Académique Documents
Professionnel Documents
Culture Documents
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© 2007
Dr Romesh Arya Chakravarti (MD)
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CONTENTS:
1. Foundations of the Eugenics Movement…….…………………….…….3
2. Negative eugenics programs…………………………………………….32
3. Paranoia about population growth………………………………………44
4. The effect of AIDS on U.N. population estimates………………………71
5. Imperial designs in Africa……………………………………………….78
6. Pieces of history………………………………………………………..101
7. Questions about the origin of AIDS……………………………………107
8. The AIDS epidemic among Indigenous Australians…………………...127
9. Immunization, Hepatitis B and AIDS………………………………….142
10. The Macfarlane Burnet Centre and International Health….…………150
11. The development of ‘hot’ and ‘cold’ warfare...………………………163
12. Defining chemical and biological weapons.………………………….171
13. Radiation sickness…………………………………………………….199
14. Contributions from the mining industry………………………………207
15 Talking biological warfare…………………………………………….220
16. Medical wars and the AIDS industry..………………………………..231
17. Macfarlane Burnet Centre on AIDS.…………………………………243
18. AIDS, Psychiatry and Glaxo-Wellcome..…………………………….252
19. Genetic engineering and experimental chimpanzees..………………..262
20. Biological warfare in Central Africa?..……………………………….273
21. Biological warfare research in Australia..……………………………286
22. The League of Nations and the United Nations………………………300
23. Freemasonry, Slavery and ‘Charity’………………………………….310
24. Eugenics, slavery and genocide in Australia ………….….…………..315
25. The White Australia Policy, eugenics and genocide………………….342
26. Legacies of a prison colony…………....………….………….……….375
27. British prejudices in Australian institutions…………………………..395
28. Eugenics and mental hygeine……..…………………………………..412
29. Secret police systems in Australia……….……...…………………….438
30. Schizophrenia and dopamine-blockers……..….……………………..461
31. A psychoanalysis of psychiatry……...……………………………….472
32. Private hospitals and military connections……………………………483
33. Behaviour control and social control……..………………………….498
34. The Disunited Nations and warfare..…………………………………535
35. Diagnosing the global economy..…………………………………….542
36. Born into the Cold War..……………………………………………..573
References……………………………………………………………….587
Diagrams..……………………………………………………………….593
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Though the organization has played a central role in the establishment of the
Australian political system, as it did in the USA, most people do not know
much, if anything, about the Freemasons, and network of Masonic Lodges
around the country. Some associate talk of Freemasons with paranoia and
immediately associate the name with conspiracy theories. Others believe
Freemasons to be the most powerful organization in the world, manipulating
the global economy and ‘controlling the masses’. Yet others think that they
are a benign group of rich men engaging in peculiar, but harmless rituals,
and making business deals. Some think the Freemasons are a benevolent
organization of rich and poor men who leave aside politics and religion to
focus on the betterment of humanity. The latter is the perspective of
“Freemasonry” presented by the organization’s own propaganda.
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customs. Certainly, it would appear that some members were less than
satisfied with its administration of the ‘Craft’.
“By 1751, the Antients Grand Lodge was fully formed. It was
established originally by Irish brethren unhappy with the Premier
Grand Lodge, and subsequently many masons came to range under it.
Both these Grand Lodges developed and expanded membership over
succeeding years, and this occurred quite independently of each other.
Both Grand Lodges were rivals, often bitter rivals, and each
considered the other to be irregular. Generally, the Moderns tended to
attract more ‘upper class’ members, while the Antients appeared to
have a far broader membership base. In terms of organisation, the
Antients, unlike the Moderns, widely practised the Royal Arch
Degree; and to some extent the ‘Chair Degree of the Installed Master’.
A fair number of differences in practices developed between the two
Grand Lodges. However, except at an official level, ordinary masons
were not overly interested in this rivalry, and the bulk of membership
on both sides either ignored these divergences or paid little heed to
them.”
While the political activities of the Freemasons are kept secret by the
society, several publications by masons for masons shed light on what these
activities might be. Some of these, such as C.W.Leadbeater’s Freemasonry
and its Ancient Mystic Rites (1926) and J.N. Casavis’ The Greek Origin of
Freemasonry (1955) give an indication of the ideologies the organization
identifies with and from which the modern freemasons gained inspiration for
their rituals and government. These include the ancient city building empires
of the Babylonians, Egyptians, Greeks and Hebrews, whose masons and
architects have been venerated by later freemasons for their “mystical
knowledge”.
The term “occult” (hidden) is also used, and the freemasons have always
been interested in hidden knowledge, especially that pertaining to the
construction industry. Much of their ritual invokes “building” metaphors,
including their main legend, that of the Hiram (of Phoenician city of Tyre)
who is said, in the Old Testament of the Bible, to have provided Solomon,
the king of Israel, with building materials for “The Temple of Solomon”.
Hiram was subsequently betrayed and killed, according to the Freemason
legend, after having his tongue cut out and being strangled. His abdomen
was pierced and entrails distributed in each of the four directions, according
to the Hiram legend of modern Freemasonry.
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For most of its existence, only white men were allowed into the Brotherhood
of Freemasons. This changed in the 1940s, when several “Black Freemason”
lodges were established. Interestingly, many of the African-American jazz
icons and band leaders, including ‘Count’ Basie, Louis Armstrong and
‘Duke’ Ellington were black freemasons. The fact that these men were given
generous recording opportunities and active promotion by the white music
establishment while many other African-American jazz musicians were
denied opportunities to play their music suggests some of the doors that can
open to members of the fraternity.
Titles such as “Count” and “Duke” are, of course, part of the imperial
hierarchy, as are “Lord”, “Sir”, “His (or Her) Majesty” and so on. Some of
these titles are, in the British Imperial System, hereditary, and others are
granted by the “Royal establishment”. “Peerages” may be awarded directly
by the ruling monarch or his/her representatives to “commoners” regarded as
especially meritorious – these are allowed to use the honorific “Sir”, “Lord”
or “Dame”. This was the hierarchy that established government in Australia
in the 18th century, and in North America in the 16th century. This was also
the same hierarchy that judged and transported convicts to permanent or
temporary exile in North America before 1776 and Australia after 1778. The
British Imperial hierarchy also ruled as masters of the slave trade – the
African slave trade and the Indian slave trade in particular. Most of its
wealth, however, was not obtained by selling slaves – it was gained by
working them.
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several State Governors have been known Freemasons, including most of the
conservative PMs.
Australia's first Prime Minister, Edmund Barton, was a Mason, and so was
Australia's most famous Conservative PM, Robert Menzies (along with,
more recently, John Gorton and Billy McMahon).
Peter Wright, in his retirement in Australia, recounts his version of the Cold
War bugging and spying by the British, Americans and Russians, as they
continued to play the 'great game' of Empire, in the age of 'two
Superpowers'. While he states that although his father suggested he become
a Mason, he did not approve of it and never did so, the references Wright
makes to Masonry are few and far between - 3 brief references in the book.
Nevertheless, it indicates that the organizations that advise the British
Government on matters of 'Intelligence' (including military and police
intelligence pertaining to internal and external threats were masonically
controlled until recent times.
It raises, especially, questions about the many false claims about the regime
of Saddam Hussein that were used to justify the 2002 invasion of Iraq by the
so-called 'Coalition of the Willing'. Of particular note were the British-
intelligence claims that Saddam Hussein could attack the UK with
chemical/biological weapons in 45 minutes (!) and that he continued to
stockpile and develop 'weapons of mass destruction'. These claims were
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All the “top” freemasons (in their hierarchy) are called “Masters” – in a
system that developed in an environment where slaves obeyed every
master’s whim under constant threat of punishment for subordination. Slaves
were not allowed to look the masters in the eye, and were not allowed to
“talk back”. Slaves could be tormented by masters “for fun” and degraded
for their “pleasure”. Slaves did all the “dirty work” – they cleaned the toilets,
cooked the food, laboured in the quarries, fed the horses and groomed them
for the masters. Slaves kept the masters alive, in fact, and left them free to
play polo, cricket and tennis.
The masters went to University and got degrees or went into the military as
officers. The masters called themselves “gentlemen” and learned to speak
phrases of Latin and French. The slaves learned broken English and were
routinely punished for speaking any other language.
The British Empire obtained slaves from many countries and instituted
slavery throughout their dominions, but everywhere there were masters and
slaves. The masters were not always called “master” (although when they
were it was a sure indicator of slavery), and the slaves were often not
described “formally” as such. Slaves were sometimes referred to as
“servants” (those who ‘serve’), “coolies” or “boys”. Francis Galton, in his
trip to Southern Africa referred to “natives” and “blacks”, who he said were
“given to him” by friendly chiefs.
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Neither, for that matter was Captain James Cook, who first brought British
Freemasonry - in the form of the 'Scottish rite' - to Australia. It matters little
as to whether Captain Cook was a Freemason, since the regent-in-waiting,
the son of Mad King George III, was about to become one himself.
George IV (1762-1830) was the first British monarch to publicly accept the
the title of Grandmaster of the Modern Lodge of England - a position he
held from 1790 to 1813, when he was crowned king and emperor of the
British Empire. He was, at this time, the Prince of Wales.
This book was initially titled ‘Eugenics and Genocide in and from
Australia’, and has been researched entirely in Australia, specifically in
Melbourne, in the southern state of Victoria. Consequently much of the
evidence that is presented of an ongoing genocidal program against
indigenous people and so-called ‘black races’, which is a central concern of
this work, has particular relevance to the Indigenous people of Australia and
the surrounding islands. These people are referred to by the Australian
Government today as “Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islanders”, and are
descended from those who were living in this part of the world in the late
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18th century, when Australia was chosen as an ‘appropriate’ site for another
penal colony by the British authorities when it became clear that they would
no longer be able to send the British Isles’ ‘undesirables’ to America
following the American Declaration of Independence in 1776 (prior to
which an estimated 40,000 convicts were punitively transported to North
America by the British Government).
For most of its history the Australian Federal government, under which these
systems expanded through the twentieth century, was openly “white
supremacist”, following the “federation” of seven states and territories in
1901, all of which were already governed by white supremacist regimes
(which were in turn indirectly or directly controlled by English aristocrats,
via the British Imperial government and House of Lords, Royal Society and
Royal Colleges, and other undemocratic, elitist, capitalism-oriented
organizations). By the time Australia was federated, several moderately
large mining empires, logging empires and pastoral empires (mainly wool)
had been established by rich Australian landowning families – all ‘white’, of
course, and mainly Anglo-Saxon – inevitably maintaining ties with the
“mother country” and the powerful imperial organizations mentioned. These
were the families who ran the colonial governments and especially the
economic and legal systems ‘behind the scenes’, and turned a blind eye to
the genocide of Aborigines during the decades that “blacks” were hunted
with guns “for sport”, poisoned with arsenic-laced flour and cyanide in their
drinking water, tortured and killed in groteque and depraved ways and
“driven away” from the most luxurious parts of Australia. These were the
families that were given convicts as slave labour to “develop” their mines
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and plantations, to clear the forests and build roads, railways and majestic
buildings for the landowning families to live in. When convicts were no
longer “transported” to Australia, these families turned to Aborigines as a
source of slaves, and, failing to capture enough “natives” to labour on their
plantations, turned to other sources of “Commonwealth” slaves – India,
Melanesia, China and the Pacific Islands.
In the case of Aboriginal people in Australia, most of the illness and death
currently occurring is due to curable, preventable problems which are being
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Lies”, an extract from his essay In Denial: The Stolen Generation and the
Right in The Age (31.3.2001) he writes:
“In the final four issues of Quadrant in 2000, McGuinness [editor
of the magazine] published an article by Geoffrey Partington on the
failure of Aboriginal education; an article by Keith Windschuttle
concerning the supposed ‘break-up of Australia’ that was to come as a
result of the ‘separatist’ thinking in the work of Henry Reynolds and
Nugget Coombs; no fewer than five long articles celebrating, from
different angles, the Commonwealth victory in the Cubillo-Gunner
stolen generations test case; and, most astonishingly of all, three
lengthy articles by Keith Windschuttle, supposedly exploding the left-
wing ‘myth’ of the 19th-century frontier massacres and its
‘manufacture of a vastly inflated death toll’.
“Within three years, under the editorship of McGuinness,
Quadrant had moved from the promise of ‘genuine debate’ on
Aboriginal policy to the reality of atrocity denialism in the David
Irving mode. By their public silence, I can only assume Leonie
Kramer, David Armstrong and Les Murray are pleased.”
Following the publication of the “White Lies” article, Robert Manne was
viciously attacked in the press by those he had accused of a “Right wing
campaign” to deny the stealing of children and discredit the official report
that brought these crimes of the “assimilation” policy (part of the White
Australia Policy) to public notice. This was the May 1997 report by Sir
Ronald Wilson and the Aboriginal elder Mick Dodson, titled Bringing them
home. This report, following a specific investigation into child removal
during the 1950s and 1960s, claimed that one in three Aboriginal people
today reported having been stolen. Professor Manne claims that, overall,
about 20,000 to 25,000 children were taken from their families to prevent
them from living in a ‘tribal condition’ between 1900 and 1970, although
this could be a significant underestimate. The child removal policy was
specifically directed at ‘half-caste’ children. Professor Manne writes:
“The campaign against Bringing them home was not restricted
to right-wing columnists and Quadrant magazine. It was supported
enthusiastically by a formal Liberal minister for Aboriginal affairs,
Peter Howson; by the resident anthropologist at the private think-tank
the Institute of Public Affairs Ron Brunton; and by several retired
public servants and patrol officers involved in the removal policy,
Reginald Marsh, Les Penhall and Colin Macleod. Even more
importantly the campaign received encouragement from Prime
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Minister John Howard and his minister for Aboriginal affairs, Senator
John Herron. During the Cubillo-Gunner stolen generations test in
Darwin, the Commonwealth legal team, led by Douglas Meagher, the
son of the minister for Aboriginal affairs in the Bolte government of
the 1960s in Victoria, argued that the Northern Territory practice of
separating ‘half-caste’ children from their mothers and communities
was not merely well-intentioned but actually worthy of high praise.”
Peter Howson continues to claim that “when tested in court, such stories
were revealed as close to fantasies”. Such statements lends substance to
Professor Manne’s accusation that “the strange phenomenon of thousands of
Aborigines believing themselves to have been taken from their parents
unjustly was explained by the idea that almost all were in the grip of
collective hysteria, and were, like those who invented childhood sexual
abuse or imagined abduction by aliens, suffering from a condition called
‘false memory syndrome’”.
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Robert Manne presents his own overview of the crime against Indigenous
Australians in a passage that should convince any reasonable person that the
stealing of children did occur, and that it was part of a wider campaign of
genocide:
“At the time of the British arrival in 1788 there were, according
to different demographic estimates, somewhere between 300,000 and
1,000,000 Aborigines living in Australia. By the 1920s, according to
the protectors’ censuses, about 70,000 ‘full bloods’ and ‘half castes’
survived. Many had succumbed to previously unknown diseases or
died from malnutrition. Many, unable to cope with removal from their
lands and the destruction of their world, had lost the desire to
procreate. Many thousands, on the frontier, had been shot.
“After the dispossession, injustices did not end. Racial
condescension was almost universal – captured, for example, in the
insulting or comical names settlers unselfconsciously gave the
Aborigines and in the zoological terminology favoured by the
administrators – ‘full bloods’, ‘quadroons’, ‘octoroons’ and so on.
“In some parts of Australia, Aborigines were driven into
penitentiary-style reserves, like Palm Island in Queensland or Moore
River in Western Australia. In other parts, Aborigines worked on
cattle stations or in the fishing industry in return for rations but no
wages. In the outback the sexual misuse of women, kidnapping of
children, arbitrary arrest for cattle theft, use of neck chains to bring
prisoners and witnesses to court, farcical trials and very long
sentences in appalling prison conditions were all routine.”
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general public. It is also clear that during the decades of the White Australia
policy the ‘assimilation’ of ‘half-castes’ (and ‘part-Aboriginals’) was
accompanied by segregation of ‘full bloods’. It is also clear that this
segregation was government policy, regardless of whether or not it was
‘offically’ stated. It was certainly sanctioned, and in fact implemented, by all
levels of State and Federal Government that dealt with ‘Aboriginal affairs’.
When Europeans first colonised the Southern parts of the continent, most of
the Aboriginal people in Australia probably lived in this area, and in coastal
Queensland, since it is more fertile, pleasant and hospitable in these well-
watered areas than the “outback”. They chose to live in coastal areas with
plentiful rivers, trees and lakes because life is easier in such environments.
They were not, however, allowed to continue living in this beautiful part of
Australia because they were considered to be “black” and this was to be a
“State for White People”. Peter Murray and John Wells, in From sand,
swamp, and heath…a history of Caulfield write:
“Early in the growth of Melbourne, Aborigines were banned from
the town and later from its southern coastal suburbs. During the 1860s
and 1870s the remaining Aborigines were forced south where they set
up a camp at Mordialloc and survived, in part, by begging.” (p.84)
Although Melbourne grew into a city during the time of and based on the
finance of the Victorian gold rush, initially the city was, to the concern of
Governor La Trobe, left deserted by colonists seeking instant wealth through
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Ironically, Yarra Bend, where the first Melbourne lunatic asylum was
constructed in 1848, was the place where John Batman had “traded” an
enormous area of land with a false promise he never intended keeping, in a
bogus “treaty” signed by three Aboriginal men whose names are recorded,
all three, as “Jiga Jiga”. Manning Clark, in A History of Australia writes:
“That day [in May, 1835] he gave the men blankets, tomahawks,
knives, scissors, and looking-glasses and hung around the necks of
each woman and child a necklace [he also gave the men alcohol,
according to other reports – this being consistent with the treaty
strategy used by the British in Africa and North America]. They
appeared highly gratified and excited. The next day he explained to
the chiefs that the object of his visit was to purchase a tract of their
country, since he intended to settle amongst them with his wife, seven
daughters, his sheep and his cattle. He proposed, he said, to employ
the people of their tribe, clothe and feed them, and pay them a
compensation for the enjoyment of the land.”
Batman had acquired 600,000 acres of the most beautiful and valuable
territory in Victoria, together with the mouth of the Yarra River and the port
it ran into for a few trinkets. Or so he claimed. Actually, it was a bogus
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treaty, as all such treaties were. The three Aboriginal men who ‘signed’
away ‘their’ land to Batman did not own it – it was not their’s to sell.
Besides, it seems most unlikely that the three men called ‘Jiga Jiga’ had any
idea what they were signing. They almost certainly would not have signed
their own death warrants knowingly – and even if they did they were
definitely not representing the will of their people.
Although Batman, who was born of convict parents in New South Wales,
temporarily became one of the biggest “landowners” in the world, it was not
long before the area was seized by Governor La Trobe for the British
Crown, and Batman was forced to buy back some of the land from the
Colonial Government. The question of who rightfully owned and owns the
land of Australia has not been settled yet. It is worth noting that the report of
a Select Committee of the House of Commons on Aborigines, in 1837,
stated:
“…in the recollection of many living men every part of this
territory was the property of the Aborigines”
The discovery of the extensive forests of Gippsland and the Otway ranges
brought more white settlers armed with axes and saws to fell the forest
giants. Aborigines who lived in these areas were driven away or massacred,
sometimes with historical “justifications” recorded by colonial authorities.
An example of this is the Aire River massacre of Gadubanud people in 1846,
which was apparently in retaliation for the killing of a white surveyor at
nearby Blanket Bay (in what is now the Otway National Park). The killing
of a single white man was punished, in customary fashion by the massacre
of a whole family (or ‘tribe’) of Aborigines. Following the mass-murder of
the majority of the Aboriginal population in the early years of colonisation,
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during the many years of the White Australia policy, most of the Aboriginal
people in Australia were contained in “reserves” and “missions” in central
and northern Australia. These were, functionally, large concentration camps.
Several remain, along with surviving families of Aboriginal people, to this
day.
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First we might define “culture” and “society”. In this case defining ‘society’
is easy – everyone who lives in Australia comprises “Australian society”.
These people share particular cultural features, and differ in others, “culture”
being defined as the sum of such things as language, literature, art, social
customs and styles of dress, music and cooking styles. Culture in Australia
has never been “unicultural” or homogenous – even before British
colonization of Australia the continent contained a “multicultural society”.
Hundreds of different languages were spoken, different forms of art created,
and different customs, styles of dress, foods and dances were homogenised
by British, and subsequently Australian and American anthropologists as
“Aboriginal”. The original people of the continent clearly coexisted, mostly
in peace, until they were set against each other by divide and rule strategies,
while, ironically, they were unified, in European eyes as “Aboriginals” or,
less accurately, “Blacks”.
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Matilda: A Background to Australia that “for a long time it was said that the
Melbourne Club ruled Australia”. Haskell added that:
“Although the seat of government has been moved to Canberra,
Melbourne still retains that atmosphere. Melbourne claims that it is
English and Sydney American. While this is only superficially true,
there is certainly not a trace of Americanism about Melbourne.” (p.78)
At the time the Afrikaaners were developing apartheid and the Australians
has long been experts at establishing a “White Colony”.
The index of Waltzing Matilda: a Background to Australia contains no
references to Aborigines, Aboriginal people or Indigenous people. Haskell
makes one of his few references to “natives” when he describes John
Batman’s ‘treaty’ and the ‘first settlers’ in Victoria:
“On November 19th, 1834, Edward Henty became the first
permanent settler, landing at Portland with 22 head of cattle, 2
turkeys, 2 guinea-fowl and 6 dogs. The following April he occupied
the weatherboard cottage he had built.
“On May 27th the following year John Batman came over from
Launceston with three servants and seven New South Wales
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The “heroic purpose” Haskell referred to was the building of the city of
Melbourne, which was, he claims, “one of the most important in the
Empire”. Melbourne was, indeed, an important power centre in the politics
of the British Empire, and subsequently the ‘British Commonwealth’. Other
important power bases, regarding the Empire’s financial power and political
power in the Southern hemisphere were the other colonial capitals in
Australia – Perth in Western Australia, Adelaide in South Australia,
Brisbane in Queensland, Hobart in Tasmania, Sydney in New South Wales
and, importantly, Darwin in the Northern Territory and Canberra, the
relatively small capital city of Australia. The vast majority of important
political, military and economic and legal decisions made by governments
affecting both the Indigenous and non-Indigenous inhabitants of Australia
occurred in one or other of these cities. Most of Australia’s population also
lives in one or other of these cities, further increasing the incentive of city-
based politicians to develop and implement policies favouring those who
live in the city over those who live in rural areas (of any skin colour).
Haskell travelled back to England from his travelogue-researching holiday in
Australia via South Africa. There he made some telling observations about
life in South African cities during the 1940s. He writes of Zulus, ‘natives’,
Indians, Jews and ‘South Africans’ (by which he meant white South
Africans – ignoring the racial, cultural and linguistic divide between
Afrikaaners and British immigrants, and the Boer was during which
thousands of Afrikaaner women and children were killed in British
concentration camps). He writes of the Indians and Jews in Durban and
Natal:
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“The Indians here look amazingly well fed and clothed. The
South African tends to praise the native and speak disparagingly about
the Indian who has committed the mortal sin of making a success, a
thing that no one with a pigmented skin should do. The people and the
press here are bristling with the most stultifying of all notions, race
consciousness [he uses a euphemism for prejudice and bigotry]. Truly,
anthropology is the one study that should be made compulsory today.
There is a black problem, and Indian problem, and Afrikaans problem,
and there is going to be a good-sized Jewish problem. The Jews have
done well by South Africa – Rhodes knew their value – at the same
time they have done well by themselves, an unpardonable sin. They
are there in numbers and a little more flamboyant than is advisable for
their own good. In fact there is, of course, no Jewish problem, there
never really is; it is a convenient move for the politician who is
entirely bankrupt of ideas. To declare that there is a Jewish problem is
also to declare that the Gentile has inferior capacities. It is always
difficult to reconcile this with Germanic pride of race. No one
knowing the history of South Africa and its great pioneers can admit
such a thing, though too much concentration on sport may have
weakened their descendants. This feeling of racialism, and
consequently a general interest in politics, is even to the tripper a great
and obvious contrast with Australia. What she loses in cheap labour
she gains in peace of mind and in decent thinking.” (p.268)
In 1942, when his book was published, Haskell probably did not know that
the “problem of the Jews” was, at the time, being “solved” by working Jews
as slaves until they died in Germany and German-occupied Europe; those
men, women and children, that is, who were not gassed or “sacrificed” for
medical experiments. In fact, many of the Jews who were becoming a
“problem” in the eyes of racists in South Africa, were escaping from Nazi
persecution. Many more fled to Australia.
Haskell writes patronizingly of the sad fate of the “athletic Zulu”, relegated
to pulling rickshaws in White South Africa:
“Zulus in fantastic attire, a wonderful piece of local colour, race
along with their rickshaws, barefooted and extraordinarily graceful.
Their feet seem to skim along the ground while their shoulders are
motionless [a description that sits well with Galton’s idea that the
‘negro falls easily into the ways of slavery’]. It is said that their lives
as rickshaw boys seldom exceed four years, not through heart strain
but through lung trouble, induced by the excessive perspiration
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[perspiration does not cause lung trouble, but running along roads
breathing in fumes, and working in underground mines does]. Their
clothes are picturesque but far from hygeinic, their bodies being
smothered in furs and rags.”
The men who wrote the Australian and American Constitutions were learned
men. They had studied English, and usually Latin and perhaps Greek, at
University, and could read, write and debate fluently. They were, despite any
prejudices, callousness or hypocrisy, intelligent men when compared to the
buffoons who have reached the “top jobs” in recent years. If one compares
George W. Bush or Bill Clinton with Abraham Lincoln or George
Washington, this point become obvious. If one watches the debacle that
passes for “parliamentary debate” in Australia the tragedy that has befallen
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If it were widely known that this company also runs all the Australian
Department of Immigration and Multicultural Affairs detention centres, in
addition to private prisons in Queensland (Arthur Gorrie Remand and
Reception Centre), New South Wales (Junee Correctional Centre) and
Victoria (Fulham Correctional Centre and Melbourne Custody Centre)
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Could it be that the white supremacist regime that so long tormented and
terrorised the population of Southern Africa continues to wield power
behind the scenes, despite the apparent “transition to black rule”? The WCC
All Points Bulletin continues:
“The construction at the site was started after the execution of the
Project Development Agreement (P.D.A) in July, 1999. The P.D.A
permitted work on the project to begin while the final contract
negotiations were being completed. It is being constructed by SACS’s
general contractor, CGM, a consortium of three South African
building contractors, Concor Construction Pty.Ltd., Group 5
Construction Pty.Ltd., and Makhosi Holdings Pty.Ltd. Full contractual
closure was achieved on August 16, 2000.”
Stephen Korabie, the first Managing Director of the new company that has
been formed by WCC to run the ‘Kutama-Senthumule Maximum Security
Prison’ previously worked, apparently for 20 years, as the South African
Department of Corrective Service’s Provisional Commissioner of the
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Western Cape. This means that Mr Korabie was working in a senior position
during the ‘White Apartheid’ regime’s atrocities against black Africans,
including several years during which Nelson Mandela was one of thousands
of political prisoners in South Africa. One might reasonably hope that
following Mr Mandela’s release and ascendance to the presidency of South
Africa the need for building more prisons in a country where many were
unjustly imprisoned would decrease. Instead, the South African government
has gone into a ‘private-public partnership’ with one of the world’s biggest
private prison empires – WCC – which claims to be “fully committed to
supporting its [the South African Government’s] goals and objectives”,
while also being fully committed to “further expanding WCC’s leadership in
the international correctional services market”. The latter means, of course,
building more prisons and imprisoning more people.
An expanding prisons industry also means growing profits for the arms and
‘security’ industry. Guards and ‘wardens’ are provided with batons, guns,
helmets, shields and handcuffs and taught to use them. Scanning devices and
video surveillance, computers to track prisoners movements and electronic
detectors for weapons are just a few of the purchases that the public pay for
when they buy the services of private prison contractors such as Wackenhut
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Texas, the most southern state of the USA (with the exception of the Florida
peninsula), borders Mexico and its coastline comprises the north-western
corner of the Gulf of Mexico. It is located in the middle of the so-called
“bible belt” – the band of southern states, including Arizona, New Mexico,
Oklahoma, Arkansas, Louisiana, Mississippi, Alabama, Georgia and South
Carolina, that fought against the abolition of black slavery by the Northern
States. These states contain the strongholds of the Klu Klux Clan, and
several continued black-white segregation in schools and public places as
recently as the 1950s and 1960s. These are the states where blacks were
lynched by white mobs and the police took no action – or took part in the
killing. These states are the stronghold of the ‘white supremacy movement’
in the United States, and also home to a range of neo-nazi groups, and the
power base of the influential American ‘gun lobby’.
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On 20.4.2001 Melbourne’s The Age newpaper informs the reader that “Oil’s
not well with Jeb and Dubya”. The article, by Julian Borger in Washington,
says that George W. Bush “is proving that to a Texan with campaign debts,
oil is thicker than blood”. The oil-magnate-turned-President wants to “open
up the Arctic national wildlife refuge in Alaska and parts of the Rockies to
oil exploration” and, to the concern of his younger brother Jeb, has approved
the sale of 2.4 million hectares of sea-bed off the east coast of Florida for
exploration and drilling. The residents of Florida value the beauty of their
coastal areas and do not want more oil rigs there. Jeb Bush, concerned that
“few other issues so completely unite Floridans”, wrote a letter to his older
brother, explaining that “Florida’s economy is based upon tourism and other
activities that depend on a clean and healthy environment”. Perhaps, after
the help Jeb Bush gave his older brother at the time George Bush’s
presidency hinged on the vote recount in Florida, he thought his letter “to the
Interior Department” would result in the new President stopping the auction
of the Florida coastline. Maybe not – he may have been making sure he was
seen to be “doing something”, without sincere intent. The article’s author
claims that Jeb Bush has little chance of retaining his Governorship if
drilling goes ahead, such would be his unpopularity. Be that as it may,
George W. Bush’s “Interior Secretary”, Gale Norton, has rejected the plea
and announced that the auction of 2.4 million hectares of the Florida sea-bed
would go ahead.
Not everyone in Florida is free to enjoy the “clean and healthy environment”
that Governor Jeb Bush referred to. Over 2000 people are locked up in the
three jails in Florida run by Wackenhut Corrections Corporation in its home
state. The prison corporation does not release a racial profile of their
prisoners to the public, but it is common knowledge that African-Americans
are seriously over-represented in all American jails, as are Indigenous
Americans and ‘Hispanics’. This ‘over-representation’ is relative to the
politically dominant racial group in the USA, and majority population group
– white Anglo-Saxons of Western European and British origin. Every
American President so far has belonged to this group, and every American
president has been male. All but John F. Kennedy have been Protestant
Christians (Kennedy was a Catholic). Many have also been Freemasons, an
undisputed fact that has historical significance to the history of eugenics,
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slavery and genocide – in the USA and also in Australia, South Africa,
South America and Asia.
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It is generally supposed that the White Australia policy was instituted in the
1860s primarily to prevent the exploitation of gold by Chinese miners (who
were also often “indentured” or otherwise enslaved) attracted, like the
British, to the huge finds. Another possible motive for these discriminatory
laws, though, was to prevent freed black slaves from coming to Australia
from America, where a simultaneous gold rush was occurring in California.
Basically, the British colonists who established towns, and later
“states”, in Australia did not like “blacks”, wherever they came from. They
regarded them as a whole as dirty, dishonest and otherwise inferior. This
racist legacy began before the official founding of the “eugenics movement”
in Australia, but provided fertile ground for the prejudiced doctrines of
“survival of the richest” to grow.
As for the Aboriginal people who “owned” the Dingos, Tench is more
interested in their skin colour than their culture, language or genuine motives
in “setting their dogs” on the intruders and invaders:
“Their colour, Mr. Cook [Captain James Cook] is inclined to think
rather a deep chocolate, than an absolute black, though he confesses,
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Skin colour is, like blood group, and many physical attributes, genetically
determined, but this would not have been known by Captain Tench or
Captain Cook, since the concept of “genes” had not yet been elucidated,
however concepts of inherited traits that run “in the blood” are thousands of
years old. These have been associated with various social and political
policies in many parts of the world, in which the superior place of ruling
elites (and elite blood lines) has been justified by arguments that they are
naturally more deserving and thus destined to dominate the “lower classes”.
They include the caste system in India, as well as the “feudal states” of
ancient China, Japan, Africa, Europe and Asia. The prejudices that lie
behind such hierarchies, although widespread and enduring, have not been a
ubiquitous feature of human society, and many people in modern as well as
ancient societies have been fundamentally unprejudiced, egalitarian, and
respectful of other lands, cultures and people.
Today there are few Aborigines living in Melbourne and the densely
populated southeast of Australia. This is because over the past two hundred
years most of the indigenous people who lived in this area have been driven
away, poisoned, hunted or locked up. Yet for thousands of years numerous
families of Aboriginal people had lived in the fertile, forested areas of what
we now call Southern “Victoria”. This area, part of a massive volcanic plate,
provided a bountiful supply of food, fresh water, access to the sea
(containing fish and shellfish) and other naturally occurring necessities for a
long, happy, healthy life. South-Eastern Australia and Tasmania also
contained some of the most magnificent forests in the world, containing the
world’s tallest flowering tree, the “Mountain Ash” (Eucalyptus Regnans). It
contained natural lakes and springs, waterfalls, rivers and caves. It also
contained many thousands of people who had lived here since time
immemorial and who nurtured and respected their homeland in a way that
contrasted dramatically with the European invaders who came here in search
of timber, gold, land and people to exploit.
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Pilger points out that many of these deaths are attributed by police to
“suicide”, when it is was clearly without motive or means. The appalling
rate of incarceration of Aboriginal people, and the trivial reasons for such
incarceration, were the cause of public outrage last year when yet another
young aborigine died in custody, this time a fifteen-year-old boy in a Darwin
prison. His crime was theft of some stationary and pens, worth, according to
the Age report of 11.2.2000, $90 dollars (later reports claimed $50.00 of
Textas and pens only). He went to jail because of “mandatory sentencing
laws” in place in the Northern Territory and Western Australia (that happen
to be home to the largest proportion of aborigines in Australia today). He
had five days to go before release, and was an orphan from Groote Eylandt
who spoke little English. The director of the Mitwajl Aboriginal Service, Mr
Selwyn Hausman, who had visited the boy in jail, said that the child had “no
concept of the regime that incarcerated him”, and that he “was distressed and
wanted to leave there”. The Northern Territory’s Chief Minister, Denis
Burke, however claimed that “it was a lie to connect the boy’s death with
mandatory sentencing” and, that “to suggest somehow that this youth died of
mandatory sentencing is the lowest of the low”. The issue, according to
Burke is “the tragedy of a youth who committed suicide”. However,
according to the report, “ATSIC, community groups and the legal profession
attacked the laws [mandatory sentencing] as discriminatory, suggesting they
deliberately targetted juvenile Aborigines.”
A few days later, with the eyes of concerned Australians on the Northern
Territory courts, another youth, aged 22, who had allegedly stolen $3.00
worth of biscuits and cordial (later reports claimed $23.00, as if that makes
much difference) from the mining compound at Groote Eyland (ironically,
on Christmas day) was sentenced to one year in jail for his “crime”. The jail
in Darwin is 800 kilometres from his home in the small island of Groote
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The public were given some space in “letters to the editor” by the Murdoch
press to express their anger at mandatory sentencing. On 16.2.2000, the
Australian contained several letters, including one from Ton-That Quynh-Du
of ACT:
“While I hope that the federal Government will be persuaded to
override the NT mandatory sentencing laws, I am not holding my
breath.
“Let us not forget that Mr Shane Stone, the original instigator and
prime architect of those laws, is the federal president of the Liberal
Party.
“And it was Prime Minister Howard who brought him to the
federal presidency…”
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Two days later, on Friday, 18th February, more outraged letters were printed
in the Australian. Charles Herdy, of New South Wales showed a greater
awareness of Australian history than our so-called “political leaders” when
he wrote:
“A man in the Northern Territory has been sentenced to a year’s
imprisonment for the theft of biscuits and cordial. There is important
legal precedent for this sentencing regime: in the 18 th century some
British subjects found themselves transported to NSW for the theft of
bread.
“One interpretation might be that the greatest tenets of the
precedence-based Common Law have been enshrined in NT
legislation. Another might be that, more than 200 years on, some
jurisdictions in this country have taken on the mindless and heartless
character of the legal system that was a factor in European settlement
here…”
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“If a man can be sent to jail for stealing a packet of biscuits why
are no politicians languishing in jail for misusing their travel
allowance?”
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These are not events from the distant past. The ongoing direct massacre of
Aboriginal people continued well into the twentieth century, as the
chronology at the end of The Wailing: A National Black Oral History
reveals:
“1926: In the Kimberley region of WA, following the killing of a
white pastoralist, a heavily armed posse, comprising two policemen,
four other whites and seven Aborigines go on a killing rampage.
Many Aborigines are shot, women and children clubbed to death. The
bodies are burned at four separate sites in what becomes known as the
Forrest River massacre. A royal commission reports that at least
eleven Aborigines were killed; the Reverend Ernest Gribble, the
missionary responsible for having brought the incident to public
notice, says he personally knew of thirty victims. Aborigines say
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hundreds were murdered. The two policemen who led the party are
put on trial, to the outrage of the white population which sets up a
fund to meet their legal costs. The police are found to have acted in
self-defence, acquitted and promoted out of the district. Gribble had
first been made aware of the murders by police and stockmen in 1922,
when he was told by Aboriginal people ‘the country all stink from the
dead fellows’. His efforts to force an inquiry by the Chief Protector,
A.O.Neville, were unsuccessful.” (p.381)
Even today most Aboriginal people are trapped, mainly due to economic and
social reasons (rather than by law), within “reserves”, “stations” and
“missions” where they are deprived of the basic necessities for health: clean
water, fresh fruits and vegetables and safe, hygienic housing. In these
‘stations’, ‘reserves’ and ‘missions’ Aboriginal people are forced to work in
conditions and for wages that few, if any, white Australians would tolerate.
A veiled admission of this also being the case 30 years ago is evident in the
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The authors of the book understate the economic and social plight that forces
families to accept sub-standard housing, wages and food. The threat of
starvation causes people all over the world to tolerate oppressive living
conditions because they are given no better alternative. These better
alternatives include fair wages, pleasant living conditions, decent clothing,
progressive education, nourishing food, clean water, good health care, and
the social stimulation and emotional support of family and friends. All of
these basic necessities have been withheld from Aboriginal people in
Australia, who were mostly driven to or “dumped in” the most desolate parts
of the continent several generations ago, or imprisoned in “missions”,
“reserves” and “settlements” – often with the specific intent of “divide-and-
rule”. Separation in an effort to control dissent was a deliberate policy of the
white administrators. This meant that siblings were routinely separated, as
were parents from children, and those sharing linguistic, geographical or
familial background were transported to different missions, especially if
judged as potential “troublemakers”.
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Considering the assimilation policy in the light of the 1948 UN laws against
genocide, the genocidal intent of this atrocious policy is clear, since
genocidal actions against a specific group (or race) are defined as including
“causing them serious injury in body or mind, or trying to destroy the group
by preventing births among its members or by transferring its children to
other groups” (Coyle, 1965, p.84). Taking one’s children away, and being
taken away from one’s parents alone cause serious injury to one’s mind, and
injury to the body predictably follows injury to the mind, since mental
distress causes a range of physical illnesses. Being prevented from
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Touring Program”) and “Arts Victoria” (the Victorian State Government arts
fund). The brochure gives the following account of “Early Official Policy”:
“Early official policy (1836-1849) towards the Port Philip
Aboriginal people was designed for their protection. But the
‘invasion’ period was stained dark with blood. On his expeditions into
the interior in the 1840s, Chief Protector of Aborigines George
Augustus Robinson was frequently told of atrocities – even against
women and children – including stories of mass poisonings [no
mention of mass-shootings and grotesque mutilations]. With regret, he
told Aboriginal informants, he could do nothing. Their evidence was
inadmissible in court.
“The Aboriginal people were not passive participants in all this.
But the exclusive territories of the tribal system and the old feuds
prevented combined resistance. Even so, strong leaders emerged who
defied the trespassers with glass-tipped spears, boomerangs and clubs.
They were no match against the retaliation of determined men with
guns and horses. By the 1840s many of the remnants of the tribes,
now often disease-ridden, were reduced to begging in the streets of
Melbourne, Geelong and the new rural towns. Nor did things improve
with self-government in 1851. The colony of Victoria gave little
priority to Aboriginal Affairs. The responsibility for that was given to
the Victorian Surveyor-General.”
The Liberal Party and Federal Government’s view of the Chief Protector of
Aborigines, George Augustus Robinson, is apologist, but apparently not a
good enough reason for a “formal apology” to Aboriginal people:
“The intentions of the British Government ‘that Aboriginal people
and Europeans were equally entitled to protection of the law’ were
ruined by the inability of the Protectorate to properly safeguard the
Aboriginal people. This costly failure, combined with the reluctance
of police and magistrates to take action, had a shocking human toll.
“Chief Protector Robinson, perhaps sapped by his previous efforts
on behalf of Tasmanian Aboriginal people, seemed resigned to the
fate of the original inhabitants of Port Phillip. His endless
correspondence and journal-keeping presented a detached viewpoint.
NSW Governor Sir George Gipps considered Robinson was ‘afflicted
with such a love of writing’ that he neglected his official duties. Much
of the Protectorate correspondence to the seat of government in
Sydney after 1843 later was found to be unopened.”
