The true horror stories in modern Paris part 103

I am grateful for the encouragement I received that I may deserve compensation from Mr. Pride.  I too would agree that children and the adults whose ability to rebuild their lives was destroyed should be compensated.  However, I have also witnessed the curse of ‘compensation’ on several occasions.

One was this man I met through his grandmother in Sydney, Australia.  As he entered the door a certain heaviness spread into the room. He smiled repeatedly, but meaninglessly which put me on guard rather than feeling warmed by it.  He was frequently hanging around at his grandmother’s place during the daytime without a proper job.  He dressed youngish but on a closer look you would notice wrinkles on his face.  In short, something about him was not right.  His left arm was temporary immobile for he just came out from an accident.  ‘Of course, he needs to be compensated’, said his grandmother.  Peculiar thing was that it was his third accident which seemed to have happened recurrently.  Each time he was paid compensation which enabled him to buy a house despite he was merely a wanna-be-musician surviving on odd jobs, mostly delivery jobs on a bike.  You would think he would be deterred from a job that would expose him to traffic after so many road accidents.  But no, this man just smiled saying, ‘it’ll be all right.’  As I looked into his eyes which was neither innocent nor courageous I felt nauseated.

A year later this man had his fourth road accident, this time injuring his neck.  His grandmother was naturally shaken but as I heard the news I was remembering that this wanna-be-musician had just gotten his long awaited gig cancelled.  Considering his age, it would have been very hard to land another gig.  He was of course filing a lawsuit for a fat compensation.  I may have been wrong to assume that he had become a compensation-junkie, but it is safe to conclude that his music career suffered from his false sense of financial security provided by the compensation money which amounted to more than a person could have earned in a life time.  It deprived him of the sense of alertness that all great musicians have. Drop-dead aura thrives on a sharp mind.  Our Mr. Compensation may possibly have been gifted, but his sense was rendered dull by the choices he made in life.  His grandmother told me that during his first accident he incurred a minor injury, but the level of his damage stepped up with the accidents that followed.  The fourth one damaged his nerve system that he would suffer a certain condition for the rest of his life.  Mr. Compensation became eligible for a welfare payout as well.  There are always women who are drawn to the helplessness of a victim of the circumstances.  As you might guess it, our Mr. Compensation married a woman whose father had money.

You might say, ‘well, Mr. Compensation’s case is unique’, but sadly, the attitude of Mr. Compensation appears to be contagious because we often read of families that take advantage of the welfare.  The curse of compensation escalates to take on a company, then a community and then…

To be continued.

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