"In 1970 the same flooding occurred and 44 people died in the mud. The lesson went unlearned. Little or nothing has changed as we have seen in Genoa. Politicians talk about building a bridge to Messina while sitting infirm when it comes to investing in our basic infrastructure. We continue building haphazardly without any consideration for the societal or environmental risks, without thinking of services nor the caprice of Mother Nature.
There's not an Italian alive who wasn't left in utter astonishment in the face of an event that we were not only waiting for, but we thought we would be totally prepared for once it hit. Yet once again we were presented with a tragedy in three parts: mediocrity, charlatanism, and superficiality.
What must happen before our Country can one day count on an modicum of seriousness and rigor? Upon efficiency and a sense of responsibility? When will we became a civilized Country?
Each and every time a disaster occurs in Italy, like clockwork, we uncover an absolute sewer festering underneath. Just think about the garbage in Naples, the Aquila earthquake, and the squalid, criminal speculation that time and again reveals its ugly head. There are thousands of examples.
Who knows what other miseries are lurking just below the devastation of Genoa!"
--- Excerpt from an opinion column "Tragedia che si doveva evitare" (An Avoidable Tragedy) by Vincenzo Cerami of the Rome newspaper, il Messaggero on the Genoa floods in which authorities claimed the tragedy (6 dead) could not have been avoided.
After the U.S. GOP blocked a $60 billion bill for infrastructure spending recently in the USA this week, we could well say the same thing (I'm thinking of New Orleans, or the flooding across the U.S.).
You can check out the Yahoo! Video Gallery of the disaster here
13 comments:
Italians you need another, "Il Duce." It's the only way you'll understand anything. Sad and true!
Thank God the GOP voted down the crass spending of the Dumocrats. We can't spend our way out of a Recession no matter what the Ex-Pat Dumocrats in Europe think!
The only way out of recession and the only way govt "creates jobs" is by spending on infrastructure. Take a course in Economics 101.
Instead, the USA prefers to go the way of Italy where the monies are given to pork projects and cronies...(WorldCom, Enron, bridges, farms...)
As for another Duce? Italians have a soft spot for autocratic leaders but what they truly need is representational govt and the to halve their parliamentarians...
From i-italy article:
But the heart of the problem is more complex. According to a Greenpeace spokesman, Giuseppe Onufrio, “It’s a combination of problems: global warming that’s turning Italy’s climate more tropical, not tending to trees and the environment, and over-building without proper controls. We also need to understand how to manage emergencies better.” Others add that storm sewers and streams have not been kept clear.
http://www.i-italy.org/18596/genoa-drowns-berlusconi-struggles-stay-afloat#comment-3722
No you need another real "Il Duce." One that's going to put up against a wall your corrupt politicians. It has nothing to do with global warming, tending trees, over building or managing emergencies. It has to do with over spending, over entitlements and above all Socialism at it's very worst.
You'll probably have to re-name your blog to, "Burnt by the Hammer and Sickle."
Europe is a bloody mess and you've only yourselves to blame.
At least here come this time next November, we'll rid ourselves of the messiah. The one that was going to bring Hope and Change.
We have no hope and we got only small change.
Now Francesca, in early next year, God willing and the crick don't rise, I'll be married to a fine lady from Milano.
She is gradually being re-trained to eat eggs with, "'oremones" as opposed to "organic" eggs. Learning to put things in zip-lock bags and both heat and cook things in a Micronizer, use a dryer for clothes instead of hanging them on an indoor line etc. etc. Italian myths die hard.
Alles ist moeglich, est braucht nur training.For those that are not polyglots I will translate, "Everything is possible, it only takes training."
Pover donna! The dryer is all good, but a Micronizer?? Get yourself back to Bell'Italia where things actually taste as they're supposed to look...
or in the very least let her have her cotoletta alla milanese every so often...
cotoletta alla milanese
The Italian version of of the much more famous Wiener Schnitzel.
Now think back to the glorious days of the Lira...it's coming baaaaaack!
Seems strange to me that someone with such unabashed hatred for ex-pats would be trolling around an ex-pat blog.
Poor woman indeed! I love my country, but one of the things I cannot stand is the number of people who believe blindly that the way they do things is the only way. We expats have our flaws, just like the next person, but at the very least, we are open-minded and embracing of other cultures.
Europe is in a bloody mess, true, but the US isn't??
Tiff:
You have a very athletic mind, you jump to conclusions. There's no hatred, it's that ex-Pats become more Catholic than the Pope.
How true, Italians, as do other countries, have beliefs not founded in fact. Ergo, some changes need to be made.
Yes, Europe and especially Italy is a bloody mess. If you can't figure that out wait a while.
As for the US we've suffered through three years of what you ex-Pats and Europeans believed was the messiah. He has brought us to the edge of becoming like you failed Socialist States.
To paraphrase, "Wont someone rid us of this meddlesome President?"
Tiffany, Davide is my favorite Troll around... ;)
He also disdains "socialism" while picking up his Medicare, driving on socialist roads and being protected by our socialist army.
The USA is a mess because of George Bush & Co. squandering the buildup of our nation, spending more than all presidents before him, and sending us into two wars (and yet no anti-govt spending Tea Partier ever made a squeak) with no way to pay for them. His buddies at Enron and Worldcom made a killing, his other buddy "Binbar Bush" is from the country that attacked us. I'd love to see these steaming tea partiers if that had been Obama letting all the Bin Ladens flee the country, and been seen "palling around with - real - terrorists"...
Same goes for Italy. Everyone likes to glaze over the fact that the right -not the commies- have been in power for 60+ years. Berlusconi took over power from the Christian Democrats and has been in power more/less for 14 yrs. And yet, the "socialists" are blamed for our mess.
I am not for the left, but, as they old Wendy's commercial used to say... Where's the Beef??!!!
Now, who's Trolling. You have the vaguest ides of what Socialism is, yet you live under it as do all Europeans.
Please Francesca, learn what it is before Trolling. One of it's main tenets is, "Goods and services for consumption are distributed through markets, and distribution of income is based on the principle of individual merit/individual contribution." I other words, "From each according to his ability to pay to each according to his need." This has nothing to do with Medicare,roads or armies.
Think of all the things that are controlled by not just the Italian State government but all the subdivisions. These are regulations for the "Common good." These are based on the philosophy that you are too stupid to control your lives and after all the Government, the Nanny state" knows best. Add to that all the entitlements you are given "Free," yeah, believe that and I've a bridge I'll sell you.
And for you Francesca, it's the obamanation's economy. Stop blaming Bush...get a life. You all wanted the messiah and all you got was the mess.
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