Reading through the excellent Canadian magazine 'Adbusters', one fascinating assertion catches my eye: 'Mad Pride is set to be the first great civil liberties movement of the 21st Century'. By Mad Pride, they mean the movement of psychiatric patients fighting for respect, and trying to overcome the stigma and fear that still often attaches itself to anyone who is believed to be in any way psychologically 'abnormal'.

Thankfully, here on h2g2, such prejudice is rare. There have been excellent entries here on such topics as overcoming depression and teenage depression. In April this year, this site's front page featured Spacemuse's inspiring Personal Account of Depression Survival

So I don't feel shy about mentioning my own psychological problems here. I have been taking medication for depression for some months now. Unfortunately, until about two months ago, I wasn't giving the medication much chance to work, because I was drinking far too much. Thankfully, in June I realised that something had to be done, and went to my doctor for help.

Since then, life has improved immeasurably. The doctor referred me for counselling and to a support group, and with the help of this support I've managed to banish the booze completely. I've replaced my drink habit with cinema-going and reading habits, and felt far better both physically and mentally.

I'm reasonably confident that, because this is h2g2, you won't think any less of me because of the above information - but there are many who see any emotional or addiction problems as simple weakness. Many of the job application forms I've seen lately demand full and detailed accounts of the applicant's medical history, and of any treatment the applicant is currently receiving. I've opted to be frank about my own situation when confronted with such intrusive inquisitions; but I do so suspecting that my honesty is probably destroying any chance I might have had of getting the jobs in question. I'm also well aware that if I do find employment, asking for time off to attend a counselling session might be frowned upon. So, like many others and like myself in the past, I'd probably just have to struggle on and hope that no-one noticed how needy I was really feeling.

Of course there are genuinely dangerous unstable individuals out there who need to be kept away from those they might harm - but, trust me, most of us nutters are quite nice really. Attending my alcohol support group, I've often been powerfully struck by the eloquence, warmth and sensitivity of fellow sufferers who've been battling problems far worse than mine. Perhaps we in that group are an atypical selection of current and former drunks, in that we've all acknowledged our need for help and made efforts to tackle our problems. But I've certainly come out of some of those group meetings feeling that I liked and respected the people there much more than a lot of the supposedly sane and successful people that we're all expected to look up to.

Psychiatric patients are a pretty sizeable minority group. Last year, a BBC TV Panorama  documentary found that one and a half million British adults had been prescribed tranquillisers on a long-term basis. Many had been taking them for more than ten years. Meanwhile, in America, the aggressive marketing of anti-depressant drugs has now reached the point where patients have been receiving unsolicited free samples of the drugs in the post. So there's no shortage of encouragement for American citizens to define themselves as being mentally ill, and to try to treat themselves the pharmaceutical way.

Clearly, there are powerful commercial forces with a huge vested interest in keeping as many people as possible taking prescription drugs. One of the Mad Pride movement's main complaints is that patients are often treated with medication when it isn't appropriate and might be harmful, because of the degree of influence the drug companies have over many members of the medical profession. I can't be sure to what extent that's true: but certainly, at my support group, I've heard plenty of horror stories about what certain prescribed drugs can do.

The ideas of the Mad Pride movement aren't new. Anger about the abuse suffered by people labelled as 'insane' has been around for a very long time, and concerns about prescription drug addiction have grown in recent years. I won't be medicated for much longer, nor would I wish to be. However, given the pace and stress of modern life, and those spiralling numbers of people on medication, Mad Pride may very well be a cause whose time has come.

I'm certainly happy to support it. Say it loud - I'm 'mad' and I'm proud.

The World Summit on Sustainable Development gets under way in Johannesburg next week, with over 100 heads of state or government expected to attend. But President Bush will not be among them, despite repeated pleas from his 'friend' Tony Blair, who does intend to put in a brief appearance at the Summit.

Bush's attitude is rather humiliating for Blair, who still likes to pretend that he gets some sort of influence over Bush in return for his slavish support for the President. The Summit is a highly significant gathering, aiming to review the progress made globally on environmental matters since the Earth Summit in Rio de Janeiro in 1992, and to discuss ways of relieving poverty around the world. Bush, however, plans to demonstrate just how important such concerns are to him by continuing with his holiday at home in Texas.

However, if Dubya has disappointed Downing Street with his cavalier contempt for the Summit, he's also delighted some other folks. Last week, no fewer than 31 groups and individuals got together to write a letter to Bush applauding his decision to snub the Summit, and urging him to ensure that the American delegation fights against any attempt to make progress on climate change.

The letter, dated August 2 and leaked to the environmental pressure group Friends of the Earth, tells Bush: 'We applaud your decision not to attend the Summit in person... Even more than the Earth Summit in Rio in 1992, the Johannesburg Summit will provide a global media stage for many of the most irresponsible and destructive elements involved in critical international economic and environmental issues. Your presence would only help to publicize and make more credible various anti-freedom, anti-people, anti-globalization, and anti-Western agendas.'

All of which might sound quite absurd enough, but the best bit comes later. The signatories inform Bush: '...the least important global environmental issue is potential global warming, and we hope that your negotiators at Johannesburg can keep it off the table and out of the spotlight'.

According to an impeccably reliable source - the BBC Weather Centre - 1998 was the warmest year ever recorded, and eight of the ten warmest years ever recorded fell in the last decade. Global ice sheets have decreased, so has global snow cover, and this is the most rapid rise in temperature since the end of the last ice age. Nevertheless, President Bush is being told that no environmental issue is less important than this, and that to express any concern over it is 'anti-freedom' and 'anti-people'.

It'd be nice to think that even Bush would dismiss such views as extreme and ludicrous. But the signatories to the letter include Bush's natural supporters from the Young Conservatives of Texas. They also include free-market lobbying groups like the American Enterprise Institute, The Heartland Institute and The Atlas Economic Research Foundation, all of whom stand for much the same far-right free-market agenda that Bush so loyally supports. Sadly, given Bush's record on environmental issues, such groups seem far more likely to get what they want from the American delegation in Johannesburg.

The Bush Administration has already caused an enormous amount of anger with its attitude to the Kyoto Protocol on climate change. It looks as though it's about to make a lot more people around the world angry at America.

Finally, I was dismayed last week to read that the distinguished American actress Gwyneth Paltrow had complained that British men were generally too shy to ask her out for dinner. In an extraordinary and somewhat unfortunate turn of phrase, Ms Paltrow declared: 'While the English man beats nervously around the bush, the American suitor goes for the female jugular'.

However, she added: 'I did get asked out a couple of times on my last trip to London, and I went out on both. They were very charming. I only go for the toffs'.

Well, Gwyneth, I think it's easy to see where you're going wrong. Honestly, what do you expect if you only go for inbred chin-free zones?

Gwyneth, what you need is a cuddly, mature Yorkshireman - and that's where you're in luck, because I'm available. Come to Bradford and I'll take you for a proper dinner. I know a curry house that's so posh, they'll even give you cutlery to eat your curry with if you ask nicely. Don't worry - if anyone stares, I'll explain that you're foreign and haven't learned how to scoop it up with your chapatis. Afterwards, I can take you to a great real ale pub. I'm on fizzy water these days, but you can get stuck into a gorgeous pint of Old Peculier or Cross Buttock. Don't even try to resist, Gwyneth. You can contact me via the 'Post', and I'm yours any time you like.

Well, as long as it doesn't clash with the football.

Ormy's 'Notes' and Other
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Ormondroyd

22.08.02 Front Page

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