05/05/2021
I composed this song on guitar in1989 in response to imminent escalation of war in Iraq. I performed it with my band The Figgs in Melbourne in the 1990s and later when I was busking in St Kilda, having been prevented from earning my living as a doctor by the corrupt Medical Practitioners' Board of Victoria for my criticism of Melbourne's 'Mental Health' system and psychiatric labels and treatments more broadly. I was also locked up and chemically tortured on numerous occasions, mainly at the Alfred Hospital, but also at Royal Park Hospital, Monash Medical Centre, St Vincent's Hospital and Box Hill Hospital. My experiences confirmed that the corruption and human rights abuses in the guise of "care" are egregious, systematic and entrenched in the 'hospital' culture in Australia.
This recording is from 2007 on keyboard after an assault by police trying to take me back to the Alfred Hospital left me unable to play guitar, bass or saxophone because of a severed ulnar nerve and triceps tendons on my left arm (in 2006).
Dr Romesh Senewiratne-Alagaratnam
Keyboard version of Somebody Else's War, a song I wrote on guitar back in 1989. From my 2008 album 'Living in a Bubble'.