BODY COUNT. Global avoidable mortality since 1950

BODY COUNT. Global avoidable mortality since 1950

I am a highly published biological scientist and in 2003 published a huge pharmacological text entitled "Biochemical Targets of Plant Bioactive Compounds. A pharmacological reference guide to sites of action and biological effects" (Taylor & Francis, London & New York).

Over the last few years I have carefully researched, written, edited and finally published a science-based history book of very wide potential utility entitled “Body Count. Global avoidable mortality since 1950” (G.M. Polya, Melbourne, 2007; 220 pages, 24 tables; ISBN 1921377051). In the interests of Humanity I am sending copies of this big reference book to key scholars, writers, journalists, humanitarians, media and libraries around the world.

In 1998 I published a detailed book entitled “Jane Austen and the Black Hole of British History. Colonial rapacity holocaust denial and the crisis in biological sustainability” (G.M. Polya, Melbourne; second edition in preparation) (see: http://janeaustenand.blogspot.com/ ). This book dealt with the 2 century atrocity of British rule over India culminating in the man-made Bengal Famine of 1942-1945, The man-made, WW2 Bengal Famine killed 6-7 million people (it is similar in death toll magnitude to the WW2 Jewish Holocaust) but has been largely deleted from British historiography in a continuing process of sustained, racist holocaust denial. “Body count” documents the similarly non-reported avoidable death of 1.3 billion people since 1950 on Spaceship Earth with the First World in control of the flight deck.

“Body Count” is a carefully researched book by a 4 decade career biological scientist on a key social parameter “avoidable mortality” (excess death, deaths that should not have happened) which is nevertheless largely ignored by Mainstream media and for good reason – the post-1950 global avoidable mortality totals about 1.3 billion. Even in the United States, the richest country in the World, it can be estimated from publicly available UN demographic data that 0.2 million under-5 year old American infants have died avoidably over the last 10 years due to the warped Administration priorities of international wars (that have so far caused violent deaths and excess deaths from war-imposed deprivation totalling 4.6 million, 2.2 million and 5.0 million in in Iraq 1990-2011, Somalia 1992-2011, and and Afghanistan 2001-2011, respectively, mostly of Women and Children) rather than of addressing urgent domestic priorities such as infant and maternal health.

I am a scientist and not an ideologue – my core humanitarian philosophy is simply that of the American Declaration of Independence, that all men are created equal and have an inalienable right to life, liberty and the pursuit of happiness.

“Body Count” is a number of books efficiently packaged in a user-friendly way as a KEY REFERENCE WORK for laypersons, high school and college students, teachers, researchers, journalists, human rights activists and workers and other people in public life.

“Body Count”:

(a) summarizes, tabulates and analyzes avoidable mortality for every country in the world since 1950;

(b) uniquely provides a succinct and systematically organized history of every country in the world coupled with key avoidable mortality statistics (a fabulous resource for students, scholars, journalists and human rights activists);

(c) a systematic analysis of the actual causes of excess death in the world (noting that 16 million people die avoidably in the world every year, this including 10 million under-5 avoidable infant deaths); and

(d) finally, sets out a brief and systematic series of practical suggestions for halting the First World-complicit global avoidable mortality holocaust.

A picture says a thousand words. If you indeed become interested in my dispassionately scientific and scholarly but deeply humanitarian book you may also be interested in using the following huge paintings I have painted to spread a message of Peace, Love and Respect for Mother, Child and Woman e.g. “Sydney Madonna”: http://mwcnews.net/content/view/10865/26/ , “Manhattan Madonna”: http://mwcnews.net/content/view/10766/26/ , “Qana”: http://mwcnews.net/content/view/9547/26/ , “Truelove”: http://mwcnews.net/content/view/11031/26/ , Isfahan Matisse: http://mwcnews.net/content/view/14417/26/ , and Alhambra Pollock: http://mwcnews.net/content/view/14082/42/ . Please forward these links to everyone you know in the interests of Peace, Love, Mother and Child – just as I am sending copies of my book to key writers, media and libraries around the world.