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In 1843 British Empire dramatically its territorial control in Africa and Asia
when they reaped the rewards of what was termed a “Forward Policy”. This
developed during the “Opium War” with China, which had begun in 1840,
when, in retribution for the Chinese government destroying 20,000 chests of
opium belonging to British traders, British warships of the “Eastern
Expedition” bombarded Chinese cities. The opium that was being used to
deliberate the Chinese was being grown, under brutal coercion, by the
“British Raj” in India and Burma, and sold to Chinese traders. In India the
villagers were being forced to replace their rice fields and vegetable crops
with fields of opium poppies – and facing starvation as a result. Even worse
atrocities occurred as a result of the British desire to make Manchester the
“textile capital of the world”. Indian tailors, who provided competition for
the British cotton-weaving industry, had their hands cut off. Australian
Aborigines and Africans who stood in the way of British gold-lust suffered
even worse cruelties.
In 1842 British Parliament passed the “Mines Act” in London. The Mines
Act applied only to coalmines in Britain, but give some indication of the
mine-owners attitude towards humanity. According to the new 1842 law,
women, girls and children under ten were no longer allowed to work
underground in coal mines. Prior to this, according to Penguin’s Chronicle
of the World (1991), children as young a five years old were “employed” to
haul trucks in passages too narrow for men, while women and girls were
harnessed like horses and made to pull coal trucks. The resulting
“unemployment problem”, from implementation of the “Mines Act”, was
dealt with by the (male) British authorities by getting the girls and women to
sew – but for this they needed more cotton, and less competition from Indian
tailors. Hence the chopping of tailors’ hands in India, and the expansion of
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In 1843, the British, claiming that “Blacks were being maltreated” by the
Dutch (Boers) in Natal, took control of the eastern South African colony,
adding to their control of the “Cape Colony”, and cutting the Boers off from
the Indian Ocean. The Boers were forced to move inland to Orange River
and Transvaal – which were subsequently claimed as part of the British
Empire, too. The Chinese surrendered the “Opium War” in 1842 under
threat of bombardment by British warships of the populous city of Nanjing
on the Yangtse (Yellow) River. Under the ensuing “Treaty of Nanjing”,
signed on 29th August 1842, the Chinese were to pay $21,000,000 in
compensation for the destroyed British opium, and the island of Hong Kong
was “ceded in perpetuity to Her Britannic Majesty, her heirs and successors”
(Byrne, 1991, p.887). In addition, the British were to have special trading
rights in the Chinese ports of Canton, Amoy, Foochow, Ningbo and
Shanghai. Immediately after the Nanjing treaty the Americans, who shared
the China opium trade with Britain demanded similar “trade concessions”
from the Chinese Government threatening that to fail to do so would be seen
as a “hostile act” (a “diplomatic” threat of attack). The British and American
public were not, however, told that this was a war about the right to addict
Chinese to opium – on the contrary, they were told that it was about the
“Right to Free Trade”.
“Free trade” was also the reason presented by the Belgian King Leopold II in
the late 19th Century for the formation of the “Congo Free State” which later
became his “personal possession” and in which he instituted one of the most
cruel systems of slavery Africa has seen. It is evident that “Free Trade” was
only intended to favour the already free – and inevitably worsened the plight
of those that were enslaved.
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Port Philip Colony was granted “self-government” in 1851 (as the colony
Victoria) responsibility for “Aboriginal Affairs” was given to the Victorian
Surveyor-General. The latter can be most easily explained by what the main
interest of British “surveyors” was, at the time: gold.
Since ancient times, the beaches of the mythical Southern Land were said to
be awash with gold. It was reported that gold had been discovered by the
British in Australia as early as 1788, the year the first shipment of convicts
and guards landed in Botany Bay, under the authority of Captain Arthur
Phillip, although the first record of gold in Australia by a “public official”
did not occur until the report of James McBrien (a surveyor) in 1823
(Blainey, 1993, p.6). The discovery of gold in Victoria was kept secret by
the authorities, however, until 1851 – the year Victoria was established as a
colony independent of New South Wales (Victoria, previously called the
Port Phillip Colony, was under administration from NSW before then).
Captain Arthur Phillip, who became the first Governor of the first British
colony at Botany Bay in what came to be called New South Wales,
professed that he wanted to “reconcile” the Aborigines to live amongst the
Europeans – meaning to live among the Europeans as black (native) slaves.
In 1788 the “right” to establish slavery of “natives” was assumed by all the
European colonial regimes. The forgotton history of slavery in Australia is
not limited to the enslavement of “natives”, however. Slaves were sent to
Australia from all around the expanding British Empire, including Ireland,
China, Polynesia, Melanesia and India. Some were called “convicts” others
were called “indentured labourers”, “coolies”, “kanakas” or just “blacks”.
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Spirit), and by the Dutch (as ‘New Holland’). The Dutch had “discovered”
Australia in the early 1600s, and the Dutch Captain Willem Jansz had
mapped, quite accurately, most of the Australian coastline – including most
of the northern Australian coast, the whole Western coast and much of the
southern coast. Abel Tasman, another Dutch captain, charted the coast of the
well-populated island of Tasmania, naming it “Van Dieman’s Land”, and
claiming it for Holland in 1642. Prior to this the Dutch East India Company
had developed an effective monopoly of the South-East Asian spice trade
after taking control of the ancient city of Jakarta in Java, converting it into
the fortified city of Batavia, from which the Dutch hoped to develop control
of the surrounding “spice islands” and the gold-rich Southern Land. They
also hoped to use Batavia as a base from which they could attack their
political and religious enemies and mercantile competitors: initially the
Portuguese and Spanish and later the French, Germans and British.
The British entered the race for Australian gold later than the Portuguese or
Dutch, but with considerably more success in the long run. In 1768 Captain
James Cook was sent on a secret mission by the British Royal Society to
“observe the Passage of the Planet Venus over the Disk of the Sun on the 3 rd
of June 1769” in Tahiti, and there to open a further letter from the Royal
Society containing the “real” secret mission: to “discover” (and claim for
Britain) the Southern Continent. Thus Captain Cook was sent to “discover”
the Southern Continent – which had already been named “New Holland” by
the Dutch! The Dutch had not, however, charted the eastern coast of
Australia, at least that is what later history books suggest, and this is where
Cook headed for before claiming the continent for the British Empire in
1770. This “undiscovered” continent had, ironically, been the inspiration for
for Johnathan Swift’s famous Gulliver’s Travels (1726), based on the
extraordinary tales of the Englishman William Dampier, who had visited
Australia in 1688, almost a century before Cook “discovered” it. Dampier
wrote, in A New Voyage Round the World (1698):
“New Holland [Australia] is a very large tract of Land. It is not yet
determined whether it is an Island or a main Continent; but I am
certain that it joyns neither to Asia, Africa, nor America. This part of it
that we saw is all low even Land, with sandy Banks against the Sea,
only the points are rocky, and so are some of the Islands in this Bay.”
(Dampier, 1698, quoted in Clark, 1957)
Dampier, who was a “buccaneer” (British pirate), continues his account with
a description of the Indigenous people of northern Australia, which gives
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Since long before the Dutch claimed the Southern Continent as “New
Holland”, and added it to Nova Guinea (New Guinea) as a part of its
“colonial empire”, the Indigenous people of northern Australia had been
trading ochres (pigments and paints), seafood and friendship with Asian
merchants and Melanesian traders from the numerous islands to the
immediate north of Australia. These islands were subsequently fought over
by the Portuguese, Dutch, Germans, British, Spanish and French. They all
wanted control of the spice trade, and any gold that might be found. They
also wanted control of trade-routes and ports, and, most of all, wanted to
keep their European enemies from gaining more valuable territory. In the
17th century the European territorial wars were centred on the battle between
Protestant and Catholic empires; thus the Dutch, Scandinavians and British
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a head, “the best and most serviceable natives to be had in the islands”. The
“rationale” for using such “black labour” in the tropics is also mentioned in
the Chronicle, although it is incorrectly claimed that ‘blackbirding’ ceased
when it was banned in 1874:
“Planters like Robert Towns argued that the Kanakas were well
suited to the work and that he was avoiding ‘the inhumanity of driving
to the exposed labour of field work the less tropically hardy European
women and children’. Public opinion and the law…stopped the trade
[in 1874].” (p.967)
Myra Willard’s The History of the White Australia Policy to 1920, the first
book published by Melbourne University Press (in 1923), was reprinted in
1967 “with some corrections”. The preface to the First Edition claims that
the book is a result of “a year’s research work undertaken in connection with
the Sydney University”; it is thus an “official version” of history as
promoted during the time of the “White Australia Policy”. The History of the
White Australia Policy to 1920 does not mention Aboriginal people at all –
as far as Myra Willard is concerned, the White Australia Policy was an
immigration policy that was primarily directed at stopping Chinese from
exploiting Australian goldfields in the 1860s. She writes:
“The ‘White Australia’ policy was formed during the second half
of the nineteenth century [which coincides with the expansion of
eugenics in Europe, America and Australia]. At the beginning of this
period, Asiatics came in such numbers that it was found necessary to
check their inflow. The measures taken for this purpose were at first
restrictive. But they became more and more stringent till by the
beginning of the twentieth century [coinciding with the Federation
and creation of the ‘Commonwealth of Australia’ in 1901] they were
given a prohibitive character. And for specific legislation, a measure
of a universal character was substituted.
“Looking at the policy for the present as referring to Asiatic
immigration only, there seem to have been four distinct stages in its
development :- (a) Isolated and temporary action with the object of
checking Chinese immigration in the time of the gold rush; (b)
attempted concerted action in the early eighties; (c) the adoption of
fairly uniform restrictive measures by the Colonies in 1888; (d) the
adoption of the White Australia policy by the Commonwealth. During
the first three periods the colonists had to consider the question of
Chinese immigration only. But within a decade thereafter, the policy
had widened so as to include all peoples whose civilisation and
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If one compares the development of the White Australia Policy with the
development of eugenics in England (and America) the connections between
the two are clearly evident, although Myra Willard does not mention
eugenics, or the fact that, in the 1920s both the University of Melbourne and
University of Sydney were prominent academic centres that embraced the
doctrines of Galton and Leonard Darwin, the founders of the eugenics
movement. It is evident that racist ideas centred on assumptions of white
superiority shaped the “Federation of the Commonwealth of Australia”
itself. When the “colonies” of Queensland, Western Australia, South
Australia, Victoria and New South Wales were “federated” to form the
“Commonwealth of Australia” (by a British Act of Parliament) in 1901, one
of the primary motives was, in fact, to create a “White Nation” – a haven for
the “white race” in a largely “black”, “yellow” and “brown” Southern
Hemisphere. Other British Commonwealth nations that shared such
distinction were New Zealand, South Africa and Rhodesia. In all these
“white colonies” the indigenous population (which was dark-skinned) were
seen, predictably, as a “problem”. In each, measures were taken to prevent
“blacks” from other countries entering the “white nation” unless these could
be used to maintain control over any remaining dark-skinned residents.
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citizens [as was the official position], nor to police the frontier regions
effectively. When the Aborigines resisted white occupation of their
tribal lands, and when some engaged in sporadic guerilla warfare, they
were easily dispersed or exterminated. The obvious failure of the
policy of assimilation before the middle of the nineteenth century led
to a policy of protection, which meant that the Aborigines became
second-class citizens. Whether in special settlements, as cheap
pastoral labour, or as fringe-dwellers, the Aborigines had become an
inferior caste. Yet there was no sign of general concern about this and
no liberal warnings that the future ideal society was endangered.
“In Queensland, where the economy was dominated still by the
large landowners and squatters, there was even less liberal concern
about race relations. The new colony’s frontier conditions led to many
clashes between European settlers and Aborigines, the worst being the
massacre in 1861 of nineteen whites and subsequently of 170
Aborigines in the Midway Ranges. At the same time, there were
demands for cheap, coloured labour that would submit to being
indentured. The squatters and large landowners at first relied on
government efforts to introduce coolies from India, but in 1863
Captain Robert Towns began a brisk trade in South Sea Islanders for
the sugar plantations. In the next five years two thousand Islanders
were indentured. They were regarded as racially inferior, and treated
with callousness and often brutality.” (p.152)
Since often no records were kept of where the “blackbirds” were captured,
this is hardly surprising. The same was the case with Aboriginal people who
were herded into “missions”, “settlements” and “reserves” – they were taken
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from all parts of Australia and sent to distant cities, where they would be
unlikely to escape and could thus be “civilised” – by working for “whites” as
domestic servants and labourers, while minimal records of this nefarious
activity were kept. Even less records were kept of hundreds, perhaps
thousands, of massacres of Aboriginal people by “settlers” in collaboration
with police and civil “militias”, simply because they were illegal – mass-
murder of innocent men, women and children always has been.
When the 1901 Australian Constitution was written, it contained only two
references to Aboriginal people. These were section 51 and section 127,
which read as follows:
Section 51: The parliament shall, subject to this Constitution, have power
to make laws for the peace, order, and good government of the
Commonwealth with respect to (xxvi) the people of any race, other than the
aboriginal race in any State, for whom it is deemed necessary to make
special laws.
Section 127: In reckoning the numbers of people of the Commonwealth,
or of a State or other part of the commonwealth, aboriginal natives shall not
be counted.
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The Tarban Creek Asylum was opened in 1838, and it accepted patients
from Victoria who were transported there by ship from Melbourne. The state
of Victoria had not yet been founded, and the area was still administered by
the British colonists from New South Wales. Prior to this a smaller asylum
had been opened in 1811 in New South Wales, before which the insane were
kept in jails. The close connection between the prisons system and the
psychiatric system has persisted to the present.
The next asylum was built in Tasmania (Van Dieman’s Land) which was
then a prison colony along with Norfolk Island, to the east of Tasmania. This
occurred in 1829 and was followed by an additional larger asylum at Port
Arthur in 1842. The Australian psychiatrist Professor Eric Cunningham Dax
wrote of Port Arthur in A World History of Psychiatry (1975):
“In 1842 an asylum was opened at Port Arthur. There were four
dormitories, a central hall, 24 cells, and a padded room. One patient
spent long hours in a cage. Port Arthur then had an evil reputation,
and Britain, in a wave of belated guilt, ordered the penal settlement to
be abandoned, so that by 1879 only 64 prisoners, 126 paupers
(presumably housed in the invalid block), and 69 lunatics remained.
They were called “imperial lunatics”!
“Another matter of psychiatric interest at Port Arthur was an
adjacent establishment at Point Puer which contained up to 730
delinquent boys, mostly aged 9 to 18. Some were transported for
trivial offences. It appears that Governor Arthur made a real attempt
to educate and train them as stonemasons, sawyers, and in other
trades.” (p.707)
The training and retraining of young people was one of the many agendas of
psychiatrists and mental hygienists, but they had to compete for the minds of
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the young with the Churches, which had a longer history of both teaching
children and looking after the poor and disadvantaged. It was the Anglican
Church and the Roman Catholic Church in Australia that controlled most of
the primary and high school education in these areas in Australian schools,
but this was to change, according to the plans of the mental hygiene
movement and medical profession.
One way in which the psychiatric profession formed an unholy alliance with
the Anglican and Catholic Churches, was by providing the initial
incarceration, enforcement of ‘compliance’ (obedience) and drug treatment
of young people and collaborating with Church organizations in their
subsequent training in menial occupations, whilst providing on-going
supervision and enforcement of drug treatment. Cunningham Dax refers to
such programs in From Asylum to Community, and continued developments
of this alliance are evident in an examination of today’s youth-training
programs and psychiatric treatment and followup programs. Dax wrote, of
the then new system in the late 1950s:
“Prior to 1954 there were no full-time chaplains within the mental
hospitals. Since that time the Anglican Church have appointed five
and the Presbyterians one, and it is hoped that three other full-time
chaplains from the Catholic and the Methodist churches and another
Anglican will be engaged before long. They are jointly appointed by
the Church and the Mental Hygiene Department. There is a chaplains’
advisory committee which discusses the terms and the conditions of
appointment, and the training. Opportunities are available for the
chaplains of the various denominations to discuss their work together
and a series of successful seminars have been held which have
extended from a single day up to a full residential week. Three
Anglican chaplains have been abroad for training.” (p.34)
Dax does not say which countries the chaplains were trained in but it was
undoubtedly Britain or America. Dax, who was born in Britain and
graduated in medicine at the University of London in 1935, is Anglocentric
in his perspective, and, along with common medical views of British and
British trained psychiatrists had fundamental belief in “physical treatments”
and drug treatment over “talk therapies” and psychotherapy of a more gentle
nature. This has been a feature of Australian psychiatry since the time of
Cunningham Dax, especially in the public hospital system, where the only
treatment is drugs and electric shocks. Psychotherapy is generally held “to
not work for serious mental illness”, and “psychoanalysis”, by which is
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The Church directly sold out to the corporate interests of the chemical
industry and psychiatric profession by selling Churches for conversion into
psychiatric treatment centres, where the treatments were inevitably
chemicals, combined, at times, with surgical mutilation and electric shocks,
physical restraint and solitary confinement, forced labour and brainwashing.
Dax writes:
“The Clarendon Clinic [in East Melbourne] was formed by
redesigning a church, its vestry, a church hall and an adjacent house.
The body of the church has been converted into a therapeutic
workshop and the vestry into four consulting rooms. The church hall
has been made into a cloak-room, sitting- and dining-room, and a hall
for the rooms, offices and staff rooms and a female toilet block.
“The clinic was designed to supply the needs of those patients who
had been many years in hospital, had been rehabilitated there by the
new methods used, and were now fit for community care. However
many of them were unable to earn a living at first or to find
accomodation except by the use, at least on a temporary basis, of one
of the departmental hostels. Moreover, many of them still needed
some medical care, and were therefore followed up by their own
medical staff who could visit the Clarendon Clinic to see them.”
The “new methods used” are inadequately described by Dax, but included
insulin comas, chemical shock using cardiazol, injected and ingested
tranquillisers, electric shocks (an older treatment) and brain mutilation by
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The passage above reveals the connection between the mental hygiene
movement, the University of Melbourne, the Mental Health Research
Institute in Parkville and the public hospitals, including Royal Park Hospital,
also in Parkville. In all these institutions the main focus was on drug
treatments, although Dax was also enthusiastic about brain surgery for the
treatment of psychological problems. At Royal Park Hospital, Larundel and
other psychiatric hospitals electric shocks to the brain were also used for
various conditions, the names of which have been changed over the past
forty years. Electric shocks to the brain, usually called ECT in Australia, are
used against people’s wishes in dozens of hospitals in Australia, today. The
use of electrical shocks in Australia dates back to the 19 th century, and it has
been an unchanging feature of Australian psychiatry over the past century,
although the “discovery” of ECT is usually attributed to Cerletti in Italy in
the 1940s. Such is the nature of psychiatric diagnosis and treatment
terminology as well as history: it is subject to frequent changes. Thus
electric shocks to the brain have been called “electroconvulsive therapy” or
ECT, “shock treatment”, “electroshock”, “electroplexy” and “electro-
therapy”. The same class of drugs have been called “analeptics”,
“neuroleptics”, “anti-psychotics”, “major tranquillisers” and
“psychotropics”. The use of lithium was experimented with, in Dax’s
terminology, for “excitement” (a suspect indication, indeed), but now it is
used for “mania” and “bipolar affective disorder”. Previously “bipolar
affective disorder” (BAD) was called “manic depression”.
Lithium was first used on psychiatric patients by the then 39 year old
superintendent of Bundoora repatriation hospital in Victoria, Dr John Cade.
This occurred in the 1940s, and since then the Victorian and Australian
psychiatric hospitals have been avid dispensers of lithium, often referred to
as a “mood stabiliser”. Although it may indeed prevent fluctuations in mood,
the ingestion of lithium is accompanied by a range of unpleasant and
dangerous side-effects and is extremely toxic in overdose. Lithium is toxic
to the kidneys and thyroid in particular, and, since the toxicity margin is
recognised to be low, regular blood tests to check lithium levels (also used to
check compliance with drug-taking) are necessary if this drug is prescribed,
as it often is done in Australia. It also dulls emotional reactions generally
and produces a range of unpleasant mental side-effects in many who are
forced to take the drug under threat of incarceration if they “fail to comply”
with treatment.
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The medical education system in Australia has, since its inception, like the
military, been rigidly hierarchical, with professors at the top and medical
students at the bottom, and the ladder is climbed by the acquisition of
degrees and publications, together with less easily identified factors, which
come into operation in the mysterious “upper echelons” of the academic
world, an area where global politics plays a greater role than most people
realise.
In it he wrote:
“It was in the asylums that the first widely available and effective
biological treatments were developed. Freud himself trained in
neurology and recognised that the severely mentally ill required
organic forms of treatment. The discovery of electroconvulsive
therapy (ECT) by Cerletti and Bini who worked in a mental hospital
in Rome in 1938 led to a simple and readily applied treatment for
those who suffered from severe depressive illness and related
disorders. Despite the advent of World War II, ECT was rapidly
adopted as a treatment internationally.
“The discovery of lithium in 1949 as a treatment for mania and as
a prophylaxis for bipolar disorder (manic depression) was made by Dr
John Cade, a distinguished Australian Psychiatrist. This was soon
followed by the development of major tranquillisers, the neuroleptics,
by Delay and Deniker in Paris in 1952, although the initial idea of
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“abnormal excitement” need long term mood stabilization with the drug.
This includes single episodes of “hypomania”, which is described in the
American Psychiatric Association’s DSM IV as follows:
“A Hypomanic Episode is defined as a distinct period during
which there is an abnormally and persistently elevated, expansive, or
irritable mood that lasts for at least 4 days (Criterion A). This period
of abnormal mood must be accompanied by at least three additional
symptoms from a list that includes inflated self-esteem or grandiosity
(nondelusional), decreased need for sleep, pressure of speech, flight of
ideas, distractibility, increased involvement in goal-directed activities
or psychomotor retardation, and excessive involvement in pleasurable
activities that have a high potential for painful consequences
(Criterion B)”. (p.335)
As if it makes the diagnostic criteria “precise” and “specific”, the DSM adds
that:
“If the mood is irritable rather than elevated or expansive [which
are not further defined in the DSM IV], at least four of the above
symptoms must be present.”
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The drugs recommended for the treatment of “hypomania” and “mania” turn
out to be the same ones recommended for “schizophrenia” and “ECT” is
electroconvulsive treatment (shock treatment), which is used for
“depression” as well as its “opposite”, “mania” and also for severe or
“intractable” psychosis (including that supposedly due to “schizophrenia” or
“schizoaffective disorder”). Unlike many other parts of the world, where
ECT has been banned or seriously restricted, in Australia the use of
electrical shocks has increased in recent years and is used more widely (in
more centres and for more reasons). Most of the psychiatric hospitals in
Australian cities give patients ECT, often against their will.
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These “symptoms” were said to have been demonstrated for 1-2 weeks,
however, the report is mostly fictional, and merely crafted to fit the
“diagnosis”. Dr Singh, who constructed the “Case Presentation”, had worked
in the area of psychiatry for only a few months, while he awaited Australian
qualification as an ophthalmic surgeon. He was hesitant in his speech in
English, but capable of doing complex eye surgery, a skill much needed by
Australians, particularly Aboriginal Australians. Yet he was being denied an
opportunity to work in this area in Australia, despite working for several
years as an ophthalmologist in his native India. In Australia he was required
to work within the public hospital system as a junior registrar in the area of
psychiatry, about which he knew and cared next to nothing, and where his
main role was writing forms, making phone-calls and arranging treatment
with tablets and injections for people who did not want or need such
treatment.
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The irony escaped Dr Singh and his colleagues that even worse than
diagnosing people on sight, must be diagnosing people based on hearsay and
defamatory documents in their absence. Not that there is a necessity for
locking up and injecting people for failing to pay their superannuation and
spending “uncharacteristically” on books.
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The valium was, in actual fact, only offered and not forced (and therefore
not taken) and Dr Singh fails to mention the Accuphase injections, or the
solitary confinement, let alone my actual political, medical and scientific
work. Following the normal sleeping patterns and speech patterns observed
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on the ward, the diagnosis had to be changed, but the sentence increased:
long term injections and a potentially fatal “psychotic illness”: probably
either “schizophrenia” or “schizo-affective disorder”. Drs Singh and Jenkins
refused point blank to discuss human rights abuses, eugenics, medical ethics
or disease-mongering and actively avoided conversations with me while I
was held at the Alfred Hospital. They insisted, however, that I “was very ill”
and “needed my medication”.
The first time efforts were made to force me to take lithium occurred in
February 1995, when two men, one of whom said he was a doctor arrived at
my home in St Kilda and asked me to take lithium and clonazepam (a
benzodiazepine tranquilliser). I was very surprised. I agreed, however to
walk down Fitzroy street later that week to visit a psychiatrist called Rajan
Thomas, whom I had been told was an expert in “autism”.
I was reading Oliver Sacks’ Anthropologist on Mars at the time, and had
become fascinated by this psychiatric diagnosis of children. I was
particularly moved by the amazing drawings in the book said to be done by
“idiot savants”, children diagnosed as autistic but with brilliant “intuitive”
musical and/or artistic skills. Interested in psychology generally and the
brain’s development as well, I expected an interesting discussion with a
colleague with expertise in children’s brain development, but that is not
what was waiting for me at the Junction Psychiatric Clinic, where I had been
lured under false pretences. Dr Thomas knew next to nothing about children
or their mental development and was more interested in diagnosing me than
discussing neurology or even psychiatry with me. His “provisional
diagnosis” was “hypomania”, I believe, but he never told me this himself.
My second meeting with Norman James I recall very clearly. I had just
returned from Brisbane, Queensland, where I had been locked up for six
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weeks after I escaped from Royal Park in May 1995. Since I had not shown
evidence of mania or even “hypomania”, the diagnosis at the Prince Charles
Hospital had been changed to a presumed “paranoid psychosis” for which I
had been injected with a terrible drug called “flupenthixol”. Flupenthixol is a
dopamine-blocker, but was then said to be “new and improved”. It gave me
severe akathesia, Parkinsonism and a rash on my face. These all resolved
within a few weeks of the two injections I was given of the drug in 1995.
Norman James ordered the second of these himself after asking me to leave
the room and making a phone call to the Prince Charles Hospital. He then
ordered me to return to see him a week later, reminding me that I was still an
involuntary patient of the hospital. A week later, he discharged me from the
hospital on a Community Treatment Order (CTO). This was my first
introduction to the modern development of eugenics in Australia. At this
stage, however, I had not even heard of eugenics.
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The English colonists who decided on Australia as an ideal site for a penal
colony were not unprejudiced men, as their own records and transcripts of
their speeches demonstrate. In 1779, when Joseph Banks recommended
Botany Bay as a site for a convict colony, he is recorded in the Journals of
the House of Commons as suggesting:
“In case it should be thought expedient to establish a Colony of
convicted Felons in any distant Part of the Globe, from whence their
Escape might be difficult, and where, from the Fertility of the Soil,
they might be enabled to maintain themselves, after the First Year,
with little or no Aid from the Mother Country, to give his Opinion
what Place would be most eligible for such Settlement? informed your
Committee, That the Place which appeared to him best adapted for
such a Purpose, was Botany Bay, on the Coast of New Holland, in the
Indian Ocean, which was about Seven Months Voyage from England;
that he apprehended there would be little Probability of any
Opposition from the Natives, as, during his Stay there, in the year
1770, he saw very few, and did not think there were above Fifty in all
the Neighbourhood, and had Reason to believe the Country was very
thinly peopled ; those he saw were naked, treacherous, and armed
with Lances, but extremely cowardly, and constantly retired from our
People when they made the least Appearance of Resistance…” (p.61,
Sources of Australian History, Manning C. Clark, 1957)
The British plan to make Australia into a penal colony was based on several
factors about the large island previously known as New Holland, after the
“discovery” of the island continent by Dutch sailors and merchants in the
1600s. The main reasons that Australia was chosen were that it was “far
away” and “relatively unpopulated”. The extraordinary beauty of the land
was largely unappreciated by the European colonists whose primary motive
was “exploitation of resources”, including both “natural resources” and
“human resources”, but, until the discovery of gold in Victoria and New
South Wales in the 1850s and subsequently extensive mineral deposits in
many other areas, Australia was considered a useless piece of land by all the
Europeans nations that visited. This included the Dutch, Spanish, French and
English and probably also the Portuguese, Chinese and Indians, all of whom
explored the area now called Indonesia prior to the 1800s. As the early
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reigned when Britain “lost America” and “claimed Australia” was himself
treated by the medical experts of the time, who for some reason thought that
he was even madder than other members of the British aristocracy. King
George III was subject to bleeding, blistering, scarifying, purging, emetics
and solitary confinement when he went “mad” recurrently during his reign,
concluding with a final “breakdown” at the age of 82, according to Professor
John Howells who wrote the chapter on “Great Britain” in the same book.
Despite the high ideals professed by the carers of the mentally ill in England,
a public scandal resulting in a Parliamentary Enquiry occurred when in
1814, a Mr William Norris who was suffering from tuberculosis (which used
to be called “consumption”) was discovered in a dark damp cell in Bethlem,
having been kept there in chains for 10 years. He died a year after being
removed from the place, but Professor Howells, who recounts the story in
World History of Psychiatry does not explain how, exactly, he died. It is not
unreasonable to wonder, given the “public scandal” surrounding his case,
whether the doctors who supervised his “treatment” in Bethlem had anything
to do with his treatment after he left the ‘hospital’.
Bethlem Hospital, from which the word “bedlam” is derived, was acquired
by the City of London in 1547 and remained a city-run asylum until 1948,
although it also housed private patients, some of whom were young women
whom Dr John Haslam, the physician of Bethlem in 1809, lamented had
been subject to a brutal operation termed “spouting”. The torturous
mutilation, which included removal of the front teeth of upper and lower jaw
was intended to “let the madness out through the mouth”, since, at the time,
madness and mental derangement were still thought to be caused by “bad
humours”.
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Later in the eighteenth and nineteenth centuries it was also believed that
madness was caused by abnormalities of blood flow to the brain, a theory
favoured by American psychiatrists such as Benjamin Rush and others. This
was used to rationalise the practice of bleeding and other “physical
treatments”, which were used on people who were physically bound,
chained and imprisoned. Flogging was a common punishment, and other
treatments, following the industrial revolution, included technological
wizardry such as spinning chairs and beds, and Rush’s own “Tranquilliser
Chair” which prevented all movement and vision.
British psychiatry, which developed during the era of official British slavery
and imperialism has been punitive from the outset. It has also been
characterised by double standards based on class and race. What was
shrugged off as “eccentricity” in the “upper classes” was punished as
insanity in the “lower classes”, later called the “working classes”. The ruling
aristocracy and monarchy (royal family), after whom several Australian and
British hospitals are still named were allowed to behave in ways and believe
things which were not tolerated in “commoners” as they referred to their
“subjects”. In Australia today, several people (mainly men) remain
incarcerated indefinitely in “forensic psychiatry hospitals” without having
been found guilty of any crime. These people, who have been deemed
“criminally insane” are held “at her Majesty’s pleasure”. Queen Elizabeth of
England has, of course, never met any of the people who are imprisoned for
life “at her pleasure”.
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In the British academic hierarchy, which was exported to the colonies and
instituted in colonial universities, the heads of each department or faculty
were called “professor” and they had authority over the more “junior
academic staff”. This junior staff included tutors and lecturers, who were
graded as “junior lecturers” and “senior lecturers”. It took many years to
climb the academic hierarchy, which was (and is) centred in the universities.
This “academic ladder” could be climbed in several ways, but was largely
available only for those born into privileged families (and who went to the
‘right schools’). One way to climb the ladder was simply by staying in the
same institution, and waiting one’s “turn” to be professor. It could be a long
and futile wait. Professorial positions were few, and jealously guarded. The
Royal Colleges, dominated by old men from private schools and with “good
connections” had control over “professional qualifications” generally, and
this included who could call themselves “professor”. This hierarchy was
instituted in all the fields of science, as well as in the “arts”.
The British tertiary education system divided all knowledge into “science”
or “arts”. Politics, history and philosophy became faculties of the arts, while
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The medical sciences were, in the British and European academic systems,
fundamentally divided into “medicine” and “surgery” the politics of which
were controlled by the London-based “Royal College of Physicians” and
“Royal College of Surgeons”. In Australia, these became the “Royal
Australasian College of Physicians” (RACP) and the “Royal Australasian
College of Surgeons” (RACS). These patriarchal, authoritarian bodies confer
“higher qualifications” (“post-graduate” qualifications) to medical graduates
who continue in “training positions” within the public hospital system.
Senior members of these colleges were (and are) made, according to
changing and inconsistent rules, into “fellows” of the college, who were
“more highly qualified” than “ordinary members” or “unspecialised
doctors”. They were allowed, according to the rules of academia, to write
FRCP or FRCS after their names and call themselves “physicians” or
“surgeons”.
Over the past one hundred years, new Australian colleges have been founded
based on a similar model and with intricate political connections with the
older colleges. These include the Royal Australian College of General
Practitioners (RACGP) and the Royal Australian and New Zealand College
of Psychiatry (RANZCP). They too confer fellowships according to obscure
and secretive rules and rites of passage. These are not democratic
organizations. Old boys are given “honorary degrees” for doing favours for
other old boys (or the Royal tradition). This is a world still dominated by old
school ties. It is rigidly hierarchical, authoritarian and patriarchal. Women
who are allowed to climb to the professorial top of the academic ladder are
obliged to accept misogynist traditions and behaviour from the middle-aged
men who control all these colleges.
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A belief that one was possessed by “evil spirits” or “Satan” was treated with
chemical or electrical shocks at first, and later by injections and tablets of
dopamine-blockers. A belief that one “heard the voice of God”,
“communicated with angels (or extra-terrestrials)” or was “the (or a)
messiah” was treated the same way. A refusal to renounce the “delusional”
(heretical) belief was diagnosed as “chronic mental illness” and refusal to
accept such an interpretation of one’s religious beliefs was called “lack of
insight”. The same criteria for diagnosis and the same treatments (with
minor variations) have been employed in both Australian and British
psychiatric hospitals. Australian psychiatry has also come under an
increasing influence, however, from the American Psychiatric Association
(APA) over the past fifty years.
Rush had another theory that is not mentioned in the DSM or other current
psychiatric texts, which are generally omissive regarding historical detail,
especially about the more unpleasant aspects of the past, as far as psychiatric
treatment and theory are concerned. Rush’s theory regarding “black” people
was that they are affected by a disease (“negritude”) which causes both their
“abnormal skin color” as well as their “abnormal behavior and beliefs”. This
was inline with his avid support of slavery of Africans by “naturally
superior” white people.
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Shorter who admits that the venerated “physician” was more a propagandist
than a promoter of health. In A History of Psychiatry (1997) he writes:
“Rush’s partisans have argued that his occasional musings on
moral suasion anticipated later psychological therapies. Yet,
psychological sensitivity is difficult to detect in his practice. As one
visitor to the Pennsylvania Hospital in 1787 recounted of Rush’s
rounds, “we next took a view of the maniacs. Their cells are about 10
feet square, and made as strong as a prison…In each door is a hole,
large enough to give them food etc., which is closed with a little door
secured with strong bolts.” Most of the patients were lying on straw.
“Some of them were extremely fierce and raving, nearly or quite
naked.”…”
Bizarre mechanistic models of the body, brain and mind have existed in
many areas of medicine, but the most grotesque, prejudiced and outrageous
ideas have originated in the minds of psychiatrists and psychoanalysts,
whose destructive theoretical assumptions are shared, although the two
schools of thought have been at odds with each other regarding the place of
drug therapy versus “psychoanalytical psychotherapy” for the treatment of
mental disorders. The shared assumptions (with notable dissidents) are that
mental illness is “underdiagnosed” and thus “undertreated” and that serious
mental illness is incurable and “very difficult to treat”. This is predictable
since it is they who get paid for the diagnosis and treatment of “sick”
individuals, as well as for advice and teaching about how “mentally ill
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objective of the military psychiatrists was to train soldiers, and return “shell-
shocked” soldiers to the frontline. To do this they used brainwashing
techniques, drugs and electric shocks.
This was the case for all sides of the war. The American psychiatrists taught
patriotism to America, capitalism, the Constitution and the “Founding
Fathers”, the British psychiatrists programmed their patients with
“patriotism for the Empire”, “love of King and Country” and “hatred of the
enemy”. During the Second World War, “the enemy” included Germans
(whose psychiatrists trained soldiers to fight for the “Fatherland”), Italians
(likewise, but for the Fascists), Japanese, Communists and “traitors” (those
who would not support the “war effort”).
During the bombing of Yugoslavia two years ago, several references were
made in the Australian media to “the Allies”, meaning those nations which
were considered “the Allied Forces” in the Second World War, with minor
differences. The historical reasons for this identification with American and
British military objectives as consistent with our own are understandable,
but dangerous, since evidence that has surfaced in recent years that proves
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beyond doubt that “the Allies” have repeatedly betrayed Australia and the
Australian people in numerous ways including involving this nation in wars
that need not have cost Australian lives. Australia could, if it had strong
pacifist leadership at the time, have contributed significantly to the cessation
of hostilities in the region. This is the case now as well, and has been since
the establishment of “defence forces” in Australia and New Zealand by the
British Government over the past two centuries.
The names of the Royal Australian Army, Navy and Airforce alone testify to
the historical connection between the Australian armed forces and the
British Monarchy (and Government). Australia remains to this day a
“constitutional monarchy” although there is discussion of “a new
constitution” and a “presidential system” of Government. Interestingly, three
important words have been routinely omitted from the “constitutional
debate”: freedom, independence and democracy. Some might suppose that
these are already widespread in Australia, and others that they are ideals
which cannot, and have never been achieved in the past, in Australia, or
anywhere else. Whilst both arguments have some validity, the first can be
criticised as being naïve and the second as unnecessarily pessimistic and
defeatist.
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Allies are not necessarily friends, but may be allied against a common
enemy. Thus England and France, which were previously considered
“traditional enemies” witnessed by the Napoleonic and other wars, became
“allied” against German military expansion in the 1930s. Australia, which
had previously suffered the fate of losing many young lives in Gallipoli
(Turkey) less than 20 years earlier, was called upon to support “the Allied
effort”, rather than work out for itself who were its friends and who were its
enemies. The immediate threat to Australia in the 1940s came not from
Germany, but from Japan and the United States of America, and these came
to the Southern Continent in the form of military craft: submarines, ships
and aircraft, and also human beings hostile to the interests and needs of the
Australian people and land. It is often mentioned in records of the Second
World War in Australia, that the Japanese bombed Darwin, with an
inference that this was the beginning of an attempt to destroy or colonise
Australia and the Australian people. Thus it is assumed that had not
Australia fought with the “Allies” we would have been “ruled by Japanese
masters” and accepted that whilst tragic, the nuclear bombs which were
dropped on the Japanese cities of Hiroshima and Nagasaki were unavoidable
and overall in the best interests of peace, since after these bombs were
dropped the Japanese “surrendered”. Likewise the loss of thousands of
young Australian lives in various parts of Asia were, and still are, regretted
as terrible, but necessary for preservation of the freedom and democratic
way of life we enjoy today.
The facts are that we have never enjoyed a truly democratic way of life in
Australia and our personal and national freedom is being constantly eroded
by the nations that credit themselves with “winning the Second World War”:
the United States of America and United Kingdom. The psychiatric system
in operation in Australia is one of the ways in which this erosion of freedom
is occurring, and political changes that have occurred in the name of
“globalization” has created a disastrous situation where the worst abusers of
human rights and freedoms are in positions where they can directly advise
on the interpretation of human rights laws and the development and
implementation of social policy, including the making of new laws.
Each State in Australia has different mental health laws, which is one of the
confusing things about human rights in Australia. Australia also lacks any
national human rights laws, and as the recent high court ruling confirms,
does not even have national laws precluding genocide. In Victoria the
current Mental Health Act was passed in 1986, with significant, but largely
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The reason for the addition of the term mental disorder was claimed, at the
time, to provide for the forced treatment of a small number of “self-
mutilating” people who, suffering from what is psychiatrically termed a
“personality disorder” rather than a “mental illness” are excluded from
forced treatment under the existing law. However events in the psychiatric
literature at the time and since suggest far greater possibilities for application
of this new reason for involuntary treatment. One is “Attention
Deficit/Hyperactivity Disorder”, another is “Conduct Disorder” and yet
another, “Oppositional Defiant Disorder”, all new “mental disorders”
announced in the 1994 edition of the American Psychiatric Association’s
Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders (DSM IV).
The DSM does, however have a brief section titled “Historical Background”,
which gives some indication of the perspective the organization would like
to give of itself and psychiatry:
“The need for a classification of mental disorders has been clear
throughout the history of medicine, but there has been little agreement
on which disorders should be included and the optimal method for
their organization. The many nomenclatures that have been developed
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during the past two millennia have differed in their relative emphasis
on phenomenology, etiology and course as defining features. Some
systems have included only a handful of diagnostic categories; others
have included thousands. Moreover, the various systems for
categorizing mental disorders have differed with respect to whether
their principle objective was for use in clinical, research, or statistical
settings. Because the history of classification is too extensive to be
summarized here, we focus briefly only on those aspects that have led
directly to the development of the Diagnostic and Statistical Manual
of Mental Disorders (DSM) and to the “Mental Disorders” sections in
the various editions of the International Classification of Diseases
(ICD).
