Who got fired this week?

Who got fired this week?

Alumnus writes book full of recession porn

Freek Staps (33) works as a correspondent in New York for the Dutch newspaper NRC Handelsblad. This month, he published his first book, 'Meer Meer Minder. Amerikanen over hun grote crisis' (More More Less. Americans on their big crisis). For the promotional tour, Staps visited Groningen, the city werhe he was a student and wrote for the University Paper.

By LIEKE VAN DEN KROMMENACKER

Freek Staps is small in stature, big in ambition. He speaks with passion; sometimes his words are accompanied by large gestures. He gets a bit angry when people say the economic crisis has nothing to do with them. This is no bedtime story - it's a hug story about how the American dream beacme the world's biggest nightmare.

Overkill

"There's no such thing as overkill with the financial crisis. There are still so many questions left unanswered. Will I find a job once I graduate? Will there even be any jobs by then? What can I do if I get fired? These are the kinds of questions I'm trying to answer in my book. I don't believe we are at a point yet where people are thinking, I don't want to hear about it any more. And if you are, you've underestimated what's happening. We're all in this together."

Shattered dream

"In California, I met this Mexican-American girl, Patricia, the daughter of a tomato picker. Her mum wraps soap in a factory. She was the first iin the family who had the chance to go to university. Patricia lived the American dream and did what she was expected to do: studied well, joined a students' union, was an involved student. Suddenly, the Califronian government decided to stop her scholarship. She didn't receive less, nor was it a temporary measurement. It just stopped, like that. Imagine what would happen if a similar situation occured over here. It would cause massive panic."

Beat the neighbour

"The stories in my book are all intensely human and recongnizable. I spoke with students, truck drivers, a restaurant owner, an interior designer. They could have been us. Everybody is part of this worldwide recession. Even in Groningen. The university is also struggling with less income and has to cut down on its expenses. In the next few years, the labour market will get increasingly worse. Current students are going to suffer from that. So you have to make sure that you know more than your neighbour, you need the knowledge. Otherwise someone else will get the job you wanted."

Anyone fired?

"I watched things going wrong and thought, that won't happen to me. Then I go to know Ari Cantor, a 23-year-old man, highly educated at Cornell University, who was employed at Goldman Sachs, a well-established bank. Beggin on Wall Street, he carried a piece of cardboard. 'Will trade for food' it read. Ari got fired, just like 24 of his friends. Twenty-four! I dindn't even have one unemployed friend. Now, I can't walk into a party anymore without asking who got fired this week."

Tears, shock, horror

"Often I was speechless. There I sat, sniffing at the kitchen table of a Frisian emigrant farmer's widow, whose husband committed suicide because he couldn't think of any other way out. That is shocking, it makes you feel horrible. When I drove away from that woman, I realized that she symbolized an incredible amount of misery. Maybe that makes me an exception. When I came to America, I was much more naive. The problems are so widespread and broadly shared; you cannot actually imagine that it can affect an entire society on such a scale. But it does."

Recession porn

"I wrote my book for two groups of people. First, it's meant for readers who just enjoy reading about other people's grief. In America that's called recession porn: it uncovers the rawest human emotions. Second, there are the people who wonder why they've been confronted with miserable stories about the crisis for three years already. People who've lost the plot and are seeking to understand a little bit more about the crisis. By reading how other people are handling it, you might prevent yourself ending up in the same situation. Hopefully my book can be a guide in this respect."

Obelix, still standing

"At first, it took me months to find someone on Wall Street who could clearly explain what was happening there. As the crisis expanded, however, I practically had to keep people away from me. When I tell Americans about the Netherlands, they loot at me as if it were a little Asterix and Obelix village, still standing in the midst of the Big Recession. People desperately hope to be offered a job in the Netherlands, where everything is supposedly going so well."

Bye bye optimimism

"I don't have a clue what is left over of the American optimism. Nobody knows. The people I spoke to are all cracked and affected. They feel betrayed by a system the've always truly believed in: work hard, study hard and then do everything you've ever dreamed of. Here, one tends to condemn that kind of naivety. But this ideology was supported by a complete country. At the moment, the optimism is gone. Maybe it will return, maybe not."

Meet the crisis

Meet Mike Payne, the moustached and tatooed owner of a pawn shop in South Carolina. He is earning a lot of money due to the economic crisis, because a crisis makes people borrow. Unfortunately, it also makes people desperate. With a gun in their hands, 'customers' aks Mike to open the safe. But Mike doesn't feel sorry for robbers. 'He demonstrates how he acts in emergencies. His right hand quickly dives under the counter. Grab. pull, click, goes Mike, and barely half a second later I have a loaded gun aimed at my forehead. Welcome to the downside of the American economy.'
This is a passage from the book's blurb. Staps chose to alternate between gripping personal stories and interviews with American experts, like Barack Obama's highest rankin economic advisors. The chapters do not necessarily have to be read in chronological order. Staps: "This crisis has so many causes, it is hard to find any coherence. What I did was categorize the stories so readers can start with the subjects they're most interested in."

More More Less about the author
Name: Freek Staps
New York name: Freak Steps
High school grade for economics: 4.7 ("I wasn't that good with numers")
Graduated: In history and journalism from the University of Groningen, 2001
Lives: with his girlfriend Claudia and daughter Stella in New York City
Travelled: Over 190,000 km to collect his stories
Spoke: to more than 300 people

Verschenen in de UK, 29 oktober 2009

wolf in schaapskleren

het is wachten
tot het doek valt
en niemand meer
iets te verbergen heeft

zelfs niet het decor
waar in de coulissen
een acteur zich hult in wat
hem op het lijf geschreven is

in reprise, opnieuw
vanaf het begin alsof
dan alles anders is

nieuw kostuum
zelfde wolf

het is vermommen
daarna vermannen

tot het doek valt