Peace is the only way but Silence kills and Silence is complicity. We are obliged to INFORM others about abuses of Humanity.

I have set out below a detailed outline of “Body Count” and its contents.

1. Statement of aims and rationale

Avoidable mortality (excess mortality) is the difference between the ACTUAL deaths in a country over a given period and the deaths EXPECTED for a peaceful, decently-run country with the same demographics. Avoidable mortality provides the bottom-line measure of the consequences of human actions and the success or otherwise of societal, regional and global policies.

UN demographic data enabled calculation of avoidable mortality (and corroborative, independent under-5 infant mortality estimates) for every country in the world since 1950. The 1950-2005 avoidable mortality has totaled 1.3 billion for the world and 1.2 billion for the non-European world, these horrendous estimates being consonant with 1950-2005 under-5 infant mortality estimates of 0.88 billion for the world and 0.85 billion for the non-European world. The data have been tabulated for every country together with other key demographic data and important social indicators, namely adult literacy and annual per capita income.

The avoidable mortality and under-5 infant mortality outcomes have been best in Overseas European countries (the US, Canada, Australia, New Zealand and Israel) that have never been occupied but have frequently invaded other countries – and the worst outcomes have been for Non-Arab African countries that have variously been subject to centuries of invasion and occupation. Detailed, summarized histories of all countries of the world are accompanied by precise estimates of avoidable mortality in the post-1950 era due to war, occupation, genocide and passive genocide. Thus the post-invasion avoidable mortality (excess deaths) and under-5 infant mortality in Coalition-occupied Iraq now total 1.0 million and 0.5 million, respectively (as adjudged from the latest UN and medical literature data).

Rational global human risk management requires avoidable mortality information, scientific analysis and sensible systemic change. There is no public discussion of the actual human cost of First World policies. For example, the post-invasion avoidable mortality and under-5 infant mortality in Occupied Iraq and Afghanistan now total 3.4 million and 2.4 million, respectively – estimates directly derived from publicly-available UN Population Division data but which are comprehensively ignored by mainstream media.

Avoidable mortality and under-5 infant mortality correlate with war and foreign occupation, with the latter encompassing both explicit violent occupation and neo-colonial hegemony. An apocalyptic quartet of violence, deprivation, disease and LYING is responsible for the continuing carnage. The ruler is responsible for the ruled, death is equally final whether violent or non-violent and mass avoidable mortality of subject people is passive genocide in violation of the Geneva Conventions. Extensive analysis of the causes of avoidable mortality has revealed politically disparate successes (e.g. Cuba and Fiji) that point the way to rational, humane and low cost global solutions involving peace, independence, very low but sufficient incomes, high literacy, good primary health care and governance for the common good.

The three core sections of the book uniquely involve:

(1) detailed analysis and tabulation of avoidable mortality, infant mortality and linked demographic parameters for every country in the world in the period 1950-2005;

(2) a concise summary of the history of every country in the world in the context of avoidable mortality and its political causation; and

(3) a detailed analysis of the physical causes of avoidable mortality (thanatology) and detailed, scientific solutions to a continuing catastrophe that kills 16 million people a year (44,000 daily, about 60% of them infants).

It is a horrifying testament to Mainstream lying by omission and politically correct racism (PC racism) that there are, to my knowledge, NO books doing ANY of these three things in a systematic and comprehensive fashion.

2. Table of contents with listing of chapter headings & short description of each chapter/section

Preamble

Title, Publication Details, Table of Contents, Key Quotations, Detailed Contents, List of Tables & Preface.