“In the United States, the initial impetus for developing a
classification of mental disorders was the need to collect statistical
information. What might be considered the first official attempt to
gather information about mental illness in the United States was the
recording of the frequency of one category – “idiocy/insanity” in the
1840 census. By the 1880 census, seven categories of mental illness
were distinguished – mania, melancholia, monomania, paresis,
dementia, dipsomania, and epilepsy. In 1917, the Committee on
Statistics of the American Psychiatric Association (at that time called
the American Medico-Psychological Association [the name was
changed in 1921]), together with the National Commission on Mental
Hygeine, formulated a plan that was adopted by the Bureau of the
Census for gathering uniform statistics across mental hospitals.
Although this system devoted more attention to clinical utility than
did previous systems, it was still primarily a statistical classification.
The American Psychiatric Association subsequently collaborated with
the New York Academy of Medicine to develop a nationally
acceptable psychiatric nomenclature that would be incorporated
within the first edition of the American Medical Association’s
Standard Classified Nomenclature of Disease. This nomenclature was
designed primarily for diagnosing inpatients with severe psychiatric
and neurological disorders.
“A much broader nomenclature was later developed by the U.S.
Army (and modified by the Veterans Administration) in order to
better incorporate the outpatient presentations of World War II
servicemen and veterans (e.g., psychophysiological, personality, and
acute disorders). Contemporaneously, the World Health Organization
(WHO) published the sixth edition of ICD, which, for the first time,
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It is evident, then that the military (defence forces) have always been closely
involved in the development and application of psychiatric labels and
‘physical’ treatments of ‘nervous disorders’. This involvement is more
sinister than most would imagine, and has caused more distress to the public
than would initially appear possible. This distress has been caused by much
more than misapplied labels of “Post Traumatic Stress Disorder” (a label
directly adapted from the old label of ‘shell-shock’). The ‘militarisation’ of
the USA and Australia have resulted in panic, depression, suicide, psychosis
and drug addiction in these nations, as it is bound to in any nations that
promote terror and horror on television screens at the same time as handing
out addictive tranquillisers in hospitals and clinics to “calm the nerves” and
giving free reign to alcohol merchants to use all the tricks of modern
technology and advertising in “developing new markets”. When one also
realises how closely militarisation is associated with privatization,
“globalization” and establishment of a white-controlled “New World Order”,
more of the disaster that has befallen modern society might be recognised.
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that man was descended from apes in Descent of Man. Although he himself
was parodied in cartoons at the time as being part-ape, his followers
seriously embarked on a scientific quest to discover which races were
“closest to apes”, and which were “the most evolved” with several false
assumptions already clouding their judgement.
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Steven Jay Gould, the popular scientific writer and evolutionary biologist
from Harvard University, from whose 1983 collection of essays titled The
Panda’s Thumb the above quote is borrowed, points out the biases that were
demonstrated in the efforts of craniometrists to prove their own superiority:
“In an outrageous example of data selected to conform with a
priori prejudice, he [E.A.Spitzka, an American craniometrist]
arranged, in order, a large brain from an eminent white male, a
bushwoman from Africa, and a gorilla. (He could easily have reversed
the first two by choosing a larger black and a smaller white.) Spitzka
concluded, again invoking the shade of Georges Cuvier: “The jump
from a Cuvier or a Thackeray to a Zulu or a Bushman is no greater
than from the latter to the gorilla or the orang.”
“Such overt racism is no longer common among scientists, and I
trust that no one would now try to rank races or sexes by the average
size of their brains. Yet our fascination with the physical basis of
intelligence persists (as it should), and the naïve hope remains in some
quarters that size or some other unambiguous external feature might
capture the subtlety within. Indeed, the crassest form of more-is-better
– using an easily measured quantity to assess improperly a far more
subtle and easily measured quality – is still with us…This essay was
inspired by recent reports on the whereabouts of Einstein’s brain. Yes,
Einstein’s brain was removed for study, but a quarter century after his
death, the results have not been published. The remaining pieces –
others were farmed out to various specialists – now rest in a Mason jar
packed in a cardboard box marked “Costa Cider” and housed in an
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The craniometrists used as their yardstick for big-headed, white geniuses the
skull of the French biologist Baron Georges Cuvier, who died in 1832.
Gould writes, with characteristic wit:
“Cuvier’s contemporaries marveled at his “massive head.” One
admirer affirmed that it “gave to his entire person an undeniable
cachet of majesty and to his face an expression of profound
meditation.” Thus, when Cuvier died, his colleagues, in the interests
of science and curiosity, decided to open the great skull. On Tuesday,
May 15, 1832, at seven o’clock in the morning, a group of the greatest
doctors and biologists of France gathered to dissect the body of
Georges Cuvier. They began with the internal organs and, finding
“nothing very remarkable,” switched their attention to Cuvier’s skull.
“Thus,” wrote the physician in charge, “we were about to contemplate
the instrument of this powerful intelligence.” And their expectations
were rewarded. The brain of Georges Cuvier weighed 1,830 grams,
more than 400 grams above average and 200 grams larger than any
non-diseased brain previously weighed.” (p.122)
Unknown to many in the modern world, however, the eugenic theories and
policies which gave rise to the genocide of the 1940s were not an isolated
aberration of Nazi madmen. The theories, which originated in England, not
Germany, were the predominant socio-medico-anthropological beliefs in
Europe, North America, Australia, New Zealand and South Africa of the
time, and had been for many decades. The first eugenic sterilization laws,
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What does not become clear from Professor Hurst’s account of psychiatry in
South Africa is what constituted “mental defectiveness” and what type of
treatment was given to the people thus diagnosed. It is easy to deduce these
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Itself. The book was so well received that Beers went on to found the
National Committee for Mental Hygiene, an organization formed to
assist the cause of the mentally disturbed as well as promote the
prevention of mental illness.
“But there is more to the story. Before Beers published the book,
he sent the manuscript to the Father of American Psychology, William
James. James endorsed it wholeheartedly. And, armed with William
James’ support, he went to talk to psychiatrists, neurologists, social
workers and social-minded laymen.
“In September, 1907, he took the manuscript to well-known
psychiatrist Adolf Meyer. A member of the Eugenics Society, Meyer
had been a student of Alfred Hoche, co-author of The Release of the
Destruction of Life Devoid of Value, the book promoting the killing of
mental defectives. He also studied under Swiss psychiatrist August
Forel, “whose influence on the young student was great,” according to
one biographer. An example of Forel’s views: “Even for their own
good the blacks must be treated as what they are, an absolutely
subordinate, inferior, lower type of men, incapable themselves of
culture.” (p.71)
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When describing Adolf Meyer in glowing terms, Shorter fails to mention his
views on race either; likewise Stone, who describes the once president of the
American Psychiatry Association thus:
“Adolf Meyer (1866-1950) exerted enormous influence on
psychiatry in America, not just in the 1920s, though this decade offers
a convenient time frame to discuss his work. Like Jung, he was the
son of a Swiss pastor. He studied under August Forel in Zurich, then
worked in France with Dejerine, and later in England, where he was
impressed with the work of Hughlings-Jackson, from whom he
derived his ideas about the layers of brain organization and the
organism’s adaptation to the environment.
“Meyer came to the United States in 1893, working first as a
neurologist. His interest in psychopathology was stimulated by
William James. He established a friendship with another prominent
psychologist, John Dewey. In 1907 Meyer met Clifford Beers and,
joining hands with this former mental patient, now reformer of
hospitals, started a mental-hygiene movement in America. Meyer also
had an illustrious teaching career; he taught at New York State
Psychiatric Institute, later at John Hopkins and the Henry Phipps
Psychiatric Clinic, both in Baltimore. In 1927 he was president of the
American Psychiatric Association” (p.153)
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noted expert in the bread mould Neurospora. Professor Beadle authored the
introduction to the “Biological Sciences” section of Frontiers of Science, in
which he gave a typically eugenist perspective of “the mind”:
“The Mind. Through knowledge of science man is capable of freeing
himself of the limitations of mutation and natural selection in his future
evolution. Achievement of this freedom will not be easy. It will require
wisdom, courage, and faith far beyond anything man has so far displayed.
“All this is possible because of the mind. What is the mind and how
does it work? We are only beginning to make progress in this enormously
complex and difficult field. The most elaborate computing machine that
can be imagined is nothing beside the mind of man. The mind can invent
the machine, but the machine can do only what the information fed into it
orders. And the mind of man must formulate the information and must
tell the machine what to do with it.
“Through a series of ingenious and delicate experiments on the brains
of fish, frogs, salamanders, rats, cats, and monkeys, Professor Roger
Sperry and Doctor John Stamm give us a tiny glimpse of what the
psychobiologist of the future might be able to learn about this mind
which makes man unique among all living things and can give him
mastery of himself, the world, and all the vast space that lies beyond.
“Cultural inheritance is not separable from biological inheritance. The
first cannot exist without the second. It follows that, while man is
nurturing his cultural inheritance, he must not let his biological
inheritance regress [what Saleeby called ‘dysgenics’]. And this it will
surely do if care is not taken. Relaxation of natural selection, or
natural selection for the wrong characteristics, can lead to a
degeneration of the biological capacity for continued cultural
inheritance.” (p.16) (emphasis added)
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It is not “normal” for animals to live in a cage; thus their ‘general cage
behaviour’ is already on of an imprisoned, suffering animal. Comparing
animals with different degrees of brain mutilation ‘prepares the ground’ for
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similar experiments on humans – and indeed these were being done at the
same time, most notoriously by the “ice-pick lobotomist” Walter Freeman.
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Although he does not explain treatment in other than the most vague ways in
the text, a few comments do give an indication of what was being offered to
the Australian people in the way of health promotion. In his final chapter,
titled “the future”, Dax writes:
“Within the past forty years vast strides have been taken, in two
eras of psychiatric treatment. First the physical treatments were used,
malaria for general paralysis [syphilis], prolonged sleep, insulin
comas, cardiazol and electroplexy, leucotomy, abreaction, and the use
of barbiturates. Next the advent of social psychiatry, industrial
occupation, group activities and therapies, rehabilitation,
resocialization and the tranquilizing drugs brought in a new phase of
treatment.
“Now we are on the edge of a more fundamental change. Even in
our lifetime we shall see psychiatry move into the community and a
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new attitude emerge to mental illness, its prevention and its treatment.
Perhaps this is the most exciting phase of all, for with support,
tolerance and group understanding we may together learn to carry
more of the stresses of civilization within our new community
structure.” (p.205)
Dax does not mention the word ‘eugenics’ in his book, nor admit to the
connection between the eugenics movement and the mental hygeine
movement, but he does include in another appendix a list of drugs being
“studied” under the auspices of the Mental Hygeine Authority, some of
which are still used today, but all of which can cause acute toxicity and
chronic illness themselves. These drugs include Chlorpromazine (Largactil),
Reserpine, Melleril, Tofranil, Stelazine, Librium, Parnate, Bromides and
Mono-amine oxidases. Chlorpromazine, Melleril and Stelazine are crippling
dopamine-blocking “major tranquillisers” notorious for causing tardive
dyskinesia and other forms of chronic brain and nervous system damage.
These and other toxic chemicals, including lithium and benzodiazepines (the
first of which was Librium) have been forced into people of all races and
ages in Australia via the public hospitals and community psychiatric
services, over the past fifty years, and especially in the past five.
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Is the collection really his, though? He certainly collected them, but the
majority of the people who did the art were prisoners of the system he
headed, and are not even personally acknowledged for their often amazing
work. They become “schizophrenics”, “manic depressives” and
“psychotics”. Their art becomes evidence of “mental illness” demonstrating
“psychopathology” rather than creative genius. Their art was taken without
payment or recognition, and they were able to produce brilliant works of art
despite forced treatment which robbed them of their freedom, dignity and
physical health. They were truly “tortured artists”.
illness diagnoses and drugs to treat them. This is despite claims that the aims
of the Foundation are to “raise funds to promote mental health & wellbeing,
public involvement in mental health, removal of the stigma linked with
mental illness, research on mental health issues, effective prevention
programmes and mental health education”.
What, exactly, these “mental health problems” and “mental illnesses” are is
not explained in the pamphlet, which is vague about this, in the extreme:
“These can range from long term, but intermittent severe illnesses,
to short term stress related disorders.
“Mental health problems and illness affect people from all cultural
backgrounds in rural and remote areas as well as the cities.
“All are treatable, and with care and treatment, people usually do
recover.
“After recovery, people with a mental illness usually want to
continue to live their lives as they did prior to their illness, as we all
expect following a physical illness – to return to work or school, to
have fun, to care for, and be loved by friends, while continuing to
receive treatment and medication for their illnesses.
“Yet anyone who experiences a mental health problem or
illness will suffer, in addition to their illness, the pain caused by
stigma and its related discrimination and isolation.”
The irony that the psychiatric profession should be exhorting the public to be
aware of “stigma” whilst actively creating prejudice, drug addiction, social
isolation and suicide clearly escapes the authors of the pamphlet. The extent
of discrimination (including governmental discrimination) against people
who have been diagnosed with “serious mental illnesses” such as
“schizophrenia” and “bipolar affective disorder” is listed in the pamphlet:
The Mental Health Foundation, however, claims that “this stigma and
isolation is caused by myth and misunderstanding of mental illness”. In
claiming to be dispelling such myths, the Foundation reinforces the view
that drug compliance is of paramount importance in the treatment of mental
illness, and denies the extensive human rights abuses occurring in Australian
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nor eugenics, but he does make some pertinent points about conflict of
interest:
“After reading the first MJA article on the prevalence of these
disorders and the second on treatment, the reader might be forgiven
for forming the strong impression that up to 20 percent of the
Australians who visit a GP could benefit from treatment with the new
antidepressants: the medication of a nation on an unprecedented scale
[subsequently exceeded by cholesterol lowering drugs]. The other
clear message is that depression and related disorders are greatly
under-diagnosed. This assumption has been at the centre of the
company-sponsored depression-awareness campaigns in Australia as
each company promoted its new antidepressant through the 1990s.
But are things really as bad as that?
“Professor Burrows’ article stated, ‘A general practitioner who
sees 40 patients a day can expect that eight will require support or
treatment for anxiety or depression – and that’s not counting those
whose disorders go unrecognised’. Yet at almost the same time a
major report on the treatment of depression prepared in Britain, while
not ruling out that the prevalence might be higher, referred to ‘a
prevalence in general practice of about 5 per cent for neurotic and
depressive illness…’
“Discrepancies like these are hard to explain. Clearly the larger the
prevalence of a disease, the bigger the potential market for those
selling drugs. In such a situation it seems reasonable to expect that
any relationship between those making the estimates of disease
prevalence and the companies selling drugs should be made clear.”
(p.144)
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Professor Burrows does not make it clear as to what, exactly, “good mental
health” is, or how he plans to promote it “for all Australians” but he does
make clear that he is prepared to accept anything of value:
“Your bequest may specify the activity you want to support –
children, adolescents, corporate stress, aged care, etc. or become a
general bequest. You may specify the gift of a part of your estate, or a
parcel of shares, debentures or bonds, or a house or other real estate,
works of art, antiques or anything of value.”
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In 1996 and 1997 two workers from the Victorian Council of Civil Liberties,
Konstandinos Karapanagiotidis and Steafan Kilkeary undertook an
investigation into official complaint mechanisms for aggrieved psychiatric
patients in the State of Victoria. Their findings, after a one year investigation
including taped interviews and numerous personal interviews for the
“Seeking Justice Project”, confirmed, in addition to a complete failure of
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these complaint mechanisms, extensive human and civil rights abuses of the
most appalling nature occurring in Victoria. This included punitive
treatment, heavy drugging, misdiagnosis, unnecessary incarceration, and
sexual abuse by psychiatrists. They give examples of women who had been
raped or otherwise sexually assaulted being disbelieved and punitively
diagnosed and treated by the psychiatric profession and hospital system:
“A woman screaming saying that she had been gang raped by 5
men while on day leave and that she was pregnant as a result of this
abuse was not believed by anyone in the psychiatric hospital in which
she was a patient. The workers punished her for ‘telling lies’ by not
allowing her to see a doctor. It was not until the woman was
discovered in a pool of blood, having miscarried, that the workers
finally believed her.”
The report, which the Liberty Victoria attempted to prevent the release of,
quotes Fran Quigley of the Geelong Rape Crisis Centre who says:
“Women in the psychiatric system are treated in an appalling
manner. They are often caught up in the system for a long time…often
do not have a mental illness. At one stage they are told they have
“schizophrenia” then it suddenly becomes a “personality disorder”.
Clearly they are not being assessed properly.”
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independent body where a consumer can take their complaint and have it
dealt with objectively and fairly”. In the same section they write:
“…advocates from The Office of the Public Advocate appear
before the Guardianship and Administration Board and actively speak
against the wishes of those individuals for whom they are supposed to
be advocating. One such example was where the hearsay evidence of
an advocate led to an individual having his freedom of movement
curtailed.”
They add:
“It is really disappointing that the statutory complaints
mechanisms, all of which have sweeping legislative powers to act
against abusive and negligent mental health workers, steadfastly
refuse to do so. Particularly when it is understood that lethargy, as
Keith Jackson from the Health Services Commissioner put it, is met
with ridicule and contempt by workers against whom complaints are
made. He stated that psychiatrists for one in Victoria operate ‘as a law
unto themselves’. Laughing off even such serious allegations as the
sexual assault of a patient. The Ombudsman too, retains the power to
initiate investigations on its own behalf, and to name negligent service
providers in Parliament. It however remains silent, neutered.”
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In the brief conclusion of the report, the authors quote a response from Dr
Carlisle Perera, who has since been replaced as the head of State Psychiatric
Services by Professor Norman James, previously head of Royal Park
(Psychiatric) Hospital in Parkville. They write:
“Dr Carlyle Perera stated that ‘do-gooders’ from organisations
such as Liberty Victoria just wanted to rush out there and give
‘them’…their rights. That this would cause them distress and would
alienate them from the people who really cared about them (the
workers in the mental health industry). This is, at best, a dodgy line of
reasoning….The bottom line is that when ‘do-gooders’ such as us talk
about human rights, we are talking about everyone’s right to live free
from abuse. What came out of the Seeking Justice Project and the
Know Your Rights Workshops was that many individuals felt that
their rights were being sorely trampled on in Victoria. And that there
was nowhere to go to either evince justice, and/or to prevent further
abuse.”
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The mental health system in Australia grew out of the asylums of the
nineteenth century, and involved the slavery of people who were diagnosed
as “mentally ill” or “mentally defective”. The general ‘mental defectiveness’
label was applied to people who were also denigrated as ‘lunatics’,
‘criminals, degenerates, imbeciles, idiots and feeble-minded people.
Masturbation was viewed as evidence of feeble-mindedness, and
disobedience as a sign of degeneracy. The inmates of asylums were forced to
work in menial jobs, while the institutions that held them profited from their
forced labour. Torture, including flogging, water torture, chaining, and
electrical shocks, was routinely administered in these asylums under the
guise of treatment.
system of slavery included all the countries in the British Empire, including
Australia. Not all the Empire’s countries were treated as harshly as Australia
was, however. And this harsh treatment of Australia and its residents by
agents of the British Commonwealth in Australia has continued to this day.
Involved in this abuse of the Australian population are the numerous secret
police organisations currently active in Australia, several of which have
direct links with the British Commonwealth.
The centre of the British Empire was London, and this was also the centre of
the British slave trade. The concept of the “Commonwealth” was devised by
social theorists, politicians and academics at the University of London and
also at the Oxford and Cambridge Universities. These Universities became
an essential part of British foreign policy during the time of open slavery, as
well as in the times of disguised slavery which followed. Brainwashing,
involving indoctrination into the academic system of “doctors”, “degrees”,
“honours” and other titles were bestowed on students of the system creating
a persistent and highly authoritarian academic hierarchy. This system was
exported to the colonies, where an uninterrupted tradition has continued to
the present day.
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“white” nations, and also a smaller number from China. The police had to
keep the peace between Chinese and European immigrants on several
occasions, especially during the scramble for exploitation of Australia’s gold
deposits which occurred in the 1860s.
In the navy, airforce and army, the titles given were different, but the system
of authority in titles the same. Here commanders, generals and other senior
officers ruled, often with extreme cruelty and callousness, an army of men
and women, who were initially slaves who were “conscripted” to fight and
die for the British Empire. These slaves were not able to aspire to senior
(safe) positions in the armed forces by virtue of their birth (including “class”
and nationality).
The navy, like the army and airforce were officially “the Royal Australian
Armed Forces”, with emphasis on “Royal”. The chain of command of the
Australian armed forces began not in Australia, but in England, home of the
British Royalty and the originating point of royal directives. The British
monarchy had, and continue to have, a unique authority over the system of
titles which maintains Commonwealth authority. The monarch is able to
confer titles on whoever he or she likes. These titles include “Knights” who
are allowed to use the title “Sir” as well as “lords” and “barons”. The latter
are usually reserved from Englishmen of “noble birth”. It is difficult to see
how such a system can be maintained in any nation that aspires to
democracy, or calls itself democratic.
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Although Mental Health Acts differ between the States, every State in
Australia does have laws prohibiting politically motivated incarcerations, as
have occurred in recent years in the Soviet Union, South Africa and other
politically repressed nations. Such incarceration is anyway prohibited by
International Laws declared in the 1940’s following the discovery of the
extent of and reasons behind the Nazi Holocaust. The reasons behind the
Holocaust are complex, but even the most ardent apologist for psychiatric
abuses, would agree that the eugenics policies that determined who would be
killed, and who would be encouraged to breed in an effort to create an Aryan
“super-race”, were developed and implemented by men who called
themselves scientists, academics, physicians and psychiatrists. Many of the
most influential eugenicists were professors in the most respected
Universities and Hospitals in Germany, such as Professor Karl Schneider,
who was head of psychiatry at the University of Heidelberg in the 1930s.
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The Nazi atrocities were carefully planned and executed, with an elaborate
disguise of the “mercy killings” as well as denial, at first, of what was
occurring, and, when the evidence was incontrovertible, denial that what
they did was morally wrong, or evil. This denial of guilt was repeatedly seen
during the Nuremberg Trials, when some of the Nazi war criminals were
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tried for crimes against humanity. Many who were executed remained
defiant to the end, justifying or denying their crime.
In 1998, the Age newspaper ran a headline story about revelations of State
secret police files and activities in the Australian State of Victoria. Secret
police systems have been in operation in Australia for a long time. In fact,
over the past 200 years, several secret police systems have developed
alongside each other in Australia, with varying levels of cooperation and
communication between different secret police systems. In this book, the
secret police systems currently in operation in Australia will be examined in
the hope that this will shed light on similar systems in operation elsewhere,
and draw attention to how such police systems are contributing to global
warfare and human rights abuses. In particular, similar systems which are
closely connected with the Australian secret police systems exist in Canada
and New Zealand, as well as in South Africa and other nations with a history
of being part of the British Empire. The secret police systems were actually
set up in the first place by British Commonwealth agents in the British
colonies as part of the colonial governments in these nations. Australia is a
good example of a nation with a history inextricably connected with British
penal and judicial policies and thus an active police and secret police system
is to be expected in a close examination of Australian legal and social
history.
The federation of separate British colonies into the nation of Australia
occurred only one hundred years ago. This is not as long as the State of New
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South Wales existed as a separate colony. The State of Victoria, named after
Queen Victoria (of England and the British Empire), was founded in 1851,
many decades after Captain James Cook claimed Botany Bay and the
surrounding land for the British Crown (1788). Of course, the “British
Crown” is something of an abstract entity, and heads wearing British crowns
have rarely been seen in Australia. Representatives of the British Crown
have, however, played a huge role in the history of Australia over the past
two hundred years, including the establishment and management of several
secret police systems in Australia. These systems include military
intelligence systems (such as ASIO), federal police investigation systems
(such as the NCA), state based criminal investigation systems (such as CIB)
and psychiatric diagnosis and treatment systems (such as CAT teams). These
parallel systems are poorly integrated and have very different ideas about
what is right and what is wrong, as well as what is legal and what is illegal.
They also have very different ideas about what should be legal and what
should not. They also target different populations for surveillance and
containment and use very different techniques to gather information and
extract it under duress if this is thought to be necessary.
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Lust for gold has played a major role in the development of social policy in
Australia, and Victoria in particular. The White Australia Policy, that
embarrassing legacy of British colonial racism, was itself devised in the
1860s to prevent Chinese exploitation of the newly discovered gold in
Australia, among several reasons, all racially and culturally discriminatory.
The indigenous people of Australia were not even recognised as human by
the first English colonists who declared Australia to be Terra Nullius. This is
despite over two hundred years of prior European knowledge that the
Southern Land was indeed populated with a race of dark-skinned people
who spoke several different languages. More recently, it has become evident
that they spoke several hundred different languages. From the English point
of view, however, it did not matter what or how many languages they spoke:
they were all just “natives”, who were equated with “savages”.
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were forced to dig up their rice fields by British colonial rulers and plant
their homelands with opium poppies. The opium was then pushed into
Chinese society with the intent of addicting and subduing the Chinese
population. When the Chinese Government attempted, in the 1840s, to halt
the opium trade, the British threatened to attack Chinese cities with
battleships poised outside Chinese ports. Hong Kong was ceded to the
British for the period of 150 years after this shameful act of international
terrorism and drug warfare. Shortly afterwards, and in the wake of the
British success, the USA demanded similar trade concessions to the British
from China and maintenance of their own opium export industry to the most
populous nation on earth. It is of note that enforcement of “free trade” was
the justification the British Government gave to its people, for what later
became known as the “opium wars”.
The activities of the secret police systems in Australia are centred on the
issue of drugs. The matter is clouded by confusion about what is a “drug”
and “legal versus illegal” drugs. Some drugs are “prohibited” under
International Drug Laws, including “narcotics” such as heroin and other
opiates. “Narco” means “sleep”, and narcotics cause sleepiness when
ingested or injected. The effects of alcohol are narcotic at high doses, but
excitatory at low doses. Alcohol, however, is not usually considered a
‘narcotic’, since, although it causes a great deal of human illness and misery,
alcohol, like tobacco, is considered a ‘legal drug’.
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The prohibition of heroin and other “hard” drugs has resulted in a situation
where thousands of young people around the world are presently
incarcerated in prisons and psychiatric hospitals due to their addiction, while
those who push the addiction on these young people are not behind bars.
Compounding the problem, the accompanying prohibition of products of the
Cannabis Sativa plant (Marijuana and hashish) have resulted in a massive
black market trade in “illegal drugs”, whilst making these drugs more
fashionable in some circles. They have also become associated with crime in
a direct way, since the selling and use of “illegal drugs” is considered to be a
serious crime, punishable by jail sentences and heavy fines. Yet,
hypocritically the Australian Government and governments around the
world continue to profiteer from “legal drug sales” including the legal opiate
trade, as well as from tobacco and alcohol. Cannabis Sativa plantations also
bring revenue to the Government, since this ancient crop is grown in
Australia under Government control, for the production of hemp.
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One reason is the huge propaganda machine behind the needle exchange
program and methadone program, sponsored by the mining industry,
pharmaceutical industry, and insurance industries with support from the
Commonwealth and State Governments in Australia. These industries
finance a plethora of “non-government organizations” (NGOs) which have a
subtle or unsubtle drug pushing agenda. This can be witnessed in the Spring
1997 newsletter of the “Drug Reform Foundation” titled “Drug Reform
News”. In the front page article, Dr Alex Wodak wrote:
“Will the moral conservatives turn on practices such as methadone
maintenance and needle exchange? This is a growing concern among
drug experts. There’s been a very alarming deterioration over the last
six months, the dinosaurs have been let out of their cages and the very
impressive record of achievement that Australia has clocked up in this
area since 1985 is now at risk.
“One of our supreme achievements during that time was keeping
HIV under control among injecting drug users and therefore
protecting the Australian population.
“This was a delicate balancing act that involved Commonwealth
and State Governments working together and also politicians from all
parties accepting that this was an area that they shouldn’t score points
off each other. This is breaking down with the kind of decision that
was made on Black Tuesday.”
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More recently, the Age newspaper, on 18.12.99, ran a front page headline
story titled “Federal lawyers reject Howard line on heroin”. The article, by
Meaghan Shaw, claims:
“The Prime Minister’s opposition to Victoria’s plan for heroin
injecting rooms has been undermined by advice from the Attorney-
General’s Department that it might not breach international treaty
obligations.
“The advice, given to the Victorian Government in September, is
also at odds with warnings from the United Nations’ International
Narcotics Control Board that the plan could breach a treaty and
imperil Australia’s $150 million-a-year legal opiates industry.
“Mr Howard referred to the advice yesterday to demonstrate that
his Government had warned of the potential breach in September,
well before he wrote to the Premiers of Victoria and New South
Wales this week urging them not to proceed until the Commonwealth
could consider “all the implications” of their plans.”
The full implications of the States’ plans can only be appreciated with a
background knowledge of eugenics theory and practice in Australia and
awareness of “drug policing” in Australia.
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In this policy, minority groups and individuals with loyalty to England and
the “British Empire” were placed in positions of power and authority over
the majority population. They were then encouraged to engage in nepotism
and also to follow ongoing instructions from London. Later a “middle class”
of professionally trained people from other Commonwealth countries was
placed in administrative positions in different countries, again in the hope
that they would maintain loyalty to the anglophile institutions that trained
them, as well as the British Crown and British “national interests”. This
policy was instituted in Australia, America, parts of Africa (especially
Rhodesia and South Africa), New Zealand and parts of Asia. The British
Empire also took slaves from South India to Sri Lanka, Fiji, the West Indies
and other “British colonies”.
The South Indian slaves taken to Sri Lanka, then called “Ceylon”, were
forced to live in concentration camps and work for less than a subsistence
wage on European-owned tea estates. These included estates owned by
Liptons, Bushells and other large British based tea companies. The estates
were usually administered and managed by Sri Lankans of mixed European
and Singhalese or Tamil descent (Burghers). Tamils, who speak a different
language to the Singhalese majority population, were placed by the British
in influential positions within the colonial administration of Ceylon. These
Tamils were initially educated in English at Indian universities, but later
both Singhalese and Tamils were trained at the University of Ceylon in
Colombo. Scholarships and opportunities for private education at British
Universities were also provided by the British Empire, and thousands of
foreign graduates were produced by the old British Universities in the 1950s
and 60s. These foreign graduates were regarded, however, as second class
citizens by the British academic hierarchy, and many returned to their
homelands in the 1960s and 70s.
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The Health Care Network System was instituted by the Liberal Party
Kennett Government, and involved a direct attempt by the larger hospitals to
take over the funds of the smaller ones. These larger hospitals included the
Alfred Hospital, which is now co-administered with the Royal Eye and Ear
Hospital, Box Hill Hospital, Maroondah Hospital and Peter MacCallum
Cancer Institute. In the Age newspaper, on 18.12.99, a story by Mary-anne
Toy suggests that some of the truth of the politics behind the Health Care
Networks is now being revealed. Toy writes:
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In other words, people who donate money for what they intend to be help for
the ill can find their donations used for completely different reasons. More
seriously, some of the hospitals included in the Inner and Eastern Health
Care Network are involved in cruel and degrading treatment of people held
against their wills in “psychiatric wards”. These people are being
systematically given crippling injections and electroshock treatment, often
against their will. It is disturbing that funds given for the purposes of
supporting medical research into cancer and the treatment of cancer-affected
people should be diverted into treatments that many in society would
disapprove of if they knew about it. It is also disturbing that mercenary
“police forces” are given free reign in Australia in the form of “Group of
Four” run prisons and other private prisons. It is even more so because the
treatments of people in these prisons and the contracts between private
prison contractors and Governments are being kept from the Australian
people and the world.
In New Guinea the activities of British mercenaries came to light with the
revelations of Bill Skate’s Government’s arrangements with the Sandline
company to provide mercenaries to “put down the rebellion” in the island of
Bouganville. This arrangement was to cost millions of dollars, and the deal
was again kept from the world in a corrupt secret arrangement that amounts
to treason by the New Guinean Government. It is of note that the New
Guinea Government, centred in Port Moresby, is heavily dependent on the
Commonwealth of Australia for its authority and finance. It is also important
to understand that independence movements are active all over the world,
and that it is global suicide to employ mercenary forces to subdue such
movements, since they will aggravate global warfare.
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the world for millenia. They share a racial and cultural heritage with
Australian aboriginal people and Torres Strait Islanders. These people are
the rightful owners of the copper deposits in Bouganville, as well as the
other natural resources of the island. However, such rights are being
trampled on by the Australian and British mining companies which have
long exploited the indigenous people as cheap labour while stealing the
resources of their country. Similar situations occur all over the world,
including Australia.
New Guinea has suffered a similar fate, and the people of this large forested
island have also been subject to the divide and rule policy. New Guinea was
literally divided into East and West halves by Dutch and British masters.
The West New Guineans were given the choice of rule by Dutch masters or
death and the East New Guineans were given a similar choice by British
colonists. Freedom and Independence were not offered by the colonial rulers
until after the Second World War, when native New Guineans, Solomon
Islanders, Australian aboriginals and other Australians, New Zealanders and
Torres Strait Islanders were forced to give their lives for the British Empire
and “Allied Forces”. Millions of colonised people died in this war, which
began as one between the colonising European nations. Japan and the United
States of America entered the war later, and each made a grab for the nearest
territory, following the lead of the older slaving nations. The Japanese, as all
children in Australia are taught, invaded China, South East Asia and
Indonesia, bombed Darwin in Northern Australia and were thought to be
poised to invade Australia.
Japan and Germany were rebuilt after the Second World War by American
and British finance, and also by Jewish finance, centred in Switzerland and
other “tax-havens”. The Global Economy that was constructed after the
Second World War was centred in Geneva in Switzerland, which had
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adopted a “neutral” position in the Second World War. During the European
War of the 1930s, Italy and Spain sided with Germany and France and
England united against the Nazis. Russia fought its own war against
Germany, whilst most of Europe was conquered by the Germans without
significant resistance. This included Austria, Norway, Sweden, Belgium,
Switzerland, Denmark and Holland. This may be because the Governments
in these nations agreed with the basic Nazi philosophy, which was that of
genocidal eugenics. Maybe the people in these countries were too frightened
to resist the ferocity and brutality of the Nazis. Maybe they did not know
what was happening and were kept in the dark by media blackouts and Nazi
propaganda. War is a very confusing thing.
Nazi philosophy assumed that people with “white skin” were superior to
those with “black skin”, and the many different hues of humanity were
divided into “blacks” and “whites”. This was a central precept of eugenic
theory. The experts in the theory further classified people along
anthropological lines into different “races” based on Blumenbach’s division
of humanity into “black”, “brown”, “red”, “yellow” and “white” races.
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The Nazi Party also developed a notorious secret police system of “gestapo”,
and a social system based on social and familial betrayal. Children were
encouraged to inform on their parents in Nazi schools and neighbours were
encouraged to spy on each other and report dissident behaviour to the
authorities. An intricate system of espionage was accompanied by forced
confessions, framing of innocent people with crimes, summary executions,
arbitrary arrest, political incarcerations and other features of repressive
political systems.
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In the above passage, Edward Shorter gives a very inaccurate account of the
targets of Nazi mass-murder. The killing was not, in fact, limited to
degenerate races, which, by the way, also included Negroes, Poles, Russians,
Gypsies and other races, in addition to Jews. The Nazis also targetted
political dissidents, regardless of race, particularly pacifists, socialists and
communists. In addition to the “mentally retarded”, many others of normal
and exceptionally high intellect were also sterilised or “euthanased” if they
were from the wrong cultural, social, religious or political background.
These were generally diagnosed as “mentally ill” with labels such as “moral
degeneracy”, “schizophrenia” and “personality disorders”. Shorter also fails
to mention that eugenic laws recommending the castration of “mental
defectives” were passed in several states of the United States of America
many years before the Nazi atrocities, or the widespread acceptance of
negative eugenics by British, South African and Australian doctors and
academics before and after the Nazi holocaust.
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the sole focus, and punished for refusing to take them. It is drug enforcement
of a different type.
In Victoria, these actions are carried out by people who call themselves
“health workers” and may be qualified as doctors, nurses, psychologists or
social workers. They are systematically programmed into negative eugenics
before they are allowed to work in these mobile attack and treatment teams,
termed CAT teams. CAT team is an acronym for “Crisis Assessment and
Treatment Team”, but inevitably it is the team that creates the crisis. People
generally do not react well to being spied on in their own homes and injected
with drugs against their will. This sort of abuse can be stopped by curtailing
secret police activities in Australia and the British Commonwealth, and by
ignoring corrupt hierarchies based on principles of slavery.
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There have been many changes in the accepted criteria for diagnosis of
schizophrenia in the modern world, however, and considerable differences
exist in different parts of the world. This is mentioned in the World Health
Organization’s “Handbook for the Schizophrenic Disorders” (1995), which
was written by Heidi Sumich, Gavin Andrews and Caroline Hunt of the
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What about the people under surveillance in the numerous police states
around the world, and what about the people who are being poisoned and
experimented on by the psychiatric industry itself? These people can expect
a diagnosis of “delusions” after being asked the following questions, which
are apparently indicative of “unusual thought content” if answered in the
affirmative:
“Have you been receiving any special messages from people or from
the way things are arranged around you? Have you seen any
references to yourself on TV or in the newspapers?”
“Can anyone read your mind?”
“Do you have a special relationship with God?”
“Is anything like electricity, X-rays, or radio waves affecting you?”
“Are thoughts put into your head that are not your own?”
“Have you felt that you were under the control of another person or
force?”
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For those who study psychiatry professionally, meaning they first gain
medical degrees from recognised universities, further training in techniques
of interrogation are obligatory, always seeking evidence of “mental illness”.
The recommended undergraduate textbook in Psychiatry for medical
students in Melbourne is Foundations of Clinical Psychiatry written in
collaboration between psychiatry professors at the University of Melbourne
and Monash University, and published in 1994 by Melbourne University
Press. In the chapter titled “the psychiatric interview and evaluation of the
mental state” Professor Nicholas Keks explains how persecutory delusions
can be inferred and that they are not necessarily untrue to qualify as
“delusions” (reflected also in the “psychiatric truism” that “a delusion is still
a delusion even if it transpires, by coincidence, to be correct !”):
“Delusions with religious or subcultural content can prove difficult to
assess. Usually consultations with a member of the patient’s social group
is necessary. It should also be kept in mind that what appear to be
persecutory delusions may be true. It is not whether the delusion is
absolutely false that is relevant, but rather that the belief is adhered to by
the patient very firmly despite manifestly insufficient or inappropriate
evidence. For instance, a man was convinced that his wife was having an
affair, and indeed she was in a secret relationship. However, the
husband’s conviction arose from the interpretation he placed on entirely
unrelated events such as the numbers printed on the letter he received
from the tax office.
“In eliciting delusions, it is useful to first ask a question which should
elicit a positive response from anyone, and then to probe further for
abnormal thought content. For instance: ‘Do you ever feel self-conscious
or shy in a new place or with strangers?’ The answer should be ‘yes’ if
the question was understood. Then the patient can be asked whether they
worry if people laugh behind their back, and so on, progressing to ask
about organised persecution.” (pp.73-74)
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Rather than looking for the social, political and historical origins of
schizophrenia, the Mental Health Research Institute (MHRI) in Melbourne
is, in addition to conducting an extensive “genetic study of schizophrenia”,
actively engaged in trying to establish “biological abnormalities” in
diagnosed “schizophrenics”. The focus of the work of the “Molecular
Schizophrenia Division” is on the neurotransmitters dopamine and serotonin.
The institute’s 1997 Annual report explains:
“Dopamine is a chemical within the brain which is thought to be
important in the pathology of schizophrenia. The major evidence for this
is that drugs which behave like dopamine in the brain can cause a
psychosis reminiscent of schizophrenia in non-schizophrenic individuals.
In addition, the antipsychotic drugs that are used to treat schizophrenia
reduce the activity of dopamine in the human brain. Together, these
observations suggest that over-activity of the dopamine neuronal
pathways are important in the pathology of the illness.” (p.18)
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of Management in 1997 were white, and 12 were male. They included one
professor of psychiatry (David Copolov, the Institute Director), one
professor of medicine (Robert Porter, who is also Board Member of the
Southern Health Care Network and Member of Council, Victorian Institute
of Forensic Medicine), a professor of surgery (Gordon Clunie, a Scottish
surgeon, now retired), three lawyers, an accountant (who is treasurer of the
institute) and an economist. The female members were Dame Margaret
Guilfoyle, who is described as “Deputy Chairman of the Infertility
Treatment Authority, Chairman of the Judicial Remuneration Authority and
Board Member of the Children’s Television Foundation” and Dulcie Boling,
who is described in the 1997 Annual Report as “Director of Seven Network,
Mercantile Mutual Holdings Ltd, Multi Media Asia Pacific Ltd and Country
Road Ltd.” Dame Guilfoyle also is the former Chairman of the “Human
Rights Commission Inquiry into Rights of People with Mental Illness.” One
might wonder, from the Annual Report of the MHRI, how closely the Board
Members of the institute identify with the problems of the oppressed and
dispossessed in Australia. Unless we are to imagine that in our “free
country” no one is oppressed or dispossessed.
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Agranulocytosis is not the only problem clozapine can cause. The 1999
MIMS lists: agranulocytosis, granulocytopenia, other haematological
disturbances, fatigue, drowsiness, sedation, dizziness, headache, weight
gain, hypotension, tachycardia, transient pyrexia (fever), extrapyramidal
symptoms (such as Parkinsonism), seizures, neuroleptic malignant syndrome
(another potentially fatal adverse effect), dream intensification,
hypersalivation, hyperthermia and others.
