Saint Nicholas, born Nicholas of Myra, was a Greek of good birth, born in the Turkish province of Antalya in the third century AD. Fast forward to 1850 when Dutch educator Jan Schenkman published the booklet “Saint Nicholas and His Servant,” which included the invented origin Spain, the arrival by steamboat and a dark servant, who did not yet have a set name. Indeed, regionally it was given various names over time, such as Jan de Knecht, Trappadoeli, Nicodemus, Assiepan, Sabbas, Hans Moef, Pikkie, Robbert, Krik-krak, Micheltje, Hansje van Vese (or Hansje van Kese) and Jacques Jour (or Sjaak Sjoor). (Source: Wikipedia) Including I live for this kind of information. Trappadoelie, Krik-krak … delicious! But why am I coming up with this? Well it bothers me: exactly how inclusive is this St. Nicholas party? Did we just liquidate black Pete, he has to go back, right? If St. Nicholas were a Netflix movie, St. Nicholas would be a bisexual Muslim woman and the puppets would be the precise cocktail of a gender doubter, a funny Asian type, a dark and two white characters, just always one more. For years I have been calling out that the whole miserable discussion could have been avoided by giving all the Pieten whiskers. Then they wouldn’t have been black Petes but black cats, and that’s also much more fun for the children! Surf And in that setting I sometimes think of Saint Nicholas. Not out of affection – I think it’s a shitty party, even as a kid, with that quickly irritated old man – but as an example of how we have descended in the last decade to a gagging but murmuring level of complaining in which the perception of it is more important than reality itself. Branding so to speak. Also in the travel world. All Inclusive? Because suddenly thought: what do we do with the term ‘All Inclusive‘? This can no longer be! Way too confusing. No millennial understands that. Thought you were a stick-in-the-mud vegan hipfluencer with your man-bun stepping off to an All Inclusive resort for a week, turns out that the only people working there are hotel employees who are sec chosen for their talent for hospitality. Then you feel quite a bit of an Assiepan, or a Pikkie. They hadn’t said that at the travel agency. You then order a stiff drink to cry it out. Johnnie Walker Black, why not. Turns out that too is already not inclusive in the yet clearly defined term “All” Inclusive. ‘No Señor, only Ultra All Inclusive Señor, no All Inclusive’…
