Why I picked Edmond Dantes as an alias...

...or why the Netherlands isn't perfect either.  (Trump, Wilders, George Lucas and Chateau d'If.)

With the elections creepy near over here in the Netherlands, I felt it was time to write this blog. To begin, I have a run-of-the-mill piece of news. A couple of entries ago...I kind of promised that I would write an NCIS story on FanFiction.net. I am happy to announce that work on Chapter 1 began today. Alas, since this outside my comfort zone of writing (aka Science Fiction) - which was the whole point - it will take time. And now, on to the main show....

Trump and Wilders

The point I was trying to make with my open letter to Peter David was that Trump was a threat to the US of A. Not just because he's an idiot - which he is  - but because he represents the class society. (He's a spoiled, pampered, arrogant <insert long list of curses>.) The very thing that the founding father wanted to get rid off. Donald Trump is the antitheses of every principle the country was founded on.

What does this have to do with the Netherlands ? Well, the words are very different - as is the history - but the Netherlands' constitution is based on the same principles. And we even have our own Donald Trump. He's called Geert Wilders. And like Donald Trump, he's a (racist) idiot. As the saying goes...those who fail from history are doomed to repeat it. And Geert Wilders is a repeat just waiting to happen. And the only way to prevent it is to go vote, for anybody who is not him. Who you should vote for instead ? Well, that is for you to decide for yourself....

George Lucas and....

Moving on. The subject name for this section was a bit hard to lock down. This because I was inspired by an episode of the Young Indiana Jones Chronicles. Indy run into Doctor Albert Schweitzer and the two of them have a conversation on a boat. (It's a long story, it would be shorter to simply watch the episode.) But since George Lucas created the show, he gets the title slot. So, anyway, to get to the point....

Albert tells Indy that society doesn't want men to think and come to their own convictions. It wants servants who do as they are told. And that people go along, because it is easy to let society do your thinking for your. That way, all you have to do, is follow.

The sad truth is that this was true when Albert told Indy - during World War One - and it is still true now. When I got started on this blog - years ago - it was basically a very angry, very immature rant against my day job in a sheltered workshop. (PDD-NOS is a bitch.)

It's not something I'm proud of, but fortunately with time came wisdom and self-control. But that does not change the fact that I am very critical of the whole concept and the management of the sheltered workshop in Zwolle. (Which is called Wezo, for the record.) Which brings me to my next subject.

...Chateau d'If

People say the class society is gone. But - at least in my experience - when you work in a sheltered workshop or have some kind of disability, that is far from true. In the 2002 movie version of the Count of Monte Cristo, the main character - Edmond Dantes - is send to a jail called Chateau d'If. Edmond tells the warden he is innocent - which he is - and the warden tells him that he knows that this true. Because Chateau d'If is the prison people who are politically inconvenient are locked away.

While the sheltered workshops in the Netherlands were once about what was best for the people who worked there, but in time that changed. And not for the better. The workshops became about commercialism. Which is where what Albert told Indy shines through once again. This became painfully obvious when - a couple of years ago - the folks in The Hague made a decision.

Everybody (at the sheltered workshops) had to be seconded to commercial companies. This was not done because it was the best for the employees. This was done because the sheltered workshop program had become to expensive. At the same time, they decreed that every company above a certain size that to have a certain percent of handicapped employees. They also decided that companies which did not do so, could be fined up to 5000 Euros. The thing is....

To hire somebody full-time (or two part-timers, who together make up one extra employee) costs at least 1000 Euros per month. Times twelve + vacation money + the Christmas bonus is 13000-ish dollars per year. In short, it is cheaper to pay the fine, then to comply with the law. (And that's just the new employees paycheck. I'm sure there are other costs as well.)

Further more, the cynic in me says that if it was that easy...why were the sheltered workshop created in the first place. That same cynic also says that the answer was so that society could hide away the handicapped people without having to feel guilty. After all, it was their own good, sending them there. Wasn't it ?

Conclusion

But when you are on the inside, it feels like Chateau d'If. (At least, it did to me.) A prison where the people made only mistake. They were born different from the rest of society. And so, Edmond Dantes seemed fitting.

Edmond Dantes