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different problems. This has occurred with the whole spectrum of psychiatric
drugs, including ‘minor tranquillisers’, ‘major tranquillisers’, lithium,
‘antidepressants’ and amphetamines. In fact, if one looks at the history of
medical chemical discoveries, such as the discovery of new hormones, one
of the routine targets for experiments have been psychiatric patients. Thus,
the discovery of insulin in 1921 was followed the next year by trying out
“insulin-comas” as a treatment for the insane. Cocaine, heroin and
amphetamines were widely used by the medical profession at the beginning
of the 20th century prior to them being designated (illegal) dangerous drugs.
Indeed cocaine, heroin and amphetamines are dangerous drugs, but so are
dopamine-blockers (‘antipsychotics’), benzodiazepine (‘minor’)
tranquillisers and alcohol. Nicotine is also a dangerous drug, and so is
Prozac. All these drugs have caused deaths – directly and indirectly.
All these drugs (except nicotine and alcohol) were introduced to the world’s
human population by the medical profession, and all have been deliberately
injected into experimental animals to test their toxicity. These animals have
included mice, rats, cats, dogs, sheep, goats, monkeys and chimpanzees.
With complete insensitivity towards the suffering of our closest primate
relatives, chimpanzees have been force-fed alcohol (to cause cirrhosis) and
fitted with masks that forced them to inhale cigarette smoke; they have been
deliberately infected with human pathogens and psychologically traumatised
so that scientists can “tell us more about human illness”. It is assumed that
by finding out more about illness we will simultaneously understand how to
cure and prevent it – and that this end justifies the unpleasant means (of
creating illness in animals). This is a complex issue, and many hold that the
suffering and ‘sacrifice’ of animals is vital for medical progress and the
development of scientific knowledge.
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Psychology is a broad field of study, which developed from “the arts” and
philosophy, rather than from “science” and medicine, a point which has led
to intense rivalry between adherents of psychology and those of psychiatry
over the years, with “psychiatry”, as a branch of “medicine”, claiming a
mantle of scientific superiority over “unscientific psychology”. In truth,
however, neither is founded on firm scientific ground, though both have
tried hard to appear “scientific”, often by quoting statistics and engaging in
scientific-sounding “double-blind trials” and “clinical trials”.
Although Sigmund Freud and other early psychiatrists were medical doctors
trained in neurology, they focused on disturbances of thinking as well as
dynamic processes affecting the development of the mind generally, often
using anecdotal and personal experiences as a basis for their theories. Freud
is said to have coined the term “unconscious” and he argued that much of an
adult’s behaviour is governed by largely unrecognised unconscious motives,
which it required many years of analysis by an expert psychiatrist (such as
himself) to gain insight into. The dependence and other undesirable results
of such prolonged “talk therapies” were themselves given names in the new
jargon that grew in the new “scientific discipline” of “psychoanalysis” and
the practitioners of this style of psychiatry were (and are) called
psychoanalysts.
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Of these names a few have grown in fame (and notoriety) over the past fifty
years, including Freud, Jung, Galton, Kraepelin, Rorschach and Pavlov.
Freud and Kraepelin, especially, have many devoted disciples within the
medical profession. Much of the animal research industry and ‘behavioural
sciences’ research is based on Pavlov’s work on ‘classical’ conditioning of
dogs (and humans). The Swiss psychiatrist Carl Jung is best remembered for
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treatment of the mind but not the brain is a relatively recent phenomenon,
and has led to the absurd situation where a “mindless neurology” and a
“brainless psychiatry” have become the only choices available for the
medical graduate who wishes to undertake further study in the
neurosciences. Psyche is variously translated as “mind” or “soul”, but it
certainly does not mean “behaviour”, as some modern psychologists and
psychiatrists suppose. Logos, translated literally means “word”, however in
the context of “neurology” and “psychology” can be used to refer to the total
scientific knowledge of the topic next to which the suffix is used. Thus
neurology refers to collective human knowledge about the brain and nervous
system, whilst psychology refers to collective human knowledge (including
that of past times) about the mind, thinking and thought (and even to
scientific study of soul, if the term is used unusually broadly). Psychiatry,
combining psyche with iatros (treatment) refers to treatment of the mind
(and soul) and it is difficult to see how the mind can be rationally and
scientifically treated by the medical profession without a rational scientific
understanding of both psychology and neurology.
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The story, briefly, is that the woman, who “was very pretty” was rejected by
the “son of a wealthy industrialist” whom, according to Jung “she thought
her chances of catching…were fairly good”. After marrying someone else,
her depression had developed suddenly after being told that the wealthy
industrialist’s son had “quite a shock” when she got married, followed by a
tragedy when her young daughter died of typhoid fever, and she thought that
the infection had been contracted by the child sucking on a sponge tainted by
“impure” river water.
In his description of the story and his “miraculous” cure of her mental illness
by telling her she was a murderer, Jung seems to accept, and indeed
reinforce, the assumption that the child developed typhoid by sucking on this
sponge, even though the woman’s little son drank a glass of the river water
without becoming ill:
“She was bathing her children, first her four-year-old girl and then
her two-year-old son. She lived in a country where the water supply
was not perfectly hygeinic; there was pure spring water for drinking,
and tainted water from the river for bathing and washing. While she
was bathing the little girl, she saw the child sucking at the sponge, but
did not stop her. She even gave her little son a glass of the impure
water to drink. Naturally, she did this unconsciously, or only half
consciously, for her mind was already under the shadow of the
incipient depression.
“A short time later, after the incubation period had passed, the girl
came down with typhoid fever and died. The girl had been her
favourite. The boy was not infected. At that moment the depression
reached its acute stage, and the woman was sent to the institution.
“From the association test I had seen that she was a murderess, and
I had learned many details of her secret. It was at once apparent that
this was a sufficient reason for her depression. Essentially it was a
psychogenic disturbance and not a case of schizophrenia.”
It is clear from Jung’s writings that, whilst recognising this woman’s distress
as due to psychological traumas that she suffered in the past, he failed to
realise that her predictable feelings of guilt that she had caused the death of
her own daughter through “negligence” could have been treated in a much
more humane way than by accusing her of being a murderer. He also
accepted validity of the label of “schizophrenia” and an attendant poor
prognosis, although he believed the pessimistic prognosis had been
misapplied in this case. He also admits to being intimidated (and thus
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The school of ‘behaviourism’ has been very influential in Australia and the
USA, to such an extent that many psychology texts define ‘psychology’ as
the study of behaviour, rather than the study of thinking or the mind.
According to Professor Sargent, “Psychoanalysis” is just another school of
thought out of many competing models, and one that is scientifically
suspect:
“Psychoanalysis stood apart from the other schools. Founded by a
physician, SIGMUND FREUD, it grew out of his effort to cure
persons suffering from mental and nervous disorders. Psychoanalysis
presents amazingly fruitful and provocative theories of motivation, of
personality development, and of abnormal behavior. Unlike other
founders of schools, Freud made no effort to verify his theories by
scientific experiment. Freud’s major interpretations and those of his
dissident disciples are presented in the chapter called Conflicts and the
Unconscious.” (S.Sargent in Great Psychologists, p6)
In Chapter 12, titled “mental disease”, Professor Sargent lists his preference
for ‘psychiatric icons of all time’. Several names are listed in capital letters
under the chapter heading: Hippocrates, Weyer, Pinel, Dix, Kraepelin,
Bleuler, Griesinger, Beers, Campbell, White, Jackson, Meyer, Rosanoff and
Lennox. The chapter begins with what, taken literally, could be a self-
fulfilling threat:
“About one person of every twenty in the United States will at
some time during his life be treated in a mental hospital. The care and
cure of such persons is a tremendous problem.”
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Convincing the increasingly skeptical population of the world that they have
a superior understanding of madness and sanity, mental illness and health to
other “experts” and “non-experts” has been a longstanding concern of the
psychiatric profession, and a “professional insecurity” can be seen in efforts
of “psychiatrists” and “psychologists” to claim a position as “legitimate
scientists”. The problem of scientific credibility is addressed by Professor
Sargent in the following way:
“We have called psychology a science. Is this correct? Astronomy,
chemistry, and physics are readily recognized as sciences; they
involve careful laboratory work, exact measurement, rigid laws, and
sure-fire predictability. Psychology is concerned with something less
definite and tangible; exactitude is hard to obtain and exceptionless
laws almost never occur.
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The first question, “What causes malaria?”, can be answered easily on the
most obvious level: infection with Plasmodium malaria parasites, which are
carried by mosquitoes, and transmitted into the blood through the skin by
mosquito bites, usually from Anopheles or Culex mosquitoes. This is,
however, only a partial explanation of what causes malaria. Firstly, not
everyone who has malaria parasites injected into their skin will develop
malaria (depending on immune system health), and secondly, not everyone
who has contracted malaria has done so by being bitten by mosquitoes.
Some have been given infections by deliberate transfusion of infected blood
to test new antimalarial drugs. And at doses that made serious illness certain.
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In the 1940s, at the same time that Professor Sargent wrote Great
Psychologists, and the nations of Europe were engaged in a bloody struggle
for territory and supremacy, an undisclosed number of men and women were
deliberately infected with malaria in Australia – by the Commonwealth army
in conjunction with the British and Australian (Commonwealth)
governments, and American and British pharmaceutical (drug) companies.
The drug trials, on interred Italians and Jewish refugees, as well as wounded
Australian soldiers (who were obtained from convalescent hospitals), were
reported in the Australian newspapers over 50 years after they occurred, and
were hardly commented on by the scientific press or politicians in the
country in which these terrible abuses occurred. The experiments, on people
described in the Age articles as “human guinea pigs”, were done in North
Queensland (and later, in Melbourne) during the Second World War and for
several months after the official cessation of hostilities, driven by the
military and financial motive of testing new antimalarial drugs developed in
Germany for toxicity by “the Allies” on captive populations. It is difficult
not to see this as a hostile act against Australia and the Australian people, as
well as the Italian and Jewish people who were subjected to torture, which
was then denied.
Even with the revelation of details of these cruel and unnecessary acts by the
Australian and British Governments of the day (who ultimately hold
responsibility for their armed forces), the deliberate infection and poisoning
of these people was not described as torture or biological warfare by the Age
newspaper, although the reporters did describe the incident as “abuse”. The
Murdoch-owned newspapers in Victoria (The Australian and The Herald
Sun) did not take the issue up, and The Age did not persist with the
“historical story” or make the necessary connections with contemporary
medical science and research activity in Australia (and Melbourne, in
particular) to understand why Guy Nolch may have written in the editorial of
Australasian Science that “little has changed in 50 years” when commenting
on biological warfare suggesting that the fault lies not with “the scientists”
but “the masters who control them”.
The drug Paludrine was being tested for ICI chemicals, a large British-based
company which continues to market the drug today, and the director of ICI
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Australia, Professor Ben Lochtenberg, has been, for several years, the
director of the Mental Health Institute in Parkville, Melbourne. “ICI”, which
is an acronym for “Imperial Chemical Industries” was founded in 1926,
during a period of time between the two “World Wars”, that has been
referred to as “The Depression”. Around the same time as the revelations
about the infection and treatment “trials”, ICI pharmaceuticals was
transformed into Zeneca pharmaceuticals, which in 1999 became
amalgamated with the Sweden-based Astra pharmaceuticals, forming a new
giant drug company called “Astra-Zeneca”. The huge non-pharmaceutical
operations of ICI continued as ICI chemicals, unaffected by the merger,
according to the Information Service provided on a 1800 number by Astra-
Zeneca. The phone message of the old Astra-Zeneca number in Melbourne
announced, on 1.9.99, that the Melbourne office of Astra-Zeneca has closed,
and the head office relocated to Sydney.
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people who cannot afford, or do not want private medical care. They also
both provide public psychiatric services, including locked facilities for
people to be injected in against their wills. In February, 2000, the public
relations officer at the Royal Melbourne Hospital explained to me that the
hospital has recently opened a unit with 25 “acute beds” and 8 for people
(usually girls) with “eating disorders” (mainly anorexia). Previously, the
Royal Melbourne Hospital was associated with the notorious Royal Park
Psychiatric Hospital, which has recently been closed and partially
demolished to make room for a visiting athletes at the Commonwealth
Games. They will be housed on a site where thousands of young Australians
have been imprisoned and tortured over the years – with electric shocks and
huge doses of chemical toxins. Many have died, either during their
‘treatment’ or shortly after it. Their deaths have inevitably been reported as
‘suicide’.
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In The Nervous Soldier, alcohol and cigarette abuse are identified as being
caused by military training, although it is not admitted as clearly as that.
Under the subtitle, “the preliminary military training”, in a chapter titled
“The Stresses of Military Life”, Bostock and Jones wrote, in 1943:
“When Bill Smith receives his first uniform he must face an entire
alteration in his living conditions. His contacts are different. He is
shorn of many personality props and of the friends and relatives of a
life time. They are replaced by new faces and strange voices. Soon he
learns that he is fettered and frustrated by disciplinary restrictions. His
soul belongs to the army. For both married and unmarried there is a
modification of the sex routine. For some the change is towards
continence; others are snared in the net of promiscuity with its
attendant worries. The conditions of military life are calculated to stir
into activity repressed homo-sexual tendencies resulting in the
development of anxiety states or of paraphrenic psychoses. Even the
alcohol and tobacco habits partake of the change. There is a move
from teetotalism towards drinking, often to excess. Tobacco becomes
almost a necessity.” (p.15)
The authors do not seem to realise how permanently destructive the training
of young men in this way is bound to be for society generally, whilst
admitting that it destroys fundamental respect for life:
“…and in addition there is another aspect manifesting itself. The
aggressive instincts are unfolding. The soldier trained from infancy to
regard human life as sacred must become efficient in taking life when
necessary. Unless he can learn to kill his enemies, military training is
futile.” (p.16)
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The book continues to give details of dose, and injection technique for
inducing convulsions using cardiazol, warning that, “if a convulsion fails to
occur the results are often most unpleasant, if not harmful”. The trauma of
such treatment is easy to imagine:
“The patient is in a dorso-recumbent position with a pillow under
the head and another under the upper thoracic region. During
convulsions the upper extremities should be held adducted to the trunk
and the shoulders are pressed down to avoid violent flexion of the
dorsal spine. Hold patient rigidly by shoulders to the bed, see that the
limbs are straight. A fracture of any limb may occur, but is less likely
if these precautions are carried out”. (p.58)
“Narco Therapy”, essentially the same as the notorious “deep sleep therapy”,
was reserved for resistant cases. With an inexcusable ignorance about the
difference between a “good night’s sleep” and a drugged coma, the authors
gave a revealing ‘case history’:
“There is a growing belief in the utility of narco therapy for early
cases. Everyone is aware of the benefits of a good night’s sleep
particularly after a heavy and worrying day. Public belief in the
efficacy of sleep is profound. “Oh, doctor,” says the patient, “if I
could sleep for days, I would be cured.” Today we are able to achieve
this miracle often with remarkable results. As an instance the
following case may be quoted.
“AB was profoundly depressed and said he had venereal disease.
Suggestion and persuasion with exhaustive blood tests were useless.
Shock therapy was then tried without success. Finally he was put to
sleep for three weeks. When he awoke to reality the previous morbid
ideas had disappeared. Within a few days he was anxious to return to
work. [He may have just stopped complaining about his fear, for
obvious reasons]
“As will be seen by the above, certain cases which do not respond
to cardiazol may respond to narco-therapy. Quite frequently
sleepnessness and restlessness or excitement render it either impolitic
or impossible to give shock therapy. Whenever this occurs, there is
scope for the use of narco-therapy.”
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In actuality, the “suggestion” is: “get back to the firing line or we’ll torture
you with painful electric shocks and chemically-induced convulsions”. The
focus on “efficiency” means that doctors are expected to return soldiers to
“active duty” as soon as possible and while spending minimal time with
them (hence the enthusiasm for “quick treatments” like electrical and
chemical shocks). In a section titled “enlisting the help of a cobber” the book
explains:
“A medical officer can only be with any one patient for a few
moments. He needs therefore an extension of himself to carry on the
good work…Often a word with a man’s cobber will infuse new hope
and if he has no cobber, see his platoon officer, and find him one.”
A few years before George Orwell wrote Nineteen Eighty-Four, Bostock and
Jones wrote:
“Most men are better for a big brother. When needed the Medical
Officer must take practical steps to find him.” (p.71)
Wars make a lot of money for some industries, notably the weapons-
manufacturing industry, mining industry, chemical industry, espionage
industry, drug industry and medical treatment industry (including the
psychiatric diagnosis and treatment industry). In recent wars, the
increasingly influential “humanitarian aid” industry has also become a
noticeable profiteer. All these industries are now set up along “corporate”
lines, and “compete” with each other for credibility, sales and size. Many of
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Such men have been both honoured and ignored. The ‘well-behaved’
soldiers, who accepted their injuries and dwindling government services
quietly were publicly lauded, once a year, at “Anzac day marches”, ‘lest we
forget’, while those who were angry, upset, confused or horrified by their
war-time experiences were impolitely ‘pensioned off’ with whatever
‘nervous disorder’ diagnoses were in use at the time. These included ‘shell-
shock’ after the First World War and ‘post-traumatic stress disorder’ after
the Vietnam War.
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Simultaneously, in a contract that has been kept secret by the Victorian State
Government, a “135 bed forensic psychiatry hospital” has been constructed
at Yarra Bend, adjacent to the Fairfield Hospital and current home of the
Macfarlane Burnet Virology Institute, which is to be relocated adjacent to
the Alfred Hospital in Prahran (in inner eastern Melbourne). The Macfarlane
Burnet Centre, which advises the National and State Governements on HIV,
AIDS and AIDS prevention, is run by their Chief Executive Officer and
Executive Director the American Professor John Mills, who heads the
“Children’s Virology Department”, according to their 1998 Annual Report,
as well as being CEO of the company. Possibly presenting a major conflict
of interest, Professor Mills is also described as the Director of AMRAD
pharmaceuticals, which has recently constructed a massive new complex
also in prime land by the Yarra River.
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There are several political reasons why the psychiatric system in Australia is
disproportionately populated by doctors who are not Australian – by birth, or
culturally. Many are not Australian citizens and do not regard Australia as
home. This is important because when treating people’s minds, one’s
loyalties, including national loyalties (and concepts of ‘patriotism’) are
important – especially when making diagnoses of political beliefs.
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It is so obvious that this system can be abused that most States which
employ psychiatric diagnoses also have laws proscribing the misapplication
of labels of madness for political, religious and philosophical beliefs. This is
the case in every State in Australia – however gross abuses in the application
of these labels occurs, and many people have been crippled and died, while
they could have been (and may have been) great artists, philosophers, poets,
or politicians. The reason so many potentially wonderful careers are
destroyed by psychiatric diagnosis and treatment is that the criteria defining
‘abnormality’ enshrined in psychiatric texts are fundamentally anti-creative.
Dopamine-blockers inhibit creative thought, and the diagnosis of original
(idiosyncratic) ideas as “psychotic” (out of touch with ‘reality’ as defined by
the medical profession) also inhibits creative thinking. This includes so-
called ‘lateral thinking’ (referred to as ‘flight of ideas’, a ‘classical
symptom’ of ‘mania’ and ‘hypomania’) and belief in things that others do
not believe (‘delusions’).
The label of ‘mania’ can also be applied to people who become progessively
more outspoken, adventurous, spontaneous or generous. Giving away
expensive presents and giving away one’s possessions are regarded as
typical ‘manic activities’, as is, incredibly, striking up conversations with
strangers on a train, and “increase in goal-directed activities” (DSM IV,
1995). While states of insane mania may exist, the criteria for diagnosis of
hypomania and mania are biased against particular types of activity and
particular beliefs. These are proscribed, not because they are unhealthy, but
because of the political and religious background within which psychiatric
diagnostic criteria were developed. In terms of politics, ‘acceptable’ views,
according to the ‘apolitical criteria’ of the DSM and ICD classifications are
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The reason usually given for foreign graduates working, at least temporarily,
as psychiatric registrars and residents, when they first come to Australia, is
that there is a shortage of local graduates to work in the public hospital
psychiatric system. This may be true, but if so, there are good reasons why
local graduates do not want to work in the capacities demanded of them by
the psychiatric system – signing orders that take away their neighbour’s
rights and freedoms, and prescribing that drugs and injections be given to
people against their will. Most in Australia do not regard such activities as
fgiving people a “fair go”, but most do not know what goes on inside
psychiatric hospitals. Many have noticed, however, that people often come
out worse (after treatment) than when they went in.
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The Annual Report of the Victorian Mental Health Review Board and
Psychosurgery Review Board for the year ending 30 June 1998 states
that the Board heard 4827 cases in 1997-98, an increase of 11.6% from
the previous year, when 4326 cases were determined. In 1990-91, 2657
cases were heard, and a constant rise in the number of cases has
occurred each year since then. Of these 4827 cases 33% were
involuntarily detained inpatients (held against their will in hospitals)
and 63.4% were people objecting to community treatment orders
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An argument that could be put forward to justify this low release figure is
that few of the people denied their freedom were not in need of forced
treatment and denial of the right of free movements that other citizens are
entitled to and take for granted. In other words, most of the people
incarcerated and forcibly injected with major tranquillisers (‘antipsychotics’)
need this treatment for their own wellbeing and that of society, and thus no
human rights abuses are occurring through the actions of the Mental Health
Review Board.
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In it he warned, hypocritically:
“Those who do not learn from history are doomed to repeat it,
claimed Santayana. What can we learn from the Soviet and Nazi
horrors? We can recognise in both contributory elements derived from
concepts moulded by the psychiatric profession itself. In the USSR
the monopoly of Snezhnevskyism facilitated the State’s embrace of
psychiatry to stifle dissent. In Nazi Germany, the eugenic movement,
led in part by distinguished academic psychiatrists, was the foundation
on which Hitler could erect his murderous edifice. Thus we see that
psychiatry is not necessarily an innocent victim when forces beyond
its borders seek its connivance to pursue pernicious goals.”
The Annual Report of the Mental Health Review Board (1998) states that
65% of patients seen at hearings had been diagnosed with schizophrenia,
with another 9% as having “schizoaffective disorder” and 11% with “bipolar
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The Board, which had “considered whether the patient’s beliefs could be
characterised as religious” decided that it did not matter whether or not they
were religious, since “even if [the patient’s] beliefs were “religious”, the
Board finds that aspects of [the patient’s] “religious practice”, namely his
interaction with aliens, falls properly into the category of hallucinations,
rather than mystical experience with the supernatural…”. The appeal for
release was rejected and the Mental Health Review Board decided that “even
were his beliefs to be characterised as “religious”, the Board can and does
take them into account, along with these other factors, to determine [the
patient] to be mentally ill.”
The Mental Health Review Board hearings are usually held in a room at the
same hospital where the patient is held, and may have been held for several
weeks or months, and some people have been kept on involuntary status for
several years with plans to continue certification indefinitely, against which
practice no real protections currently exist. It is important to note that these
are not dangerous, violent people who have murdered people or even broken
the law. They are usually young people who have been diagnosed as
schizophrenic because of their beliefs and behaviour and refuse to accept the
label and the crippling drugs that have been forced into them (usually by
injection if they refuse to swallow them), usually in huge doses and in
locked wards of psychiatric hospitals.
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The majority of this money has gone into restructuring of the existing mental
health system, including the formation of the Mental Health Council,
integration of “community psychiatry services” and the construction of
several new psychiatric institutions, including a new 135 ‘bed’ forensic
psychiatry hospital in Yarra Bend Park, adjacent to the Fairfield Infectious
Diseases Hospital. The lack of public consultation and sinister degree of
secrecy concerning this major construction project is predictable when the
history of forensic psychiatry in Melbourne is known.
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If the person is held in police custody or imprisoned by the courts, they may
still be subject to psychiatric drug treatment. As Professor Paul Mullen
writes in Foundations of Clinical Psychiatry:
“Psychiatrists also became involved in the care of those in prisons
who though not so disordered as to have been found insane were
sufficiently disturbed as to require treatment. The role of psychiatrists
now includes a wide range of advisory and therapeutic functions at
almost every level of the criminal justice system.” (p.322)
The word “care” is used very loosely. The prisons in Australia are not
intended for the care of people, they are intended for punishment. The
punishments are termed “custodial sentences” and are the result of
“judgements” of guilt. Incarceration is unpleasant and widely recognised to
be unpleasant, not least of all because of the environment in which
“offenders” are held. One has reason, then, to doubt a stated intent to “care
for” rather than contribute to this punishment. Painful, crippling injections,
electric shocks to the head and permanent labels of “mental disorder” are
indeed cruel punishments. Professor Mullen uses the term “mental disorder”
repeatedly in the text, but makes a mess of defining the term:
“Mental health legislation varies between definitions which leave
the issue to the medical profession and those which state clear criteria
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Associate Professor Jayashri Kulkarni who authored the above and the
chapter on “personality disorders” in Foundations of Clinical Psychiatry
from which it is quoted is one of the few female psychiatry professors in
Australia, and is, with Professors Graham Burrows and Robert Adler, a
“ministerial nominee” on the “psychosurgery Review Board of Victoria”.
The Psychosurgery Review Board is co-administered with Mental Health
Review Board. Graham Burrows is the head of the Mental Health
Foundation and the Department of Psychiatry at the Austin and Repatriation
Hospital at Heidelberg, Melbourne, and Robert Adler is, in addition to being
a “professor of child psychiatry”, is the psychiatrist on the Medical
Practitioners’ Board of Victoria.
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others for his or her own mistakes or misbehavior (Criterion 5), being
touchy or easily annoyed by others (Criterion A6), being angry and
resentful (criterion A7), or being spiteful or vindictive (Criterion
A8).” (p.91)
Inconsistently, but for obvious reasons, given the authors of the DSM, the
adults who order bombs to be dropped on other countries (or their own
country), send young people to kill other young people and order the
execution of “prisoners on death row” are excluded from a diagnosis of
“conduct disorder”. The scientists who infect innocent young animals with
Ebola virus and other killer-viruses are also spared a diagnosis of “conduct
disorder”: the label is intended with other targets in mind.
The DSM explains, without declaring the social, racial and cultural
prejudices (let alone the age-ist ones) underlying the practical application of
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To make sense of “conduct disorder” one must first decide what the “basic
rights of others” are. The United Nations Universal Declaration on Human
Rights could be used as a guide. Article 3 states that “everyone has the right
to life, liberty and security of person”. This is surely an indisputable and
fundamental human right. A child who takes the life of another person may
be diagnosed as having “conduct disorder”, according to the DSM IV, with
good reason, but this is merely a description of the crime, not an explanation
of the cause of the crime. “Oppositional Defiant Disorder” is not an
explanation either: it just means that the child concerned refuses to obey the
orders he or she is given. This may occur for any number of reasons. Neither
children nor adults enjoy being given orders, as a rule. People usually prefer
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One of the rules that children and adolescents are expected to obey, to avoid
a diagnosis of “conduct disorder” (or “antisocial personality disorder” in
adults) concerns violence. This includes physical violence and emotional
violence (outbursts of anger or verbal aggression). Even “passive
aggression” can be viewed as evidence of “mental disorder”. Violence and
cruelty to animals can also be diagnosed. Yet children as a whole are
subjected to a constant (and escalating) barrage of violent images and ideas,
aggressive modes of speech and behaviour from television and video
programs, as well as from adults in real life. They are presented with self-
mutilating role models like ‘Marilyn Manson’ who scream or growl lyrics
about killing people, hating people and destroying life. They are fed “sound
bites” and have their concentration interrupted every few minutes with
“commercial breaks” and are then labelled with “attention deficit disorder”
if they fail to concentrate in class. They are brought up watching television
shows glorifying a promiscuous lifestyle and are then diagnosed as
“mentally ill” or “mentally disordered” if they adopt one themselves. They
are given addictive drugs (including amphetamines) from their early
childhood and then labelled “substance abusers” if they ingest or inject the
same drugs (or other drugs) later in life.
Violence also comes in many forms which are not covered by the DSM,
which also fails to mention needles as possible dangerous weapons. It is also
known that amphetamines, which are routinely prescribed to children as
young as four years old in Australia and the USA for AD/HD are notorious
for causing violent behaviour in both adults and children. Amphetamines
were invented about 100 years ago and were first used to attempt to control
the behaviour of “hyperactive children” as long ago as the 1940s. It was a
largely unsuccessful experiment, not least of all because amphetamines were
found to be highly addictive, and to cause psychosis and aggression. Methyl
phenidate (Ritalin, from Novartis) is the most prescribed ‘modern’ stimulant
for children diagnosed with ADD or AD/HD. It is also an amphetamine-like
drug, although it is less addictive than dexamphetamine, which is also
prescribed for ADD and AD/HD.
In the 1970s and 1980s, “true hyperactivity”, as it was then called, was
considered to be a rare condition, affecting about one in two hundred
children (0.5% of children). These children were said to show a
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The first step, as with the marketing of any new diagnosis, was to claim that
ADD is often undiagnosed and is actually much commoner than previously
supposed. ADD (AD/HD) was now said to affect up to 5% of children, a 10-
fold increase on what was claimed a few years earlier. No cause for an
increase in the disorder was identified, however, and no explanation put
forward for the sudden increase in prescription of amphetamines.
Furthermore, the well-recognised addictiveness of these drugs was denied by
senior paediatricians and psychiatrists.
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drug: it is due to the diagnosis and the fact that they are being compelled to
take a tablet because of “past failures and faults”. John Court even admits
that:
“It’s hard to resist the comment ‘Have you had your tablet today, Peter?’
whenever an ADD child misbehaves.”
Another keen promoter of the “AD/HD” diagnosis and the use of stimulant
drugs in children is Dr Christopher Green, author of Toddler Taming and
other books about bringing up children. In 1998 he authored an article in
Modern Medicine titled “Attention deficit hyperactivity disorder – clearing
the confusion”. Perhaps better sub-titled “refuting the criticism”, the article
seeks to reassure doctors and parents about the safety of stimulant drugs,
while legitimising what is clearly a vague, subjective and stigmatising label.
He states “the cause” of the condition with authority but a noticeable lack of
evidence:
“Until relatively recent times, professionals blamed the parents’
attachment or relationships for causing ADHD behaviours. Others
said that ADHD was due to additives in food. Now we know that
neither of these is the cause, although the standard of parenting and
some food substances may influence already existing ADHD. Two
things are certain: firstly, ADHD is strongly hereditary and, secondly,
it is a biological condition.”
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Green has difficulty explaining how it is that all these different behaviours
are caused by the same “disorder” or how it is that “stimulant medication” is
miraculously able to “control the problem”. He tries hard to validate his
position that this “disorder” (which is diagnosed on the basis of unwanted
behaviour) is a “biological condition”. By this he means that it is caused by
dysfunction of the brain (a similar label, ‘minimal brain dysfunction’, was
used for many years). He claims that this has now been “proved”. He writes:
“For years it was presumed, but not proven, that ADHD is caused
by a minor difference in brain function. Now this can be shown by
imaging techniques such as PET, SPECT, and volumetric and
functional MRI. In ADHD, scans using these techniques show a slight
difference in function and anatomy in the behaviour-inhibiting areas
of the brain (the frontal lobes and their close connections). The
mechanism of this underfunction seems to be caused by an imbalance
of the neurotransmitters noradrenaline and dopamine. The effect of
stimulant medications, which are used to treat ADHD, is to increase
the production of these natural chemicals.” (p.119)
John Court, in The Puberty Game, repeats the chemical imbalance theory,
while presenting a regressively mechanistic, reductionist model of mental
function:
“ The rationale for giving medication to children with ADD is this:
the brain acts like a computer in many ways, but its function depends
on chemical substances called neurotransmitters. Neurotransmitters
help transmit messages between nerve cells, which are called
neurones. Neurones are the basic units of the nervous system,
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The “Turning Point Alcohol and Drug Centre” in Melbourne lists some of
the “common symptoms in amphetamine withdrawal” in their 1996 booklet
titled, “Getting Through Amphetamine Withdrawal”. Days 1 to 3 (described
as ‘the crash’) are typified by exhaustion, increased sleep and depression. On
days 2 to 10 the symptoms include, “strong urges (cravings) to use
amphetamines, mood swings (alternating between feeling irritable, restless,
and anxious to feeling tired, lacking energy and generally run down), poor
sleep, poor concentration, general aches and pains, headaches, increased
appetite and strange thoughts (such as feeling that people are ‘out to get you’
misunderstanding things around you, such as seeing things that aren’t there).
The withdrawal symptoms, according to the Turning Point doctors, “start to
settle down” in 7 to 28 days, during which time common symptoms include,
“mood swings (alternating between feeling anxious, irritable or agitated, to
feeling flat and run down), poor sleep and cravings”. It is easy to see how
the withdrawal symptoms of stimulant drugs can be attributed to the
conditions they are claimed to be treating: they sound remarkably similar to
the “symptoms” of “attention deficit/hyperactivity disorder”.
The concept that initiating young children and their parents (and siblings)
into taking tablets to improve concentration and behaviour could lead to
subsequent dependence on drugs generally is not difficult to understand. The
psychological ramifications (for the whole family) of singling out individual
children to blame for arguments and discordance in the family (or
classroom) is cruel and socially destructive. I have not read a single article
blaming boring school curricula for lack of attention from children, although
‘inconsistent discipline from parents’ is blamed as a ‘contributing factor’ at
times. Furthermore, the medical profession continue to turn a blind eye to
the part they play in creating drug addiction, despite growing concerns from
the public as well as from dissidents within the profession. Christopher
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It is not true that “stimulant medication was first used for ADHD in 1937”.
In 1937, “ADHD” did not exist. It is true, however, that some children were
experimented on with amphetamines, and that these children were labelled
as ‘hyperactive’. The construction of the “new disorder” which is now
accepted so glibly as a distinct “biological condition” by Dr Green and
others, was formally announced in the 1994 Fourth Edition of the Diagnostic
and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders by the American Psychiatric
Association (APA). The “disorder” is described as follows:
“The essential feature of Attention-Deficit/Hyperactivity Disorder
is a persistent pattern of inattention and/or hyperactivity that is more
frequent and severe than is typically observed in individuals at a
comparable level of development (Criterion A).”
It appears that the psychiatrists who decided on these criteria were brought
up in the school that insists that “children should be seen but not heard”.
Further evidence of “hyperactivity” is evidenced in children who “often get
up from the table during meals …or while doing homework”. Far from
recognising any deleterious effects of television on concentration, according
to the DSM IV, getting up often “while watching television” is further
evidence of abnormality.
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“Antisocial personality disorder”, which is the new label for people who
used to be described as “sociopaths”, is not a nice thing to be diagnosed
with. The term implies that the person has no conscience, and does not feel
remorse for causing the suffering of other people or animals. There is no
doubt that such people exist, however the label is selectively applied for
those caught up in the prisons and psychiatric systems, and not those who
make the sort of rules that allow the poisoning of European rivers with
cyanide, the distribution of landmines or the incarceration of children. Men
who send young men off to war and inject them with chemicals for corporate
profits, or create depression and suicide for personal profit are also spared a
diagnosis of “Antisocial personality disorder”, together with men who
design taxes that further impoverish the poor and dispossessed in countries
with an offensive disparity between the conditions in which rich and poor
members of society live.
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The “long term unemployed” are targetted with this horrible label, which
does not take into consideration the frustrations, loss of self-esteem and
boredom which can result from being denied rewarding and meaningful
activity:
“Individuals with Antisocial Personality Disorder also tend to be
consistently and extremely irresponsible (Criterion A6). Irresponsible
work behavior may be indicated by significant periods of
unemployment despite available job opportunities, or by abandonment
of several jobs without a realistic plan for getting another job. There
may also be a pattern of repeated absences from work that are not
explained by illness either in themselves or in their family.” (p.646)
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The DSM IV deftly redirects the attention to the victims and not the
perpetrators of poverty. Under “Specific Culture, Age and Gender Features”
the textbook claims:
“Antisocial Personality Disorder appears to be associated with low
socioeconomic status and urban settings. Concerns have been raised
that the diagnosis may at times be misapplied to individuals in settings
in which seemingly antisocial behavior may be part of a protective
survival strategy. In assessing antisocial traits, it is helpful for the
clinician to consider the social and economic context in which the
behaviors occur.” (p.647)
The textbook follows with a suggestion that the label is not applied often
enough to women:
“Antisocial Personality Disorder is much more common in males
than in females. There has been some concern that Antisocial
Personality Disorder may be underdiagnosed in females, particularly
because of the emphasis on aggressive items in the definition of
Conduct Disorder.” (p.647)
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Professor Paul Mullen, who presents the “case history”, omits some valuable
information about this man that could help understand his behaviour. It is
easy to see “unpredictability” in people one does not understand. What
happened to this man’s family? Did he have any siblings, and if so, where
are they and what is his relationship like with them? Was he a stolen child?
What colour was his skin? What religious beliefs, if any, did he have? Was
he addicted to drugs, like much of the prison population? What drug
treatment had he been given in the past? Had he ever been given ECT? What
kinds of punishments was he subjected to in the boys’ homes and prisons
where he had obviously spent much of his youth? What had he stolen in the
alleged ‘burglary’?
Mullen presents this case in this way to illustrate some points of psychiatric
dogma. One is that people with “personality disorders” are not “insane”. To
put it simply, they are bad, not mad. This means that they can be
incarcerated in jails rather than psychiatric hospitals, although they can still
be treated with psychiatric drugs. Another point the professor is trying to
illustrate, is that people who “develop” this adult personality disorder
demonstrate “symptoms” of Conduct Disorder earlier in life. Despite the fact
that the ‘case example’ may be fictional or fictionalised, the story of this
young man does illustrate an all too common journey for unwanted children
in Australia. Disobedience, disorder label, psychiatric treatment, loss of self
esteem, drug addiction, depression, alcohol abuse, aggression and violence,
police punishment, custodial punishment, worsening of drug addiction, self-
harm, combined prison incarceration and punitive psychiatric treatment. Not
surprisingly, this journey often ends in early death, often attributed to
suicide.
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The committee of inquiry into this death consisted of Paul Mullen, who was
then Professor of Psychological Medicine at the University of Otago, and
David Bates, a barrister. Despite his advice to students that “a psychiatric
report can present them as people with backgrounds, personalities, strengths
and weaknesses”, Professor Mullen presented a report that is cold and
impersonal, but also negligently omissive. It was, in fact, a cover-up.
Dolly Jane Pohe, whose age, race and family background are not mentioned
in the report died on Sunday, 7th April, 1990, after being admitted as an
involuntary patient by Dr Newburn on Wednesday, 4th April, three days
earlier. During this time she received 10 injections: 4 of haloperidol, 4 of
diazepam (Valium), one of chlorpromazine (Largactil) and one of
clonazepam (Rivotril). All these drugs are tranquillisers. In addition to this
she was given a huge amount of oral “neuroleptics” (dopamine-blockers)
including chlorpromazine and haloperidol. This included 400 milligrams of
oral chlorpromazine as soon as she was admitted (which was followed by
intramuscular injections of 30mg haloperidol and 10mg diazepam an hour
later) and 15 mg oral haloperidol later that afternoon.
The next day she was given 15 mg haloperidol at 8.00 a.m., with further
doses of the same drug at 1.00 p.m., 3.30 p.m., 6.00 p.m. and 9.00 p.m. At
4.15 p.m. she was punished with intramuscular injections of haloperidol
(30mg) together with diazepam (10mg). Her crime was escaping from
torture and going down to the pub:
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“At 15:30 the security room door appears to have been open and
Ms Pohe slipped through and left the ward. The police were notified.
She was returned to the ward by the police at 16:15 having been found
in a nearby pub, the Palace Tavern. She was given haloperidol and
diazepam intramuscularly on return to the security room as she was
noted by Dr.Finucane to be more irritable and disturbed. She appears
to have settled after the medication until about 18:00 hours when she
was noted to be restless and banging on the door. She was threatening
to the nursing staff [from behind a locked door] and they recorded
anxieties about her potential for physical aggression. Ms Pohe seems
to have settled from 19:30 and remained quiet and probably sleeping
until 07:00 the next morning.”
One thing that is obvious about Dolly Jane Pohe is that she did not want to
be locked in a room, and repeatedly banged on the doors, presumably to be
let out. This was callously noted as evidence of “aggression, violent
behaviour and restlessness”, further evidence of “mania”. It is unclear as to
what specific evidence Dr Newburn found of a “deteriorating state” other
than that she refused to co-operate with the incarceration and was angered
by it, and by how she was being treated. It is relevant that she was calm
enough to converse with the doctor before he injected her with the drugs.
Maybe she hoped he would let her go home, or at least leave the “security
room”. This was not to be the case.
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The next day, finding that she was still imprisoned, Dolly Pohe was
obviously despairing, but also suffering from poisoning by the drugs she had
been given:
“On the Saturday morning she was noted to be restless and
irritable, banging on the door and angry. It was possible to bath her
and she had some breakfast. At about 09:00 she calmed down and
appeared to be asleep until 10:20. She was then noted to be in some
distress, “wailing sounds” were noted. She then slept until mid-day.
“At 12:00 hours Nurse Young became aware that Ms Pohe was
heavily sedated and was apparently having difficulty swallowing. She
decided not to administer any further medication and phoned
Dr.Finucane to inform him of Ms Pohe’s state and her decision.
Dr.Finucane supported her decision.
“At 13:00 hours Nurse Young noted Ms Pohe’s pulse was
irregular. She phoned Dr.Finucane to apprise him of the situation. He
instructed her to call the on duty house surgeon to request an ECG.”
Dr Finucane “examined” Dolly Pohe at 4.00 p.m., but reassured the nursing
staff that although he “found her to be drowsy and unco-operative” he “was
able to examine her cardiovascular system” and her pulse was now regular.
