jimpix[articles]

Terrorism in context

• smoking
• alcohol
• cars
• conventional weapons
• starvation
• aids
• Terrorism vs. normal stuff in the USA
• sanctions example
• recent War on Terror campaigns
• global warming
• Conclusion

Jan 7th 2004

After getting fed up with hearing about the constant terror threats, and hearing about how certain passengers flying into the USA will now have to be fingerprinted and photographed, I thought it would be interesting to see how many people are killed from dull, mundane stuff in this world.

I am not doing this to have a go at the USA. I am not anti-American, I just don't agree with Bush and Blair.

I do not condone the 9/11 attacks. I am using the number killed on 9/11 as a reference point to compare other causes of death against.

These figures are simply to put the number of 9/11 deaths (and the general 'Terrorist" threat) in some kind of context. I think my main motivation for gathering up all this info was to simply show that the vast amount of political energy that is being invested in the "War on Terror" is somewhat skewed given how many people die from less glamorous causes each and every year. This does not mean I think 9/11 was insignificant, or that I am an uncaring brute. I just think that the figures speak volumes. If politicians were really concerned about their public, then maybe they would do something about tackling some of the more mundane causes of death.

Another common criticism I have read about this piece is that it paints too simple a picture of things. When I gathered the stats re. starvation for example, I was not writing it thinking that the world will ever be free from starvation, or that politicians would ever be proactive enough to think beyond what'll get them voted in next time around, I was just trying to show that if there was a will, then there are clearly sufficient resources to help resolve the problem. All these causes of death routinely wipe out far more people than 9/11, each and every year. My point is that politicians like to exaggerate whatever is the current big threat, be it Communism or, for today, Terrorism...

If you don't feel like reading all of this, just have a quick look at the conclusion. The figures speak for themselves.

So then, let's look at how many people have died / are dying / will die from other, less glamorous causes.

smoking [top]

http://www.no-smoking.org/sept03/09-12-03-1.html

4.84 million people died from smoking worldwide in 2000 -- 2.41 million in developing countries and 2.43 million in rich nations. Smoking kills about 120,000 people in the UK every year which is the equivalent of 330 people a day, or put more emotively, this is equivalent to a daily plane crash with no survivors.

Bizarrely, tobacco is the only legally available consumer product which kills people when it is used entirely as intended.

In the United Kingdom, 20% of all deaths are caused by tobacco. The following figures total deaths via a number of different causes for 1999.

• driving (3391)
• murder and manslaughter (495)
• suicide (4485)
• other accidents (8933)
• poisoning and overdose (3157)
• HIV (180)
• Total: 20641 for 1999
• Smoking kills 6 times this many people, each and every year.
• source - Nov./Dec. 2003 edition of Emel Magazine

I have written another article discussing smoking.

Smoking summary:
9/11 death toll: 2,976
UK death toll from smoking since 9/11 (as of Jan 2004): 280,000 (approx.)

alcohol [top]

http://www.alcoholconcern.org.uk/servlets/doc/498 states (figures for UK only)

That the deaths of almost 6,000 people (3,800 men and 2170 women) were directly attributable to alcohol in 2001. This compares with 1498 deaths directly related to drugs. The alcohol death toll has soared from 2,500 people in 1979 - when men's death rates were 6/ 100,000 population, while women's death rates were 4/100,000. By 2001, these had risen to 13/100,000 and 7/100,000 for men and women respectively.

Yet even this doubling of death rates is a vast underestimate of the true damage done by alcohol misuse, warns the charity. Alcohol Concern's Chief Executive, Eric Appleby, explains: "These figures are based on death certificates where alcohol is actually mentioned as a cause of death. "Other research - which covers relevant types of cancers, strokes, heart disease and dementia, as well as accidents, suicides and assaults - probably provides a more accurate picture. These studies estimate the figure to be over 30,000 deaths a year."

In a February 2005 article, a BBC article notes that a recent Lancet study has found that alcohol may in fact be responsible for as many deaths as tobacco in the UK.

Alcohol Summary:
9/11 death toll: 2,976
UK death toll from alcohol since 9/11 (as of Jan 2004): 70,000 (approx.)

cars [top]

http://society.guardian.co.uk/comment/story/0,7884,921595,00.html
http://findarticles.com/cf_dls/m0FQP/4593_131/92148055/print.jhtml

As stated in the above Guardian article: By 2030, it is predicted, 2.5 million people will be killed on the roads of developing countries each year and 60 million people will be injured. Even now, 3,000 people are killed and 30,000 seriously injured on the world's roads every day. The findarticles story above is from a New Statesman article which reports that each year in the UK alone 3,400 people are killed by cars.