Chapter 1. Introduction – global avoidable mortality

1.1 Science & history – history ignored yields history repeated;

1.2 Deleting history – the “forgotten”, man-made WW2 Bengal Famine;

1.3 Avoidable mortality (excess mortality), under-5 infant mortality and foreign occupation;

1.4 Global avoidable mortality (excess mortality);

1.5 Non-reportage of global avoidable mortality ensures its continuance;

1.6 Summary

Chapter 2. Global post-1950 excess mortality and under-5 infant mortality

2.1 Estimation of mortality and avoidable mortality (excess mortality);

2.2 Calculation of under-5 infant mortality;

2.3 Comparison of global and regional post-1950 total mortality and under-5 infant mortality;

2.4 Estimation of avoidable under-5 infant mortality;

2.5 Comparison of under-5 infant mortality and excess mortality;

2.6 “Humanizing” mortality;

2.7 “Humanizing” excess mortality;

2.8 The human aspect of under-5 infant mortality;

Tables 2.1-2.12;

2.9 Summary

Chapter 3. Correlates and causes of post-1950 avoidable global mass mortality

3.1 “Big picture” regional analysis of global post-1950 under-5 infant mortality and excess mortality;

3.2 Overseas Europe: domestic democracy, prosperity, peace and Anglo-American invasion of distant lands;

3.3 Western Europe: domestic bliss and colonial and neo-colonial wars abroad;

3.4 Eastern Europe: totalitarianism, Russian occupation, general peace and low mortality;

3.5 Latin America and Caribbean: colonial and US hegemony – increased violence yields increased mortality;

3.6 East Asia: remarkable resurgence from European wars and sanctions;

3.7 Turkey, Iran and Central Asia: European occupation, intervention and war;

3.8 Arab North Africa and the Middle East: decolonization, Anglo-American and Israeli wars and oil;

3.9 South East Asia – European-imposed colonialism, occupation, war and militarism; 3.10 The Pacific- mixed colonial occupation and post-colonial outcomes;

3.11 South Asia – crippled by the legacies from British imperialism;

3.12 Non-Arab Africa – colonialism, neo-colonialism, corruption, militarism, war and HIV-1;

3.13 To be or not to be - lowest mortality countries invading distant high mortality countries;

3.14 Quantitative assessment of the mortality consequences of occupation;

3.15 Summary

Chapter 4. Country-by-country analysis of avoidable mortality in European countries

4.1 Introduction – matching excess mortality with foreign occupation; followed by detailed summaries of the histories of each country with quantitation of major avoidable mortality episodes:

4.2 Overseas Europe – internal democracy, external violence;

4.3 Western Europe – participation in colonial, neo-colonial and US-led “democratic imperialist” wars;

4.4 Eastern Europe – Communism, foreign occupation and tyranny but peace and good social services;

4.5 Summary

Chapter 5. Latin America and the Caribbean – from European invasion, genocide and slavery to US hegemony

5.1 Overview; followed by detailed summaries of the histories of each country with quantitation of major avoidable mortality episodes:

5.2 Latin American and Caribbean histories;

5.3 Summary

Chapter 6. North Africa, Asia & Pacific – the impact of colonialism, neo-colonialism and war

6.1 Overview; followed by detailed summaries of the histories of each country with quantitation of major avoidable mortality episodes:

6.2 East Asia – recovery from First World-imposed war and sanctions;

6.3 Turkey, Iran and Central Asia - Russian occupation, US interference, war and peace;

6.4 Arab North Africa and Middle East – Anglo-American, French and Israeli war and occupation;

6.5 South East Asia – colonialism, colonial wars, US-driven war and militarization; 6.6 The Pacific – colonialism, disease, war and maladministration;

6.7 South Asia – the disastrous legacy of rapacious British imperialism;

6.8 Summary

Chapter 7. Non-Arab Africa – colonialism, neo-colonialism, militarism, debt, economic constraint and incompetence

7.1 Overview of the continuing African tragedy; followed by detailed summaries of the histories of each country with quantitation of major avoidable mortality episodes: 7.2 Short histories of the countries of Non-Arab Africa;