He thought, however, that the 400 mg of chlorpromazine she had been given
in the morning combined with clonazepam may have resulted in a cardiac
arrythmia (irregularity) and wrote in the chart, “try to use just haloperidol for
rest of day”.
If the evening nurse had the same reluctance to further drug a heavily
drugged prisoner as Nurse Young, Dolly Jane Pohe may have survived. Mr
Lee, the male nurse who took over the care of Ms Pohe after Nurse Young
did not share her concerns. He noted that “whenever Ms Pohe did rouse she
showed signs of becoming disturbed again and he felt it was important to
maintain the continuity of the sedation effect”. She was given 20 milligrams
of haloperidol at 14:45, 19:00 and 22:00, according to the report. She was
given another 20 mg of haloperidol at 1.00 a.m. after banging at the door
again, this time because she wanted to go to the toilet. When nursing staff
entered the seclusion room at 5.15 a.m. she was dead.
The report, presented to the Director General of Health (New Zealand) made
two recommendations, after a single sentence of “summary”. The summary
reads:
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The Fairfield Infectious Diseases Hospital, next to which the new Forensic
Psychiatry Hospital is currently being built is the home of the Macfarlane
Burnet Institute, the largest AIDS research institution in Australia. The
Macfarlane Burnet Centre (MBC) is soon to be located next to the Alfred
hospital in a multi-million dollar development. The executive director of the
Macfarlane Burnet Institute is the American Harvard University graduate
Professor John Mills, who is also the director of the AMRAD corporation.
AMRAD is a new ‘Australian’ biotechnology company, a branch of which is
AMRAD Pharmaceuticals, which is involved in joint projects (as “corporate
partners”) with the Macfarlane Burnet Institute, according to the Institutes
Annual Report. Other (non-executive) directors of the Institute, which is
soon to be relocated to new premises at the Alfred Hospital in Prahran,
include Sir Roderick Carnegie, who is described in the 1998 MBC Annual
Report as Chairman of Hudson Conway and Director of John Fairfax
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The 1996/97 Annual Report of the Macfarlane Burnet Centre for Medical
Research Limited lists their biggest corporate sponsors as HIH Winterthur
(insurance), Rio Tinto (mining) and Smith Kline Beecham Pharmaceuticals.
HIH Winterthur donated $112,700, Rio Tinto donated $90,000 and Smith
Kline Beecham donated $40,000. Page 17 of the Annual Financial Report
(1998) of the Macfarlane Burnet Centre states (in bold italics) under
“renumeration of directors” that non-executive directors do not receive any
income. It also contains a small table that one director (presumably the
executive director, Professor Mills) was paid $273,515 (30 June 1997) and
$453,745 (31 December 1998). Chairman of the Board of the Macfarlane
Burnet Centre is Mr.Graeme Hannan, also Chairman of the Hannan finance
group, and the Deputy Chairman is Mr Raymond Williams, also chief
executive officer (CEO) of HIH Winterthur International Holdings Limited
and director of the following organizations: Insurance Council of Australia,
Australian Motor Insurers Limited, and Garvan Institute for Medical
Research (in Sydney).
The insurance industry and mining industry both have a vested interest in the
public health programs promoted by the Macfarlane Burnet Centre for the
prevention of AIDS and hepatitis, programs which are exported to Africa,
Asia and the Pacific Region by the Centre under the auspices of the World
Health Organization. These programs have an almost exclusive focus on
surveillance, injections, drugs and condom distribution as part of what is
euphemistically called a “harm reduction” strategy. The promotional
literature of the National Mental Health Strategy and Drug Strategy suggest
that “harm minimization” and “harm reduction” programs accept that “drug
use is now an unavoidable feature of society” and rather than attempt to stop
people from injecting themselves with heroin, amphetamines and other
chemicals, public health designers are focusing on teaching young people
“safe injecting habits” such as not sharing needles between “users” and safe
disposal of contaminated needles and syringes.
The other major focus of the Macfarlane Burnet Centre, under the guise of
“epidemiological research”, is investigation of the sexual habits of particular
populations of young people in Australia and elsewhere, particularly the
Aboriginal population, with the simultaneous promotion of what is, again
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activities, along with the insurance industry. One wonders also what
conclusions “the computer” will reach with all the information gathered
about young aboriginal people in urban and rural Australia, and what other
purposes this sensitive information could be used for.
In the next annual report, the same strategy is described as “a harm reduction
approach” without giving the detail that this involves the distribution of
needles and syringes.
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Monash University and the University of Melbourne are the only institutions
that are allowed to produce medical graduates in Victoria, and only medical
practitioners are allowed to prescribe psychoactive drugs via the national
Pharmaceutical Benefits Scheme (PBS). Many potentially dangerous drugs
are, however available “over the counter” at pharmacies in Australia, and
others on pharmacy shelves and supermarket shelves. One such drug is the
opiate codeine, which, like morphine, pethidine and heroin causes
habituation and physical dependence with extended ingestion.
Opiates act on the brain by binding with opiate receptors on neurones. These
neurones are thought to be mainly in the central core of the brain, in the
hypothalamus, midbrain and brainstem. The emotional circuit termed the
limbic system is closely connected to these areas as is the movement
generation centre termed the basal ganglia. The hypothalamus, and other
parts of the brain produce the body’s own supply of natural opiates, termed
endogenous opiates or endorphins. These act as natural painkillers, relieving
both physical and psychological pain. They are released in increased
quantities at times of need due to the integrated activity of the nervous
system and mind. This physiological and biochemical mechanism is one of
an undiscovered number of natural abilities that human beings have to
withstand pain and other traumatic experiences and recover from them.
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The ingestion (or injection) of opiates has two obvious and predictable
effects on the brain’s physiology. Firstly, less opiates are produced by the
areas of the brain that normally secrete them. A similar effect is observed in
people who take thyroid extracts or cortisone, when endogenous production
(by the body) of these hormones decreases. The second predictable effect is
that the brain starts developing more receptors for opiates, partly due to
damage of other artificially stimulated receptors.
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brought out their own SSRIs to get their share of the “depression market”, as
their own marketing plans describe the troubled people of the world.
SmithKline Beecham, the huge UK-based drug company are one such
company, and, in the mid-1990s began an aggressive marketing campaign in
Australia and New Zealand for their SSRI antidepressant Aropax, with a
particular push for the prescription of the drug by psychiatrists and general
practitioners for “panic disorder”. This was done with the assistance of the
Mental Health Foundation, headed by Professor Graham Burrows, who
endorsed a series of “patient education” leaflets promoting the diagnoses of
“depression”, “anxiety”, “panic disorder”, and “obsessive compulsive
disorder”(OCD) and the new drugs to treat these conditions (including the
ones produced by the sponsor SmithKline Beecham notably Aropax).
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(including the brain) from the dietary amino acid tryptophan, and performs
many functions in the body other than being a “happy chemical”, which is
what the promotional literature from SmithKline Beecham suggests. This
advertising blurb also fails to mention that serotonin is concentrated in the
brain in the pineal organ, where it is converted to the neurohormone
melatonin, a scientific fact discovered in the 1960s and conclusively proved
in numerous studies. The fact that serotonin is concentrated in the pineal
where it is converted to melatonin during the night-time hours of darkness is
generally not found in literature about Prozac, Aropax and the other SSRI
drugs, including information provided by the drug companies to doctors or
in the many books and medical articles published about (and promoting) the
new psychiatric drugs.
Australian ABC reporter Ray Moynihan, in his 1998 book Too Much
Medicine? described an elaborate launch of Aropax and panic disorder in
Sydney, in 1996:
“One of the top chefs in the country is catering at one of the best
venues in the nation. A large gathering of doctors are about to tuck
into a $100-a-head meal. The live satellite link with hundreds of their
colleagues across Australia is soon to start: another lavish promotional
event dressed up as a scientific gathering, courtesy of the
pharmaceutical industry.
“This 1996 Sydney harbourside dinner was how the drug giant
SmithKline Beecham chose to ‘educate’ doctors about the
government’s approval of its new antidepressant, Aropax, for the
treatment of a psychiatric condition called panic disorder. The night
was just one component in a highly sophisticated marketing campaign
to promote Aropax and this little-known disorder. The strategy
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included Panic, the book; Panic, the video; and Panic, the T-shirt.”
(p.115)
Moynihan continues to expose just a small amount of the ensuing cost to the
Australian community:
“The use of new antidepressants, including ‘Aropax’ and the better
known ‘Prozac’, has grown astronomically in Australia since the early
1990s, from 5,000 prescriptions a year in 1990 to over 2.5 million in
1996. ‘Aropax’ is now one of the top-selling antidepressants. And as
the number of people using these expensive new drugs has
dramatically escalated, so too has the cost to the taxpayer. The new
antidepressants now cost the Pharmaceutical Benefits Scheme funded
through Medicare over $120 million in 1995-96.” (p.115)
The 1992 SmithKline Beecham marketing plan, sent to the ACACP and
HRIC by a human rights worker in New Zealand in 1998, demonstrates a
callous disregard for the human beings being targeted to both prescribe and
consume this drug. The following extracts show the general tone of the
document:
“Task/Assignment
For the creative, we need a foundation concept and image, reflected in concept
boards for:
A detail aid
An invitation to the launch seminar
An educational mailing pack
Branding advertisements
The client wants to research and test the campaigns submitted. Our concept boards
should be designed with this in mind.
Objective
Marketing Objectives
1. Establish SSRI’s as the “future of antidepressant therapy” by educating GPs.
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2. Differentiate Aropax on the basis of its key attributes and strong branding.
3. As a result, establish Aropax as the SSRI of choice.
Advertising Objectives
1. Build strong brand awareness of Aropax as the SSRI of choice. As we may
have a standing start race against a similar competitor, all branding must be
strong and emotional.
2. Build on the educational messages of the direct marketing.
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Interstate competition and rivalry are not confined to Victoria and New
South Wales. Parochial attitudes are common in Queensland and the other
states, since Australia has never been a truly unified nation in terms of the
people who live here and even those who feel they belong here and are
citizens of the country. Although they may identify themselves as
‘Australian’ when overseas, many Australians identify themselves (and
others) as “Queenslanders”, “Victorians”, “Western Australians” etc. This
division of the population into camps with different state loyalties affects
some members of the community more so than others. In the arena of State
Politics, antagonism between State Premiers, usually based on arguments
about the relative allocation to State Governments of federally collected
taxes, is typical.
The basic structure of the mental health system in Australia and elsewhere in
the “Commonwealth” was established by the British Government following
colonisation, which was actively resisted by the native residents of Australia
as it was by native populations throughout the world. The period of
European colonisation of the world began long before the 1700s when what
is now called Australia was claimed by Captain James Cook for the British
Crown. Only 100 years ago the separate states that had been set up as semi-
independent states and penal colonies (large prisons) were federated into the
Commonwealth of Australia, in which the system of separate states with
separate state governments persisted, with an additional Federal
(Commonwealth) Government with power to over-ride State laws and
policies (under certain conditions), based in Canberra. Constitutionally,
however, Australia remained a monarchy ruled by the British Royal Family
and their political representatives, and the Governor General of Australia
was given the power to dismiss the elected government, under certain
conditions, as occurred in 1975, when Gough Whitlam’s Labour government
was sacked by John Kerr.
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The World Health Organization was formed after the Second World War as
a United Nations associated organization with a responsibility to improve
the health of the global human population. The organization initially focused
especially on infectious diseases in what they called the “third world”, being
a poorly-defined collection of nations most of which are in Africa and South
America. South-East Asian and South Asian nations were also mostly
described as “third world”, whereas Russia and China formed the less
spoken of “second world”. The “first world” in this three tiered classification
of the 180 or so independent nations on Earth, were the same nations that
developed the classification and their historical, economic and political
allies. Thus Britain, the United States of America, Canada, France,
Switzerland and the Scandinavian countries were elite members of the First
World, while Germany and Japan, who “lost the war”, were also allowed
into the first world club, provided they accept the economic and
development reforms decided by the United Nations policy makers, which
included the notorious World Bank and International Monetary Fund (IMF).
transported across and the countries in which they are ‘refined’ and
consumed or otherwise used. Too often, the raw minerals that are mined by
the slave-labour of a particular country are sold back to the enslavers at
enormous profit in the form of weapons and other technology to control the
increasingly restless populations of impoverished and angry slaves.
The ideals espoused by the United Nations many organizations have been
consistently noble, such as eradicating infectious disease, malnutrition and
pollution, and the promotion of peace and global tolerance, respect and
friendship. The outcomes of policies prescribed by the United Nations have
been less than disappointing in all these areas, and today, people in
increasing number are dying of infections, malnutrition, poisoning and the
direct or consequent effects of warfare and slavery.
The architects of policies that have created the modern medical, educational
and economic systems in Australia have included native Australians as well
as immigrants to the country and foreign citizens and nationals. This is also
the case in military policies and decisions, in a situation unique in the
modern world.
The August 1999 Bulletin magazine features a cover story titled “Defence:
our new policy revealed” by “national affairs editor” John Lyons. The article
begins:
“The chief of the Defence Department, Paul Barratt, has just been
sacked. An official report has condemned the $5bn purchase of six
Collins-class submarines as a disaster, saying they are unfit for war.
Morale has hit rock bottom for Australia’s armed forces personnel.
And a major review of Australia’s defence outlook, prepared in 1997,
was outdated before it was even published.
“Despite the fact that events had overtaken the assumptions
contained in them six months earlier, the government’s two reviews
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The article also stated that “the Foreign Minister, Mr Alexander Downer,
said in Singapore that Australia would consider sending more police to East
Timor to deal with any increase in violence after the self-determination
ballot”.
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The similarity is that capital rules and capitalism rules, with a veneration of
the principles “free market” and “economic rationalism”, both euphemisms
for modern slave theory. A key deception of this excuse for economic and
political expansion by already dominant economies is the concept of “the
trickle-down effect”. This is a justification for the worsening gap between
haves and have-nots in countries and communities around the world, and a
suggestion that if the rich are allowed to become richer still, some will
“trickle down” to poorer members of society increasing the “overall wealth
of society”. This discriminatory economic theory has turned out to be a bad
joke played on the millions of people who have been induced to climb the
illusory economic ladder only to find themselves deeper and deeper into
“debt”, more stressed, and more depressed.
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The signs have been evident for many years that the global economy is sick.
These signs include a widening gap between rich and poor individuals and
nations as well as rising dependence by the people of the earth on drugs to
help them cope with living. Most animals do not need help to cope with
living, although some, diagnosed as suffering from “depression” by human
beings, are being given the same drugs that humans take to medicate their
unhappiness. Despite these drugs, or because of them, the number of people
who are killing themselves has been increasing every decade during the past
50 years. These are surely some signs of a sick economy.
In 1999 the Age newspaper contained a half page story on page 4 titled
“Australia’s stark reality: size does matter” written by the reporter Malcolm
Maiden. The article claimed that “the company that once called itself the Big
Australian signalled its final, full surrender to the forces of globalisation.”
The “Big Australian” referred to is the mining company BHP (Broken Hill
Propriety Limited), whose advertising campaigns of the past have identified
the company as “the Big Australian” and the “Quiet Australian”. The
newspaper report described some of the actions of the new American boss of
the company, which many Australians continue to identify as a “great
Australian company” along with Arnott’s biscuits, Holden motor cars and
other traditionally Australian companies which have been taken over by
larger foreign controlled companies in the new “globalised economy”.
It would appear on deeper political and economic analysis, that the State and
Federal (Commonwealth) Governments of Australia “surrendered to the
forces of globalization” many years ago, and for over a decade have been
loud advocates of what was termed “globalization” and “economic
rationalism”. Both are synonymous with “the economy being ruled by the
markets” and those with the most “capital”: capitalism, in other words. The
Australian Governments have been strong proponents of the philosophy that
large corporations and affluent individuals should be allowed to continue to
profit freely with “minimal government interference” suggesting that by so
doing, a “trickle-down effect” will lead to an overall rise in standard of
living, with the poor also eventually benefiting from increasing affluence of
the rich. This too is a Capitalist philosophy, closely connected with the
notorious social and political philosophy called “social darwinism”.
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“Social darwinism” infers from the concept that it is “natural” for the strong
to survive and the weak to die, that it is natural for the rich to prosper and
the poor to be exploited and enslaved. It supposes that in the “struggle for
survival”, the “fit” (rich) are destined to rule over the poor. This applies to
individuals, as well as groups of people and even nations according to social
darwinist theory. Nazi theory is a development of social darwinism, centred
on the implementation of “eugenics”, a catastrophic medico-political attempt
to “improve the genes and genetics of the human race” initially by selective
sterilization of those considered unfit to breed, and later by the mass murder
of races and classes of people considered dangerous, defective or
degenerate.
The first is that some people, families, and some classes of people are
superior to others, and therefore deserving of more political power, more
money and property and more respect from the “public”, as well as better
opportunities for happiness, survival and success. These people are also
encouraged to have more children and to educate them in such a way as to
maintain the existing class and political structure. The “inferiors” in these
hierarchies were considered to be deserving of rule, as well as exploitation
by the “superior” races, classes and cultures.
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The second is the class structure itself. Charles Darwin, as the grandson of
the imperial social theorist Sir Erasmus Darwin, was born into an elite
English academic family, and supposed, as his letters to his cousin Francis
Galton reveal, that the Darwin family were exceptionally well-endowed with
“geniuses” (including himself), amongst what he considered to be the most
intelligent type of person on earth, the Englishman of good breeding (and
from a “good family”). Hitler, and other advocates of racial superiority
theories formulated, or had formulated for them, different hierarchies, with
some differences in the order in which races and individuals have been
categorised in terms of “superiority” and “inferiority”, however the basic
obsession with categorisation according to class, colour, race and presumed
genetics is common to all.
The term “eugenics” and the first Society (organization) for Eugenics were
created in the 1860s by Charles Darwin’s first cousin Sir Francis Galton and
Darwin’s son, with the ostensible aim of “improving humans by selective
parenthood, and to give a better chance to the more suitable races or strains
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of blood” (De Paoli, 1997). The philosophy was exported from London,
where it originated, to Germany where both eugenics and euthanasia
(“mercy killing”) were instituted as State Social Policies in the 1920’s and
1930’s when, starting with the mentally ill and physically deformed, those
deemed to be “immoral”, or “degenerate” were killed following torture in
the form of cruel medical experimentation. This was a horrible practice that
became obvious to the world following the Second World War, when the
methods used by German and Japanese authorities to achieve “racial
cleansing” was revealed (in part) by the mass-media, which had become
increasingly powerful following the development of television in the 1920s.
The abuses which resulted from eugenics were usually blamed, however, on
“Hitler and the Nazis”, clouding the issue of why and where the Nazi’s got
their ideas. It also clouded the important fact that many other nations,
including those which constituted the “Allies”, also implemented eugenic
policies before and during the Second World War. Television, as usual, told
only part of the story, and was used, from the outset, for the purposes of pro-
British and pro-American propaganda. It did not suit the agenda of the
television programmers at the time to reveal to the world how widely
eugenic philosophy was accepted and implemented.
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not, in fact, true. The cruel tests were done in the interests of the
pharmaceutical industry in the USA and England, specifically for those of
the American company Winthrop (manufacturers of Panadol) and ICI
chemicals, which were testing out a German-discovered drug, later marketed
as Paludrine. After the war ended, the trials continued for several months in
Melbourne, at the wishes of these foreign drug companies, demonstrating
the lie that lay at the heart of claims that they were necessary for the health
of Australian troops. The drug trials and the deliberate infections which
preceded them were orchestrated by the military hospital at Heidelberg,
Melbourne, and conducted in remote North Queensland, far from the eyes of
the rest of Australia and the world. What is worse, rather than compensating
the victims of this cruel human experimentation, the government of
Australia and the Australian military denied that such events actually
occurred until 50 years later, and even then denied culpability for their
actions. The orders that resulted in what can easily be described as torture
came from the British Empire, without whose agreement (and complicity)
the experiments would not have been allowed.
At the time of Erasmus Darwin, Charles’ grandfather, London was the centre
of the British Empire and the “global economy”, and the academics in
England’s two major Universities, Oxford and Cambridge, considered (and
declared) themselves to be the cream of the world’s intellect. They were the
educators of the British Royal Family and the designers of the British
educational system which was exported to the world. They were also the
designers and masterminds of English Imperialist theories, including the
divide and rule policies used in the many countries colonised by British
Forces, and many other socially destructive policies that continue to this day,
sometimes due to conscious efforts to attack other countries, societies and
populations and sometimes as a result of entrenched attitudes and
procedures.
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In 1794, the same year Erasmus Darwin published his book, slavery was
officially abolished in all French territories, but not in British ones.
The Chronicle of the World, which is, it must be noted, a British version of
history, explains the French actions and motives as follows:
“As the three black delegates from Santo Domingo watched from
their seats in the Assembly, the Convention voted…to abolish slavery
throughout the territories of the republic and to confer French
citizenship on every former slave. Then the Domingans were led to
the Tribunal where the president embraced them as the Convention
rose in a standing ovation…In 1792, a year after the outbreak of the
slave revolt, two civil commissioners – Sonthonax and Polverel –
were sent to administer the island. In August 1793 they freed all of the
500,000 slaves. This humanitarian act had its political side. As long as
the revolt continued it was impossible for France, at war with Spain
and Britain, to defend its colony. Loyal freedmen were naturally better
patriots than rebellious slaves.” (p.783)
According to Chronicle of the World, the French hoped that their action
would “stimulate Britain’s slaves to rise in their turn, thus helping to
undermine Britain’s war effort”. This was not, in all probability, told to the
slaves, who were undoubtedly pleased at being freed, not realising that their
freedom was part of a military strategy. Here is seen one of the symptoms of
a globally sick economy: military and political strategy disguised as
“humanitarian action”. It also becomes evident from this historical episode,
that war between European states has been a dominant feature of global
politics for several centuries. It is worth noting that the British attempted a
similar strategy during the American War of Independence, when Negro
slaves were offered their freedom if they fought for the British against the
Americans. Hundreds of slaves were subsequently betrayed by the British,
and sold again into slavery after the British lost the war.
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Darwin gives some figures for “world population” that he could not possibly
be certain about, since at the times concerned large parts of the world were
“undiscovered” (by Europeans), and the populations of these areas have
been consistently underestimated (an example of which is seen in the Terra
Nullius declaration of Australia by the British):
“At the beginning of the Christian era the population of the world
was about 350 million. It fluctuated up and down a bit, and by A.D.
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1650 it was still only 470 million. But by 1750 it had risen to 700
million, and now it is 2500 million. That is to say that for 1700 years
it was fairly constant, and then in 200 years it has suddenly
quadrupled itself.
“The increase of world population is still going on at a rate of
doubling itself in a century, but it is a most menacing thing to think
about.” (p.104)
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to matter. I doubt that even an atomic war would have any serious
influence on the estimate, unless it led to such appalling destruction of
both the contestants that the economy of the whole world was ruined
and that barbarism and starvation would ensue.” (p.109)
Professor Darwin likes the word “tremendous”, and it such a solution that
the grandson of the author of Descent of Man, exhorts his audience at
Caltech to work on:
“It is very much to be hoped that a great deal of thought will be
given to this matter on the chance that someone may hit on a solution,
but I must repeat that nature’s method of limiting population is so
brutally tremendous that it can never be replaced by any such triviality
as the extension of methods of birth control. It calls for something
much more tremendous if there is to be any prospect of success.”
(p.109)
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Lyons writes:
“After the defeat in Vietnam, US and Australian policymakers and
the public lost the appetite for prolonged overseas engagements. The
Nixon doctrine of 1969 preached that unless a leading power
intervened in a Third World conflict, the US should not commit
forces.”
It is more palatable for politicians in the USA and UK to have soldiers from
other nations doing the actual fighting and dying in the conflicts these arms-
producers support. This is an age-old military strategy which was used by
the British throughout the colonial era, which was continued in the Second
World War and after it concluded. Lyons writes:
“Defence planners want Australia to become more involved in
“coalition operations” such as supporting the US in a Gulf War-like
crisis since the US does not like to engage in military operations by
itself. Increased inter-operability with the US coincides with
Australia’s desire to improve its technology, part of what the
Americans call the Revolution in Military Affairs, combining the
emergence of new technology with advanced strike capability” (p.25)
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The national affairs editor of The Bulletin explains that this change in
“Australian” defence policy brings clear economic benefit to the US (but not
to Australia):
“In order to become more of an “all-rounder” as a military force,
the conclusion drawn by defence planners means it will be necessary
for Australia to buy more military equipment and technology from the
US.
“Under the hidden policy, virtually any purchase can be justified.
This is reflected in the acquisitions Australia is considering, including
Apache armed reconnaissance helicopters with Longbow radar and
Hell-fire missiles, which are designed essentially for attacking tanks
or underground bunkers of the type found in Iraq or Northern Korea –
a long way from the air – sea gap.”
The late twentieth century has been a time of global warfare, although this
has often been disguised by euphemisms, particularly in countries like
Australia which attempt to present to the world an image of a nation that is
intrinsically peaceful. This is far from true. Australia has sent troops to fight
in wars all around the world over the past century and even today Australian
troops are involved in military activity far from the nation’s shores.
Over the past one hundred years young Australian people have been sent to
fight in the Middle East, Africa, Asia and the pacific region. They have
sometimes been called “peacekeepers”, sometimes “allied forces”, but rarely
“mercenaries”. Sometimes they have been forced to go to war after being
conscripted, as occurred in the Korean War and Second World War. In more
recent times forced conscription has not occurred, and Australian military
personnel have been paid well for fighting or “peacekeeping” in foreign
lands. In fact, it is doubtful that these soldiers would leave their homes in
Australia were it not for the fact that they are paid well to do so. In this case,
“mercenaries” would surely be a more appropriate term to use to describe
these people.
Such views are not likely to be popular in Australia, since the troops
currently in Timor are being heralded as heroes who are “keeping the peace”
and preventing genocide by Indonesians who committed mass-murder of the
indigenous Timorese population for two decades before the recent events in
the island. It should be recognised, however, that the Indonesian (Javanese)
invasion of the previously “Portuguese” half of Timor occurred with the
complicity of the Commonwealth Government in Canberra, and despite
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In this analysis, the battle for oil deposits in the bed of the Timor sea are not
mentioned, but this is another of the “strategic” (economic) considerations
fuelling desire by Australian politicians to control the sea between Timor
and Australia. Despite Australia’s less than enviable human rights record,
and recently revealed abuses by and corruption in our police forces, it is
claimed by Lyons that:
“If Timor votes for independence, a new country will need to be
built with independent political systems, police force and education.
Much will depend on Australian funding, backed by Australian
peacekeepers.”
It also “opens up” Timor to capitalist insustry, and the hold of Australian
mining companies in the area. Australia itself has an appalling human rights
record: with many abuses involving the police and related psychiatric
industry. Only a fraction of the aboriginal population survived the initial
onslaught by British colonists, and today most live in desperately
impoverished circumstances, in “aboriginal settlements” where they have a
life expectancy about twenty years shorter than the rest of the Australian
population. Abuses by State police against aboriginal people (especially
those in custody) and psychiatric patients (many of whom have been shot in
recent years) have received limited media attention in Australia, but more so
in the foreign press. It is worth noting that during what was indisputably a
genocidal campaign against the indigenous population of the continent, the
officials who presided over this carnage were called “protectors of the
natives”. It is also worth noting that in the 1840s, when aboriginal people
were still being hunted for “sport”, enslaved and massacred, the British
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It could be said that “free trade” values the freedom of industries more than
the freedom of people. Unfortunately this means that industries that result in
disease and death of humans are protected in the modern world more than
people are. It is also the case that “free trade zones” are poorly disguised
concentration camps of economic, and sometimes physical, slaves.
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found on the rubbish tip of the factories where they had tried to
organize a strike.” (p.146)
The “restraint” that Western governments display towards these abuses may
seem “astonishing” to the authors of this book, but they are hardly out of
character given the long history of Western Governments supporting slavery
under the pretext of protecting “free trade”. This book was written prior to
the collapse of the “Asian Tiger economies” in 1997, which was blamed, in
the Australian media, on various factors that had little to do with mass
opposition in these countries to the conditions in these forced labour camps.
The Economist claimed, for example, on 10 January, 1998, that “the crisis in
Asia shows no sign of abating” despite “the vast sums of money that the
International Monetary Fund is applying to the problem”. This included a
“rescue plan worth $43 billion” for Indonesia, which followed a “package of
$57 billion for South Korea” in 1997. The magazine claimed that the
economic crisis in Asia was due to “failure of Asia’s domestic regulators to
strike a balance” between the risk of lenders and depositors:
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The Economist fails to mention an author for this short article, which
describes the “costless Mexican bail-out” as follows:
“Recall the Mexican bail-out of 1995. Nobody feared a global
meltdown in that case, though there were worries (justified, it turned
out) about Latin American contagion. Guided by other considerations,
America and the IMF nonetheless arranged support amounting to $40
billion. It worked. Confidence was restored. Growth in exports
allowed the emergency loans to be serviced at market rates and repaid.
American investors in Mexico didn’t lose their shirts and, in the end,
American taxpayers didn’t pay a cent.” (p.11)
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world” bankers and creditors. In fact, with a longer view of history, one
could reasonably ask as to who owes who in the world of
“macroeconomics”. It is also evident that despite claims that these bankers
are “bailing out” poor nations in crisis, the real motive is protection of the
economies of rich countries (particularly the USA) rather than poor ones.
The textbook goes on to say that, in response to a crisis that “threatened the
international banking system”, debts of many poor nations were rescheduled
in the 1980s, giving them more time to pay back their “debts”. In reality,
though, the post-WWII terms of international trade, including the activities
of the World Bank and IMF ensure that regardless of how much time these
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nations are given to “service” their “debts”, they will continue sinking
deeper and deeper into “debt”. Yet this “debt” does not really exist. The
“Third World” owes nothing to the “First World”, and if anything the
reverse is the case. The rich (colonising) nations surely owe billions of
dollars in compensation to the now poor nations that they have exploited for
the past several centuries.
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The body is much more than blood, however. People need much more than
money for a healthy, happy life. They need food, air, light, and shelter, just
to survive. They also need clothing and warmth, emotional and
environmental stimulation, meaningful activity and good education for a
comfortable and healthy existence. The physiological analogy of the
cardiovascular system can also be applied to other systems, with a focus on
healing and regeneration.
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The fact that cigarette smoking is a major cause of respiratory disease was
denied for many years by tobacco companies decades after the medical
evidence demonstrating this fact was overwhelming. During the first and
second world wars cigarettes were promoted as of benefit to psychological
stress although in truth, withdrawal from the drug actually causes this
problem, since nicotine causes physical addiction. When it became
impossible for cigarette companies to promote their product in this way in
“western” countries due to public and medical awareness of the risks of
smoking, the same companies sold heavy nicotine cigarettes throughout the
“third world” instead, whilst finding ways around the laws against public
advertising of cigarettes in European nations (such as ‘sponsorship’ of
televised sporting events). When opportunities arose, in the 1980s and
1990s, to sell American and European cigarettes in previously communist
countries, every effort was made to addict the populations of Russia,
“Eastern Bloc” countries and China to high-nicotine cigarettes despite their
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The respiratory health of the global population will also benefit from a
cessation of industrial pollution, but this is not as easy to achieve as a
cessation of cigarette smoke pollution. A significant reduction in global
pollution could be achieved, however, by greater corporate and
governmental support for non-petroleum energy sources, and with foresight
this is a wise thing for governments and industry to do, since petroleum
deposits are limited. Air itself can provide significant amounts of energy, in
the form of wind power, and sunlight is another clean source of energy,
which is sustainable in the long term. As for global environmental vandalism
of the nature of the recent cyanide spills in Europe, and the pollution of
Australian waterways by the mining and agricultural industries, the
responsibility for repair of previous damage falls on the companies guilty of
the vandalism and careless pollution which now affects every country on the
planet. Compensation for poisoned, oppressed, enslaved, tortured, terrorised,
dispossessed and displaced people of the world is surely the only just
outcome, and one that should become part of the currently dubious United
Nations agenda, as well as that of national governments around the globe.
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Food is necessary for the digestive health of the global population. Contrary
to claims of “overpopulation”, it is well recognised that starvation and
malnourishment do not occur because there is not enough food to go around,
but because of warfare and wastage. The advice of Mohandas Gandhi 50
years ago, that the world provides enough for every person’s need but not
every person’s greed remains true today. Huge amounts of wheat and other
staple foods are regularly destroyed to maintain high prices of resources that
could be used to feed the poor. Rather than encouraging people in poor
nations to grow their own food using environmentally sensible multiple crop
agriculture, for several centuries large areas of the world’s fertile regions
have been, and continue to be, used for environmentally destructive
monocrop agriculture. This monocrop agriculture involves the deforestation
of mixed vegetation and replacement with single crops such as tobacco,
coffee, tea, wheat and sugar. The prices of these commodities has
consistently fallen, while the technology required to maintain these crops has
become more expensive. These crops are also of little benefit to the essential
dietary needs of the nations in which plantations were established during the
era of slavery. These plantations are being maintained for the convenience
and economy of rich countries rather than poor ones. Efforts to become self-
sufficient in terms of food grown in individual nations are regularly thwarted
by the policies of the World Bank and International Monetary Fund, which
support the interests of established industries and large companies based in
affluent nations. Yet even the description of these nations as “affluent”
makes little sense if the claims of “debt to international bankers” are to be
accepted. By these terms the United States of America is one of the poorest
nations on earth, since this “first world” nation, like Australia, also
considered “affluent”, apparently also owes many billions of dollars to the
IMF and World Bank. For what? For policies forced on the nations of the
world that are increasingly creating a global wasteland?
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On 10.1.2000, The Australian contains a page three article titled “Bad habits
push up $3bn pill bill”. In it, John Kerin writes:
“Hectic lifestyles, poor diet and too little exercise are driving up
Australia’s $3 billion-a-year prescription drug bill. An examination of
prescription drug-taking patterns over the past 12 months shows the
big growth has been for the treatment of cardiovascular ailments, high
blood pressure and high cholesterol. Almost 140 million scripts were
issued in 1998-99. Some 18 million were issued for blood pressure-
related complaints in 1998-99 and a further 8 million for drugs needed
to lower cholesterol.”
Kerin adds that, “the use of expensive stomach ulcer and gastric reflux drugs
and anti-depressants is also on the rise”, with a decrease in scripts for anti-
biotics.
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and the same applies for taking blood pressure lowering drugs without
reduction of mental stress, obesity and other “lifestyle factors”.
The health problems which are responsible for most of the pharmaceutical
expenditure of Australia and other “first world” countries are conditions
caused by excess, rather than deficiency. This point is missed by Kerin, and
by Brand. They also fail to mention the major additional risk factor for heart
disease and atherosclerosis: cigarette smoking.
Brand also makes the rather contentious claim that, rather than, again,
aggressive marketing campaigns for new antidepressants, and broadened
criteria for diagnosis of the condition, “higher rates of prescribing for
depression were linked to improvements in its diagnosis”. Actually, this
“improvement” in diagnosis just means that doctors and the public are more
likely to call sadness, frustration, anxiety, worry and distress “depression”.
The diagnosis of depression has been marketed ruthlessly in the mass media,
including medical “educational literature” provided by the pharmaceutical
industry, “health-promotional campaigns”, such as those which formed the
1990s “mental health strategy”. In these campaigns, spearheaded in
Australia by the “Mental Health Foundation”, propaganda from the drug
companies Smith Kline Beecham, Roche, Pfizer and Eli Lilly (list not
exhaustive) exhort patients to self-diagnose themselves as suffering from a
“medical illness” termed “depression”. This illness is said to be caused by
“chemical imbalances”, which are sometimes specified as the
neurotransmitters serotonin and noradrenaline (called norepinephrine in the
USA). This theory, which conveniently acts to theoretically justify the
prescription and ingestion of chemicals (antidepressants) to correct the
“chemical imbalance” is the mainstay of modern biological psychiatry as a
“theory of depression” and is the main explanation pushed by these drug
companies through Mental Health Foundation literature, which is
“sponsored” by these drug companies. All these massive pharmaceutical
companies sell new antidepressants. Eli Lilly produces Prozac, Smith Kline
Beecham markets “Aropax”, Pfizer produces “Zoloft” and Roche offers
“Aurorix”, all to treat depression. The first three of these are SSRI
antidepressants, the marketing of which has constituted one of the biggest
scientific frauds of the twentieth century.
The fraud regarding these drugs involves information given to doctors and
the public about the neurotransmitter serotonin, and the pineal organ in the
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The scam involving the pineal, melatonin and serotonin has involved a
systematic removal of scientific information about known pineal physiology
from medical and scientific textbooks, as well as disinformation about
serotonin and other neurotransmitters. This coincides with the marketing of
melatonin as a sleeping tablet and “natural” cure for jet lag and “seasonal
affective disorder” together with drugs which affect serotonin metabolism,
notably the SSRI antidepressants.
This removal of information about the pineal, which occurred in the late
1980s, affected a range of textbooks published by major corporate
publication companies based in the US and UK, including MacGraw Hill,
Churchill Livingstone and Appleton & Lange. A particularly outrageous
example is the respected specialist textbook Essentials of Neural Science
and Behavior published by Appleton and Lange, a subsidiary of Prentice
Hall International. The “international edition” of this book, which is on sale
in the bookshops of major universities in Australia, completely omits the
pineal organ in their 1995 edition, and the same phenomenon can be
observed in several other highly respected medical textbooks. Although
most parts of the brain are discussed in detail in these books, the pineal
organ is conspicuously absent.
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The pineal is not mentioned in this book, nor melatonin, let alone the
concentration of serotonin in the pineal and the conversion of serotonin to
melatonin. A similar phenomenon can be observed in the Time magazine
article of September 1997 titled “The mood molecule” by Michael
Lemonick.
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was, even before the marketing of the drug as a human weight-loss drug,
known to cause brain damage in monkeys. Lemonick writes:
“From the start, it was clear that Redux has serious potential side
effects. One is primary pulmonary hypertension, a rare form of high
blood pressure that strikes the blood vessels of the lungs. Another,
considered even more serious by some of Redux’s critics, was the
possibility of brain damage. When fed to monkeys, dexphenfluramine
can destroy neurons. Says John Harvey of the Allegheny University of
Health Sciences in Philadephia, who edits the Journal of
Pharmacology and Experimental Therapeutics: “Any of us who were
pharmacologists knew this was a dirty drug. None of us was
surprised.”
“Some critics claim that Interneuron steamrolled Redux through the
FDA and that the agency acted irresponsibly in approving it, charges
that the company vigorously deny.”
The reason that Redux was eventually withdrawn from sale, was not because
of pulmonary hypertension or brain damage. After twenty years of use, it
became evident that the drug also causes irreversible damage to heart valves.
This unexpected side-effect should make doctors and the public more wary
of ingesting drugs that affect natural chemicals which have a broad range of
physiological effects such as serotonin, melatonin, dopamine and
noradrenaline. This concern is highlighted by the fact that, as in the case of
Redux, toxic effects may only become fully evident many years later.
The American producer of Prozac, Eli Lilly, was the first to develop and
market globally a “Selective Serotonin Reuptake Inhibitor” (SSRI): a new
class of expensive antidepressants derived from the stimulant MDMA. The
“designer drug” commonly known as “Ecstasy” shares its origin in MDMA,
but cannot be patented, hence its illegality. These are the realities of modern
drug laws: they are based on economic, not public health considerations.
Several dangerous man-made drugs are illegal, but far more dangerous drugs
are legal. The “illegal” drugs include heroin (derived from opium poppies),
and other opiate narcotics. They are not illegal, however, if prescribed as
pain-killers by doctors, in which case they are greatly overused. The
exception to this is the opiate codeine, which is available over the counter in
Australia in the form of Panadeine, Dymadon and Tylenol tablets (forte
preparations). These are also overused in Australia along with the non-forte
preparations which contain paracetamol alone (without codeine), but can
cause fatal liver and kidney damage, particularly in overdose.
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Drug overdose is one of the growing causes of death in the modern world.
These include both intentional and unintentional overdose. Of these,
unintentional overdose, less usually reported as “drug overdose” than
suicide by intentional poisoning with drugs, is responsible for more of these
deaths. Unintentional overdoses include those due to the self-ingestion of
drugs, including paracetamol, aspirin, tranquillisers, sleeping tablets, anti
depressants and alcohol. The category also includes drugs given in excess
amounts by doctors and hospitals to people who are considered in medical
need of these drugs by some doctor or another. Often different doctors
contribute to a cocktail of drugs that individuals in the modern world
consume. Individuals who look to these doctors for medical advice, but
receive secondhand advertising for and from the pharmaceutical industry
instead.
Turning to the brain of the economy, it becomes evident that wherever it is,
it is not working well. If it was, the economy would not be as sick as it is.
The brain controls and regulates the other systems of the body, including the
rest of the nervous system. The brain is inextricably connected to the mind,
and the minds that have devised the current economic system were obsessed
by war, nationalism and “beating the opposition”. This aggressive attitude
and associated militaristic, mutual paranoia paradigm has had a direct effect
on the economic, political, military and medical decisions which have been
made by governments in the past fifty years, despite claims of globalism.
The paradigm of the United Nations organisation, which grew out of the
League of Nations is still one of perpetual war and conflict, with a hidden
agenda in favour of the nations that formed the “United Nations” and remain
“permanent members of the UN security council” in the first place. These
were the victors of the Second World War: the United States and Britain.