Read the Guardian article. It'll save me quoting it word for word...

And to finish, Heathcote Williams in Autogeddon says "More than seventeen million people have been killed on the roads since the motor car first appeared. An incalculable number have been seriously hurt. In the future, half the world is likely to be run over in a terminal squabble for oil. For today we are possessed by a mindless monster which threatens the planet itself."

Cars Summary:
9/11 death toll: 2,976
Global death toll from cars since 9/11 (as of Jan 2004): 12,500,000 (approx.)

conventional weapons [top]

Each year approximately 500,000 people across the world are killed by conventional weapons: that's one person killed every minute by conventional weapons. Not by weapons of mass destruction (i.e. biological, chemical or nuclear), just standard conventional weapons. The people killed are more often than not civilians. In World War One, 14% of casualties were civilian. By World War Two this figure had increased to 67%. This ratio is undoubtedly higher in some current conflicts.

As an example, in the Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC, formerly Zaire) 3 million people have been killed since 1998. The conflict has had a high degree of illegal killings, torture and rape of civilians. Despite these horrendous human rights abuses, many countries continue to supply arms to the DRC, including Belgium, China, France, Germany, Israel, Spain, the UK and the USA.

In the last four years, the USA, UK and France have earned more income from arms exports to Africa, Asia, the Middle East and Latin America than they provided in aid. If the governments of these countries were serious about the sanctity of human life, as they claim to be, then surely they would exert some discretion over who they sell arms to.

Source - Amnesty International - Amnesty magazine, Issue 22, November/December 2003

Conventional Weapons Summary:
9/11 death toll: 2,976
Global death toll from conventional weapons since 9/11 (as of Jan 2004): 1,166,666 (approx.)

starvation [top]

Approximately 45,000 people die of starvation or malnutrition-related diseases every day worldwide, according to the Center For Disease Control.

The total global military spending budget for 2004 is about $900 billion.

This can be broken down as follows [1|2]:

Figure	What it means
$900 billion	global military spending for 2004
USA example
$400 billion	2004 military budget for USA
$1.095 billion	Daily US military budget - 2004
$45.662 million	Hourly US military budget - 2004
$761,035	Dollars spent per minute on US military - 2004
$12683	Dollars spent per second on US military - 2004
$0.80	Cost per DAY to feed, house, clothe & educate a child in India, Africa, or Indonesia
$36,000	Daily cost to feed, house, clothe and educate all people who die of starvation
2.83	Seconds the USA would need to freeze military spending to feed, house, clothe and educate all people who die of starvation each day.
18	Minutes the USA would need to freeze military spending to feed, house, clothe and educate all people who die of starvation for a whole year.

Could any words show more eloquently how totally warped the values of the modern world have become? There is sufficient wealth and food to feed the worlds population, but the will to do this is not so abundant. When Bush and Blair are banging their war drums and telling us about the latest terrorist alert, it's worth thinking about the relative threat terrorism poses next to such a humdrum thing as someone starving to death. It's not very Hollywood, but it's happening all the time, but Bush and Blair would have us believe that the Terrorists are out to get us, and to destroy good and replace it with evil.

Starvation summary:
9/11 death toll: 2,976
Global death toll from starvation since 9/11 (as of Jan 2004): 38,325,000 (approx.)

aids [top]

The AIDS epidemic is reaching vast proportions. It will only get bigger, and touch the lives of more and more people, as the figures below illustrate. However, such misery and human tragedy does not register so highly on the agenda of George and Tony, and their obedient media circus. After all, 2,976 people on 9/11 and 181 people in Bali have been killed by TERRORISTS. What could be worse. Nothing, seemingly.

• Five people worldwide die of AIDS every minute
• People newly infected with HIV in 2002: 5 million
• AIDS deaths in 2002: 3 million...that's over 8,000 deaths per day
• Estimated number of people living with HIV/AIDS at the end of 2002: 42 million
• Total of AIDS deaths at the end of 2002: 28.1 million
• Total number of AIDS orphans: 13.2 million
• source: http://www.worldaidsday.org/facts/

AIDS summary:
9/11 death toll: 2,976
Global death toll from HIV/AIDS since 9/11 (as of Jan 2004): 30,660,000 (approx.).

Terrorism vs. normal stuff in the USA [top]

A few minutes on Google, and you can dig out the mortality rate stats for the USA without much trouble. (e.g. from the National Centre for Health Statistics I found the top ten causes of death for the USA for 2001)

Cause	Deaths
Heart Disease	700,142
Cancer	553,768
Stroke	163,538
Chronic lower respiratory diseases	123,013
Accidents (unintentional injuries)	101,537
Diabetes	71,372
Influenza/Pneumonia	62,034
Alzheimer's disease	53,852
Nephritis, nephrotic syndrome, and nephrosis	39,480
Septicemia	32,238

While you're here, you also might like to look at The REAL threat to Americans.