7.3 Summary

Chapter 8. Synthesis, conclusions and suggestions

8.1 Finding causes and solutions;

8.2 Risk management;

8.3 Violent versus non-violent death;

8.4 The ruler is responsible for the ruled;

8.5 Passive genocide in Occupied Iraq and Afghanistan;

8.6 Genocide;

8.7 Famine;

8.8 Disease;

8.9 Human cost of occupation;

8.10 High technology war, horrendous civilian/invader death ratios and PC racism; 8.11 Killing by default – arms, debt, globalization and economic constraint;

8.12 Excuses for war and the War on Terror;

8.13 Feminist perspective - right to life, women and allo-mothering;

8.14 Academic, media, political and sectarian lying;

8.15 Conclusions and suggestions – how to save the world

Section 9. Notes

Notes for the Preamble and Chapters 1-8.

Section 10. Bibliography.

3. Brief description of each chapter/section:

The preamble contains title page, table of contents, detailed contents (chapter, sub-headings and tables), key quotes and a succinct preface.

Chapter 1 summarizes the overall thrust of the book, specifically that history ignored yields history repeated. The deadly consequences of tardy reportage of the WW2 Jewish Holocaust and the general non-reportage of the WW2 Bengal Famine (holocaust denial) (see Gideon Polya’s Jane Austen and the Black Hole of British History), are used to support the argument that non-reportage of global avoidable mortality ensures its continuance. Thus the non-reported 1950-2005 avoidable mortality has totaled 1.3 billion for the world, 1.2 billion for the non-European world and 0.6 billion for the Muslim world – a Muslim Holocaust 100 times greater than the WW2 Jewish Holocaust (6 million victims) or the “forgotten” WW2 Bengal Famine in British-ruled India (4 million victims).

Chapter 2 deals with the methodology used and presents detailed Tables summarizing regional and national avoidable mortality, under-5 infant mortality and other key demographic parameters and social indicators. The tables are organized by region in ascending order of post-1950 avoidable mortality. The best avoidable mortality outcomes have been in European countries and the worst in South Asia and non-Arab Africa. A useful way of comparing avoidable mortality outcomes is by “1950-2005 avoidable mortality”/“2005 population” ratios expressed as a percentage e.g. 2.9% for Australia but an appalling 81.0% for East Timor. The average “1950-2005 avoidable mortality”/ “2000 population ratio” in increasing order for the major global groupings is as follows: 2.7% (Overseas Europe) < st="on">atin America and Caribbean) < style=""> 27.3% (the Pacific) < style="" lang="EN-US">

Chapter 3 specifically addresses the correlates and causes of post-1950 avoidable mortality. Avoidable mortality correlates with foreign occupation which simply ensures rulers with decreased intrinsic regard for the ruled. Avoidable mortality provides a key measure of how rulers regard their domestic and foreign subjects and has been used to quantify the intrinsic racism of past and present imperialist powers. The surprising result is that the worst avoidable mortality-based “intrinsic racism scores” for the major First World “occupiers” have been for the Netherlands, Israel and Portugal and the best score for Russia, with the results for the UK, France and the US in between.

Chapters 4 to 7 provide detailed, summary “occupation histories” of all the countries of the world together with precise estimates for each country of avoidable mortality and under-5 infant mortality for particular post-1950 periods. The reader will be shocked by the magnitude of the actual human cost of specific post-1950 wars, occupations and other events as illustrated by the following three examples.

The post-invasion avoidable mortality in the Occupied Palestinian, Iraqi and Afghan Territories totals 0.3, 1.0 and 2.4 million, respectively, and the post-invasion under-5 infant mortality totals 0.2, 0.5 and 1.9 million, respectively (as of mid-2007). Avoidable mortality and under-5 infant mortality reached a minimum in post-colonial Iraq but doubled after the return of Western forces with sanctions in 1990 and have remained high ever since – the post-1990 avoidable mortality and under-5 infant mortality in Iraq now total 2.7 million and 1.7 million, respectively.