Institutions such as the World Health Organization (WHO) are part of the
UN and World Bank systems, and again represent the interests of dominant
nations rather than smaller or less industrialised ones. In the lingo of the UN,
non-industrialised nations are termed “Third World” or “Underdeveloped”,
with “development” equated with corporate-ruled industrialisation. This is
one of the biggest problems that face the United Nations, World Health
Organization and populace of the world. Global pollution and unrestrained
disease creation amongst humans, plants and animals are the inevitable by-
products of a tradition of aggressive competition between individuals,
corporations and nations entrapped within a militaristic mind-set.
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Like most of the people in the world today, I was born during the Cold War.
While I studied medicine at the University of Queensland in the late 1970s, I
was aware that “the Cold War” was going on, but didn’t realise how much
this would influence my medical training, which in turn largely determined
my belief system, as far as science, psychology and medicine were
concerned. I believed most of what I was taught at university. I accepted that
the world was overpopulated, and that forced sterilization was sometimes
warranted. I thought that there was a strong case for voluntary euthanasia. I
thought that “schizophrenics” needed to be injected with drugs if they would
not take them of their own accord. (I never actually diagnosed anyone as
schizophrenic, manic or personality disordered myself, but would accept the
judgements of other doctors, especially specialists, including psychiatrists).
Until 1995 I remained largely ignorant of medical politics, the role of the
pharmaceutical industry in medical research, textbook publication and
continued education for doctors, other than what I was told myself by
representatives of the pharmaceutical industry (“drug reps”). The many past
crimes perpetrated by members of the medical profession, and examples of
medical abuses such as eugenics applications, which resulted directly from
medical policies, were not mentioned in the 6 years I studied at the
University of Queensland, or the 3 years that followed at the Royal Brisbane
and Royal Childrens’ Hospital in Queensland. The role of the medical
profession in supporting warfare was not explained to me at medical school,
but it became evident to me in the years that followed. It has been a gradual
realisation, accompanied by several surprises about how closely my own
training was influenced by military medicine.
During 1987, when I worked as a senior resident doctor and junior registrar
at the Royal Childrens’ Hospital, in Brisbane, Queensland, I served as a
senior resident for Professor John Pearn (who became Head of the
Department) and Dr Barry Appleton (paediatric neurologist). It surprised me
to read recently then, in the drug-company sponsored “Current
Therapeutics” journal, that Barry Appleton is also a senior officer in the
Australian Military, specifically, in the Royal Australian Air Force.
John Pearn, who authored the article about “Military Medicine”, regarded
himself, when I worked in the Royal Childrens’ Hospital (at which he was
‘professor of paediatrics’), as a “paediatric geneticist”. Professor Pearn is
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Biological warfare has recently become a matter of public concern, and has
always been a matter of public importance. An acknowledged form of non-
conventional (or unconventional) warfare, biological warfare is centred on
the use of infective and biologically toxic agents, including bacteria, viruses,
funghi, and chemical toxins to cause acute and chronic illness. Historically,
germ warfare as used to both kill and maim targetted populations. These
have sometimes been declared ‘enemies’, but more often they have been the
victims of covert warfare, especially during the proliferation of germ warfare
in the 20th Century. During the Second World War, as has been admitted
many decades later, both the Allies and the Axis powers developed and
tested various infective agents for use in biological warfare. On this matter
there is a noticeable difference between the claims of the opponents in the
Second World War and Cold War.
Australia, where this work was researched, where I studied medicine from
1978 to 1983, and where I have worked as a doctor for the past 18 years,
was a member of the Allies in the Second World War, and has aligned itself
politically, militarily and scientifically with the Capitalist West since the
first political foundation of this nation. This is a very recent event – the
nation of Australia is only 100 years old. In stark contrast, the land of
Australia is very ancient, and the first people who arrived here did so in the
unimagineably distant past. These were the people the White Nation that
called itself Australia (Southern Land) now refers to as ‘Aborigines’. This
term is, of course, not a specific one. During the era of colonization the dark-
skinned natives of all the “discovered” continents were called “Aborigines”.
Roughly the same populations were also described, in historical records and
texts as “natives”, “savages” and “blacks”. Often these terms were used
interchangeably and had been since the earliest days of cargo slavery by the
architects of the “Age of Discovery”, as the Western history textbooks refer
to the period of history from 1490 to 1600, when the monarchies of Western
Europe discovered millions of people to enslave and exploit.
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these nations directly financed the voyages, and immediately claimed all
“discovered” territories for themselves. The Catholic Church sanctioned
these possessions and immediately sent missionaries to convert the natives.
This was done at the same time that soldiers, armed with guns and cannons
established “colonies” at various strategic locations around the globe. Each
site was chosen with care. Strategic importance was paramount, in terms of
strategy in the war between the various colonising (European) nations, and
the war against the people resisting enslavement, for colonization always
brought enslavement.
The role of, initially, the Catholic Church, and later the Protestant Churches
in aiding, abetting and sanctioning the expansion of various European
empires, despite the fact that it was a vehicle for slavery and exploitation,
must be acknowledged if one is to understand the history of genocide in the
modern world. In 1494 Pope Alexander VI gave divine sanction for the
division of all new lands between the monarchies of Spain and Portugal.
King Ferdinand and Queen Isabella of Spain, who had financed Christopher
Columbus were “given” the “hemisphere” (half-globe) West of the Azores
islands in the Atlantic Ocean (North, South and Central America), and the
King of Portugal, John II, was granted any “discoveries” in the Eastern
Hemisphere (Africa and Asia), since he had financed Bartholomew Dias,
who had “first” sailed around the southern tip of Africa, discovering a sea
route to the Indian Ocean and thus to the valuable “spice islands” the East
Indies.
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Henry VIII ascended the British throne at the age of 18 and ruled the British
Empire until his death in the year 1547 at the age of 56. During this time he
squandered much wealth in wars against his French and Spanish rivals. To
replendish the Royal coffers he seized, with the assistance of his First
Minister, Thomas Cromwell, the lands and property of the Catholic Church
in Britain. This occurred after his break with the papacy due to the refusal of
the pontiff, Pope Clement VII to “annul” his marriage to Catherine of
Aragon, the Spanish princess he had married in 1508. Catherine, who was
previously Henry’s sister-in-law (she was the widow of Henry’s older
brother Arthur), was the daughter of King Ferdinand of Spain, who had been
granted the “Western Hemisphere” with his wife Queen Isabella by the
Spanish-born Pope Alexander’s papal decree of 1494.
Henry VIII’s main foe during the many years he waged war against the
French was King Francis, who died, aged 53, on the 31 st of March in 1547,
only two months after Henry. Francis had waged war, for many years,
against the Habsburg emperor Charles V, for control of the European
mainland and the newly discovered territories in the Americas. Charles, the
son of “Philip the Fair” and “Joanna the Mad”, was the grandson of
Ferdinand II of Aragon, the husband of Queen Isabella of Castile. Ferdinand
and Isabella had united their kingdoms in 1479, ten years after their
marriage, resulting in a shared empire centred in Spain. At the time, the
main threat to Spanish territorial ambitions came from the neighbouring
monarchy of Portugal, which, after a four-year war (1475-1479) was
granted, by the Spanish monarchy, a monopoly of trade and navigation along
the entire West African coast. When the explorer Bartholomew Dias,
sponsored by John II of Portugal, rounded the Cape of Good Hope (which he
initially named the ‘Cape of Storms’) in 1488, the territorial claims of the
Portuguese expanded dramatically, to include the entire “Eastern
Hemisphere”.
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Commonwealth). Henry VIII also presided over the formation of the “United
Company of Barbers and Surgeons” in 1540, appointing Thomas Vicary, the
Sergeant Surgeon of Henry’s army, as “Master” of the new union. The
United Company subsequently became the Royal College of Surgeons (in
1800). In Medicine: the art of healing (1992), the politics surrounding the
formation of the United Company of Barbers and Surgeons is described:
“In London, prior to 1540, there were two distinct groups of
surgeons who were in fierce competition over the right to supervise
those who wished to practice that craft. The more elite of the two was
the unincorporated Guild of Surgeons, with perhaps twoscore
members who had learned their skills while serving in military
campaigns. The other was the much larger group of the Barbers’
Guild, who had distinguished themselves from their fraters who had
only practiced barbering. With 185 members, this was the largest of
the livery companies in London.
“The amalgamation into the new United Company of Barbers and
Surgeons was advantageous to both organizations. The status of the
barbers was elevated by their association with the elite surgeons and
by their separation from the pure shavers and hairdressers. For the
surgeons, the advantage lay in the increase in total numbers and the
much larger treasury of the men with whom they had been linked.”
(p.40)
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Britain, Ireland and the British Dominions beyond the Seas, King, Defender
of the Faith, Emperor of India”. The “faith” that George and his armies
“defended” (and attacked with) was the Anglican religion, as defined and
ordained by the Church of England (Anglican Church). This religion had
been founded by the notorious King Henry VIII, who arranged for himself to
be appoined head of the new English Church when broke from the Catholic
Church because the Roman Pope refused to annul his marriage to Catherine
of Aragon, so he could marry again. Henry VIII had been granted the title
“Defender of the Faith” by an earlier pope because of his military support
against the Vatican’s enemies. The title “Emperor of India” shows clearly
that George V regarded himself as the owner of this ancient land, and of his
various “dominions”. It was thus not really a “common-wealth” – it was a
system of Imperialism under a new name and a new organizational structure.
The “white” colonies and “dominions” (Australia, New Zealand, Canada,
South Africa and Newfoundland) could aspire to being “equal members in
the British Commonwealth”, but those in the colonies and “protectorates”
mainly populated by “people of colour” were to continue as “inferior
members”.
In 1936 George V died leaving the throne for his son Edward VIII, who
reigned for less than a year, abdicating the throne to marry the twice-
divorced Mrs Wallis Simpson, and American. The fact that Mrs Simpson
was divorced and an American national made it impossible, according to the
king’s legal advisers, for the Edward VIII to marry her, so he abdicated in
favour of his younger brother George VI, the father of the current Queen of
England, Elizabeth II.
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shall be sent abroad and how much shall remain at home must be
made on the basis of our over-all military necessities.
“We must be the great arsenal of democracy. For us this is an
emergency as serious as war itself. We must apply ourselves to our
task with the same resolution, the same sense of urgency, the same
spirit of patriotism and sacrifice, as we would show were we at war.”
(Roosevelt, 1940, quoted in As It Happened: A History of the United
States, Sellers, et al, 1975, p.695)
In his broadcast to the nation Roosevelt said that “we are planning our own
defense with the utmost urgency; and in its vast scale we must integrate the
war needs of Britain and the other free nations resisting aggression”. The
“other free nations” in President Roosevelt’s terms, included South Africa,
Canada, Australia and New Zealand, which were “members of the
Commonwealth” of equal status with Britain according to George V’s
proclamation of 1926. Officers from these (white) nations had been placed
in positions of authority over the various “coloured soldiers” in His
Majesty’s Army, since the British Government, under the eugenist Winston
Churchill, had been “integrating” its own “war needs”. In His Majesty’s
armed forces it was possible for a dark-skinned man to become a low-
ranking officer, but only as frequently as Galton’s theories would have
predicted this. The command positions were all occupied by white men, all
of whom had a “good education”, meaning that they went to elite schools
and universities. These men were rarely killed in the kinds of war the British
waged – while the hordes of Indians, Africans and Australians who rushed to
defend the “Commonwealth” occupied the front line. They were the
occasionally honoured, and frequently killed, “privates”, who formed a
“buffer zone” between the enemy’s bullets and the officers who gave the
orders. The officers had been trained to order “their” men to keep fighting.
The Second World War was fought on several fronts. These have relevance
to the scientific and medical information to follow, so I will provide a brief
overview of the politics of WWII as I perceive them. I did not learn anything
about the Second World War at school or university, and have only a limited
knowledge of its details, however most people have gathered that the Second
World War included a war between certain European governments for
control of Europe and Africa, and a war between the Japanese Imperial
goverment and the government of the United States of America. Predictably,
given the victors of the Second World War, Germany and Japan are usually
seen as being the aggressors in the Second World War, while Britain and the
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USA are seen as the defenders of freedom and democracy. While it is true
that the Germans and Japanese had Imperial designs, the British and
Americans did also. British efforts to dominate the world, and create a
global empire, long predated even the foundation of Germany. At the
outbreak of the Second World War the British government claimed supreme
authority over a fifth of the world’s land surface: including “dominions and
possessions” on every continent. The “jewel in the crown” of the Empire
was India, the population of which was very much greater than that of the
British Isles. India, which had been wrested from Moslem moghul rulers by
the British in the 1700s, had long been a source of enormous wealth for the
Royal British Royal Family and their allies. Many of the “crown jewels”
were “given” to the British by the elite Indians, who were allowed to
maintain their priviledged position in His (British) Majesty’s Indian Empire,
provided they pay their taxes and allow their people to be exploited and
enslaved. The rule of “British Raj” continued in India through the long reign
of Queen Victoria, during which time Indian “indentured labourers” (slaves
from Tamil-speaking Southern India) were sent to various British
dominions, including Queensland (Australia), Ceylon (Sri Lanka), and
British territories and “protectorates” in the Caribbean Sea, Indian Ocean
and Pacific Ocean. In all these areas the British established “plantations”
which were administered by “whites” and where most of the work was done
by “blacks” (of either African or Indian racial heritage).
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When the British conquered the hill kingdom of Kandy in the early 1800s
they succeeded, where the Portuguese and Dutch had failed, to gain political
control of the whole of Ceylon. They never developed cultural control,
although for many years they tried. This was done by setting up systems of
government and education along the lines of other “colonies”. Ceylon was
then regarded as the “pearl of the Indian Ocean” a rich, fertile island in the
centre of the trade routes between Europe, Africa and the far East. For many
centuries the kings of Ceylon had exported spices and precious stones to
Arab and Chinese traders, and later with Portuguese and Dutch ones. The
Portuguese were the first to try and take control of the island. This was in the
1600s, and the Portuguese, with their guns and cannons were able to take
control of the coastal kingdoms in the south of Ceylon. The Portuguese,
French and British had already established armed fortresses along the coast
of eastern and western coasts of India, during the 1600s and 1700s. The
Dutch, however, had control of the “East Indies” – now called Indonesia,
and then also known as the “Spice Islands” or “Moluccas”. The Dutch took
control of the ancient cities of Java, creating a Dutch-speaking capital of the
“Dutch East Indies”, which they named Batavia (now Jakarta). The Spanish
controlled most of the South and Central American mainland, with the
exception of Brazil, which was a Portuguese colony. The Spanish also
controlled, during the age of cargo slavery, the south-east Pacific islands still
called the “Philippines”. In 1898, the United States of America took control
of the Philippines, along with Cuba, Puerto Rico and Guam in a treaty with
the Spanish, which was signed in France (the “Paris Treaty” of 10.12.1898).
When the British and Dutch developed their own navies, in the 1600s and
1700s, they predictably challenged the Portuguese and Spanish claims.
Pointing to the considerable atrocities being committed by the Iberian
soldiers, the Protestant English and Dutch explained to the natives that they
hoped to exploit, that the Spanish and Portuguese were cruel Catholics who
had misunderstood the true word of God. This, claimed the Protestant
missionaries from England and the Nederlands, was to be found in the “King
James Version of the Bible” which was duly translated into hundreds of
languages. The British and Dutch colonists did not approach established
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civilizations with guns in the first instance; they used, instead, flattery and
bribery, and, failing that, threats. Although their ships were armed with
cannons and carried soldiers with guns and swords, the British and Dutch
governments and monarchies kept their hands clean by having the dirty work
of betrayal, bribery and slavery to be organized and implemented by
“trading companies”. The British East India Company and the Dutch East
India Company, two such companies that were given authority to kill,
exploit and enslave in the name of their respective monarchs, are of special
relevance to events in Africa during the Second World War that may point to
the cause of the current epidemic of AIDS in South Africa.
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The Congo, now the independent African nation of Zaire, is where the AIDS
epidemic in Africa is said to have begun, and was the worst hit of the
African countries in the 1980s. Zaire, like Southern Africa, is rich in
minerals, and also contains the last large remnants of the tropical rainforest
that once covered so much of Africa. It is also the last remaining home of
our closest primate relatives, chimpanzees, which are, like many rainforest
animals, threatened with extinction at the hands of mankind.
Other than Australia, the central focus of this book is on Africa, a continent I
have only visited on a single occasion, in 1990. At this time I briefly visited
Zimbabwe, Kenya and Tanzania. Knowing little about the history of Africa,
I was amazed when we visited the “Great Zimbabwe Ruins” that Cecil
Rhodes refused to believe could have been built by any people other than
‘whites’ despite overwheming evidence to the contrary. These are the
remains of a Southern African civilization dating back centuries before
Bartholomew Diaz sailed around the Cape of Good Hope, encouraging his
sponsor, the king of Portugal to claim, for himself and his family, the whole
of Africa. The Spanish, however, disputed the Portuguese claim, and the
warring monarchs sought the decision of the religious leader of their people
and the remnants of the Roman Empire – the Roman Pope, head of the
Catholic Church. The Pope decreed in the 1490s that the Portuguese King
John II could have the “Eastern Hemisphere” (east of the Azores Islands in
the Atlantic Ocean, and thus Africa and Asia) while Queen Isabella and
King Ferdinand of Spain could have the Western Hemisphere (the newly-
discovered Americas, hence the term “New World” various European
history books).
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In Southern Africa, where the Germans fought against the British and
Belgians for control of the diamond-rich coast of South-West Africa, and
where Galton made his name, the AIDS epidemic is out of control. Over one
thousand people in South Africa alone are said to be infected with HIV
every day. These are all predicted to die within the next 15 years by
Australia’s premier AIDS advisory and research centre, the Macfarlane
Burnet Centre in Melbourne.
Closely related to the history of genocide is the dreadful use of chemical and
biological weapons and warfare. The deliberate creation of disease in
targetted populations has a long history, dating back to at least the Middle
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Ages, when bodies of people who had died from the bubonic plague were
thrown over the walls of beseiged cities to infect the surrounding enemy
(with the additional objective of avoiding disease from the dead bodies).
This book has been more concerned with physical genocide than cultural
genocide, although the two are clearly related. Physical genocide results in
cultural genocide and destroying the culture of a targetted population results
in the premature illness and death of members of the culture concerned.
Generally, and in the case of Aboriginal people in Australia, physical
genocide and cultural genocide have been employed as parallel strategies.
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78. Macfarlane Burnet Centre (1999) Annual Report 1998-99. MBC:
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There have been many changes in the accepted criteria for diagnosis of
schizophrenia in the modern world, however, and considerable differences
exist in different parts of the world. This is mentioned in the World Health
Organization’s “Handbook for the Schizophrenic Disorders” (1995), which
was written by Heidi Sumich, Gavin Andrews and Caroline Hunt of the
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What about the people under surveillance in the numerous police states
around the world, and what about the people who are being poisoned and
experimented on by the psychiatric industry itself? These people can expect
a diagnosis of “delusions” after being asked the following questions, which
are apparently indicative of “unusual thought content” if answered in the
affirmative:
“Have you been receiving any special messages from people or from
the way things are arranged around you? Have you seen any
references to yourself on TV or in the newspapers?”
“Can anyone read your mind?”
“Do you have a special relationship with God?”
“Is anything like electricity, X-rays, or radio waves affecting you?”
“Are thoughts put into your head that are not your own?”
“Have you felt that you were under the control of another person or
force?”
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For those who study psychiatry professionally, meaning they first gain
medical degrees from recognised universities, further training in techniques
of interrogation are obligatory, always seeking evidence of “mental illness”.
The recommended undergraduate textbook in Psychiatry for medical
students in Melbourne is Foundations of Clinical Psychiatry written in
collaboration between psychiatry professors at the University of Melbourne
and Monash University, and published in 1994 by Melbourne University
Press. In the chapter titled “the psychiatric interview and evaluation of the
mental state” Professor Nicholas Keks explains how persecutory delusions
can be inferred and that they are not necessarily untrue to qualify as
“delusions” (reflected also in the “psychiatric truism” that “a delusion is still
a delusion even if it transpires, by coincidence, to be correct !”):
“Delusions with religious or subcultural content can prove difficult to
assess. Usually consultations with a member of the patient’s social group
is necessary. It should also be kept in mind that what appear to be
persecutory delusions may be true. It is not whether the delusion is
absolutely false that is relevant, but rather that the belief is adhered to by
the patient very firmly despite manifestly insufficient or inappropriate
evidence. For instance, a man was convinced that his wife was having an
affair, and indeed she was in a secret relationship. However, the
husband’s conviction arose from the interpretation he placed on entirely
unrelated events such as the numbers printed on the letter he received
from the tax office.
“In eliciting delusions, it is useful to first ask a question which should
elicit a positive response from anyone, and then to probe further for
abnormal thought content. For instance: ‘Do you ever feel self-conscious
or shy in a new place or with strangers?’ The answer should be ‘yes’ if
the question was understood. Then the patient can be asked whether they
worry if people laugh behind their back, and so on, progressing to ask
about organised persecution.” (pp.73-74)
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Rather than looking for the social, political and historical origins of
schizophrenia, the Mental Health Research Institute (MHRI) in Melbourne
is, in addition to conducting an extensive “genetic study of schizophrenia”,
actively engaged in trying to establish “biological abnormalities” in
diagnosed “schizophrenics”. The focus of the work of the “Molecular
Schizophrenia Division” is on the neurotransmitters dopamine and serotonin.
The institute’s 1997 Annual report explains:
“Dopamine is a chemical within the brain which is thought to be
important in the pathology of schizophrenia. The major evidence for this
is that drugs which behave like dopamine in the brain can cause a
psychosis reminiscent of schizophrenia in non-schizophrenic individuals.
In addition, the antipsychotic drugs that are used to treat schizophrenia
reduce the activity of dopamine in the human brain. Together, these
observations suggest that over-activity of the dopamine neuronal
pathways are important in the pathology of the illness.” (p.18)
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of Management in 1997 were white, and 12 were male. They included one
professor of psychiatry (David Copolov, the Institute Director), one
professor of medicine (Robert Porter, who is also Board Member of the
Southern Health Care Network and Member of Council, Victorian Institute
of Forensic Medicine), a professor of surgery (Gordon Clunie, a Scottish
surgeon, now retired), three lawyers, an accountant (who is treasurer of the
institute) and an economist. The female members were Dame Margaret
Guilfoyle, who is described as “Deputy Chairman of the Infertility
Treatment Authority, Chairman of the Judicial Remuneration Authority and
Board Member of the Children’s Television Foundation” and Dulcie Boling,
who is described in the 1997 Annual Report as “Director of Seven Network,
Mercantile Mutual Holdings Ltd, Multi Media Asia Pacific Ltd and Country
Road Ltd.” Dame Guilfoyle also is the former Chairman of the “Human
Rights Commission Inquiry into Rights of People with Mental Illness.” One
might wonder, from the Annual Report of the MHRI, how closely the Board
Members of the institute identify with the problems of the oppressed and
dispossessed in Australia. Unless we are to imagine that in our “free
country” no one is oppressed or dispossessed.
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Agranulocytosis is not the only problem clozapine can cause. The 1999
MIMS lists: agranulocytosis, granulocytopenia, other haematological
disturbances, fatigue, drowsiness, sedation, dizziness, headache, weight
gain, hypotension, tachycardia, transient pyrexia (fever), extrapyramidal
symptoms (such as Parkinsonism), seizures, neuroleptic malignant syndrome
(another potentially fatal adverse effect), dream intensification,
hypersalivation, hyperthermia and others.
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different problems. This has occurred with the whole spectrum of psychiatric
drugs, including ‘minor tranquillisers’, ‘major tranquillisers’, lithium,
‘antidepressants’ and amphetamines. In fact, if one looks at the history of
medical chemical discoveries, such as the discovery of new hormones, one
of the routine targets for experiments have been psychiatric patients. Thus,
the discovery of insulin in 1921 was followed the next year by trying out
“insulin-comas” as a treatment for the insane. Cocaine, heroin and
amphetamines were widely used by the medical profession at the beginning
of the 20th century prior to them being designated (illegal) dangerous drugs.
Indeed cocaine, heroin and amphetamines are dangerous drugs, but so are
dopamine-blockers (‘antipsychotics’), benzodiazepine (‘minor’)
tranquillisers and alcohol. Nicotine is also a dangerous drug, and so is
Prozac. All these drugs have caused deaths – directly and indirectly.
All these drugs (except nicotine and alcohol) were introduced to the world’s
human population by the medical profession, and all have been deliberately
injected into experimental animals to test their toxicity. These animals have
included mice, rats, cats, dogs, sheep, goats, monkeys and chimpanzees.
With complete insensitivity towards the suffering of our closest primate
relatives, chimpanzees have been force-fed alcohol (to cause cirrhosis) and
fitted with masks that forced them to inhale cigarette smoke; they have been
deliberately infected with human pathogens and psychologically traumatised
so that scientists can “tell us more about human illness”. It is assumed that
by finding out more about illness we will simultaneously understand how to
cure and prevent it – and that this end justifies the unpleasant means (of
creating illness in animals). This is a complex issue, and many hold that the
suffering and ‘sacrifice’ of animals is vital for medical progress and the
development of scientific knowledge.
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Psychology is a broad field of study, which developed from “the arts” and
philosophy, rather than from “science” and medicine, a point which has led
to intense rivalry between adherents of psychology and those of psychiatry
over the years, with “psychiatry”, as a branch of “medicine”, claiming a
mantle of scientific superiority over “unscientific psychology”. In truth,
however, neither is founded on firm scientific ground, though both have
tried hard to appear “scientific”, often by quoting statistics and engaging in
scientific-sounding “double-blind trials” and “clinical trials”.
Although Sigmund Freud and other early psychiatrists were medical doctors
trained in neurology, they focused on disturbances of thinking as well as
dynamic processes affecting the development of the mind generally, often
using anecdotal and personal experiences as a basis for their theories. Freud
is said to have coined the term “unconscious” and he argued that much of an
adult’s behaviour is governed by largely unrecognised unconscious motives,
which it required many years of analysis by an expert psychiatrist (such as
himself) to gain insight into. The dependence and other undesirable results
of such prolonged “talk therapies” were themselves given names in the new
jargon that grew in the new “scientific discipline” of “psychoanalysis” and
the practitioners of this style of psychiatry were (and are) called
psychoanalysts.
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Of these names a few have grown in fame (and notoriety) over the past fifty
years, including Freud, Jung, Galton, Kraepelin, Rorschach and Pavlov.
Freud and Kraepelin, especially, have many devoted disciples within the
medical profession. Much of the animal research industry and ‘behavioural
sciences’ research is based on Pavlov’s work on ‘classical’ conditioning of
dogs (and humans). The Swiss psychiatrist Carl Jung is best remembered for
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treatment of the mind but not the brain is a relatively recent phenomenon,
and has led to the absurd situation where a “mindless neurology” and a
“brainless psychiatry” have become the only choices available for the
medical graduate who wishes to undertake further study in the
neurosciences. Psyche is variously translated as “mind” or “soul”, but it
certainly does not mean “behaviour”, as some modern psychologists and
psychiatrists suppose. Logos, translated literally means “word”, however in
the context of “neurology” and “psychology” can be used to refer to the total
scientific knowledge of the topic next to which the suffix is used. Thus
neurology refers to collective human knowledge about the brain and nervous
system, whilst psychology refers to collective human knowledge (including
that of past times) about the mind, thinking and thought (and even to
scientific study of soul, if the term is used unusually broadly). Psychiatry,
combining psyche with iatros (treatment) refers to treatment of the mind
(and soul) and it is difficult to see how the mind can be rationally and
scientifically treated by the medical profession without a rational scientific
understanding of both psychology and neurology.
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The story, briefly, is that the woman, who “was very pretty” was rejected by
the “son of a wealthy industrialist” whom, according to Jung “she thought
her chances of catching…were fairly good”. After marrying someone else,
her depression had developed suddenly after being told that the wealthy
industrialist’s son had “quite a shock” when she got married, followed by a
tragedy when her young daughter died of typhoid fever, and she thought that
the infection had been contracted by the child sucking on a sponge tainted by
“impure” river water.
In his description of the story and his “miraculous” cure of her mental illness
by telling her she was a murderer, Jung seems to accept, and indeed
reinforce, the assumption that the child developed typhoid by sucking on this
sponge, even though the woman’s little son drank a glass of the river water
without becoming ill:
“She was bathing her children, first her four-year-old girl and then
her two-year-old son. She lived in a country where the water supply
was not perfectly hygeinic; there was pure spring water for drinking,
and tainted water from the river for bathing and washing. While she
was bathing the little girl, she saw the child sucking at the sponge, but
did not stop her. She even gave her little son a glass of the impure
water to drink. Naturally, she did this unconsciously, or only half
consciously, for her mind was already under the shadow of the
incipient depression.
“A short time later, after the incubation period had passed, the girl
came down with typhoid fever and died. The girl had been her
favourite. The boy was not infected. At that moment the depression
reached its acute stage, and the woman was sent to the institution.
“From the association test I had seen that she was a murderess, and
I had learned many details of her secret. It was at once apparent that
this was a sufficient reason for her depression. Essentially it was a
psychogenic disturbance and not a case of schizophrenia.”
It is clear from Jung’s writings that, whilst recognising this woman’s distress
as due to psychological traumas that she suffered in the past, he failed to
realise that her predictable feelings of guilt that she had caused the death of
her own daughter through “negligence” could have been treated in a much
more humane way than by accusing her of being a murderer. He also
accepted validity of the label of “schizophrenia” and an attendant poor
prognosis, although he believed the pessimistic prognosis had been
misapplied in this case. He also admits to being intimidated (and thus
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The school of ‘behaviourism’ has been very influential in Australia and the
USA, to such an extent that many psychology texts define ‘psychology’ as
the study of behaviour, rather than the study of thinking or the mind.
According to Professor Sargent, “Psychoanalysis” is just another school of
thought out of many competing models, and one that is scientifically
suspect:
“Psychoanalysis stood apart from the other schools. Founded by a
physician, SIGMUND FREUD, it grew out of his effort to cure
persons suffering from mental and nervous disorders. Psychoanalysis
presents amazingly fruitful and provocative theories of motivation, of
personality development, and of abnormal behavior. Unlike other
founders of schools, Freud made no effort to verify his theories by
scientific experiment. Freud’s major interpretations and those of his
dissident disciples are presented in the chapter called Conflicts and the
Unconscious.” (S.Sargent in Great Psychologists, p6)
In Chapter 12, titled “mental disease”, Professor Sargent lists his preference
for ‘psychiatric icons of all time’. Several names are listed in capital letters
under the chapter heading: Hippocrates, Weyer, Pinel, Dix, Kraepelin,
Bleuler, Griesinger, Beers, Campbell, White, Jackson, Meyer, Rosanoff and
Lennox. The chapter begins with what, taken literally, could be a self-
fulfilling threat:
“About one person of every twenty in the United States will at
some time during his life be treated in a mental hospital. The care and
cure of such persons is a tremendous problem.”
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Convincing the increasingly skeptical population of the world that they have
a superior understanding of madness and sanity, mental illness and health to
other “experts” and “non-experts” has been a longstanding concern of the
psychiatric profession, and a “professional insecurity” can be seen in efforts
of “psychiatrists” and “psychologists” to claim a position as “legitimate
scientists”. The problem of scientific credibility is addressed by Professor
Sargent in the following way:
“We have called psychology a science. Is this correct? Astronomy,
chemistry, and physics are readily recognized as sciences; they
involve careful laboratory work, exact measurement, rigid laws, and
sure-fire predictability. Psychology is concerned with something less
definite and tangible; exactitude is hard to obtain and exceptionless
laws almost never occur.
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The first question, “What causes malaria?”, can be answered easily on the
most obvious level: infection with Plasmodium malaria parasites, which are
carried by mosquitoes, and transmitted into the blood through the skin by
mosquito bites, usually from Anopheles or Culex mosquitoes. This is,
however, only a partial explanation of what causes malaria. Firstly, not
everyone who has malaria parasites injected into their skin will develop
malaria (depending on immune system health), and secondly, not everyone
who has contracted malaria has done so by being bitten by mosquitoes.
Some have been given infections by deliberate transfusion of infected blood
to test new antimalarial drugs. And at doses that made serious illness certain.
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In the 1940s, at the same time that Professor Sargent wrote Great
Psychologists, and the nations of Europe were engaged in a bloody struggle
for territory and supremacy, an undisclosed number of men and women were
deliberately infected with malaria in Australia – by the Commonwealth army
in conjunction with the British and Australian (Commonwealth)
governments, and American and British pharmaceutical (drug) companies.
The drug trials, on interred Italians and Jewish refugees, as well as wounded
Australian soldiers (who were obtained from convalescent hospitals), were
reported in the Australian newspapers over 50 years after they occurred, and
were hardly commented on by the scientific press or politicians in the
country in which these terrible abuses occurred. The experiments, on people
described in the Age articles as “human guinea pigs”, were done in North
Queensland (and later, in Melbourne) during the Second World War and for
several months after the official cessation of hostilities, driven by the
military and financial motive of testing new antimalarial drugs developed in
Germany for toxicity by “the Allies” on captive populations. It is difficult
not to see this as a hostile act against Australia and the Australian people, as
well as the Italian and Jewish people who were subjected to torture, which
was then denied.
Even with the revelation of details of these cruel and unnecessary acts by the
Australian and British Governments of the day (who ultimately hold
responsibility for their armed forces), the deliberate infection and poisoning
of these people was not described as torture or biological warfare by the Age
newspaper, although the reporters did describe the incident as “abuse”. The
Murdoch-owned newspapers in Victoria (The Australian and The Herald
Sun) did not take the issue up, and The Age did not persist with the
“historical story” or make the necessary connections with contemporary
medical science and research activity in Australia (and Melbourne, in
particular) to understand why Guy Nolch may have written in the editorial of
Australasian Science that “little has changed in 50 years” when commenting
on biological warfare suggesting that the fault lies not with “the scientists”
but “the masters who control them”.
The drug Paludrine was being tested for ICI chemicals, a large British-based
company which continues to market the drug today, and the director of ICI
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Australia, Professor Ben Lochtenberg, has been, for several years, the
director of the Mental Health Institute in Parkville, Melbourne. “ICI”, which
is an acronym for “Imperial Chemical Industries” was founded in 1926,
during a period of time between the two “World Wars”, that has been
referred to as “The Depression”. Around the same time as the revelations
about the infection and treatment “trials”, ICI pharmaceuticals was
transformed into Zeneca pharmaceuticals, which in 1999 became
amalgamated with the Sweden-based Astra pharmaceuticals, forming a new
giant drug company called “Astra-Zeneca”. The huge non-pharmaceutical
operations of ICI continued as ICI chemicals, unaffected by the merger,
according to the Information Service provided on a 1800 number by Astra-
Zeneca. The phone message of the old Astra-Zeneca number in Melbourne
announced, on 1.9.99, that the Melbourne office of Astra-Zeneca has closed,
and the head office relocated to Sydney.
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people who cannot afford, or do not want private medical care. They also
both provide public psychiatric services, including locked facilities for
people to be injected in against their wills. In February, 2000, the public
relations officer at the Royal Melbourne Hospital explained to me that the
hospital has recently opened a unit with 25 “acute beds” and 8 for people
(usually girls) with “eating disorders” (mainly anorexia). Previously, the
Royal Melbourne Hospital was associated with the notorious Royal Park
Psychiatric Hospital, which has recently been closed and partially
demolished to make room for a visiting athletes at the Commonwealth
Games. They will be housed on a site where thousands of young Australians
have been imprisoned and tortured over the years – with electric shocks and
huge doses of chemical toxins. Many have died, either during their
‘treatment’ or shortly after it. Their deaths have inevitably been reported as
‘suicide’.
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In The Nervous Soldier, alcohol and cigarette abuse are identified as being
caused by military training, although it is not admitted as clearly as that.
Under the subtitle, “the preliminary military training”, in a chapter titled
“The Stresses of Military Life”, Bostock and Jones wrote, in 1943:
“When Bill Smith receives his first uniform he must face an entire
alteration in his living conditions. His contacts are different. He is
shorn of many personality props and of the friends and relatives of a
life time. They are replaced by new faces and strange voices. Soon he
learns that he is fettered and frustrated by disciplinary restrictions. His
soul belongs to the army. For both married and unmarried there is a
modification of the sex routine. For some the change is towards
continence; others are snared in the net of promiscuity with its
attendant worries. The conditions of military life are calculated to stir
into activity repressed homo-sexual tendencies resulting in the
development of anxiety states or of paraphrenic psychoses. Even the
alcohol and tobacco habits partake of the change. There is a move
from teetotalism towards drinking, often to excess. Tobacco becomes
almost a necessity.” (p.15)
The authors do not seem to realise how permanently destructive the training
of young men in this way is bound to be for society generally, whilst
admitting that it destroys fundamental respect for life:
“…and in addition there is another aspect manifesting itself. The
aggressive instincts are unfolding. The soldier trained from infancy to
regard human life as sacred must become efficient in taking life when
necessary. Unless he can learn to kill his enemies, military training is
futile.” (p.16)
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The book continues to give details of dose, and injection technique for
inducing convulsions using cardiazol, warning that, “if a convulsion fails to
occur the results are often most unpleasant, if not harmful”. The trauma of
such treatment is easy to imagine:
“The patient is in a dorso-recumbent position with a pillow under
the head and another under the upper thoracic region. During
convulsions the upper extremities should be held adducted to the trunk
and the shoulders are pressed down to avoid violent flexion of the
dorsal spine. Hold patient rigidly by shoulders to the bed, see that the
limbs are straight. A fracture of any limb may occur, but is less likely
if these precautions are carried out”. (p.58)
“Narco Therapy”, essentially the same as the notorious “deep sleep therapy”,
was reserved for resistant cases. With an inexcusable ignorance about the
difference between a “good night’s sleep” and a drugged coma, the authors
gave a revealing ‘case history’:
“There is a growing belief in the utility of narco therapy for early
cases. Everyone is aware of the benefits of a good night’s sleep
particularly after a heavy and worrying day. Public belief in the
efficacy of sleep is profound. “Oh, doctor,” says the patient, “if I
could sleep for days, I would be cured.” Today we are able to achieve
this miracle often with remarkable results. As an instance the
following case may be quoted.
“AB was profoundly depressed and said he had venereal disease.
Suggestion and persuasion with exhaustive blood tests were useless.
Shock therapy was then tried without success. Finally he was put to
sleep for three weeks. When he awoke to reality the previous morbid
ideas had disappeared. Within a few days he was anxious to return to
work. [He may have just stopped complaining about his fear, for
obvious reasons]
“As will be seen by the above, certain cases which do not respond
to cardiazol may respond to narco-therapy. Quite frequently
sleepnessness and restlessness or excitement render it either impolitic
or impossible to give shock therapy. Whenever this occurs, there is
scope for the use of narco-therapy.”
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In actuality, the “suggestion” is: “get back to the firing line or we’ll torture
you with painful electric shocks and chemically-induced convulsions”. The
focus on “efficiency” means that doctors are expected to return soldiers to
“active duty” as soon as possible and while spending minimal time with
them (hence the enthusiasm for “quick treatments” like electrical and
chemical shocks). In a section titled “enlisting the help of a cobber” the book
explains:
“A medical officer can only be with any one patient for a few
moments. He needs therefore an extension of himself to carry on the
good work…Often a word with a man’s cobber will infuse new hope
and if he has no cobber, see his platoon officer, and find him one.”
A few years before George Orwell wrote Nineteen Eighty-Four, Bostock and
Jones wrote:
“Most men are better for a big brother. When needed the Medical
Officer must take practical steps to find him.” (p.71)
Wars make a lot of money for some industries, notably the weapons-
manufacturing industry, mining industry, chemical industry, espionage
industry, drug industry and medical treatment industry (including the
psychiatric diagnosis and treatment industry). In recent wars, the
increasingly influential “humanitarian aid” industry has also become a
noticeable profiteer. All these industries are now set up along “corporate”
lines, and “compete” with each other for credibility, sales and size. Many of
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Such men have been both honoured and ignored. The ‘well-behaved’
soldiers, who accepted their injuries and dwindling government services
quietly were publicly lauded, once a year, at “Anzac day marches”, ‘lest we
forget’, while those who were angry, upset, confused or horrified by their
war-time experiences were impolitely ‘pensioned off’ with whatever
‘nervous disorder’ diagnoses were in use at the time. These included ‘shell-
shock’ after the First World War and ‘post-traumatic stress disorder’ after
the Vietnam War.
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Simultaneously, in a contract that has been kept secret by the Victorian State
Government, a “135 bed forensic psychiatry hospital” has been constructed
at Yarra Bend, adjacent to the Fairfield Hospital and current home of the
Macfarlane Burnet Virology Institute, which is to be relocated adjacent to
the Alfred Hospital in Prahran (in inner eastern Melbourne). The Macfarlane
Burnet Centre, which advises the National and State Governements on HIV,
AIDS and AIDS prevention, is run by their Chief Executive Officer and
Executive Director the American Professor John Mills, who heads the
“Children’s Virology Department”, according to their 1998 Annual Report,
as well as being CEO of the company. Possibly presenting a major conflict
of interest, Professor Mills is also described as the Director of AMRAD
pharmaceuticals, which has recently constructed a massive new complex
also in prime land by the Yarra River.
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There are several political reasons why the psychiatric system in Australia is
disproportionately populated by doctors who are not Australian – by birth, or
culturally. Many are not Australian citizens and do not regard Australia as
home. This is important because when treating people’s minds, one’s
loyalties, including national loyalties (and concepts of ‘patriotism’) are
important – especially when making diagnoses of political beliefs.