They're all pretty dull aren't they? No death by Anthrax, Death by Mad Muslims, Death by Dirty Bombs, Deaths by Evil Terrorists out to exterminate us all etc. etc. People might be a lot more likely to stay alive a bit longer by doing really mundane things like walking to the shop instead of driving, or by doing a bit more exercise. Look at the top cause of death. Is that due to terrorism? Not really. But George and Tony and the mass media would have you believe that we're not safe, that they're working their bums off to keep us free from the terrorist threat.

What really makes me sad, and angry, is to think that you there are executives making millions in companies which do not care about the people, the habitats, the lives that are killed, trashed, maimed and ruined, in pursuit of profit, and that these men are seen as respectable members of society, because they work in the city, they wear a nice suit, have a nice family and a shiny car, go to church on a Sunday, all that is outwardly normal and wholesome. But they are not vilified by the media, they get away with it, while millions are endlessly manipulated into a state of fear about the unknown threat posed by terrorists, and their dark and dirty ways...

Companies in the west wish to sell goods as cheaply as possible. As a means of reducing running costs, it is now common practice for large corporations to sub contract the manufacturing of their goods out to third party companies. These corporations can then wash their hands of any concern for these workers, since they don't directly employ them. The working conditions for workers often include the following:

• starvation rate wages
• hazardous working conditions
• very long working hours
• repressive management
• inability for workers to organise themselves into trade unions to improve their lot, and to present the views of the workers. There are countless examples of trade union leaders being murdered, beaten, disappeared etc. (e.g. see this Indymedia article).
• source - No Logo, by Naomi Klein

In a world of extreme polarities, the media ignores corporations which profit out of human misery, but whips people into hysteria because someone tried to blow up their shoe on a plane?

sanctions example [top]

Bush and Blair would have us believe that they are the flagbearers of a global democracy based on peace, prosperity and goodwill to fellow man. They are waging their War on Terror to rid us of the evil that stalks in the wake of all that is good and free in this world.

On September 11th 2001, approximately three thousand people were killed. It is estimated that half a million children under the age of five died during the 13 years of sanctions imposed on Iraq after the first Gulf War (imposed primarily by the USA and the UK). As of September 2000, UNICEF estimated that children are currently dying in Iraq at the rate of 4,500 to 4,800 per month. Many died of outright starvation, from diarrhea and diseases traced to contaminated water and food, or from communicable diseases once eradicated in Iraq.

The people killed on 9/11 were all people's children. The children killed as a result of sanctions were also grieved for, wept over, missed, loved, nurtured and were welcomed into the world with the same love and complete joy as those killed on 9/11. Yet 166 times the number of people killed by on 9/11 were killed by sanctions imposed by the USA and the UK. Would the rest of the world sit by and do nothing if half a million British or American children died as a result of similar sanctions imposed upon them?

The reaction of the US Government to knowing that the sanctions being imposed on Iraq were responsible for so many deaths was famously summed up by the US Foreign Secretary during the Clinton Administration, Madeleine Albright. She told Lesley Stahl of Sixty Minutes that this civilian death toll was "worth it." Albright understood and acknowledged U.S. complicity in those deaths, but accepted them anyway.

The Gulf War obliterated Southern Iraq. Water reservoirs were poisoned, and of particular note was the depleted uranium. Some in Southern Iraq are exposed to 50 times the amount of radiation in comparison to me or you. Depleted Uranium has caused mutilations in humans, particularly at birth.

• 1988 - 34 people died of cancer
• 1998 - 450 people died of cancer
• 2001 - 603 people died of cancer

Then there are the increases in general diseases.

• Cholera - 0 cases in 1990 to 1,345 in 1994 and to 2,560 in 1998.
• Typhoid - 2,240 cases in 1990 to 24,436 cases in 1994 and to 19,825 in 1998.

There was poor water, electricity, and sanitation as a result of the Gulf War. Iraqi children were dying of diarrhea and Hodgkin's disease (95% preventable), and they could not receive the cure because of Sanctions.

The Sanctions imposed, vigorously supported and upheld by the US & UK in the United Nations Security Council, ensured that various supposed 'dual-use' goods could not be imported to Iraq. This meant that chlorine was banned which is necessary for healthy water. Technological equipment necessary for hospitals and drugs to treat cancer were also banned. Therefore, the Sanctions combined with the Gulf Wars effects contributed to the deaths of innocent Iraqi's.

