Cadaver Tourist

This piece, published in NRC Handelsblad, offers a darkly humorous and cynical take on a bizarre situation: the author's visit to the decomposing corpse of a humpback whale, humorously dubbed 'Timmy.' The author uses the extreme circumstances – the stench and the threat of explosion – as a springboard for a series of sharp, often provocative observations.

The narrative veers wildly from the whale's demise to critiques of a costly rescue operation that, in the author's view, only prolonged the animal's suffering. This cynical perspective extends to a commentary on public figures and institutions, including a jab at Donald Trump and Elon Musk, and a scathing critique of FIFA officials Michel Platini and Sepp Blatter, whom the author finds amusingly corrupt.

Further digressions include a sarcastic take on a Dutch royal's privacy concerns and advice to a princess on how to handle intrusive questions. The author contrasts the perceived superficiality of celebrity and royal life with the raw, albeit morbid, reality of nature's processes, finding a strange humor in the decay and the human reactions to it.

Ultimately, the article is less about the whale itself and more a vehicle for the author's unfiltered, often contrarian, worldview. It highlights a Dutch tendency towards directness and a willingness to question established norms, even when dealing with sensitive subjects, finding humor in the absurd and the grotesque.