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It is so obvious that this system can be abused that most States which
employ psychiatric diagnoses also have laws proscribing the misapplication
of labels of madness for political, religious and philosophical beliefs. This is
the case in every State in Australia – however gross abuses in the application
of these labels occurs, and many people have been crippled and died, while
they could have been (and may have been) great artists, philosophers, poets,
or politicians. The reason so many potentially wonderful careers are
destroyed by psychiatric diagnosis and treatment is that the criteria defining
‘abnormality’ enshrined in psychiatric texts are fundamentally anti-creative.
Dopamine-blockers inhibit creative thought, and the diagnosis of original
(idiosyncratic) ideas as “psychotic” (out of touch with ‘reality’ as defined by
the medical profession) also inhibits creative thinking. This includes so-
called ‘lateral thinking’ (referred to as ‘flight of ideas’, a ‘classical
symptom’ of ‘mania’ and ‘hypomania’) and belief in things that others do
not believe (‘delusions’).
The label of ‘mania’ can also be applied to people who become progessively
more outspoken, adventurous, spontaneous or generous. Giving away
expensive presents and giving away one’s possessions are regarded as
typical ‘manic activities’, as is, incredibly, striking up conversations with
strangers on a train, and “increase in goal-directed activities” (DSM IV,
1995). While states of insane mania may exist, the criteria for diagnosis of
hypomania and mania are biased against particular types of activity and
particular beliefs. These are proscribed, not because they are unhealthy, but
because of the political and religious background within which psychiatric
diagnostic criteria were developed. In terms of politics, ‘acceptable’ views,
according to the ‘apolitical criteria’ of the DSM and ICD classifications are
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The reason usually given for foreign graduates working, at least temporarily,
as psychiatric registrars and residents, when they first come to Australia, is
that there is a shortage of local graduates to work in the public hospital
psychiatric system. This may be true, but if so, there are good reasons why
local graduates do not want to work in the capacities demanded of them by
the psychiatric system – signing orders that take away their neighbour’s
rights and freedoms, and prescribing that drugs and injections be given to
people against their will. Most in Australia do not regard such activities as
fgiving people a “fair go”, but most do not know what goes on inside
psychiatric hospitals. Many have noticed, however, that people often come
out worse (after treatment) than when they went in.
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The Annual Report of the Victorian Mental Health Review Board and
Psychosurgery Review Board for the year ending 30 June 1998 states
that the Board heard 4827 cases in 1997-98, an increase of 11.6% from
the previous year, when 4326 cases were determined. In 1990-91, 2657
cases were heard, and a constant rise in the number of cases has
occurred each year since then. Of these 4827 cases 33% were
involuntarily detained inpatients (held against their will in hospitals)
and 63.4% were people objecting to community treatment orders
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An argument that could be put forward to justify this low release figure is
that few of the people denied their freedom were not in need of forced
treatment and denial of the right of free movements that other citizens are
entitled to and take for granted. In other words, most of the people
incarcerated and forcibly injected with major tranquillisers (‘antipsychotics’)
need this treatment for their own wellbeing and that of society, and thus no
human rights abuses are occurring through the actions of the Mental Health
Review Board.
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In it he warned, hypocritically:
“Those who do not learn from history are doomed to repeat it,
claimed Santayana. What can we learn from the Soviet and Nazi
horrors? We can recognise in both contributory elements derived from
concepts moulded by the psychiatric profession itself. In the USSR
the monopoly of Snezhnevskyism facilitated the State’s embrace of
psychiatry to stifle dissent. In Nazi Germany, the eugenic movement,
led in part by distinguished academic psychiatrists, was the foundation
on which Hitler could erect his murderous edifice. Thus we see that
psychiatry is not necessarily an innocent victim when forces beyond
its borders seek its connivance to pursue pernicious goals.”
The Annual Report of the Mental Health Review Board (1998) states that
65% of patients seen at hearings had been diagnosed with schizophrenia,
with another 9% as having “schizoaffective disorder” and 11% with “bipolar
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The Board, which had “considered whether the patient’s beliefs could be
characterised as religious” decided that it did not matter whether or not they
were religious, since “even if [the patient’s] beliefs were “religious”, the
Board finds that aspects of [the patient’s] “religious practice”, namely his
interaction with aliens, falls properly into the category of hallucinations,
rather than mystical experience with the supernatural…”. The appeal for
release was rejected and the Mental Health Review Board decided that “even
were his beliefs to be characterised as “religious”, the Board can and does
take them into account, along with these other factors, to determine [the
patient] to be mentally ill.”
The Mental Health Review Board hearings are usually held in a room at the
same hospital where the patient is held, and may have been held for several
weeks or months, and some people have been kept on involuntary status for
several years with plans to continue certification indefinitely, against which
practice no real protections currently exist. It is important to note that these
are not dangerous, violent people who have murdered people or even broken
the law. They are usually young people who have been diagnosed as
schizophrenic because of their beliefs and behaviour and refuse to accept the
label and the crippling drugs that have been forced into them (usually by
injection if they refuse to swallow them), usually in huge doses and in
locked wards of psychiatric hospitals.
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The majority of this money has gone into restructuring of the existing mental
health system, including the formation of the Mental Health Council,
integration of “community psychiatry services” and the construction of
several new psychiatric institutions, including a new 135 ‘bed’ forensic
psychiatry hospital in Yarra Bend Park, adjacent to the Fairfield Infectious
Diseases Hospital. The lack of public consultation and sinister degree of
secrecy concerning this major construction project is predictable when the
history of forensic psychiatry in Melbourne is known.
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If the person is held in police custody or imprisoned by the courts, they may
still be subject to psychiatric drug treatment. As Professor Paul Mullen
writes in Foundations of Clinical Psychiatry:
“Psychiatrists also became involved in the care of those in prisons
who though not so disordered as to have been found insane were
sufficiently disturbed as to require treatment. The role of psychiatrists
now includes a wide range of advisory and therapeutic functions at
almost every level of the criminal justice system.” (p.322)
The word “care” is used very loosely. The prisons in Australia are not
intended for the care of people, they are intended for punishment. The
punishments are termed “custodial sentences” and are the result of
“judgements” of guilt. Incarceration is unpleasant and widely recognised to
be unpleasant, not least of all because of the environment in which
“offenders” are held. One has reason, then, to doubt a stated intent to “care
for” rather than contribute to this punishment. Painful, crippling injections,
electric shocks to the head and permanent labels of “mental disorder” are
indeed cruel punishments. Professor Mullen uses the term “mental disorder”
repeatedly in the text, but makes a mess of defining the term:
“Mental health legislation varies between definitions which leave
the issue to the medical profession and those which state clear criteria
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Associate Professor Jayashri Kulkarni who authored the above and the
chapter on “personality disorders” in Foundations of Clinical Psychiatry
from which it is quoted is one of the few female psychiatry professors in
Australia, and is, with Professors Graham Burrows and Robert Adler, a
“ministerial nominee” on the “psychosurgery Review Board of Victoria”.
The Psychosurgery Review Board is co-administered with Mental Health
Review Board. Graham Burrows is the head of the Mental Health
Foundation and the Department of Psychiatry at the Austin and Repatriation
Hospital at Heidelberg, Melbourne, and Robert Adler is, in addition to being
a “professor of child psychiatry”, is the psychiatrist on the Medical
Practitioners’ Board of Victoria.
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others for his or her own mistakes or misbehavior (Criterion 5), being
touchy or easily annoyed by others (Criterion A6), being angry and
resentful (criterion A7), or being spiteful or vindictive (Criterion
A8).” (p.91)
Inconsistently, but for obvious reasons, given the authors of the DSM, the
adults who order bombs to be dropped on other countries (or their own
country), send young people to kill other young people and order the
execution of “prisoners on death row” are excluded from a diagnosis of
“conduct disorder”. The scientists who infect innocent young animals with
Ebola virus and other killer-viruses are also spared a diagnosis of “conduct
disorder”: the label is intended with other targets in mind.
The DSM explains, without declaring the social, racial and cultural
prejudices (let alone the age-ist ones) underlying the practical application of
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To make sense of “conduct disorder” one must first decide what the “basic
rights of others” are. The United Nations Universal Declaration on Human
Rights could be used as a guide. Article 3 states that “everyone has the right
to life, liberty and security of person”. This is surely an indisputable and
fundamental human right. A child who takes the life of another person may
be diagnosed as having “conduct disorder”, according to the DSM IV, with
good reason, but this is merely a description of the crime, not an explanation
of the cause of the crime. “Oppositional Defiant Disorder” is not an
explanation either: it just means that the child concerned refuses to obey the
orders he or she is given. This may occur for any number of reasons. Neither
children nor adults enjoy being given orders, as a rule. People usually prefer
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One of the rules that children and adolescents are expected to obey, to avoid
a diagnosis of “conduct disorder” (or “antisocial personality disorder” in
adults) concerns violence. This includes physical violence and emotional
violence (outbursts of anger or verbal aggression). Even “passive
aggression” can be viewed as evidence of “mental disorder”. Violence and
cruelty to animals can also be diagnosed. Yet children as a whole are
subjected to a constant (and escalating) barrage of violent images and ideas,
aggressive modes of speech and behaviour from television and video
programs, as well as from adults in real life. They are presented with self-
mutilating role models like ‘Marilyn Manson’ who scream or growl lyrics
about killing people, hating people and destroying life. They are fed “sound
bites” and have their concentration interrupted every few minutes with
“commercial breaks” and are then labelled with “attention deficit disorder”
if they fail to concentrate in class. They are brought up watching television
shows glorifying a promiscuous lifestyle and are then diagnosed as
“mentally ill” or “mentally disordered” if they adopt one themselves. They
are given addictive drugs (including amphetamines) from their early
childhood and then labelled “substance abusers” if they ingest or inject the
same drugs (or other drugs) later in life.
Violence also comes in many forms which are not covered by the DSM,
which also fails to mention needles as possible dangerous weapons. It is also
known that amphetamines, which are routinely prescribed to children as
young as four years old in Australia and the USA for AD/HD are notorious
for causing violent behaviour in both adults and children. Amphetamines
were invented about 100 years ago and were first used to attempt to control
the behaviour of “hyperactive children” as long ago as the 1940s. It was a
largely unsuccessful experiment, not least of all because amphetamines were
found to be highly addictive, and to cause psychosis and aggression. Methyl
phenidate (Ritalin, from Novartis) is the most prescribed ‘modern’ stimulant
for children diagnosed with ADD or AD/HD. It is also an amphetamine-like
drug, although it is less addictive than dexamphetamine, which is also
prescribed for ADD and AD/HD.
In the 1970s and 1980s, “true hyperactivity”, as it was then called, was
considered to be a rare condition, affecting about one in two hundred
children (0.5% of children). These children were said to show a
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The first step, as with the marketing of any new diagnosis, was to claim that
ADD is often undiagnosed and is actually much commoner than previously
supposed. ADD (AD/HD) was now said to affect up to 5% of children, a 10-
fold increase on what was claimed a few years earlier. No cause for an
increase in the disorder was identified, however, and no explanation put
forward for the sudden increase in prescription of amphetamines.
Furthermore, the well-recognised addictiveness of these drugs was denied by
senior paediatricians and psychiatrists.
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drug: it is due to the diagnosis and the fact that they are being compelled to
take a tablet because of “past failures and faults”. John Court even admits
that:
“It’s hard to resist the comment ‘Have you had your tablet today, Peter?’
whenever an ADD child misbehaves.”
Another keen promoter of the “AD/HD” diagnosis and the use of stimulant
drugs in children is Dr Christopher Green, author of Toddler Taming and
other books about bringing up children. In 1998 he authored an article in
Modern Medicine titled “Attention deficit hyperactivity disorder – clearing
the confusion”. Perhaps better sub-titled “refuting the criticism”, the article
seeks to reassure doctors and parents about the safety of stimulant drugs,
while legitimising what is clearly a vague, subjective and stigmatising label.
He states “the cause” of the condition with authority but a noticeable lack of
evidence:
“Until relatively recent times, professionals blamed the parents’
attachment or relationships for causing ADHD behaviours. Others
said that ADHD was due to additives in food. Now we know that
neither of these is the cause, although the standard of parenting and
some food substances may influence already existing ADHD. Two
things are certain: firstly, ADHD is strongly hereditary and, secondly,
it is a biological condition.”
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Green has difficulty explaining how it is that all these different behaviours
are caused by the same “disorder” or how it is that “stimulant medication” is
miraculously able to “control the problem”. He tries hard to validate his
position that this “disorder” (which is diagnosed on the basis of unwanted
behaviour) is a “biological condition”. By this he means that it is caused by
dysfunction of the brain (a similar label, ‘minimal brain dysfunction’, was
used for many years). He claims that this has now been “proved”. He writes:
“For years it was presumed, but not proven, that ADHD is caused
by a minor difference in brain function. Now this can be shown by
imaging techniques such as PET, SPECT, and volumetric and
functional MRI. In ADHD, scans using these techniques show a slight
difference in function and anatomy in the behaviour-inhibiting areas
of the brain (the frontal lobes and their close connections). The
mechanism of this underfunction seems to be caused by an imbalance
of the neurotransmitters noradrenaline and dopamine. The effect of
stimulant medications, which are used to treat ADHD, is to increase
the production of these natural chemicals.” (p.119)
John Court, in The Puberty Game, repeats the chemical imbalance theory,
while presenting a regressively mechanistic, reductionist model of mental
function:
“ The rationale for giving medication to children with ADD is this:
the brain acts like a computer in many ways, but its function depends
on chemical substances called neurotransmitters. Neurotransmitters
help transmit messages between nerve cells, which are called
neurones. Neurones are the basic units of the nervous system,
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The “Turning Point Alcohol and Drug Centre” in Melbourne lists some of
the “common symptoms in amphetamine withdrawal” in their 1996 booklet
titled, “Getting Through Amphetamine Withdrawal”. Days 1 to 3 (described
as ‘the crash’) are typified by exhaustion, increased sleep and depression. On
days 2 to 10 the symptoms include, “strong urges (cravings) to use
amphetamines, mood swings (alternating between feeling irritable, restless,
and anxious to feeling tired, lacking energy and generally run down), poor
sleep, poor concentration, general aches and pains, headaches, increased
appetite and strange thoughts (such as feeling that people are ‘out to get you’
misunderstanding things around you, such as seeing things that aren’t there).
The withdrawal symptoms, according to the Turning Point doctors, “start to
settle down” in 7 to 28 days, during which time common symptoms include,
“mood swings (alternating between feeling anxious, irritable or agitated, to
feeling flat and run down), poor sleep and cravings”. It is easy to see how
the withdrawal symptoms of stimulant drugs can be attributed to the
conditions they are claimed to be treating: they sound remarkably similar to
the “symptoms” of “attention deficit/hyperactivity disorder”.
The concept that initiating young children and their parents (and siblings)
into taking tablets to improve concentration and behaviour could lead to
subsequent dependence on drugs generally is not difficult to understand. The
psychological ramifications (for the whole family) of singling out individual
children to blame for arguments and discordance in the family (or
classroom) is cruel and socially destructive. I have not read a single article
blaming boring school curricula for lack of attention from children, although
‘inconsistent discipline from parents’ is blamed as a ‘contributing factor’ at
times. Furthermore, the medical profession continue to turn a blind eye to
the part they play in creating drug addiction, despite growing concerns from
the public as well as from dissidents within the profession. Christopher
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It is not true that “stimulant medication was first used for ADHD in 1937”.
In 1937, “ADHD” did not exist. It is true, however, that some children were
experimented on with amphetamines, and that these children were labelled
as ‘hyperactive’. The construction of the “new disorder” which is now
accepted so glibly as a distinct “biological condition” by Dr Green and
others, was formally announced in the 1994 Fourth Edition of the Diagnostic
and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders by the American Psychiatric
Association (APA). The “disorder” is described as follows:
“The essential feature of Attention-Deficit/Hyperactivity Disorder
is a persistent pattern of inattention and/or hyperactivity that is more
frequent and severe than is typically observed in individuals at a
comparable level of development (Criterion A).”
It appears that the psychiatrists who decided on these criteria were brought
up in the school that insists that “children should be seen but not heard”.
Further evidence of “hyperactivity” is evidenced in children who “often get
up from the table during meals …or while doing homework”. Far from
recognising any deleterious effects of television on concentration, according
to the DSM IV, getting up often “while watching television” is further
evidence of abnormality.
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“Antisocial personality disorder”, which is the new label for people who
used to be described as “sociopaths”, is not a nice thing to be diagnosed
with. The term implies that the person has no conscience, and does not feel
remorse for causing the suffering of other people or animals. There is no
doubt that such people exist, however the label is selectively applied for
those caught up in the prisons and psychiatric systems, and not those who
make the sort of rules that allow the poisoning of European rivers with
cyanide, the distribution of landmines or the incarceration of children. Men
who send young men off to war and inject them with chemicals for corporate
profits, or create depression and suicide for personal profit are also spared a
diagnosis of “Antisocial personality disorder”, together with men who
design taxes that further impoverish the poor and dispossessed in countries
with an offensive disparity between the conditions in which rich and poor
members of society live.
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The “long term unemployed” are targetted with this horrible label, which
does not take into consideration the frustrations, loss of self-esteem and
boredom which can result from being denied rewarding and meaningful
activity:
“Individuals with Antisocial Personality Disorder also tend to be
consistently and extremely irresponsible (Criterion A6). Irresponsible
work behavior may be indicated by significant periods of
unemployment despite available job opportunities, or by abandonment
of several jobs without a realistic plan for getting another job. There
may also be a pattern of repeated absences from work that are not
explained by illness either in themselves or in their family.” (p.646)
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The DSM IV deftly redirects the attention to the victims and not the
perpetrators of poverty. Under “Specific Culture, Age and Gender Features”
the textbook claims:
“Antisocial Personality Disorder appears to be associated with low
socioeconomic status and urban settings. Concerns have been raised
that the diagnosis may at times be misapplied to individuals in settings
in which seemingly antisocial behavior may be part of a protective
survival strategy. In assessing antisocial traits, it is helpful for the
clinician to consider the social and economic context in which the
behaviors occur.” (p.647)
The textbook follows with a suggestion that the label is not applied often
enough to women:
“Antisocial Personality Disorder is much more common in males
than in females. There has been some concern that Antisocial
Personality Disorder may be underdiagnosed in females, particularly
because of the emphasis on aggressive items in the definition of
Conduct Disorder.” (p.647)
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Professor Paul Mullen, who presents the “case history”, omits some valuable
information about this man that could help understand his behaviour. It is
easy to see “unpredictability” in people one does not understand. What
happened to this man’s family? Did he have any siblings, and if so, where
are they and what is his relationship like with them? Was he a stolen child?
What colour was his skin? What religious beliefs, if any, did he have? Was
he addicted to drugs, like much of the prison population? What drug
treatment had he been given in the past? Had he ever been given ECT? What
kinds of punishments was he subjected to in the boys’ homes and prisons
where he had obviously spent much of his youth? What had he stolen in the
alleged ‘burglary’?
Mullen presents this case in this way to illustrate some points of psychiatric
dogma. One is that people with “personality disorders” are not “insane”. To
put it simply, they are bad, not mad. This means that they can be
incarcerated in jails rather than psychiatric hospitals, although they can still
be treated with psychiatric drugs. Another point the professor is trying to
illustrate, is that people who “develop” this adult personality disorder
demonstrate “symptoms” of Conduct Disorder earlier in life. Despite the fact
that the ‘case example’ may be fictional or fictionalised, the story of this
young man does illustrate an all too common journey for unwanted children
in Australia. Disobedience, disorder label, psychiatric treatment, loss of self
esteem, drug addiction, depression, alcohol abuse, aggression and violence,
police punishment, custodial punishment, worsening of drug addiction, self-
harm, combined prison incarceration and punitive psychiatric treatment. Not
surprisingly, this journey often ends in early death, often attributed to
suicide.
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The committee of inquiry into this death consisted of Paul Mullen, who was
then Professor of Psychological Medicine at the University of Otago, and
David Bates, a barrister. Despite his advice to students that “a psychiatric
report can present them as people with backgrounds, personalities, strengths
and weaknesses”, Professor Mullen presented a report that is cold and
impersonal, but also negligently omissive. It was, in fact, a cover-up.
Dolly Jane Pohe, whose age, race and family background are not mentioned
in the report died on Sunday, 7th April, 1990, after being admitted as an
involuntary patient by Dr Newburn on Wednesday, 4th April, three days
earlier. During this time she received 10 injections: 4 of haloperidol, 4 of
diazepam (Valium), one of chlorpromazine (Largactil) and one of
clonazepam (Rivotril). All these drugs are tranquillisers. In addition to this
she was given a huge amount of oral “neuroleptics” (dopamine-blockers)
including chlorpromazine and haloperidol. This included 400 milligrams of
oral chlorpromazine as soon as she was admitted (which was followed by
intramuscular injections of 30mg haloperidol and 10mg diazepam an hour
later) and 15 mg oral haloperidol later that afternoon.
The next day she was given 15 mg haloperidol at 8.00 a.m., with further
doses of the same drug at 1.00 p.m., 3.30 p.m., 6.00 p.m. and 9.00 p.m. At
4.15 p.m. she was punished with intramuscular injections of haloperidol
(30mg) together with diazepam (10mg). Her crime was escaping from
torture and going down to the pub:
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“At 15:30 the security room door appears to have been open and
Ms Pohe slipped through and left the ward. The police were notified.
She was returned to the ward by the police at 16:15 having been found
in a nearby pub, the Palace Tavern. She was given haloperidol and
diazepam intramuscularly on return to the security room as she was
noted by Dr.Finucane to be more irritable and disturbed. She appears
to have settled after the medication until about 18:00 hours when she
was noted to be restless and banging on the door. She was threatening
to the nursing staff [from behind a locked door] and they recorded
anxieties about her potential for physical aggression. Ms Pohe seems
to have settled from 19:30 and remained quiet and probably sleeping
until 07:00 the next morning.”
One thing that is obvious about Dolly Jane Pohe is that she did not want to
be locked in a room, and repeatedly banged on the doors, presumably to be
let out. This was callously noted as evidence of “aggression, violent
behaviour and restlessness”, further evidence of “mania”. It is unclear as to
what specific evidence Dr Newburn found of a “deteriorating state” other
than that she refused to co-operate with the incarceration and was angered
by it, and by how she was being treated. It is relevant that she was calm
enough to converse with the doctor before he injected her with the drugs.
Maybe she hoped he would let her go home, or at least leave the “security
room”. This was not to be the case.
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The next day, finding that she was still imprisoned, Dolly Pohe was
obviously despairing, but also suffering from poisoning by the drugs she had
been given:
“On the Saturday morning she was noted to be restless and
irritable, banging on the door and angry. It was possible to bath her
and she had some breakfast. At about 09:00 she calmed down and
appeared to be asleep until 10:20. She was then noted to be in some
distress, “wailing sounds” were noted. She then slept until mid-day.
“At 12:00 hours Nurse Young became aware that Ms Pohe was
heavily sedated and was apparently having difficulty swallowing. She
decided not to administer any further medication and phoned
Dr.Finucane to inform him of Ms Pohe’s state and her decision.
Dr.Finucane supported her decision.
“At 13:00 hours Nurse Young noted Ms Pohe’s pulse was
irregular. She phoned Dr.Finucane to apprise him of the situation. He
instructed her to call the on duty house surgeon to request an ECG.”
Dr Finucane “examined” Dolly Pohe at 4.00 p.m., but reassured the nursing
staff that although he “found her to be drowsy and unco-operative” he “was
able to examine her cardiovascular system” and her pulse was now regular.
He thought, however, that the 400 mg of chlorpromazine she had been given
in the morning combined with clonazepam may have resulted in a cardiac
arrythmia (irregularity) and wrote in the chart, “try to use just haloperidol for
rest of day”.
If the evening nurse had the same reluctance to further drug a heavily
drugged prisoner as Nurse Young, Dolly Jane Pohe may have survived. Mr
Lee, the male nurse who took over the care of Ms Pohe after Nurse Young
did not share her concerns. He noted that “whenever Ms Pohe did rouse she
showed signs of becoming disturbed again and he felt it was important to
maintain the continuity of the sedation effect”. She was given 20 milligrams
of haloperidol at 14:45, 19:00 and 22:00, according to the report. She was
given another 20 mg of haloperidol at 1.00 a.m. after banging at the door
again, this time because she wanted to go to the toilet. When nursing staff
entered the seclusion room at 5.15 a.m. she was dead.
The report, presented to the Director General of Health (New Zealand) made
two recommendations, after a single sentence of “summary”. The summary
reads:
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The Fairfield Infectious Diseases Hospital, next to which the new Forensic
Psychiatry Hospital is currently being built is the home of the Macfarlane
Burnet Institute, the largest AIDS research institution in Australia. The
Macfarlane Burnet Centre (MBC) is soon to be located next to the Alfred
hospital in a multi-million dollar development. The executive director of the
Macfarlane Burnet Institute is the American Harvard University graduate
Professor John Mills, who is also the director of the AMRAD corporation.
AMRAD is a new ‘Australian’ biotechnology company, a branch of which is
AMRAD Pharmaceuticals, which is involved in joint projects (as “corporate
partners”) with the Macfarlane Burnet Institute, according to the Institutes
Annual Report. Other (non-executive) directors of the Institute, which is
soon to be relocated to new premises at the Alfred Hospital in Prahran,
include Sir Roderick Carnegie, who is described in the 1998 MBC Annual
Report as Chairman of Hudson Conway and Director of John Fairfax
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The 1996/97 Annual Report of the Macfarlane Burnet Centre for Medical
Research Limited lists their biggest corporate sponsors as HIH Winterthur
(insurance), Rio Tinto (mining) and Smith Kline Beecham Pharmaceuticals.
HIH Winterthur donated $112,700, Rio Tinto donated $90,000 and Smith
Kline Beecham donated $40,000. Page 17 of the Annual Financial Report
(1998) of the Macfarlane Burnet Centre states (in bold italics) under
“renumeration of directors” that non-executive directors do not receive any
income. It also contains a small table that one director (presumably the
executive director, Professor Mills) was paid $273,515 (30 June 1997) and
$453,745 (31 December 1998). Chairman of the Board of the Macfarlane
Burnet Centre is Mr.Graeme Hannan, also Chairman of the Hannan finance
group, and the Deputy Chairman is Mr Raymond Williams, also chief
executive officer (CEO) of HIH Winterthur International Holdings Limited
and director of the following organizations: Insurance Council of Australia,
Australian Motor Insurers Limited, and Garvan Institute for Medical
Research (in Sydney).
The insurance industry and mining industry both have a vested interest in the
public health programs promoted by the Macfarlane Burnet Centre for the
prevention of AIDS and hepatitis, programs which are exported to Africa,
Asia and the Pacific Region by the Centre under the auspices of the World
Health Organization. These programs have an almost exclusive focus on
surveillance, injections, drugs and condom distribution as part of what is
euphemistically called a “harm reduction” strategy. The promotional
literature of the National Mental Health Strategy and Drug Strategy suggest
that “harm minimization” and “harm reduction” programs accept that “drug
use is now an unavoidable feature of society” and rather than attempt to stop
people from injecting themselves with heroin, amphetamines and other
chemicals, public health designers are focusing on teaching young people
“safe injecting habits” such as not sharing needles between “users” and safe
disposal of contaminated needles and syringes.
The other major focus of the Macfarlane Burnet Centre, under the guise of
“epidemiological research”, is investigation of the sexual habits of particular
populations of young people in Australia and elsewhere, particularly the
Aboriginal population, with the simultaneous promotion of what is, again
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activities, along with the insurance industry. One wonders also what
conclusions “the computer” will reach with all the information gathered
about young aboriginal people in urban and rural Australia, and what other
purposes this sensitive information could be used for.
In the next annual report, the same strategy is described as “a harm reduction
approach” without giving the detail that this involves the distribution of
needles and syringes.
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Monash University and the University of Melbourne are the only institutions
that are allowed to produce medical graduates in Victoria, and only medical
practitioners are allowed to prescribe psychoactive drugs via the national
Pharmaceutical Benefits Scheme (PBS). Many potentially dangerous drugs
are, however available “over the counter” at pharmacies in Australia, and
others on pharmacy shelves and supermarket shelves. One such drug is the
opiate codeine, which, like morphine, pethidine and heroin causes
habituation and physical dependence with extended ingestion.
Opiates act on the brain by binding with opiate receptors on neurones. These
neurones are thought to be mainly in the central core of the brain, in the
hypothalamus, midbrain and brainstem. The emotional circuit termed the
limbic system is closely connected to these areas as is the movement
generation centre termed the basal ganglia. The hypothalamus, and other
parts of the brain produce the body’s own supply of natural opiates, termed
endogenous opiates or endorphins. These act as natural painkillers, relieving
both physical and psychological pain. They are released in increased
quantities at times of need due to the integrated activity of the nervous
system and mind. This physiological and biochemical mechanism is one of
an undiscovered number of natural abilities that human beings have to
withstand pain and other traumatic experiences and recover from them.
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The ingestion (or injection) of opiates has two obvious and predictable
effects on the brain’s physiology. Firstly, less opiates are produced by the
areas of the brain that normally secrete them. A similar effect is observed in
people who take thyroid extracts or cortisone, when endogenous production
(by the body) of these hormones decreases. The second predictable effect is
that the brain starts developing more receptors for opiates, partly due to
damage of other artificially stimulated receptors.
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brought out their own SSRIs to get their share of the “depression market”, as
their own marketing plans describe the troubled people of the world.
SmithKline Beecham, the huge UK-based drug company are one such
company, and, in the mid-1990s began an aggressive marketing campaign in
Australia and New Zealand for their SSRI antidepressant Aropax, with a
particular push for the prescription of the drug by psychiatrists and general
practitioners for “panic disorder”. This was done with the assistance of the
Mental Health Foundation, headed by Professor Graham Burrows, who
endorsed a series of “patient education” leaflets promoting the diagnoses of
“depression”, “anxiety”, “panic disorder”, and “obsessive compulsive
disorder”(OCD) and the new drugs to treat these conditions (including the
ones produced by the sponsor SmithKline Beecham notably Aropax).
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(including the brain) from the dietary amino acid tryptophan, and performs
many functions in the body other than being a “happy chemical”, which is
what the promotional literature from SmithKline Beecham suggests. This
advertising blurb also fails to mention that serotonin is concentrated in the
brain in the pineal organ, where it is converted to the neurohormone
melatonin, a scientific fact discovered in the 1960s and conclusively proved
in numerous studies. The fact that serotonin is concentrated in the pineal
where it is converted to melatonin during the night-time hours of darkness is
generally not found in literature about Prozac, Aropax and the other SSRI
drugs, including information provided by the drug companies to doctors or
in the many books and medical articles published about (and promoting) the
new psychiatric drugs.
Australian ABC reporter Ray Moynihan, in his 1998 book Too Much
Medicine? described an elaborate launch of Aropax and panic disorder in
Sydney, in 1996:
“One of the top chefs in the country is catering at one of the best
venues in the nation. A large gathering of doctors are about to tuck
into a $100-a-head meal. The live satellite link with hundreds of their
colleagues across Australia is soon to start: another lavish promotional
event dressed up as a scientific gathering, courtesy of the
pharmaceutical industry.
“This 1996 Sydney harbourside dinner was how the drug giant
SmithKline Beecham chose to ‘educate’ doctors about the
government’s approval of its new antidepressant, Aropax, for the
treatment of a psychiatric condition called panic disorder. The night
was just one component in a highly sophisticated marketing campaign
to promote Aropax and this little-known disorder. The strategy
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included Panic, the book; Panic, the video; and Panic, the T-shirt.”
(p.115)
Moynihan continues to expose just a small amount of the ensuing cost to the
Australian community:
“The use of new antidepressants, including ‘Aropax’ and the better
known ‘Prozac’, has grown astronomically in Australia since the early
1990s, from 5,000 prescriptions a year in 1990 to over 2.5 million in
1996. ‘Aropax’ is now one of the top-selling antidepressants. And as
the number of people using these expensive new drugs has
dramatically escalated, so too has the cost to the taxpayer. The new
antidepressants now cost the Pharmaceutical Benefits Scheme funded
through Medicare over $120 million in 1995-96.” (p.115)
The 1992 SmithKline Beecham marketing plan, sent to the ACACP and
HRIC by a human rights worker in New Zealand in 1998, demonstrates a
callous disregard for the human beings being targeted to both prescribe and
consume this drug. The following extracts show the general tone of the
document:
“Task/Assignment
For the creative, we need a foundation concept and image, reflected in concept
boards for:
A detail aid
An invitation to the launch seminar
An educational mailing pack
Branding advertisements
The client wants to research and test the campaigns submitted. Our concept boards
should be designed with this in mind.
Objective
Marketing Objectives
4. Establish SSRI’s as the “future of antidepressant therapy” by educating GPs.
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5. Differentiate Aropax on the basis of its key attributes and strong branding.
6. As a result, establish Aropax as the SSRI of choice.
Advertising Objectives
3. Build strong brand awareness of Aropax as the SSRI of choice. As we may
have a standing start race against a similar competitor, all branding must be
strong and emotional.
4. Build on the educational messages of the direct marketing.
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Interstate competition and rivalry are not confined to Victoria and New
South Wales. Parochial attitudes are common in Queensland and the other
states, since Australia has never been a truly unified nation in terms of the
people who live here and even those who feel they belong here and are
citizens of the country. Although they may identify themselves as
‘Australian’ when overseas, many Australians identify themselves (and
others) as “Queenslanders”, “Victorians”, “Western Australians” etc. This
division of the population into camps with different state loyalties affects
some members of the community more so than others. In the arena of State
Politics, antagonism between State Premiers, usually based on arguments
about the relative allocation to State Governments of federally collected
taxes, is typical.
The basic structure of the mental health system in Australia and elsewhere in
the “Commonwealth” was established by the British Government following
colonisation, which was actively resisted by the native residents of Australia
as it was by native populations throughout the world. The period of
European colonisation of the world began long before the 1700s when what
is now called Australia was claimed by Captain James Cook for the British
Crown. Only 100 years ago the separate states that had been set up as semi-
independent states and penal colonies (large prisons) were federated into the
Commonwealth of Australia, in which the system of separate states with
separate state governments persisted, with an additional Federal
(Commonwealth) Government with power to over-ride State laws and
policies (under certain conditions), based in Canberra. Constitutionally,
however, Australia remained a monarchy ruled by the British Royal Family
and their political representatives, and the Governor General of Australia
was given the power to dismiss the elected government, under certain
conditions, as occurred in 1975, when Gough Whitlam’s Labour government
was sacked by John Kerr.
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The World Health Organization was formed after the Second World War as
a United Nations associated organization with a responsibility to improve
the health of the global human population. The organization initially focused
especially on infectious diseases in what they called the “third world”, being
a poorly-defined collection of nations most of which are in Africa and South
America. South-East Asian and South Asian nations were also mostly
described as “third world”, whereas Russia and China formed the less
spoken of “second world”. The “first world” in this three tiered classification
of the 180 or so independent nations on Earth, were the same nations that
developed the classification and their historical, economic and political
allies. Thus Britain, the United States of America, Canada, France,
Switzerland and the Scandinavian countries were elite members of the First
World, while Germany and Japan, who “lost the war”, were also allowed
into the first world club, provided they accept the economic and
development reforms decided by the United Nations policy makers, which
included the notorious World Bank and International Monetary Fund (IMF).
transported across and the countries in which they are ‘refined’ and
consumed or otherwise used. Too often, the raw minerals that are mined by
the slave-labour of a particular country are sold back to the enslavers at
enormous profit in the form of weapons and other technology to control the
increasingly restless populations of impoverished and angry slaves.
The ideals espoused by the United Nations many organizations have been
consistently noble, such as eradicating infectious disease, malnutrition and
pollution, and the promotion of peace and global tolerance, respect and
friendship. The outcomes of policies prescribed by the United Nations have
been less than disappointing in all these areas, and today, people in
increasing number are dying of infections, malnutrition, poisoning and the
direct or consequent effects of warfare and slavery.
The architects of policies that have created the modern medical, educational
and economic systems in Australia have included native Australians as well
as immigrants to the country and foreign citizens and nationals. This is also
the case in military policies and decisions, in a situation unique in the
modern world.
The August 1999 Bulletin magazine features a cover story titled “Defence:
our new policy revealed” by “national affairs editor” John Lyons. The article
begins:
“The chief of the Defence Department, Paul Barratt, has just been
sacked. An official report has condemned the $5bn purchase of six
Collins-class submarines as a disaster, saying they are unfit for war.
Morale has hit rock bottom for Australia’s armed forces personnel.
And a major review of Australia’s defence outlook, prepared in 1997,
was outdated before it was even published.
“Despite the fact that events had overtaken the assumptions
contained in them six months earlier, the government’s two reviews
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The article also stated that “the Foreign Minister, Mr Alexander Downer,
said in Singapore that Australia would consider sending more police to East
Timor to deal with any increase in violence after the self-determination
ballot”.
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The similarity is that capital rules and capitalism rules, with a veneration of
the principles “free market” and “economic rationalism”, both euphemisms
for modern slave theory. A key deception of this excuse for economic and
political expansion by already dominant economies is the concept of “the
trickle-down effect”. This is a justification for the worsening gap between
haves and have-nots in countries and communities around the world, and a
suggestion that if the rich are allowed to become richer still, some will
“trickle down” to poorer members of society increasing the “overall wealth
of society”. This discriminatory economic theory has turned out to be a bad
joke played on the millions of people who have been induced to climb the
illusory economic ladder only to find themselves deeper and deeper into
“debt”, more stressed, and more depressed.
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The signs have been evident for many years that the global economy is sick.
These signs include a widening gap between rich and poor individuals and
nations as well as rising dependence by the people of the earth on drugs to
help them cope with living. Most animals do not need help to cope with
living, although some, diagnosed as suffering from “depression” by human
beings, are being given the same drugs that humans take to medicate their
unhappiness. Despite these drugs, or because of them, the number of people
who are killing themselves has been increasing every decade during the past
50 years. These are surely some signs of a sick economy.
In 1999 the Age newspaper contained a half page story on page 4 titled
“Australia’s stark reality: size does matter” written by the reporter Malcolm
Maiden. The article claimed that “the company that once called itself the Big
Australian signalled its final, full surrender to the forces of globalisation.”
The “Big Australian” referred to is the mining company BHP (Broken Hill
Propriety Limited), whose advertising campaigns of the past have identified
the company as “the Big Australian” and the “Quiet Australian”. The
newspaper report described some of the actions of the new American boss of
the company, which many Australians continue to identify as a “great
Australian company” along with Arnott’s biscuits, Holden motor cars and
other traditionally Australian companies which have been taken over by
larger foreign controlled companies in the new “globalised economy”.
It would appear on deeper political and economic analysis, that the State and
Federal (Commonwealth) Governments of Australia “surrendered to the
forces of globalization” many years ago, and for over a decade have been
loud advocates of what was termed “globalization” and “economic
rationalism”. Both are synonymous with “the economy being ruled by the
markets” and those with the most “capital”: capitalism, in other words. The
Australian Governments have been strong proponents of the philosophy that
large corporations and affluent individuals should be allowed to continue to
profit freely with “minimal government interference” suggesting that by so
doing, a “trickle-down effect” will lead to an overall rise in standard of
living, with the poor also eventually benefiting from increasing affluence of
the rich. This too is a Capitalist philosophy, closely connected with the
notorious social and political philosophy called “social darwinism”.
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“Social darwinism” infers from the concept that it is “natural” for the strong
to survive and the weak to die, that it is natural for the rich to prosper and
the poor to be exploited and enslaved. It supposes that in the “struggle for
survival”, the “fit” (rich) are destined to rule over the poor. This applies to
individuals, as well as groups of people and even nations according to social
darwinist theory. Nazi theory is a development of social darwinism, centred
on the implementation of “eugenics”, a catastrophic medico-political attempt
to “improve the genes and genetics of the human race” initially by selective
sterilization of those considered unfit to breed, and later by the mass murder
of races and classes of people considered dangerous, defective or
degenerate.
The first is that some people, families, and some classes of people are
superior to others, and therefore deserving of more political power, more
money and property and more respect from the “public”, as well as better
opportunities for happiness, survival and success. These people are also
encouraged to have more children and to educate them in such a way as to
maintain the existing class and political structure. The “inferiors” in these
hierarchies were considered to be deserving of rule, as well as exploitation
by the “superior” races, classes and cultures.
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The second is the class structure itself. Charles Darwin, as the grandson of
the imperial social theorist Sir Erasmus Darwin, was born into an elite
English academic family, and supposed, as his letters to his cousin Francis
Galton reveal, that the Darwin family were exceptionally well-endowed with
“geniuses” (including himself), amongst what he considered to be the most
intelligent type of person on earth, the Englishman of good breeding (and
from a “good family”). Hitler, and other advocates of racial superiority
theories formulated, or had formulated for them, different hierarchies, with
some differences in the order in which races and individuals have been
categorised in terms of “superiority” and “inferiority”, however the basic
obsession with categorisation according to class, colour, race and presumed
genetics is common to all.
The term “eugenics” and the first Society (organization) for Eugenics were
created in the 1860s by Charles Darwin’s first cousin Sir Francis Galton and
Darwin’s son, with the ostensible aim of “improving humans by selective
parenthood, and to give a better chance to the more suitable races or strains
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of blood” (De Paoli, 1997). The philosophy was exported from London,
where it originated, to Germany where both eugenics and euthanasia
(“mercy killing”) were instituted as State Social Policies in the 1920’s and
1930’s when, starting with the mentally ill and physically deformed, those
deemed to be “immoral”, or “degenerate” were killed following torture in
the form of cruel medical experimentation. This was a horrible practice that
became obvious to the world following the Second World War, when the
methods used by German and Japanese authorities to achieve “racial
cleansing” was revealed (in part) by the mass-media, which had become
increasingly powerful following the development of television in the 1920s.
