Indeed Australia helped the US to sabotage the December 2007 Bali Climate Change Conference; is spending BIG on expanding coal export facilities; and at the recent “Australia 2020 Summit”, a Government-sponsored talk-fest involving 1,000 selected “brightest and best” of Australia to chart Australia’s future, the Climate Change sub-Section refused to even use the term “renewable energy”.

The only thing that remorseless, climate criminal countries like Australia will understand are Sanctions, Boycotts, Green Tariffs and Reparations Demands. Indeed I have made a formal complaint to the International Criminal Court over Australia’s evidently resolute commitment to a Climate Genocide involving the likely death of over 6 billion people this century due to unaddressed global warming, according to Professor James Lovelock FRS (see: http://climateemergency.blogspot.com/ ). Sanctions were successful against Apartheid South Africa for denying “one-man-one-vote” to South Africa’s African and Asian citizens – they are surely warranted for a small, politically correct racist (PC racist) country that is selfishly hell bent on devastating the whole planet.

Poor fellow my Planet.