Social injustice

Yesterday my dear friend Paolo was moved to a therapeutic community in the most remote place ever. He left The Castle at 2 pm and had to fill a lot of administrative papers and files. Well, I talked to him yesterday in the evening and he was all but happy. 

He said to me that he has a small room, with just a bed, a cupboard and a washbasin. There are nine people there, and most of them are severely handicapped people. People he can barely talk to, since they can’t follow a conversation. During the day, he has to work in the garden of the community for one franc per hour – is this not a shame? – and his main task is to pull off weed in the vegetable garden. Which he can’t even do very well, since he had an accident on his right knee years ago and he can’t even bend it. The educators who are responsible for that community said to Paolo that they will allow him to take a day free sometimes on Saturdays, if he behaves. Now I ask myself: how is this possible? I asked Paolo if he ever did something criminal, and he confessed to me that he once stole money from his mother to buy drugs; his mother did not report him to the Police though, so that he has a clean record. How do those people dare decide in such a way over the life of someone else? If I think about the way Paolo described me that community, I think he would be better off in prison. 

Before going to that hell, while still in The Castle, Paolo’s doctor asked him how much money he has on his bank account. I would have replied, no doubt, "This is none of your damn business". But Paolo doesn’t know how to stick up for himself, and he told her. So she replied, almost mocking, "Oh, that’s enough to live in the community for a long while, money is there to be spent.". Because yes, ladies and gentlemen, living in that hovel costs 100 francs a day. Which Paolo has to pay himself, because he has enough money to do so. His guardian even told him "When you’ll have used your money, social security will pay for you, and you’ll be able to stay in the community for further 10 years!". 

Theoretically, Paolo is there "on probation", which means that after one month he should be able to decide wether to remain or to leave. From the very beginning, in my opinion, he should have never accepted to go there, not even on this stupid probation. His guardian had promised him a flat, in a town in the province where he could live a normal life among humans and not in an isolated village where there is not even a bar or a newspaper kiosk. To have a flat, Paolo just needs the contract to be signed by him and his guardian. Sadly, Paolo himself can’t enter any legal act with anybody, but if the guardian puts his signature on it, that’s ok. No doctor, social worker, educator, professor, whoever, can interfere in this. If the guardian had agreed on a flat, I ask myself why Paolo is now at the end of the world pulling off weed for one franc per hour and sharing a toilet and a shower with nine people for 100 francs a day. This seems to me like a sneaky attempt to make a marginalized person out of him. Since it was maybe too complicated to help him out with a flat, voilà, let’s put him in the first place where there is a bed free for him. 

I see the purpose of such therapeutic communities. If someone has, for example, severe addiction problems, like alcohol or drug addiction, being isolated from the world is a blessing – no temptations and no dealers or dives where to get drunk. The village where the community is located doesn’t have, as I was saying before, even a restaurant, a bar, a newspaper kiosk, and there is only a bus every two hours to go to the next village, which is small and out-of-the-way as well. The perfect place where to keep clean after being treated for alcoholism or drug addiction. But Paolo is out of place there. He is clean, he doesn’t have manic episodes anymore, he is very lucid while talking and reasoning, I would say he is a reasonable person. 

Yesterday I heard him crying on the phone, I tried to calm him down and let him feel that he is not alone. In fact, I want to keep distance from him in some way not to give him false hopes concerning a relationship, but I very much sympathize with him and I consider him a case of social injustice and bureaucratic abuse. Today I sent him another parcel, containing cigarettes, Caotina, instant coffee, and shower soap. I also included two ten-franc-recharging for his mobile phone and a scratch card (maybe he will win something, once in his life?).

Anyway, all I can do is giving my support. The more I see of it all, the more I get sick of this society.