The abuses which resulted from eugenics were usually blamed, however, on
“Hitler and the Nazis”, clouding the issue of why and where the Nazi’s got
their ideas. It also clouded the important fact that many other nations,
including those which constituted the “Allies”, also implemented eugenic
policies before and during the Second World War. Television, as usual, told
only part of the story, and was used, from the outset, for the purposes of pro-
British and pro-American propaganda. It did not suit the agenda of the
television programmers at the time to reveal to the world how widely
eugenic philosophy was accepted and implemented.
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not, in fact, true. The cruel tests were done in the interests of the
pharmaceutical industry in the USA and England, specifically for those of
the American company Winthrop (manufacturers of Panadol) and ICI
chemicals, which were testing out a German-discovered drug, later marketed
as Paludrine. After the war ended, the trials continued for several months in
Melbourne, at the wishes of these foreign drug companies, demonstrating
the lie that lay at the heart of claims that they were necessary for the health
of Australian troops. The drug trials and the deliberate infections which
preceded them were orchestrated by the military hospital at Heidelberg,
Melbourne, and conducted in remote North Queensland, far from the eyes of
the rest of Australia and the world. What is worse, rather than compensating
the victims of this cruel human experimentation, the government of
Australia and the Australian military denied that such events actually
occurred until 50 years later, and even then denied culpability for their
actions. The orders that resulted in what can easily be described as torture
came from the British Empire, without whose agreement (and complicity)
the experiments would not have been allowed.
At the time of Erasmus Darwin, Charles’ grandfather, London was the centre
of the British Empire and the “global economy”, and the academics in
England’s two major Universities, Oxford and Cambridge, considered (and
declared) themselves to be the cream of the world’s intellect. They were the
educators of the British Royal Family and the designers of the British
educational system which was exported to the world. They were also the
designers and masterminds of English Imperialist theories, including the
divide and rule policies used in the many countries colonised by British
Forces, and many other socially destructive policies that continue to this day,
sometimes due to conscious efforts to attack other countries, societies and
populations and sometimes as a result of entrenched attitudes and
procedures.
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In 1794, the same year Erasmus Darwin published his book, slavery was
officially abolished in all French territories, but not in British ones.
The Chronicle of the World, which is, it must be noted, a British version of
history, explains the French actions and motives as follows:
“As the three black delegates from Santo Domingo watched from
their seats in the Assembly, the Convention voted…to abolish slavery
throughout the territories of the republic and to confer French
citizenship on every former slave. Then the Domingans were led to
the Tribunal where the president embraced them as the Convention
rose in a standing ovation…In 1792, a year after the outbreak of the
slave revolt, two civil commissioners – Sonthonax and Polverel –
were sent to administer the island. In August 1793 they freed all of the
500,000 slaves. This humanitarian act had its political side. As long as
the revolt continued it was impossible for France, at war with Spain
and Britain, to defend its colony. Loyal freedmen were naturally better
patriots than rebellious slaves.” (p.783)
According to Chronicle of the World, the French hoped that their action
would “stimulate Britain’s slaves to rise in their turn, thus helping to
undermine Britain’s war effort”. This was not, in all probability, told to the
slaves, who were undoubtedly pleased at being freed, not realising that their
freedom was part of a military strategy. Here is seen one of the symptoms of
a globally sick economy: military and political strategy disguised as
“humanitarian action”. It also becomes evident from this historical episode,
that war between European states has been a dominant feature of global
politics for several centuries. It is worth noting that the British attempted a
similar strategy during the American War of Independence, when Negro
slaves were offered their freedom if they fought for the British against the
Americans. Hundreds of slaves were subsequently betrayed by the British,
and sold again into slavery after the British lost the war.
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Darwin gives some figures for “world population” that he could not possibly
be certain about, since at the times concerned large parts of the world were
“undiscovered” (by Europeans), and the populations of these areas have
been consistently underestimated (an example of which is seen in the Terra
Nullius declaration of Australia by the British):
“At the beginning of the Christian era the population of the world
was about 350 million. It fluctuated up and down a bit, and by A.D.
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1650 it was still only 470 million. But by 1750 it had risen to 700
million, and now it is 2500 million. That is to say that for 1700 years
it was fairly constant, and then in 200 years it has suddenly
quadrupled itself.
“The increase of world population is still going on at a rate of
doubling itself in a century, but it is a most menacing thing to think
about.” (p.104)
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to matter. I doubt that even an atomic war would have any serious
influence on the estimate, unless it led to such appalling destruction of
both the contestants that the economy of the whole world was ruined
and that barbarism and starvation would ensue.” (p.109)
Professor Darwin likes the word “tremendous”, and it such a solution that
the grandson of the author of Descent of Man, exhorts his audience at
Caltech to work on:
“It is very much to be hoped that a great deal of thought will be
given to this matter on the chance that someone may hit on a solution,
but I must repeat that nature’s method of limiting population is so
brutally tremendous that it can never be replaced by any such triviality
as the extension of methods of birth control. It calls for something
much more tremendous if there is to be any prospect of success.”
(p.109)
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Lyons writes:
“After the defeat in Vietnam, US and Australian policymakers and
the public lost the appetite for prolonged overseas engagements. The
Nixon doctrine of 1969 preached that unless a leading power
intervened in a Third World conflict, the US should not commit
forces.”
It is more palatable for politicians in the USA and UK to have soldiers from
other nations doing the actual fighting and dying in the conflicts these arms-
producers support. This is an age-old military strategy which was used by
the British throughout the colonial era, which was continued in the Second
World War and after it concluded. Lyons writes:
“Defence planners want Australia to become more involved in
“coalition operations” such as supporting the US in a Gulf War-like
crisis since the US does not like to engage in military operations by
itself. Increased inter-operability with the US coincides with
Australia’s desire to improve its technology, part of what the
Americans call the Revolution in Military Affairs, combining the
emergence of new technology with advanced strike capability” (p.25)
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The national affairs editor of The Bulletin explains that this change in
“Australian” defence policy brings clear economic benefit to the US (but not
to Australia):
“In order to become more of an “all-rounder” as a military force,
the conclusion drawn by defence planners means it will be necessary
for Australia to buy more military equipment and technology from the
US.
“Under the hidden policy, virtually any purchase can be justified.
This is reflected in the acquisitions Australia is considering, including
Apache armed reconnaissance helicopters with Longbow radar and
Hell-fire missiles, which are designed essentially for attacking tanks
or underground bunkers of the type found in Iraq or Northern Korea –
a long way from the air – sea gap.”
The late twentieth century has been a time of global warfare, although this
has often been disguised by euphemisms, particularly in countries like
Australia which attempt to present to the world an image of a nation that is
intrinsically peaceful. This is far from true. Australia has sent troops to fight
in wars all around the world over the past century and even today Australian
troops are involved in military activity far from the nation’s shores.
Over the past one hundred years young Australian people have been sent to
fight in the Middle East, Africa, Asia and the pacific region. They have
sometimes been called “peacekeepers”, sometimes “allied forces”, but rarely
“mercenaries”. Sometimes they have been forced to go to war after being
conscripted, as occurred in the Korean War and Second World War. In more
recent times forced conscription has not occurred, and Australian military
personnel have been paid well for fighting or “peacekeeping” in foreign
lands. In fact, it is doubtful that these soldiers would leave their homes in
Australia were it not for the fact that they are paid well to do so. In this case,
“mercenaries” would surely be a more appropriate term to use to describe
these people.
Such views are not likely to be popular in Australia, since the troops
currently in Timor are being heralded as heroes who are “keeping the peace”
and preventing genocide by Indonesians who committed mass-murder of the
indigenous Timorese population for two decades before the recent events in
the island. It should be recognised, however, that the Indonesian (Javanese)
invasion of the previously “Portuguese” half of Timor occurred with the
complicity of the Commonwealth Government in Canberra, and despite
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In this analysis, the battle for oil deposits in the bed of the Timor sea are not
mentioned, but this is another of the “strategic” (economic) considerations
fuelling desire by Australian politicians to control the sea between Timor
and Australia. Despite Australia’s less than enviable human rights record,
and recently revealed abuses by and corruption in our police forces, it is
claimed by Lyons that:
“If Timor votes for independence, a new country will need to be
built with independent political systems, police force and education.
Much will depend on Australian funding, backed by Australian
peacekeepers.”
It also “opens up” Timor to capitalist insustry, and the hold of Australian
mining companies in the area. Australia itself has an appalling human rights
record: with many abuses involving the police and related psychiatric
industry. Only a fraction of the aboriginal population survived the initial
onslaught by British colonists, and today most live in desperately
impoverished circumstances, in “aboriginal settlements” where they have a
life expectancy about twenty years shorter than the rest of the Australian
population. Abuses by State police against aboriginal people (especially
those in custody) and psychiatric patients (many of whom have been shot in
recent years) have received limited media attention in Australia, but more so
in the foreign press. It is worth noting that during what was indisputably a
genocidal campaign against the indigenous population of the continent, the
officials who presided over this carnage were called “protectors of the
natives”. It is also worth noting that in the 1840s, when aboriginal people
were still being hunted for “sport”, enslaved and massacred, the British
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It could be said that “free trade” values the freedom of industries more than
the freedom of people. Unfortunately this means that industries that result in
disease and death of humans are protected in the modern world more than
people are. It is also the case that “free trade zones” are poorly disguised
concentration camps of economic, and sometimes physical, slaves.
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found on the rubbish tip of the factories where they had tried to
organize a strike.” (p.146)
The “restraint” that Western governments display towards these abuses may
seem “astonishing” to the authors of this book, but they are hardly out of
character given the long history of Western Governments supporting slavery
under the pretext of protecting “free trade”. This book was written prior to
the collapse of the “Asian Tiger economies” in 1997, which was blamed, in
the Australian media, on various factors that had little to do with mass
opposition in these countries to the conditions in these forced labour camps.
The Economist claimed, for example, on 10 January, 1998, that “the crisis in
Asia shows no sign of abating” despite “the vast sums of money that the
International Monetary Fund is applying to the problem”. This included a
“rescue plan worth $43 billion” for Indonesia, which followed a “package of
$57 billion for South Korea” in 1997. The magazine claimed that the
economic crisis in Asia was due to “failure of Asia’s domestic regulators to
strike a balance” between the risk of lenders and depositors:
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The Economist fails to mention an author for this short article, which
describes the “costless Mexican bail-out” as follows:
“Recall the Mexican bail-out of 1995. Nobody feared a global
meltdown in that case, though there were worries (justified, it turned
out) about Latin American contagion. Guided by other considerations,
America and the IMF nonetheless arranged support amounting to $40
billion. It worked. Confidence was restored. Growth in exports
allowed the emergency loans to be serviced at market rates and repaid.
American investors in Mexico didn’t lose their shirts and, in the end,
American taxpayers didn’t pay a cent.” (p.11)
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world” bankers and creditors. In fact, with a longer view of history, one
could reasonably ask as to who owes who in the world of
“macroeconomics”. It is also evident that despite claims that these bankers
are “bailing out” poor nations in crisis, the real motive is protection of the
economies of rich countries (particularly the USA) rather than poor ones.
The textbook goes on to say that, in response to a crisis that “threatened the
international banking system”, debts of many poor nations were rescheduled
in the 1980s, giving them more time to pay back their “debts”. In reality,
though, the post-WWII terms of international trade, including the activities
of the World Bank and IMF ensure that regardless of how much time these
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nations are given to “service” their “debts”, they will continue sinking
deeper and deeper into “debt”. Yet this “debt” does not really exist. The
“Third World” owes nothing to the “First World”, and if anything the
reverse is the case. The rich (colonising) nations surely owe billions of
dollars in compensation to the now poor nations that they have exploited for
the past several centuries.
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The body is much more than blood, however. People need much more than
money for a healthy, happy life. They need food, air, light, and shelter, just
to survive. They also need clothing and warmth, emotional and
environmental stimulation, meaningful activity and good education for a
comfortable and healthy existence. The physiological analogy of the
cardiovascular system can also be applied to other systems, with a focus on
healing and regeneration.
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The fact that cigarette smoking is a major cause of respiratory disease was
denied for many years by tobacco companies decades after the medical
evidence demonstrating this fact was overwhelming. During the first and
second world wars cigarettes were promoted as of benefit to psychological
stress although in truth, withdrawal from the drug actually causes this
problem, since nicotine causes physical addiction. When it became
impossible for cigarette companies to promote their product in this way in
“western” countries due to public and medical awareness of the risks of
smoking, the same companies sold heavy nicotine cigarettes throughout the
“third world” instead, whilst finding ways around the laws against public
advertising of cigarettes in European nations (such as ‘sponsorship’ of
televised sporting events). When opportunities arose, in the 1980s and
1990s, to sell American and European cigarettes in previously communist
countries, every effort was made to addict the populations of Russia,
“Eastern Bloc” countries and China to high-nicotine cigarettes despite their
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The respiratory health of the global population will also benefit from a
cessation of industrial pollution, but this is not as easy to achieve as a
cessation of cigarette smoke pollution. A significant reduction in global
pollution could be achieved, however, by greater corporate and
governmental support for non-petroleum energy sources, and with foresight
this is a wise thing for governments and industry to do, since petroleum
deposits are limited. Air itself can provide significant amounts of energy, in
the form of wind power, and sunlight is another clean source of energy,
which is sustainable in the long term. As for global environmental vandalism
of the nature of the recent cyanide spills in Europe, and the pollution of
Australian waterways by the mining and agricultural industries, the
responsibility for repair of previous damage falls on the companies guilty of
the vandalism and careless pollution which now affects every country on the
planet. Compensation for poisoned, oppressed, enslaved, tortured, terrorised,
dispossessed and displaced people of the world is surely the only just
outcome, and one that should become part of the currently dubious United
Nations agenda, as well as that of national governments around the globe.
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Food is necessary for the digestive health of the global population. Contrary
to claims of “overpopulation”, it is well recognised that starvation and
malnourishment do not occur because there is not enough food to go around,
but because of warfare and wastage. The advice of Mohandas Gandhi 50
years ago, that the world provides enough for every person’s need but not
every person’s greed remains true today. Huge amounts of wheat and other
staple foods are regularly destroyed to maintain high prices of resources that
could be used to feed the poor. Rather than encouraging people in poor
nations to grow their own food using environmentally sensible multiple crop
agriculture, for several centuries large areas of the world’s fertile regions
have been, and continue to be, used for environmentally destructive
monocrop agriculture. This monocrop agriculture involves the deforestation
of mixed vegetation and replacement with single crops such as tobacco,
coffee, tea, wheat and sugar. The prices of these commodities has
consistently fallen, while the technology required to maintain these crops has
become more expensive. These crops are also of little benefit to the essential
dietary needs of the nations in which plantations were established during the
era of slavery. These plantations are being maintained for the convenience
and economy of rich countries rather than poor ones. Efforts to become self-
sufficient in terms of food grown in individual nations are regularly thwarted
by the policies of the World Bank and International Monetary Fund, which
support the interests of established industries and large companies based in
affluent nations. Yet even the description of these nations as “affluent”
makes little sense if the claims of “debt to international bankers” are to be
accepted. By these terms the United States of America is one of the poorest
nations on earth, since this “first world” nation, like Australia, also
considered “affluent”, apparently also owes many billions of dollars to the
IMF and World Bank. For what? For policies forced on the nations of the
world that are increasingly creating a global wasteland?
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On 10.1.2000, The Australian contains a page three article titled “Bad habits
push up $3bn pill bill”. In it, John Kerin writes:
“Hectic lifestyles, poor diet and too little exercise are driving up
Australia’s $3 billion-a-year prescription drug bill. An examination of
prescription drug-taking patterns over the past 12 months shows the
big growth has been for the treatment of cardiovascular ailments, high
blood pressure and high cholesterol. Almost 140 million scripts were
issued in 1998-99. Some 18 million were issued for blood pressure-
related complaints in 1998-99 and a further 8 million for drugs needed
to lower cholesterol.”
Kerin adds that, “the use of expensive stomach ulcer and gastric reflux drugs
and anti-depressants is also on the rise”, with a decrease in scripts for anti-
biotics.
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and the same applies for taking blood pressure lowering drugs without
reduction of mental stress, obesity and other “lifestyle factors”.
The health problems which are responsible for most of the pharmaceutical
expenditure of Australia and other “first world” countries are conditions
caused by excess, rather than deficiency. This point is missed by Kerin, and
by Brand. They also fail to mention the major additional risk factor for heart
disease and atherosclerosis: cigarette smoking.
Brand also makes the rather contentious claim that, rather than, again,
aggressive marketing campaigns for new antidepressants, and broadened
criteria for diagnosis of the condition, “higher rates of prescribing for
depression were linked to improvements in its diagnosis”. Actually, this
“improvement” in diagnosis just means that doctors and the public are more
likely to call sadness, frustration, anxiety, worry and distress “depression”.
The diagnosis of depression has been marketed ruthlessly in the mass media,
including medical “educational literature” provided by the pharmaceutical
industry, “health-promotional campaigns”, such as those which formed the
1990s “mental health strategy”. In these campaigns, spearheaded in
Australia by the “Mental Health Foundation”, propaganda from the drug
companies Smith Kline Beecham, Roche, Pfizer and Eli Lilly (list not
exhaustive) exhort patients to self-diagnose themselves as suffering from a
“medical illness” termed “depression”. This illness is said to be caused by
“chemical imbalances”, which are sometimes specified as the
neurotransmitters serotonin and noradrenaline (called norepinephrine in the
USA). This theory, which conveniently acts to theoretically justify the
prescription and ingestion of chemicals (antidepressants) to correct the
“chemical imbalance” is the mainstay of modern biological psychiatry as a
“theory of depression” and is the main explanation pushed by these drug
companies through Mental Health Foundation literature, which is
“sponsored” by these drug companies. All these massive pharmaceutical
companies sell new antidepressants. Eli Lilly produces Prozac, Smith Kline
Beecham markets “Aropax”, Pfizer produces “Zoloft” and Roche offers
“Aurorix”, all to treat depression. The first three of these are SSRI
antidepressants, the marketing of which has constituted one of the biggest
scientific frauds of the twentieth century.
The fraud regarding these drugs involves information given to doctors and
the public about the neurotransmitter serotonin, and the pineal organ in the
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The scam involving the pineal, melatonin and serotonin has involved a
systematic removal of scientific information about known pineal physiology
from medical and scientific textbooks, as well as disinformation about
serotonin and other neurotransmitters. This coincides with the marketing of
melatonin as a sleeping tablet and “natural” cure for jet lag and “seasonal
affective disorder” together with drugs which affect serotonin metabolism,
notably the SSRI antidepressants.
This removal of information about the pineal, which occurred in the late
1980s, affected a range of textbooks published by major corporate
publication companies based in the US and UK, including MacGraw Hill,
Churchill Livingstone and Appleton & Lange. A particularly outrageous
example is the respected specialist textbook Essentials of Neural Science
and Behavior published by Appleton and Lange, a subsidiary of Prentice
Hall International. The “international edition” of this book, which is on sale
in the bookshops of major universities in Australia, completely omits the
pineal organ in their 1995 edition, and the same phenomenon can be
observed in several other highly respected medical textbooks. Although
most parts of the brain are discussed in detail in these books, the pineal
organ is conspicuously absent.
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The pineal is not mentioned in this book, nor melatonin, let alone the
concentration of serotonin in the pineal and the conversion of serotonin to
melatonin. A similar phenomenon can be observed in the Time magazine
article of September 1997 titled “The mood molecule” by Michael
Lemonick.
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was, even before the marketing of the drug as a human weight-loss drug,
known to cause brain damage in monkeys. Lemonick writes:
“From the start, it was clear that Redux has serious potential side
effects. One is primary pulmonary hypertension, a rare form of high
blood pressure that strikes the blood vessels of the lungs. Another,
considered even more serious by some of Redux’s critics, was the
possibility of brain damage. When fed to monkeys, dexphenfluramine
can destroy neurons. Says John Harvey of the Allegheny University of
Health Sciences in Philadephia, who edits the Journal of
Pharmacology and Experimental Therapeutics: “Any of us who were
pharmacologists knew this was a dirty drug. None of us was
surprised.”
“Some critics claim that Interneuron steamrolled Redux through the
FDA and that the agency acted irresponsibly in approving it, charges
that the company vigorously deny.”
The reason that Redux was eventually withdrawn from sale, was not because
of pulmonary hypertension or brain damage. After twenty years of use, it
became evident that the drug also causes irreversible damage to heart valves.
This unexpected side-effect should make doctors and the public more wary
of ingesting drugs that affect natural chemicals which have a broad range of
physiological effects such as serotonin, melatonin, dopamine and
noradrenaline. This concern is highlighted by the fact that, as in the case of
Redux, toxic effects may only become fully evident many years later.
The American producer of Prozac, Eli Lilly, was the first to develop and
market globally a “Selective Serotonin Reuptake Inhibitor” (SSRI): a new
class of expensive antidepressants derived from the stimulant MDMA. The
“designer drug” commonly known as “Ecstasy” shares its origin in MDMA,
but cannot be patented, hence its illegality. These are the realities of modern
drug laws: they are based on economic, not public health considerations.
Several dangerous man-made drugs are illegal, but far more dangerous drugs
are legal. The “illegal” drugs include heroin (derived from opium poppies),
and other opiate narcotics. They are not illegal, however, if prescribed as
pain-killers by doctors, in which case they are greatly overused. The
exception to this is the opiate codeine, which is available over the counter in
Australia in the form of Panadeine, Dymadon and Tylenol tablets (forte
preparations). These are also overused in Australia along with the non-forte
preparations which contain paracetamol alone (without codeine), but can
cause fatal liver and kidney damage, particularly in overdose.
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Drug overdose is one of the growing causes of death in the modern world.
These include both intentional and unintentional overdose. Of these,
unintentional overdose, less usually reported as “drug overdose” than
suicide by intentional poisoning with drugs, is responsible for more of these
deaths. Unintentional overdoses include those due to the self-ingestion of
drugs, including paracetamol, aspirin, tranquillisers, sleeping tablets, anti
depressants and alcohol. The category also includes drugs given in excess
amounts by doctors and hospitals to people who are considered in medical
need of these drugs by some doctor or another. Often different doctors
contribute to a cocktail of drugs that individuals in the modern world
consume. Individuals who look to these doctors for medical advice, but
receive secondhand advertising for and from the pharmaceutical industry
instead.
Turning to the brain of the economy, it becomes evident that wherever it is,
it is not working well. If it was, the economy would not be as sick as it is.
The brain controls and regulates the other systems of the body, including the
rest of the nervous system. The brain is inextricably connected to the mind,
and the minds that have devised the current economic system were obsessed
by war, nationalism and “beating the opposition”. This aggressive attitude
and associated militaristic, mutual paranoia paradigm has had a direct effect
on the economic, political, military and medical decisions which have been
made by governments in the past fifty years, despite claims of globalism.
The paradigm of the United Nations organisation, which grew out of the
League of Nations is still one of perpetual war and conflict, with a hidden
agenda in favour of the nations that formed the “United Nations” and remain
“permanent members of the UN security council” in the first place. These
were the victors of the Second World War: the United States and Britain.
Institutions such as the World Health Organization (WHO) are part of the
UN and World Bank systems, and again represent the interests of dominant
nations rather than smaller or less industrialised ones. In the lingo of the UN,
non-industrialised nations are termed “Third World” or “Underdeveloped”,
with “development” equated with corporate-ruled industrialisation. This is
one of the biggest problems that face the United Nations, World Health
Organization and populace of the world. Global pollution and unrestrained
disease creation amongst humans, plants and animals are the inevitable by-
products of a tradition of aggressive competition between individuals,
corporations and nations entrapped within a militaristic mind-set.
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Like most of the people in the world today, I was born during the Cold War.
While I studied medicine at the University of Queensland in the late 1970s, I
was aware that “the Cold War” was going on, but didn’t realise how much
this would influence my medical training, which in turn largely determined
my belief system, as far as science, psychology and medicine were
concerned. I believed most of what I was taught at university. I accepted that
the world was overpopulated, and that forced sterilization was sometimes
warranted. I thought that there was a strong case for voluntary euthanasia. I
thought that “schizophrenics” needed to be injected with drugs if they would
not take them of their own accord. (I never actually diagnosed anyone as
schizophrenic, manic or personality disordered myself, but would accept the
judgements of other doctors, especially specialists, including psychiatrists).
Until 1995 I remained largely ignorant of medical politics, the role of the
pharmaceutical industry in medical research, textbook publication and
continued education for doctors, other than what I was told myself by
representatives of the pharmaceutical industry (“drug reps”). The many past
crimes perpetrated by members of the medical profession, and examples of
medical abuses such as eugenics applications, which resulted directly from
medical policies, were not mentioned in the 6 years I studied at the
University of Queensland, or the 3 years that followed at the Royal Brisbane
and Royal Childrens’ Hospital in Queensland. The role of the medical
profession in supporting warfare was not explained to me at medical school,
but it became evident to me in the years that followed. It has been a gradual
realisation, accompanied by several surprises about how closely my own
training was influenced by military medicine.
During 1987, when I worked as a senior resident doctor and junior registrar
at the Royal Childrens’ Hospital, in Brisbane, Queensland, I served as a
senior resident for Professor John Pearn (who became Head of the
Department) and Dr Barry Appleton (paediatric neurologist). It surprised me
to read recently then, in the drug-company sponsored “Current
Therapeutics” journal, that Barry Appleton is also a senior officer in the
Australian Military, specifically, in the Royal Australian Air Force.
John Pearn, who authored the article about “Military Medicine”, regarded
himself, when I worked in the Royal Childrens’ Hospital (at which he was
‘professor of paediatrics’), as a “paediatric geneticist”. Professor Pearn is
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Biological warfare has recently become a matter of public concern, and has
always been a matter of public importance. An acknowledged form of non-
conventional (or unconventional) warfare, biological warfare is centred on
the use of infective and biologically toxic agents, including bacteria, viruses,
funghi, and chemical toxins to cause acute and chronic illness. Historically,
germ warfare as used to both kill and maim targetted populations. These
have sometimes been declared ‘enemies’, but more often they have been the
victims of covert warfare, especially during the proliferation of germ warfare
in the 20th Century. During the Second World War, as has been admitted
many decades later, both the Allies and the Axis powers developed and
tested various infective agents for use in biological warfare. On this matter
there is a noticeable difference between the claims of the opponents in the
Second World War and Cold War.
Australia, where this work was researched, where I studied medicine from
1978 to 1983, and where I have worked as a doctor for the past 18 years,
was a member of the Allies in the Second World War, and has aligned itself
politically, militarily and scientifically with the Capitalist West since the
first political foundation of this nation. This is a very recent event – the
nation of Australia is only 100 years old. In stark contrast, the land of
Australia is very ancient, and the first people who arrived here did so in the
unimagineably distant past. These were the people the White Nation that
called itself Australia (Southern Land) now refers to as ‘Aborigines’. This
term is, of course, not a specific one. During the era of colonization the dark-
skinned natives of all the “discovered” continents were called “Aborigines”.
Roughly the same populations were also described, in historical records and
texts as “natives”, “savages” and “blacks”. Often these terms were used
interchangeably and had been since the earliest days of cargo slavery by the
architects of the “Age of Discovery”, as the Western history textbooks refer
to the period of history from 1490 to 1600, when the monarchies of Western
Europe discovered millions of people to enslave and exploit.
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these nations directly financed the voyages, and immediately claimed all
“discovered” territories for themselves. The Catholic Church sanctioned
these possessions and immediately sent missionaries to convert the natives.
This was done at the same time that soldiers, armed with guns and cannons
established “colonies” at various strategic locations around the globe. Each
site was chosen with care. Strategic importance was paramount, in terms of
strategy in the war between the various colonising (European) nations, and
the war against the people resisting enslavement, for colonization always
brought enslavement.
The role of, initially, the Catholic Church, and later the Protestant Churches
in aiding, abetting and sanctioning the expansion of various European
empires, despite the fact that it was a vehicle for slavery and exploitation,
must be acknowledged if one is to understand the history of genocide in the
modern world. In 1494 Pope Alexander VI gave divine sanction for the
division of all new lands between the monarchies of Spain and Portugal.
King Ferdinand and Queen Isabella of Spain, who had financed Christopher
Columbus were “given” the “hemisphere” (half-globe) West of the Azores
islands in the Atlantic Ocean (North, South and Central America), and the
King of Portugal, John II, was granted any “discoveries” in the Eastern
Hemisphere (Africa and Asia), since he had financed Bartholomew Dias,
who had “first” sailed around the southern tip of Africa, discovering a sea
route to the Indian Ocean and thus to the valuable “spice islands” the East
Indies.
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Henry VIII ascended the British throne at the age of 18 and ruled the British
Empire until his death in the year 1547 at the age of 56. During this time he
squandered much wealth in wars against his French and Spanish rivals. To
replendish the Royal coffers he seized, with the assistance of his First
Minister, Thomas Cromwell, the lands and property of the Catholic Church
in Britain. This occurred after his break with the papacy due to the refusal of
the pontiff, Pope Clement VII to “annul” his marriage to Catherine of
Aragon, the Spanish princess he had married in 1508. Catherine, who was
previously Henry’s sister-in-law (she was the widow of Henry’s older
brother Arthur), was the daughter of King Ferdinand of Spain, who had been
granted the “Western Hemisphere” with his wife Queen Isabella by the
Spanish-born Pope Alexander’s papal decree of 1494.
Henry VIII’s main foe during the many years he waged war against the
French was King Francis, who died, aged 53, on the 31 st of March in 1547,
only two months after Henry. Francis had waged war, for many years,
against the Habsburg emperor Charles V, for control of the European
mainland and the newly discovered territories in the Americas. Charles, the
son of “Philip the Fair” and “Joanna the Mad”, was the grandson of
Ferdinand II of Aragon, the husband of Queen Isabella of Castile. Ferdinand
and Isabella had united their kingdoms in 1479, ten years after their
marriage, resulting in a shared empire centred in Spain. At the time, the
main threat to Spanish territorial ambitions came from the neighbouring
monarchy of Portugal, which, after a four-year war (1475-1479) was
granted, by the Spanish monarchy, a monopoly of trade and navigation along
the entire West African coast. When the explorer Bartholomew Dias,
sponsored by John II of Portugal, rounded the Cape of Good Hope (which he
initially named the ‘Cape of Storms’) in 1488, the territorial claims of the
Portuguese expanded dramatically, to include the entire “Eastern
Hemisphere”.
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Commonwealth). Henry VIII also presided over the formation of the “United
Company of Barbers and Surgeons” in 1540, appointing Thomas Vicary, the
Sergeant Surgeon of Henry’s army, as “Master” of the new union. The
United Company subsequently became the Royal College of Surgeons (in
1800). In Medicine: the art of healing (1992), the politics surrounding the
formation of the United Company of Barbers and Surgeons is described:
“In London, prior to 1540, there were two distinct groups of
surgeons who were in fierce competition over the right to supervise
those who wished to practice that craft. The more elite of the two was
the unincorporated Guild of Surgeons, with perhaps twoscore
members who had learned their skills while serving in military
campaigns. The other was the much larger group of the Barbers’
Guild, who had distinguished themselves from their fraters who had
only practiced barbering. With 185 members, this was the largest of
the livery companies in London.
“The amalgamation into the new United Company of Barbers and
Surgeons was advantageous to both organizations. The status of the
barbers was elevated by their association with the elite surgeons and
by their separation from the pure shavers and hairdressers. For the
surgeons, the advantage lay in the increase in total numbers and the
much larger treasury of the men with whom they had been linked.”
(p.40)
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Britain, Ireland and the British Dominions beyond the Seas, King, Defender
of the Faith, Emperor of India”. The “faith” that George and his armies
“defended” (and attacked with) was the Anglican religion, as defined and
ordained by the Church of England (Anglican Church). This religion had
been founded by the notorious King Henry VIII, who arranged for himself to
be appoined head of the new English Church when broke from the Catholic
Church because the Roman Pope refused to annul his marriage to Catherine
of Aragon, so he could marry again. Henry VIII had been granted the title
“Defender of the Faith” by an earlier pope because of his military support
against the Vatican’s enemies. The title “Emperor of India” shows clearly
that George V regarded himself as the owner of this ancient land, and of his
various “dominions”. It was thus not really a “common-wealth” – it was a
system of Imperialism under a new name and a new organizational structure.
The “white” colonies and “dominions” (Australia, New Zealand, Canada,
South Africa and Newfoundland) could aspire to being “equal members in
the British Commonwealth”, but those in the colonies and “protectorates”
mainly populated by “people of colour” were to continue as “inferior
members”.
In 1936 George V died leaving the throne for his son Edward VIII, who
reigned for less than a year, abdicating the throne to marry the twice-
divorced Mrs Wallis Simpson, and American. The fact that Mrs Simpson
was divorced and an American national made it impossible, according to the
king’s legal advisers, for the Edward VIII to marry her, so he abdicated in
favour of his younger brother George VI, the father of the current Queen of
England, Elizabeth II.
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shall be sent abroad and how much shall remain at home must be
made on the basis of our over-all military necessities.
“We must be the great arsenal of democracy. For us this is an
emergency as serious as war itself. We must apply ourselves to our
task with the same resolution, the same sense of urgency, the same
spirit of patriotism and sacrifice, as we would show were we at war.”
(Roosevelt, 1940, quoted in As It Happened: A History of the United
States, Sellers, et al, 1975, p.695)
In his broadcast to the nation Roosevelt said that “we are planning our own
defense with the utmost urgency; and in its vast scale we must integrate the
war needs of Britain and the other free nations resisting aggression”. The
“other free nations” in President Roosevelt’s terms, included South Africa,
Canada, Australia and New Zealand, which were “members of the
Commonwealth” of equal status with Britain according to George V’s
proclamation of 1926. Officers from these (white) nations had been placed
in positions of authority over the various “coloured soldiers” in His
Majesty’s Army, since the British Government, under the eugenist Winston
Churchill, had been “integrating” its own “war needs”. In His Majesty’s
armed forces it was possible for a dark-skinned man to become a low-
ranking officer, but only as frequently as Galton’s theories would have
predicted this. The command positions were all occupied by white men, all
of whom had a “good education”, meaning that they went to elite schools
and universities. These men were rarely killed in the kinds of war the British
waged – while the hordes of Indians, Africans and Australians who rushed to
defend the “Commonwealth” occupied the front line. They were the
occasionally honoured, and frequently killed, “privates”, who formed a
“buffer zone” between the enemy’s bullets and the officers who gave the
orders. The officers had been trained to order “their” men to keep fighting.
The Second World War was fought on several fronts. These have relevance
to the scientific and medical information to follow, so I will provide a brief
overview of the politics of WWII as I perceive them. I did not learn anything
about the Second World War at school or university, and have only a limited
knowledge of its details, however most people have gathered that the Second
World War included a war between certain European governments for
control of Europe and Africa, and a war between the Japanese Imperial
goverment and the government of the United States of America. Predictably,
given the victors of the Second World War, Germany and Japan are usually
seen as being the aggressors in the Second World War, while Britain and the
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USA are seen as the defenders of freedom and democracy. While it is true
that the Germans and Japanese had Imperial designs, the British and
Americans did also. British efforts to dominate the world, and create a
global empire, long predated even the foundation of Germany. At the
outbreak of the Second World War the British government claimed supreme
authority over a fifth of the world’s land surface: including “dominions and
possessions” on every continent. The “jewel in the crown” of the Empire
was India, the population of which was very much greater than that of the
British Isles. India, which had been wrested from Moslem moghul rulers by
the British in the 1700s, had long been a source of enormous wealth for the
Royal British Royal Family and their allies. Many of the “crown jewels”
were “given” to the British by the elite Indians, who were allowed to
maintain their priviledged position in His (British) Majesty’s Indian Empire,
provided they pay their taxes and allow their people to be exploited and
enslaved. The rule of “British Raj” continued in India through the long reign
of Queen Victoria, during which time Indian “indentured labourers” (slaves
from Tamil-speaking Southern India) were sent to various British
dominions, including Queensland (Australia), Ceylon (Sri Lanka), and
British territories and “protectorates” in the Caribbean Sea, Indian Ocean
and Pacific Ocean. In all these areas the British established “plantations”
which were administered by “whites” and where most of the work was done
by “blacks” (of either African or Indian racial heritage).
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When the British conquered the hill kingdom of Kandy in the early 1800s
they succeeded, where the Portuguese and Dutch had failed, to gain political
control of the whole of Ceylon. They never developed cultural control,
although for many years they tried. This was done by setting up systems of
government and education along the lines of other “colonies”. Ceylon was
then regarded as the “pearl of the Indian Ocean” a rich, fertile island in the
centre of the trade routes between Europe, Africa and the far East. For many
centuries the kings of Ceylon had exported spices and precious stones to
Arab and Chinese traders, and later with Portuguese and Dutch ones. The
Portuguese were the first to try and take control of the island. This was in the
1600s, and the Portuguese, with their guns and cannons were able to take
control of the coastal kingdoms in the south of Ceylon. The Portuguese,
French and British had already established armed fortresses along the coast
of eastern and western coasts of India, during the 1600s and 1700s. The
Dutch, however, had control of the “East Indies” – now called Indonesia,
and then also known as the “Spice Islands” or “Moluccas”. The Dutch took
control of the ancient cities of Java, creating a Dutch-speaking capital of the
“Dutch East Indies”, which they named Batavia (now Jakarta). The Spanish
controlled most of the South and Central American mainland, with the
exception of Brazil, which was a Portuguese colony. The Spanish also
controlled, during the age of cargo slavery, the south-east Pacific islands still
called the “Philippines”. In 1898, the United States of America took control
of the Philippines, along with Cuba, Puerto Rico and Guam in a treaty with
the Spanish, which was signed in France (the “Paris Treaty” of 10.12.1898).
When the British and Dutch developed their own navies, in the 1600s and
1700s, they predictably challenged the Portuguese and Spanish claims.
Pointing to the considerable atrocities being committed by the Iberian
soldiers, the Protestant English and Dutch explained to the natives that they
hoped to exploit, that the Spanish and Portuguese were cruel Catholics who
had misunderstood the true word of God. This, claimed the Protestant
missionaries from England and the Nederlands, was to be found in the “King
James Version of the Bible” which was duly translated into hundreds of
languages. The British and Dutch colonists did not approach established
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civilizations with guns in the first instance; they used, instead, flattery and
bribery, and, failing that, threats. Although their ships were armed with
cannons and carried soldiers with guns and swords, the British and Dutch
governments and monarchies kept their hands clean by having the dirty work
of betrayal, bribery and slavery to be organized and implemented by
“trading companies”. The British East India Company and the Dutch East
India Company, two such companies that were given authority to kill,
exploit and enslave in the name of their respective monarchs, are of special
relevance to events in Africa during the Second World War that may point to
the cause of the current epidemic of AIDS in South Africa.
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The Congo, now the independent African nation of Zaire, is where the AIDS
epidemic in Africa is said to have begun, and was the worst hit of the
African countries in the 1980s. Zaire, like Southern Africa, is rich in
minerals, and also contains the last large remnants of the tropical rainforest
that once covered so much of Africa. It is also the last remaining home of
our closest primate relatives, chimpanzees, which are, like many rainforest
animals, threatened with extinction at the hands of mankind.
Other than Australia, the central focus of this book is on Africa, a continent I
have only visited on a single occasion, in 1990. At this time I briefly visited
Zimbabwe, Kenya and Tanzania. Knowing little about the history of Africa,
I was amazed when we visited the “Great Zimbabwe Ruins” that Cecil
Rhodes refused to believe could have been built by any people other than
‘whites’ despite overwheming evidence to the contrary. These are the
remains of a Southern African civilization dating back centuries before
Bartholomew Diaz sailed around the Cape of Good Hope, encouraging his
sponsor, the king of Portugal to claim, for himself and his family, the whole
of Africa. The Spanish, however, disputed the Portuguese claim, and the
warring monarchs sought the decision of the religious leader of their people
and the remnants of the Roman Empire – the Roman Pope, head of the
Catholic Church. The Pope decreed in the 1490s that the Portuguese King
John II could have the “Eastern Hemisphere” (east of the Azores Islands in
the Atlantic Ocean, and thus Africa and Asia) while Queen Isabella and
King Ferdinand of Spain could have the Western Hemisphere (the newly-
discovered Americas, hence the term “New World” various European
history books).
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In Southern Africa, where the Germans fought against the British and
Belgians for control of the diamond-rich coast of South-West Africa, and
where Galton made his name, the AIDS epidemic is out of control. Over one
thousand people in South Africa alone are said to be infected with HIV
every day. These are all predicted to die within the next 15 years by
Australia’s premier AIDS advisory and research centre, the Macfarlane
Burnet Centre in Melbourne.
Closely related to the history of genocide is the dreadful use of chemical and
biological weapons and warfare. The deliberate creation of disease in
targetted populations has a long history, dating back to at least the Middle
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Ages, when bodies of people who had died from the bubonic plague were
thrown over the walls of beseiged cities to infect the surrounding enemy
(with the additional objective of avoiding disease from the dead bodies).
This book has been more concerned with physical genocide than cultural
genocide, although the two are clearly related. Physical genocide results in
cultural genocide and destroying the culture of a targetted population results
in the premature illness and death of members of the culture concerned.
Generally, and in the case of Aboriginal people in Australia, physical
genocide and cultural genocide have been employed as parallel strategies.
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REFERENCES
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96.Cantwell, A. (1997) Virus Wars: Does HIV Cause AIDS?, New Dawn,
March-April 1997
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