Vedi Napoli e poi Muori: See Naples and Die

I've been accused of talking trash many times in my days so this time I'm going to write about the literal mess in Naples, Italy. From NPR's Morning Edition "Naples, Italy Trashed by Garbage Crisis":

Garbage is piling up on the streets of Naples, Italy. Residents are angry about uncollected rubbish and battle police over access to a dump believed to be a serious health hazard. The crisis has become a national scandal for Italy.

Concerns were being expressed about burning of the trash and it potentially leeching into the food supply. Of particular concern was the dairy products where Mozzarella cheese comes from the region.

Another NPR program, All things considered, explained the background "Many Think Mafia Involved in Naples Trash Crisis"

The Italian city of Naples is suffocating under mountains of garbage. All the local dumps are full, and many Neapolitans believe Camorra, a mafia organization with huge economic power and political influence, is behind the crisis.

All the local dumps are full, and many Neapolitans believe Camorra, a mafia
organization with huge economic power and political influence, is behind the
crisis.

Roberto Saviano, the author of a griping and brutal account of how the Camorra works, has carefully studied the nuts and bolts of the group's waste-management business. It allows northern regions, like Tuscany and Umbria, to remain bucolic, while illegally dumping their waste at low costs in the south.

The Camorra has disposed of all kinds of dangerous toxic wastes from northern companies — printer toners, residues from leather tanneries, harmful dusts from pharmaceutical companies. That gets mixed with cement, non-metal car parts and even the remains of the dead from paupers' graves (which have to be disposed of every 50 years).

Saviano says anti-mafia investigators estimate the Camorra's turnover in illegal waste management alone is close to a billion dollars a year. In a region where there are no high-tech incinerators, more and more agricultural land has been bought up for landfills, and medical research has shown the region's soil is increasinly poisonous — the long-term effects of which can only be guessed at.

Around the same time, mainstream media reported the same story where the landfills are now full and there are some pretty shocking picture of trash mountains, trash burning and locals rioting in protest.

The Italians I know, are acutely embarrassed by the images. Perodi, Italy's leader, has called in the soldiers.

The European Union, has 'threatened' Italy with fines if the situation does not improve. I am sure the hard men gangsters running Naples must be quaking in their handmade shoes over a threat from the EU.

This negative PR is unfortunate as the greater Naples areas is heavily dependent on tourism: nearby is Capri, Pompeii and the beautiful Amalfi coast.

However, Naples itself has always had a rough reputation to live down to. Guidebooks warn of youths on moped snatching bags from tourists and to be weary of pickpockets coming out of the train station

One English friend I know participated in “Staples to Naples” rally. Not one to shy away from a brawl, he swore blind never to venture in Naples again. The reason was a car brake down late at night in a Napoli neighborhood and being introduced to the local youth culture. The Peacock cops could see this all but were too scared to intervene in the rapidly worsening situation but luckily for them, they're car started before it got too nasty.

My own experiences of Naples area also relate to driving. I first visited Italy (Rieti in the Sabine Hills, East of Rome) in 1990's where after I had finished my business there, the locals asked if I was going down to Naples. Once I said “no”, they let loose a sigh of relief. Apparently, there was a ruse going on in Naples of people reversing into hired cars and claiming you had run into them for the insurance.

Some years later, I drove around Naples on way to Amalfi coast. A lasting impression was the unfinished roads and bridges to nowhere. Apparently the road was funded by EU but you'd be a braver person than me to ask whose wallet the money ended up in. (Something about horses heads and beds put me off..).

Driving in Southern Italy is an eye (and bowel) opening experience and not for the faint hearted. I have driven in Italy – Northern Italy, Central Italy, Sardinia, and Rome itself especially it's one way system and lack of formal parking– so thought I'd seen it all about Italian driving. Ah ha. No. You need to drive in South to see what is applied anarchy.

Driving out in Caserta area, I came to realize that red lights just meant slow down. It is a bit strange, going through red lights doing 50 mph (you'd previously been doing 70 !~) on advice of my British friend who lived over there.

Finally, after visiting Pompeii, I made a mistake of stopping at a stop sign ! The guy in the fiat behind me went apoplectic : Blew on his horn; made a point of driving in other lane to come parallel to me, wound down his window; give me who some very fancy hand gestures ;shouted some operatic insults about tourists, then accelerated off waving a finger at me.

So whilst I love Neapolitans – the people, the food, the history – I have to say, Naples is one crazy city.

Vedi Napoli e poi Muori : "See Naples and die” was a phrase coined during the reign of the Bourbons of Naples, considered by historians to have been the city's Golden Age. It was not meant to be a prediction.

Until its annexation to the Kingdom of Italy in 1861, the Kingdom of the Two Sicilies was the wealthiest and most industrialized of the various Italian states.

What went wrong?

Phileas Fogg,
14th January 2008
Houston, Texas