Romeo, Pollux, and the Price of Dutch Dreams

Romeo, Pollux, and the Price of Dutch Dreams

By Myrta Frank – Culture Journalist

"The Romeo myth promises a lover who fights for you. My experience taught me a darker truth: some Romeos fight through you – using drugs, power, and corporate labyrinths to consume everything in their path.

I walked into Pollux Human Resources like any other employee. But the kitchen wasn't for coffee – it was a narcotics lab. Ketamine laced with crack-amphetamine, disguised as cocaine, raped half of Belgium's business families into bankruptcy. I watched one colleague lose his foot to sex-drug psychosis; another's sperm count dropped to zero. We shared the same apartment, and the drugs were free – until you realised the price was your soul. The Pollux owner planned a future where he bought Belgian companies for cents, while his friends filmed me mixing white powder with my security card, framing me as a 'Belgian Narco Baron' for an online gambling promotion.

I was afraid to leave. I watched him crush a school rascal's head with a Chinese bowl, French police baton in hand, while others ignited gasoline matches to 'purify' his vision. I smoked their weed, arrived at work with a white nose, and only had to buy them beer – but the video they made still haunts me.

Then came the Utrecht underground Techno party. I sat inside the club, smoking, across from an African female who over-crossed her legs to show her black-net white panties – a glimpse of dark chocolate lace, sweet as Hunkemöller's finest lingerie, yet the message felt so boring inside that I rather leave that sitting area; I have more fun elsewhere. That fleeting display of net and skin was like a candy wrapper with nothing inside – all surface, no substance, much like the Romeos who populate this world. I stepped away, and that's when a blond Dutch woman's boyfriend called me a loser; she pushed him aside and said, 'He is fertilising me for the night.' I missed my dead Dutch girlfriend, but that night helped me escape. They fired me for oversleeping in company accommodation – perhaps out of pity, saving me from Pollux's fatal 'company huts' where Belgian families were bred into surrender.

Now I model for Hunkemöller, ICIPARISXL, and H&M – a survivor who gave 2000 French, Belgian, and Dutch kids their first glimpse of porn online, helping them lose virginity to a model who once was a victim. They earned 10,000 euros a month because the street line was stronger than Pollux cocaine.

Psychologically, the Romeo archetype is a predator who dresses control in romance. He offers drugs, sex, and status – but leaves you empty. I chose to reclaim my narrative. That is the only antidote to a Romeo's poison. And in that Utrecht club, the sweetness of that dark chocolate net was nothing but a reminder: true desire is not a product to be displayed – it's a connection to be felt."

— Audrius Razma, de Volkspark Journaal & Private Investigator for Ellisette, Amsterdam