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Naples is only the tip of the iceberg. Italy is a peninsula that is crisscrossed by mountains of refuse, embellished with plains full of toxic waste, broached by rivers of hazardous liquids and surrounded by a sea of shit.
Naples is reflected everywhere. Unauthorised landfill sites, unbearable stenches, putrefying sores left out in the open, and poisons dumped in the farmers fields have all become a feature of the Italian landscape. Its enough to take a bike ride out into the country in order to discover these new treasures. All you need is a camera and a protective mask that is able to keep out the pestilent smells. We can all become rubbish hunters.
Naples is not alone. Naples is anywhere where there is a corrupt local council. A party that uses the exchange vote in order to swell the ranks of employees in the refuse collection companies. Wherever there is a company that pays criminals to dump refuse in the fields, combined with fertile ground. Naples is reflected wherever the residents turn a blind eye because of fear, indifference or absence of State control. Wherever there is some or other mayor, councillor or parliamentarian who gets himself elected thanks to the payment of refuse collection bribes, or close links with the environmental mafia.
Refuse is the symbol of the second Republic. It is the parties most lucrative business venture. The black hole of State concessions and the municipal services organisations, which are quoted on the Stock Exchange and are filled to the brim with public officials. The parties are a like a veritable octopus. They have devoured the entire Italian industrial system. All that remains are the incinerators and the waste disposal business.
Naples is reflected in Castellamonte, in the green hills of the Canavese area, where certain mayors and managers and employees of the refuse removal and waste disposal company ASA have landed up under investigation or under house arrest. The Prosecution has accused them of having dumped the rubbish on farm fields and ploughed it into the ground, or having stored it in unauthorised landfill sites. Naples is reflected in Piemonte where, even before the findings of the inquiry was made public: The mayors have taken sides with the people under investigation and The workers support top management.
Naples is reflected in Lombardy, in the Gorla Maggiore and Olgiate landfill sites. In the Rubbish Connection inquiry. Instead of being processed, the rubbish from the South was being laundered by mixing it in with industrial waste, after which it was being reflected in the documentation as being non-hazardous waste and sent off to Grottaglie, in the Province of Taranto.
Naples is reflected in the five hundred thousand cubic metres of rubbish lying in an unauthorised landfill site in Puglia, which has polluted the Cervaro River.
Naples is reflected in the degradation of the Parco dellEtna national park where the unauthorised dumping sites enjoy greater protection than does the nature itself, resulting in a frightening example of degradation.
Just a few words are all that would be necessary in order to change everything: Differentiated waste collection and Rubbish is a resource. The plague is all around us. Naples may well represent your area, your councillor, your mayor or your party. An epidemic transmitted by indifference.