Similar avoidable carnage but for reasons of First World-complicit incompetent indigenous governance has occurred in Southern Africa in the post-Apartheid era. Careful inspection of the dynamics of avoidable mortality reveals that avoidable mortality increased dramatically in South Africa and its neighbours in the mid-1990s due to the utterly preventable HIV/AIDS epidemic. The percentage of the population now HIV positive (2003) is 20.6% (Swaziland), 19.9% (Botswana), 17.9% (Lesotho), 14.1% (Zimbabwe), 11.9% (South Africa), 10.7% (Namibia), 8.6% (Zambia) and 7.0% (Mozambique).

At the other end of the scale, relative to other European countries there has been markedly higher than average avoidable mortality in some Central and Eastern European countries subject to post-war Soviet occupation (specifically Austria, Bulgaria, the Czech Republic, Estonia, Germany, Hungary, Latvia and the Ukraine). Thus, while Hungary has one of the best post-1950 under-5 infant mortality outcomes in the world, it has the worst post-1950 avoidable mortality outcome for any European country (1.4 million avoidable deaths since 1950 and currently 35,000 annually). Possible explanations for the excessive avoidable mortality in Hungary (and these other “frontline” countries also subject to partial or complete Soviet occupation in the post-war era) include smoking, drinking, depression, pollution, economically depressed Roma minorities and non-reported deliberate or accidental radiological contamination.

Chapter 8 provides a detailed summary of the causes of avoidable mortality including war, occupation, deprivation, famine, disease, genocide and passive genocide. Avoidable mortality is fundamentally caused by violence, deprivation, disease and lying. Requisite responses to man-made mass mortality include Cessation, Acknowledgement, Apology, Amends and Assertion of non-repetition (acronym: CAAAA or C4A) as exemplified by post-Holocaust Germany; this book attempts to at least enable “Acknowledgment” of the ongoing, First World-complicit avoidable mortality holocaust (16 million avoidable deaths per year – 44,000 per day - due to deprivation-related causes). Carefully considered, low cost, practical and humanitarian suggestions are made for halting the global avoidable mortality holocaust.

A Chapter 8 Appendix composed of 12 detailed Tables 8.1-8.12 summarizes the roughly current state of play (2003) for all regions and countries of the World in relation to the following parameters: mortality, excess mortality, under-5 infant mortality, mortality/population, excess mortality/population, under-5 infant mortality/population, under-5 infants/population, “annual under-5 infant death rate”, and % HIV positive.

Each of the above sections commences with 5 carefully chosen quotations that capture the essence of the book or its specific chapters. Each chapter is split into numbered and entitled sub-sections and concludes with a carefully constructed summary. For ease of reading and efficiency, all documenting references and notes are indicated by superscript numbers and listed in Section 9. The Bibliography Section 10 lists all works quoted in Section 9 in a consistent fashion e.g. author(s), year, title, publisher, city (for books); author(s), year, title, journal, volume, pages (for journal articles); and similarly defined documentation for other references (notably URLs for Web-accessible documents).

There is no Subject Index because the book has been carefully designed with a comprehensive Detailed Contents section and with systematically Alphabetized historical contents. “Body Count” represents both a powerful humanitarian statement and a key reference work for students, scholars, journalists, the general public and humanitarian activists.

4. People who would benefit from the “Body Count” resource

This book is special, original and important in that it is the ONLY work available that comprehensively quantifies the horrendous global human avoidable mortality and under-5 infant mortality that has occurred over the last half century and is still occurring unchecked. It is also a very useful reference resource in that it is the only book currently available (as far as I know) that provides a detailed summary history for every country in the world from the Neolithic era to the present.

