M.E.
(Link to M.E.)
The acronym "M.E. " abbreviates "Myalgic Encephalomyelitis" which is
a disease that is marked by its chronic nature and is manifested by
lack of energy and muscle aches. The cause is not known, and there are
no widely accepted succesful treatments.
Also, the name "Myalgic
Encephalomyelitis" when the medicalese is translated into English
is fairly nonsensical (like many medicalese terms) but I prefer it over
"Chronic Fatigue Syndrome". This sounds far too much like a
politically correct euphemism. (After all, you would also dislike
it if your doctor explains his diagnosis "you have cancer" to you as
"You have the Chronic Problems Syndrome. Don't we all have problems
most of the time? So buck up and act normal! C'mon - it's all in the
mind anyway!")
I have
this physically crippling disease now for 25 years, and since I hold -
brilliant - academic degrees in psychology and philosophy and am in the
Dutch dole anyway I suppose I have sunk so low on the scale of decent
Dutch values (income! money! stardom in a soapseries!) that it is
allowed that I may be "officially ill".
In any
case, apart from the dole I am also now in the 25th year of getting no
help whatsoever while I really am ill, usually feel very tired
and often have muscular pain (of the "lactic acid" variety:
unpleasant but not lethal).
Part of
the just mentioned facts have to do with Dutch morals and the Dutch
health system, which need a brief explanation for non-Dutchmen.
One paradoxical problem of Dutchmen who really have M.E. - or
indeed any other real disease - is that in Holland 10 percent
of the working population the last 20 years or so was "officially ill"
from their jobs while receiving 70% or 80% of the incomes they have
when working.
Hence: Either Holland is a country in which it is very dangerous
to live, since one has a 10% chance of being ill (while outside Holland
this is less than 0.01%) or else there are many Dutch
malingerers who abuse the excellent Dutch public health insurance.
(Dutch politicians lack the guts - if female - or balls - if male - to
speak the truth about this issue, like about so many other issues. And
indeed they want to get votes far more than they want to speak the
truth.)
Consequently,
since M.E. is a disease which has no biological marker, there are many
Dutchmen who have tried to get long and paid holidays by pretending to
have M.E. or another disease that has no biological marker and allows
one to look fairly healthy.
Since the
Dutch health-system has been so massively abused for the last 25 years
- in which I could get no help - it is being revised and broken
down at present: It was too good for average Dutch morals, which are
none too good. Therefore, at the speed with which things tend to go in
Dutch bureaucracy I may get some form of official help when I
have been ill for 50 years or so, and survived it without any help - if
I live that long, for by then I will be 78. Yes, indeed: there is
some hope for me, dear reader!
Outside
Holland the situation is different and far less pleasant for
medical malingerers, for which reason non-Dutchmen who claim to
have M.E. are considerably more likely to have M.E. than Dutchmen who
receive 80% of their normal income when they claim to be ill.
P.S. for
angry Dutchmen:
I am ill
since many years. I have pain since many years. My income is the lowest
in Holland since many years. And I get no help since many years because
by common consent most Dutchmen who claim to have M.E. are
malingerers who abuse the excellent Dutch health insurance system -
which has to be broken down precisely because it has been so
extensively abused (and not just or predominantly by people
claiming M.E.).
And for
those who do have M.E. and are Dutch: Yes, there are
such people - I am one of them. As tor you, if you are: You will end up
in the dole, poorer than any other Dutchman and without any
bureaucratic or official help. You will find yourself in the situation
I have been in since 25 years, all thanks to the average Dutch
morality. I am really sorry for you, since in the dole you will
have an even more difficult life than you have now, but that is not my
fault or doing. I am merely honest and without illusions.
To show
you how few illusions I have here are some facts:
I live in
Amsterdam. The Amsterdam municipal medical authorities are called
GG&GD. They are supposed to help the inhabitants of Amsterdam and
are paid - very well indeed - from the taxes. I have been refused help
for 25 years now - and I am at present 53 and equipped with the best
possible academic degrees in psychology one may have, and the GG&GD
agree I really am ill and have been ill since 25 years.
Therefore:
If you really have M.E., live in Amsterdam
and want the help you should be able to get under written Dutch law -
very beautiful, on paper - here is the personal advice I received
from prof.dr. Rene Coutinho, the head of the Amsterdam
GG&GD; from mayor mr. Job Cohen of Amsterdam, and from alderman
drs. Rob Oudkerk (*) of Amsterdam, the man responsible for the
Amsterdam GG&GD, the dole and the well-being and happiness of
Amsterdams junks and alcoholics:
If you really
have M.E., live in Amsterdam,
and want help ..... start shooting heroine and become an alcoholic: Then
there will be help soon from the
GG&GD for you - you wll receive free heroine, you will get free
programs to "integrate you into Dutch society", and there will be all
manner of free help, assistance and money - and this may also
help you to survive M.E. (Alternatively - so messrs. Coutinho, Cohen
and Oudkerk have advised me personally - there are high flats in the
Bijlmermeer and elsewhere in Amsterdam, from which you can jump
conveniently to solid stone pavement, praising the Lord as you are
falling that Amsterdam's mayor and alderman are such great humanists,
according to themselves.)
Otherwise,
messrs. Coutinho, Cohen and Oudkerk will do their very best to make
sure there will be no help for you from Amsterdam's municipal
bureaucracy: If you merely have M.E. and try to cope with
that, you are - in Amsterdam - very much the inferior of a junk or
alcoholic, and far too inferior a human being to be helped by
the noble and humanistic persons that form the heart of Amsterdam's
bureaucracy, mayor & aldermen, and city-council.
Personally,
I don't use drugs and I don't drink, so I cannot, have not and
will not receive any help whatsoever from the Amsterdam
municipal authorities - it seems safe to say after 25 years of
asking in vain. Let's praise the Lord that messrs. Coutinho, Cohen and
Oudkerk and their ilk take care that in Amsterdam the sub-human likes
of me cannot abuse Amsterdam's tax money, so that it can be spend
profitably on Amsterdam's junks and alcoholics and on salaries,
subsidies, perks and help for Amsterdam's mayors and aldermen!
