My mother could posibly be described as an Australian internal refugee. She had a miserable life. As an unmarried mother at a time when the unmarried mother's pension did not exist, she was forced to work at whatever low paying job she could obtain to keep herself and her baby.

This meant working as a cook on sheep stations or as a waitress or usherette earning a wage two thirds of what a man would recieve for doing the same job. By the time I was 11, I was sleeeping in the same bed as my mother in a singe, bed bug infested bed in a rented room. It was at that point that mother was assessed by the Housing Commission as a person "most in need." But she still had to wait six years to get a HC flat.

It was there that I discovered that immigrants only had to wait 2 years to get a HC flat. I have been a trenchant critic of immigration and Asylum shoppers ever since.

I do not give a damn how "depressed" the writer of this article is or how "depressed" asylum shoppers are. I note the high levels of welfare dependency and criminal behaviour by some "refugee" groups hardly makes them ideal citizens and their presence in this country is inimical to the interests of Australians. In Australia, the welfare of Australians comes first. The welfare of ones own people is the highest morality.

Thanks Conrad for a sensitive and sensible article. I've often thought that, given the state of the world, depression is a natural reaction by increasingly alienated individuals when deprived of any sense of security, community and individual agency by rapid sociocultural and technological change, environmental degradation, displacement and the fragmentation of sovereignty under politico-economic globalisation.

It's interesting to compare the strategies that people use to cope with these depressive forces, as reflected in the statements made by commentators in this forum. Some would evidently rather not think about the mess the world's in, preferring to simply think about other things or to ridicule those who seek causes for pathological responses by many to an increasingly alienating world.

Others seem to project their alienation onto those who are culturally different from them. In their hateful and vituperous statements we can see expression of deep-seated anger and resentment directed towards convenient scapegoats that they classify as 'aliens'. One doesn't need to have a Freudian orientation to connect childhood deprivation and maternal fixation with adult sociopathy.

Of course, the rise in religious fundamentalism of all persuasions is also a global response by alienated individuals to the dehumanising processes that have increasingly accompanied politico-economic globalisation. We see plenty of evidence of this particular malaise in these forums, where religious extremists attempt to demonise others who - somewhat ironically - subscribe to different forms of religious fundamentalism to their own.

IMHO, anti-Western terrorism may also be viewed as an extreme expression of the same alienation. To put it another way, the sociopathology of the suicide bomber can be traced to exactly the same kinds of alienating forces as can the sociopathology of xenophobia, racism or Christian fundamentalism, or the 'I'm alright Jack' approach of those who dismiss misfortune in others.

Although it can be both instructive and entertaining to read these kinds of ultimately pathological statements, I find them far more depressing than the kind of perceptive and sensitive analysis found in an article such as Gershevitch's.

Conrad, perhaps if you took an aspirin and have a little nap! Or a good swig of whisky or a six pack. Turn your TV only to the funnies, read the comics in the paper and throw away the rest, you will feel much better.
And best of all, do some gardening and thank Himself for this wonderful world.
But please do not screw your head up with misery.

Depression is a health crisis that is experienced by one in four teenagers. More money definately needs to be spent on the mental health system.

Keep making excuses for religious terrorism, Mahatma Sitting Duck, it does the redneck cause an immense amount of good with the public.

And keep sticking up for every ethnic group in the world except the ones who have led the world to an age of prosperity and democracy, and who's culture has become a model for success.

Don't forget to announce to all and sundry that any person from anywhere has a basic human right to barge into Australia whenever they want to. This will win the Liberal Party masses of votes. Where would John Howard be without Conrad (Comrade?) Gershevitch, Mahatma Sitting Duck, Scooper9, David Latimer and The Usual Suspect doing all of his electoral campaigning for him?

I find Mahatna Dick's post extremely depressing.

Perhaps s/he expresses a sense of alienation from his/her society by supporting those who seek to harm us. Some kind of masochistic tendency there.

In a word Dick - depressing.