This book by a humanist biological scientist is a relatively dispassionate scientific catalogue and analysis of an appalling human reality that the world comprehensively ignores, namely global avoidable mortality. The book represents an encyclopaedic, quantitative resource for students, scholars, journalists and the general public and an unanswerable moral weapon for humanitarian activists in all countries.

People who would particularly benefit from Body Count” include senior high school students, undergraduate and postgraduate university students and scholars. The academic areas that this book relates to include history (general and specific areas), economics (environmental economics, world trade), commerce, management (risk management), business, law (international law), sociology (racism, feminism, conflict), women’s studies, biology (disease, human ecology, biological sustainability), medicine (epidemiology, risk management), journalism, media studies and politics (political science).

This book is designed for ordinary citizens in all walks of life. Thus I have recently given a 16 lecture course based on this book and entitled “Science, History and Avoidable Mortality” to a University of the Third Age (U3A) class of retired citizens from many former occupations – teaching, science, librarianship, secretarial, armed services, medicine, nursing, surgery, management, business and academia.

In addition to the UK and the British Commonwealth there would be a very large potential readership in North America in particular. Thus there is a wonderful, humane North American constituency that is committed to the “equality of man and the unalienable right to life, liberty and the pursuit of happiness” and which is profoundly opposed to war.

Many in Latin America, Africa, Asia and the Pacific would find “Body Count” useful. In particular the huge population of educated, English-speaking Indians and Chinese should find utility in a detailed reference book quantitatively exposing the impact of the First World on the non-European world.

This book provides a wealth of quantitative data, thoughtful analysis and radical insights for students, scholars and humanitarian activists who demand humane global change but are enmeshed in a dominant global culture of comprehensive DENIAL. The dominant, prosperous, “politically correct racist” First World societies DENY their intrinsic racism, ignore the global carnage in which they are complicit and demonize their victims.

5. Related books

There are no such books about global avoidable mortality although there are many books dealing with specific conflict areas (e.g. the Iraq War) that constitute only a small part of my book. Thus Richard Hil and Paul Wilson have recently published “Dead Bodies Don’t Count: Civilian Casualties and the Forgotten Costs of the Iraq Conflict” (Zeus Publishing, Australia, 2007). Jared Diamond’s “Guns, Germs and Steel” deals in part with some major mass mortality events covered in parts of my book ( the Black Death and the effects of introduced disease in the Americas, Australasia and the Pacific).

Published books that come closest in subject matter to my book are some excellent books on past genocides [Chalk, F. & Jonassohn, K. (1990), The History and Sociology of Genocide. Analyses and Case Studies (Yale University Press, New Haven); Laqueur, W. (1980), The Terrible Secret. Suppression of the Truth about Hitler’s “Final Solution” (Penguin, London, 1982);

Wasserstein, B. (1979), Britain and the Jews of Europe 1939-1945 (Oxford University Press, 1988)], famine [Davis, M. (2001), Late Victorian Holocausts: El Nino Famines and the Making of the Third World (Verso, London); Greenough, P.R. (1982), Prosperity and Misery in Modern Bengal: the Famine of 1943-1944 (Oxford University Press, Oxford & New York); Polya, G.M. (1998), Jane Austen and the Black Hole of British History. Colonial rapacity, holocaust denial and the crisis in biological sustainability (Polya, Melbourne)] and the historical genesis of genocidal European racism [Lindqvist, S. (1992), Exterminate All the Brutes (Granta Books, London, 2002)] – all matters summarized quantitatively in my book with reference to these and many other works. However NONE of these books even touch on the 1.3 billion post-1950 avoidable mortality holocaust.

Various recent books and articles by humane writers such as John Pilger, Arundhati Roy, Noam Chomsky, Tariq Ali, George Monbiot, Scott Ritter, Edward Said, Paul Roberts, John Perkins, Emmanuel Todd and William Blum reveal much about the dishonesty and violence of post-war US and related imperialism but do not provide comprehensive quantitation of the human cost. My book does not go into the details of violent deaths and political machinations – it is simply largely concerned with the war- and occupation-related avoidable mortality of which violent death can be a relatively small part. My book provides a detailed statistical and historical complement to the works of these other writers.

