Australian Gulag

Just discovered that there were 18,000 ECTs performed in Victoria in Australia, from 2007-8. 60% of them against the will of the hapless recipients. Having seen my mother Olga, after several of these 'enlightened procedures' which rendered her into a dribbling brainless wreck, I am horrified. But also surprisingly unsurprised. I myself, have been victim to a Stalinist inspired repression at the hands of social workers at the Melbourne Citymission who subjected me to an investigation that dragged out over several months, denouncing me to be unable to make decisions for my disabled and mentally ill sister, Alexandra. I have found out subsequently that many relatives of mentally ill and disabled people have been tarred by a similar brush- regarded as difficult, emotionally unstable, intimidating, caring only about themselves- when in actuality said relatives (myself included) have been bending over backwards to do their best for their afflicted loved ones. Who have dared to question (bad idea in a Stalinist State) the care their relatives are receiving, who have asked to be involved in decisions (complete no no!) and have got justifiably indignant when accused wrongly of (a) witholding inheritance (b) neglect, amongst other preposterous accusations. I think I am lucky that I have an excellent support network (including lawyers in high places) or else I would now be dribbling after an ECT performed on me against my own will; a procedure to calm me down so I would not be such a thorn in the side of these do-gooders of social workers. One of the things that this whole terrible stressful period has shown me, is an inkling into what my mother faced in 1950s Australia- when as an Eastern European migrant, totally traumatised by Hitler and the real Stalin, she tried to negotiate in a society with a set of rules and language very different to her own. She had no chance. She had not escaped from the Stalinist gulag; she had just landed in a nothet. I can see that now, having faced just a smidgen of the injustice, she was subjected to..