"In marked contrast to the prevailing situation prior to the events of 1990-91, the infant mortality rates in Iraq today are among the highest in the world, low infant birth weight affects at least 23% of all births, chronic malnutrition affects every fourth child under five years of age, only 41% of the population have regular access to clean water, 83% of all schools need substantial repairs. The ICRC [International Committee of the Red Cross] states that the Iraqi health-care system is today in a decrepit state. UNDP calculates that it would take 7 billion US dollars to rehabilitate the power sector country-wide to its 1990 capacity."
United Nations 1999 Humanitarian Panel Report on Iraq

recent War on Terror campaigns [top]

As part of the War on Terror, the US/UK have been involved in 2 main areas: Iraq and Afghanistan.

Afghanistan was targeted in order to avenge the 9/11 deaths by killing Osama Bin Laden, and to free the beleaguered Afghan population from the Taliban (trained and financed by the USA, and previously in their good books for fighting the nasty Communist Russians). In the process, between 3,000 - 3,400 Afghan civilians were killed in the bombings. Osama Bin Laden is still around, and Afghanistan is still as war torn, is exporting heroin again (previously banned by the Taliban), and is now divided up between various war lords, as of pre-Taliban days. Life for the ordinary Afghan is just as hard and dangerous as before George and Tony famously told the people of Afghanistan that their country would never again be forgotten...

Iraq was initially targeted because Saddam Hussein was making, or owned, or wanted to own, weapons on mass destruction. Weapons Inspectors were sent in to find them, they didn't find any, but George and Tony got impatient, they ignored the UN, and illegally invaded Iraq instead. Iraq, After all, following 13 years of barbaric sanctions, and a previous round of the most intensive weapons inspections ever carried out, was a threat to world peace, and had to be overthrown.

Then it turned into an opportunity for we, the gallant west, to free the Iraqi population from this evil man. This evil man who we installed, who we sold millions of dollars worth of weapons to, who Donald Rumsfeld visited after Saddam Hussein gassed thousands of Kurds in Halabja in 1988, and told Saddam he was a 'moderating force in the region', this man who could do no wrong, as long as it wasn't a wrong that we didn't approve of. So now it was a Human Rights crusade. Now it's the new front line on the War on Terror.

Between 15654 and 17884 Iraqi civilians have been killed by in the second Gulf War latest trip abroad (Iraqbodycount). That's not including military deaths either. However, research carried out by The Lancet has estimated that the invasion has killed 100,000 more Iraqis than would have been killed without an invasion.

There is also the other issue of how Afghanistan and Iraq (not to mention Bosnia as well) have been littered with the fallout from cluster bombs.

global warming [top]

On Jan 8th 2004 an article was published in the journal, Nature, called "Feeling the heat: Climate change and biodiversity loss". The findings from a four year research project carried out by scientists from eight countries says that up to one million species could disappear by 2050.

This is a sobering thought. The following quotations are taken from the Jan 8th 2004 Medialens Alert "Climate Catastrophe - The Ultimate Media Betrayal". I have quoted from the article since it so eloquently argues how multinational corporation's drive for profit far outweighs any environmental concerns :

The article goes on to argue that the liberal media in the UK does nothing to mention the role of vast corporations in contributing to the causes of global warming...

So would people be so passive if they thought terrorists had the potential to wipe out over 1 million species of life within the next 46 years? Of course not, but when such a terrifying future is made potentially possible by corporations, with all their gloss and media savvy, such a prospect doesn't even get an honest public airing. Even if it did, the fact that business is the epitome of respectability, means that something pretty radical would have to happen to shake people up enough to do something about it. Quoting again from Medialens, this is summed up as follows:

Bush has been warned by the Pentagon that Global Warming does in fact pose more of a threat to US National Security than terrorism: Now the Pentagon tells Bush climate change will destroy us. [Observer article from Feb 29th 2004]

Conclusion [top]

Figures are as of Jan 2004

• 9/11 death toll: 2,976
• UK Death toll from smoking since 9/11: 280,000 (approx.)
• UK Death toll from alcohol since 9/11: 70,000 (approx.)
• Global Death toll from cars since 9/11: 12,500,000 (approx.)
• Global death toll from conventional weapons since 9/11: 1,166,666(approx.)
• Global death toll from starvation since 9/11: 38,325,000 (approx.)
• Global death toll from HIV/AIDS since 9/11: 30,660,000 (approx.)

total: 83,001,666

that's the same as 27,890 9/11s

9/11 happened once, the death tolls mentioned here are happening all the time.

You might also like to look at The Real Threat to Americans.