Of the 55 Gold Medal-winning countries (Groups A and B) a total of 37/55 i.e. 67% have been involved in the occupation of other countries in the post-1945 era (mostly associated with European and American colonialism and imperialism). For a detailed history of the US contribution to this criminality see William Blum’s “Rogue State”. For a detailed history and “body count” of this horrendous burden of war, occupation, devastation and genocide imposed by imperialist powers since 1945 see “Body Count. Global avoidable mortality since 1905”. 1990-2005 avoidable deaths (excess deaths, deaths that should not have happened) in non-European countries total 1.2 billion, this including a Muslim Holocaust involving 0.6 billion avoidable deaths.

In contrast, all the Medal-free Group D countries (with the exception of Peru and Saudi Arabia and the tiny European principalities of Andorra, Liechtenstein, Luxembourg, Monaco and San Marino) have been subject to overwhelmingly European and American colonial occupation and its horrendous consequences in the post-war era. Further, there are many countries in the other Groups that have been subject to foreign occupation and malignant foreign (mainly American) intervention in the post-1945 era.

The huge impact of European colonial occupation and post-colonial neo-colonialism is reflected in the vastly lower annual per capita fossil fuel-derived CO2 pollution in these countries (except, Nigeria and Indonesia aside, for those with big tourism or oil industries).

One can sum the 1950-2005 excess deaths in all the countries occupied by foreign occupiers in the post-war era – for a country-by-country analysis see: http://globalavoidablemortality.blogspot.com/2008/08/body-count-global-avoidable-mortality.html . Most of the perpetrators have been European countries and are listed below alphabetically with both their number of Gold Medals from the 2008 Beijing Olympics and their “body count” of 1990-2005 excess deaths in the countries they occupied as major occupiers for some time in the post-war era (excluding Germany and Japan as occupied countries): Australia (14 Gold, 2.1 million in Papua New Guinea and Solomon Islands); Belgium (1 Gold, 36.0 million); Ethiopia (4 Gold, 1.8 million in Eritrea); France (7 Gold, 142.3 million); Indonesia (1 Gold, 0.694 million in Timor Leste); Iraq (0 Gold, 0.1 million in Kuwait); Israel (0 Gold, 23.9 million); Netherlands (7 Gold, 71.6 million); New Zealand (3 Gold, 0.04 million in Samoa); Pakistan (0 Gold, 52.2 million in Bangladesh); Portugal (1 Gold, 23.5 million); Russia (23 Gold, 37.1 million); South Africa (0.7 million in Namibia); Spain (5 Gold, 8.6 million); Turkey (1 Gold, 0.05 million in Cyprus); the UK (19 Gold, 727.4 million); and the US (36 Gold, 82.2 million).

For the record, neither China (51 Gold medals, Iran (1 Gold medal) nor India (1 Gold medal) have occupied any other country over the last few centuries.

If there were Gold Medals for War, Occupation and Genocide, the leading Gold medallists scoring over 1 million on this 1990-2005 excess mortality score would be, in descending order, the UK, France, the US, Netherlands, Pakistan, Russia, Belgium, Israel, Portugal and Spain … or if Gold, Silver and Bronze were given for “total body count” the UK would get Gold, France the Silver and the US the Bronze (for discussion see “No Medals for War, Occupation and Genocide. Olympic Gold Medal Tally Analyzed”).

Those familiar with notoriously corrupt sports such as horse racing know that there are 2 ways of succeeding, specifically (1) by investing money in quality horses, trainers and jockeys and (2) by nobbling the opposition. As outlined above, two thirds of the Gold medal-winning countries have been involved in (1) huge investment in sport (e.g. Australia is reported to have spent $100 million for each of its 14 Gold Medals) and in (2) the occupation and devastation of other countries (mostly impoverished African, Latin American, South Asian and Muslim countries) which in consequence do very poorly at the Olympic Games (e.g. highly successful Gold Medal-winning Australia has been involved in all post-1950 US Asian wars that have been associated – so far – with 25 million Indigenous Asian excess deaths).

The World average for “Gold Medals per Million of 2005 Population” is 302/ 6,450 million = 0.047 but notably the top Gold Medal winner China (0.039) scored below this. The top countries in terms of “Gold Medals per Million of 2005 Population” were Jamaica (2.222), Bahrain (1.326), Estonia (0.775), New Zealand (0.763), Mongolia (0.749) and Australia (0.697). The Gold Medal-winning countries with the lowest scores (in descending order) were Mexico (0.019), Brazil (0.016), Turkey (0.014), Iran (0.014), Indonesia (0.0044) and India (0.00091).

India’s last position in the Olympic Games “Gold Medals per Million of Population” list of Gold medal-winning countries says is consistent with the moral view that huge investment in sport (as reflected in Gold Medals) is utterly unconscionable in a world in which 44,000 people die avoidably each day from deprivation and deprivation-exacerbated disease (see “Global avoidable mortality”). Saving human life is vastly more important than winning Gold Medals in a technically and morally flawed competition.

In terms of “2005 annual per capita fossil fuel-derived CO2 pollution in tonnes per person per year” China (4.07) is just below the world’s average (4.37).

Multiplying “Gold Medals per Million of 2005 Population” [Gold] by the “2005 annual per capita fossil fuel-derived CO2 pollution in tonnes per person per year” [CO2] gives a GoldxCO2 score that can be seen as a Gold Medal Extravagance Index, Profligacy Index or Excess Index – a measure of how much countries are prepared to pollute our common atmosphere and ocean with carbon dioxide in order to win “Gold Glory”.

The World average for GoldxCO2 is 0.201 and again China (0.159) falls just under this value. The most profligate countries in descending order are Bahrain (48.505), Australia (14.107), Estonia (10.982), Jamaica (9.377), Norway (7.478), New Zealand (7.149) and the Netherlands (7.053). The least profligate Gold Medal winners in terms of GoldxCO2 score in ascending order are India (0.0010), Ethiopia (0.0032), Indonesia (0.0069), Cameroon (0.0230) and Brazil (0.0310).

Hopefully these Gold Medal Extravagance Index figures can restore a sense of balance and humanity to analysis of the Beijing Olympic Games Medal Tally. Some Medals were decided by as little as 0.01 second difference in some events. However there is no doubt that in terms of the “Green-ness” of Gold Medal winners as measured by the GoldxCO2 Extravagance Index, India unequivocally scored Gold, Ethiopia Silver and Indonesia Bronze.

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: http://mwcnews.net and http://globalbodycount.blogspot.com);
see also his contribution “Australian complicity in Iraq mass mortality” in “Lies, Deep Fries & Statistics” (edited by Robyn Williams, ABC Books, Sydney, 2007). He is currently preparing a revised and updated version of his 1998 book “Jane Austen and the Black Hole of British History” as biofuel-, globalization- and climate-driven global food price increases threaten a possibly 100-fold greater famine catastrophe than the man-made famine in British-ruled India that killed 6-7 million Indians in the “forgotten” World War 2 Bengal Famine (see recent BBC broadcast involving Dr Polya, Economics Nobel Laureate Professor Amartya Sen and others).

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