Thursday, January 10, 2008

Naples' Noxious Nemesis

THEN: Welcome to Naples!!! Naples is one of the most beautiful cities in Italy. It has a great bay with nice views of Capri and the Ischia Islands!
NOW: Welcome to Naples!!! Naples is one of the most obnoxious cities in Italy. It has great mountains of colorful garbage with one of the most amazing collections of large flies, maggots and worms! It has trash lined streets with methane gas that lights up the city with fires in the evenings!

After eight different commissioners, and 10 years of continuous declarations of a State of Emergency amounting to $2.5 billion every year, the garbage crisis of Naples remains...well... on the streets. It has come to a point where it is now an added tourist attraction (distraction?) because of the "mountains" it has created that has become the habitat of rare giant flies, fierce maggots, and worms. That is known as "creepy" garbage.

The President has instructed all those responsible to solve the problem. The Prime Minister has issued a directive to the Mayor to create solutions. The Mayor issued a call to citizens to "Respect the Law". But the garbage continues to pile up daily. All this talk is ah,... well,... garbage!

Incinerators began are left unfinished due to inadequate funds flow, while others were stopped because of criminal investigations alleging involvement of the local mafia in the projects. The collectors have stopped picking up since all dumps are full, and the citizens are up in arms against the government, opposing the reopening of old dumps or the opening of new ones. Pitch battles with police in the streets are common, with protesters throwing anything they can get their hands on at the authorities... including garbage.

The military has been called in to scrape the garbage from the streets, but no sooner than clearing it for a couple of hours, the trash returns on the very spot they were earlier in practically the same volume. This is perhaps....fresh garbage.

The citizens protests are understandable. Dumps were closed in the past with promises of converting the site into tourist facilities such as golf courses, recreation centers, among others. Neapolitans began investing in the land, buying up small pieces, building their homes, waiting for the promised conversion. It never came. Instead, they are threatened with reopening the dump where their houses are. All the previous promises made were just... ah... well... trash talk!

What used to be part of a daily exercise going up and down two flights of stairs to throw the garbage has ceased because they only have to throw it out the window, since the garbage mound has reached the second floor balcony. What was once a balcony for site seeing now sees the dump site!

Naples was one of the most romantic places in Europe. Now, if you consider one of several mounds of 3,700 tons of garbage a romantic spot, the noxious odors as the perfume of romance, worms slowly creeping up in your feet as playing footsies, and kissing with the possibility of swallowing flies in the process thrilling, then you're welcome to the city that always stinks.

Haaarrrwwwwwk...Twoooooph..Ting!

6 comments:

ZenDenizen said...

That was disturbing! The Create Channel just ran a travel piece on Naples as well and although they implied that it was one of the rougher cities, obviously no mention of this was made!

durano lawayan a.k.a. brad spit said...

Yes Zendenizen, because it will affect tourist traffic. Can you imagine the shock once tourists get there? As a matter of fact, the garbage crisis has been going on for 10 years now. This year is the worst ever. I wonder if they are waiting for an epidemic before resolving it; or perhaps wait for the city to collapse and sink into the sea with all the garbage in it. --Durano, done!

durano lawayan a.k.a. brad spit said...
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durano lawayan a.k.a. brad spit said...
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