John Paul II, HIV/AIDS
And Global Mass MortalityBy Gideon Polya
11 April, 2005
Countercurrents.org
Pope John Paul II (JPII) was evidently a great, good and well-intentioned man who was loved by billions of people around the world.
However JPII's "holiness" and "good intentions" should not blind the World to the serious consequences of his actions, especially in relation to avoidable mass mortality.
In short, JPII's dogmatic positions have greatly contributed to the HIV/AIDS epidemic and to global mortality in general. Further, by commission and omission, JPII "softened" or ignored perceptions of holocaust.
As outlined below, publicly-accessible data from authoritative sources such as the UN, UNICEF, WHO and UNAIDS enable us to quantitate aspects of horrendous global avoidable mortality of relevance to JPII.
1. JPII safe sex ban & HIV/AIDS epidemic mortality
3,000 years ago the Israelites had a sensible policy of "populate or perish" that enabled survival in a region inhabited by violently competing tribes.
The primitive and literalist application of this anti-contraception policy by JPII and the Catholic Church has been misplaced, irresponsible and deadly.
The ban on condom use by JPII and the Catholic Church has contributed to the spread of HIV/AIDS and consequent mass mortality on an enormous scale.
The HIV/AIDS epidemic commenced in the early 1980s, shortly after the accession of JPII (1978).
UNAIDS (2004) provides very detailed statistics via the Web on the AIDS epidemic (see:
http://www.unaids.org/bangkok2004/report.html):
- 26 million total AIDS-related deaths for the period 1982-2004
- 3 million AIDS-related deaths in 2004
- 5 million newly HIV-infected cases in 2004
- 39 million people in the World presently infected with HIV
HIV/AIDS has flow-on socio-economic consequences and thus further contributes to avoidable mortality in the World.
2. JPII, anti-contraception & global mass mortality
The resolute opposition to contraception by JPII and the Catholic Church has had a major Third World impact in relation to high birth rates, maternal mortality, infant mortality, resource over-exploitation, the crisis in global sustainability, poverty and mass mortality - as well as to the spread of HIV/AIDS.
20 million people die AVOIDABLY each year in the World due to deprivation or malnourishment-exacerbated avoidable and treatable disease.
In a wider time-frame, the total post-1950 avoidable mortality has been 1.3 billion for the World and 1 billion for the Third World.
Further, the total post-1950 under-5 infant mortality has been 0.9 billion for the World and 0.8 billion for the non-European World (see: http://members.optusnet.com.au/~gpolya/links.html).
3. Latin American infant mortality & JPII opposition
to "liberation theology"
JPII repeatedly opposed socially-conscious, "liberation theology" Catholic priests in Latin America and elsewhere who realized that practical alleviation of human suffering would involve their participation in politics and support for socialist remedies. JPII's opposition to "liberation theology" had the practical effect of supporting US hegemony and US-backed, human rights-abusing regimes in Latin America and elsewhere.
Despite 4 decades of US economic blockade, Communist Cuba has excellent adult literacy and excellent primary health care with the result that under-5 infant mortality in Cuba is among the lowest in the Americas and indeed in the World as a whole.
Post-1950 under-5 infant mortality can be expressed as a ratio with respect to the 2004 population for individal Latin American countries and for the whole of Latin America. Thus the ratio for Cuba has been 0.3 million/11 million (3.1%) whereas the ratio has been 51.9 million/517 million (10.0%) for Latin America and the Caribbean as a whole. We can readily calculate that US hegemony and the denial of Cuban-style primary health care and literacy has robbed 36 million Latin American infants under the age of 5 of the "right to life" (see: http://www.countercurrents.org/polya061204.htm).
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4. JPII & "softening" the Jewish Holocaust
The Jewish Holocaust killed 6 million people. Of the 6 million Poles who perished in World War 2 about half were non-Jewish - but, unlike Jews, non-Jewish Poles were not specifically targetted by the Nazis.
JPII repeatedly offended Jewish people through his so-called "Christianizing" of the Holocaust (and thereby "softening" its anti-semitic specificity); his urgent support for the beatification of Pope Pius XII (who is controversial because of his silence in the face of the Jewish Holocaust); his beatification of Croatian war-time Archbishop, Cardinal Stepinac (convicted as a war criminal for guilt by association with horrendous Croatian war-crimes against Jews, Gypsies and Serbs); and the award of a papal knighthood to Nazi Wehrmacht officer and "minor" war criminal, Kurt Waldheim.
The response of humanity to any holocaust must be unequivocal in order to minimize the probability of recurrence. Indeed it can be argued that "softening" of holocausts (for what ever reason) can be more insidious and dangerous than explicit 'holocaust denial" which would attract immediate rejection from decent people.
5. JPII, passive genocide & contemporary holocaust denial
JPII and the Catholic Church have an outstanding record of humanitarian concern and action around the World. However, as outlined above, actions of JPII and the Catholic Church - especially in relation to contraception - have massively contributed to global mortality.
Nevertheless JPII did take political actions against major powers - thus he is given major credit for the collapse of Communism in Eastern Europe and he opposed the US invasion of Iraq.
The militarily- and economically-dominant First World (notably the US) effectively "rules" the Third World and thus has a major responsibility for the horrendous post-1950 avoidable mortality in non-European countries. Avoidable mass mortality of subject people through non-provision of key life-support requisites constitutes "passive genocide" by the rulers (see: http://www.countercurrents.org/iraq-polya110305.htm).
The 0.8 billion post-1950 under-5 infant mortality in the First World-dominated Third World has been avoidable and thus surely constitutes the greatest crime in human history - however this horrendous passive genocide is effectively ignored by Anglo-American mainstream media and the World in a continuing process of egregious holocaust denial.
JPII was in reality the most important moral authority in the World over the last quarter century but, like Pius XII, failed to address the slaughter of the innocents. JPII banned contraception and abortion, arguing for the "right to life" of the unborn - but he evidently failed to effectively insist on the "right to life" of "born" infants. JPII did appeal for global humanity but failed to address First World passive genocide in the Third World.
JPII's epitaph might well have been the aphorism of Edmund Burke: “All that is necessary for the triumph of evil is that good men do nothing." We are responsible for what we do and for what we fail to do.
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" (Taylor & Francis, New York & London, 2003), and is currently writing a book on global mortality (numerous articles on this matter can be found by a simple Google search for "Gideon Polya" and on his website: http://members.optusnet.com.au/~gpolya/links.html)Dr Gideon Polya
29 Dwyer Street, Macleod, Melbourne, Victoria, 3085, Australia
e-mail: gpolya@optusnet.com.au
website: http://members.optusnet.com.au/~gpolya/links.html
Day & night telephone: +61 3 9459 3649