In writing Chapters 4-7 of this book I would have loved to have been able to refer to a succinct summary of world history from about 2000BC onwards [the best I could find, albeit an account that finished in mid-1952, was Langer, W.L. (1953), An Encyclopaedia of World History (Harrap, London)] and the best such compendium of more recent Third World history finished in about 1990 [Bissio, R.R. (1990), Third World Guide 91/92 (Instituto del Tercer Mondo, Montevideo)].

I am not aware of any other current history book that succinctly summarizes the history of all countries in the world from the Neolithic era to 2005 (as is achieved by Chapters 4-7 of my book). No other book even attempts to deal with post-1950 avoidable mortality and under-5 infant mortality, let alone in a comprehensive fashion.

6. Brief CV of Dr Gideon Polya

Gideon Polya was born in Melbourne, Australia in 1944 and raised in Hobart, Tasmania. A graduate of the University of Tasmania, he gained a PhD in Biochemistry from Flinders University in Adelaide, South Australia. After postdoctoral research at Cornell University, Ithaca, New York, he returned to the Australian National University as a Queen Elizabeth II Fellow and thence took up a position at La Trobe University, Melbourne in 1972. In 2003 he retired from a senior position at La Trobe University but returned in 2007 to deliver a big second year science subject (Biochemistry for Agricultural Science students).

Dr Gideon Polya published some 130 works in a 4 decade scientific career (search Google Advanced Scholar for many of these publications), most recently a huge pharmacological reference text "Biochemical Targets of Plant Bioactive Compounds. A pharmacological reference guide to sites of action and biological effects" (860 pages; 500 pages of tables; 4 indexes; Taylor & Francis/CRC Press, London & New York, 2003). In 1998 he published “Jane Austen and the Black Hole of British History. Colonial rapacity, holocaust denial and the crisis in biological sustainability” (Polya, Melbourne).

In recent years, in addition to writing “Body Count”, Dr Polya has written extensively about global avoidable mortality (numerous articles on this and related matters can be found by a simple Google search for "Gideon Polya" and on his websites: http://members.optusnet.com.au/~gpolya/links.html , http://globalavoidablemortality.blogspot.com/ , http://mwcnews.net/content/view/1375/247/ , http://gpolya.newsvine.com/ and http://gideon.sulekha.com/default.htm ).

Gideon Polya is married with 3 children. A keen artist he has published numerous cartoons (including illustrations for a statistics textbook), has painted a thousand paintings (abstract figurative and landscapes) and has drawn thousands of portraits.

Humanitarian Words having evidently failed (16 million people die avoidably each year i.e. 44,000 each day) Gideon Polya recently turned to Painting for Peace, painting HUGE works to spread a message of Peace, Love and respect for Woman and for Mother and Child, including: Sydney Madonna, Manhattan Madonna, Truelove, Melbourne Madonna, Qana (conceptually related to Pablo Picasso’s 1937 antiwar masterpiece Guernica about the Nazi bombing of the town of the same name), Isfahan Matisse, and Alhambra Pollock(that is explained by the Acronym PEACE – Pólya, Escher, Alhambra, Cultural Ecumenism). I would be delighted if you would pass on these links on to your friends, colleagues, associates and local media in the interests of Peace, Amity and respect for Woman, Mother and Child (see: http://sites.google.com/site/artforpeaceplanetmotherchild/ and http://www.flickr.com/photos/gideonpolya/ .)

7 . Inquiries about “Body Count”

Inquiries about “Body Count” can be addressed to G.M. Polya at: gpolya@bigpond.com or to 29 Dwyer Street, Macleod, Melbourne, Victoria, 3085, Australia.