What the hell has happened to Italy?

[marmar]

from the Independent UK:



Italian tolerance goes up in smoke as Gypsy camp is burnt to ground

By Peter Popham in Rome
Friday, 16 May 2008




In cruel and unusual concert, Italy's new government, its police and paramilitary carabinieri, and even its gangsters, have turned their joint might against the nation's enemy number one: the Gypsies.

Yesterday Pope Benedict XVI and a small number of left-wingers raised lonely voices in central Naples against the national hardening of hearts towards Europe's perennial outsiders. To little avail: the Pope's appeal for a spirit of welcome and acceptance was met with a hail of angry rejection in blogged comments on news websites.

But what will remain scorched in the nation's memory – as a mark of shame, or a beacon pointing the way forward, depending on how you see it – are the flaming structures of the Gypsy camp burnt in the Ponticelli district of Naples on Wednesday.

Residents of the former communist stronghold on the northern outskirts of Naples have been raising hell about the camp since Saturday, when a woman claimed a Gypsy girl had entered her flat and tried to steal her baby.

The first Molotov cocktails descended on the improvised huts and cabins on Tuesday evening, after which the 800-odd inhabitants began moving out of the area in groups. On Wednesday the fire-raisers, said to belong to the Camorra, the Neapolitan equivalent of the Mafia, burnt the camp in earnest, watched by applauding local people and unchallenged by the police. When firefighters showed up to douse the blaze, local people taunted and whistled at them. The last Roma moved out under police protection.

Only then did local politicians shed a few crocodile tears: Antonio Bassolino, governor of the Campania region, declaring: "We must stop with the greatest determination these disturbing episodes against the Roma." Rosa Russo Iervolino, the Mayor of Naples, chimed in: "It is unthinkable that anyone could imagine that I could justify reprisals against the Roma."

But the first act of ethnic cleansing in the new Italy passed off with little fuss. Flora Martinelli, the woman who reported the alleged kidnap attempt on her baby, said: "I'm very sorry for what's happening, I didn't want it to come to this. But the Gypsies had to go." .....(more)

The complete piece is at: http://www.independent.co.uk/news/europe/italian-tolerance-goes-up-in-smoke-as-gypsy-camp-is-burnt-to-ground-829318.html

[Ron Green]

1. Berlusconi's been there long enough to dehumanize the culture. Kinda like Bush with our society.

[xchrom]

2. i love italy -- but this is beyond sad. nt

[muntrv]

3. Mussolini is back!

[gateley]

7. Yes -- a Fascist Prime Minister was just elected last month. nt

[reggie the dog]

19. The mayor of Rome elected a couple of weeks ago

is a former member of the neo fascist party. Berlusconi repenalized drugs, then the socialists re depenalized, now Berlusconi wants to re penalize again, fuck going to Italy for anything even if it is only an hour and fifteen minutes down the road.

[malaise]

22. Well his grand daughter was given a Cabinet post

and she's to the right of gramps and Attila the Hun.

[ChairmanAgnostic]

4. they used to have great defenders

a very pretty midfield, and a left side attacker who was a magician with the ball. They are still weak on the right, especially in the midfield and defense, but coaching is strong, and they have some young ones who will fit into their style of play.

Oh, wait, you AREN'T talking soccer, are you? Well, take a look at their team - quite the international team.

[Skink]

5. Fast food

the claws of corn syrup have been weilded on Italy.

[gateley]

6. I think the new Prime Minister --

who won handily as a FASCIST -- said he would 'deal with the gypsy problem' (my words) if he was elected.

[Kip Humphrey]

8. ES&S? ...DIEBOLD? ...SEQUOIA? /nt

[Wilms]

21. Stunned by your irrelevance. n/t

[Uncle Joe]

9. I'm not up date on Italy but the last I heard

Berlusconi owned most of their media. I believe they have a corporate media monopoly just as we do.

If that's still the case I believe the result is inevitable.

I don't believe it to be a coincidence that our corporate media has played the race card with their caricature of Reverend Wright by taking snippets from decades of his sermons while ignoring his biography.

The same corporate media has pretty much given radical or controversial statements by white pastors and their political affiliates a free pass ie; Hagee, Falwell, Robertson. Have they said a word about Limbaugh's call for a riot at the Convention? I'm not aware of any reporting on this issue, certainly not with the same attention given to Wright.

In short I believe there is direct correlation between a privatized monopolized information system and the growth of intolerance.

[marmar]

10. "direct correlation between a ... monopolized information system and the growth of intolerance"

Indeed, Uncle Joe.

[marshall]

11. Nothing's changed, they've always hated gypsies in Europe

It's just not as widely publicized as the racism in the US.

And the term gypsy has become somewhat pejorative--on the line of colored but I wouldn't say it's as bad as the "n" word. The more sensitive term is "Roma".

[BeHereNow]

12. Mussolini's grand daughter was just "appointed" to his cabinet~ any more questions?

Courtesy of the Council on Foreign Relations and the Trilateral Commission.
Now let's hear for the "OH, that's a conspiracy theory..." crowd.

Fuck them all.

BHN

[tom_paine]

13. Italy wants to be to Amerika what it was to Germany 70 years ago.

You know what? I think it will be, too, as Amerika repirses Germany's role (with a few different details, probably just a little bit more kind and genlter, so as to provide just a little Plausible Deniability, which is the mother's milk of tyrants and Bushies the world over).

Can you feel it? I have been saying it since 12/12/2000, the day America became Amerika and satrted down our Kinder and Gentler Nazi path.

It's coming. It's 1936 now, maybe even 1937. Hell, if Bushler nukes Iran this summer or fall, it could already be early 1939.

The shadow of totalitarian darkness is falling over the world, just as it did in the 30s, and THIS time it's home is Amerika.

Italy is just being Italy, apparently. They LOOOOVE Bushies and Nazi, apparently, and they are rushing to join now just as they did then.

[csziggy]

14. Weren't Gypsies one of the groups targeted in the Holocaust?

Ah, here it is:
Porajmos

The Porajmos (also Porrajmos), literally Devouring, is a term coined by the Romani people to describe attempts by the regime in Nazi Germany to exterminate most of the Romani peoples of Europe as part of the Holocaust.

<snip>
Because the Romani communities of Eastern Europe were less organized than the Jewish communities, it is more difficult to assess the actual number of victims, though it is believed to range from 220,000 to 500,000. Only in recent years has the Romani community begun to demand acceptance among the victims of the Nazi regime. The response so far has been mixed.



This is all so horribly reminiscent of the late 1930s... :-(

[Golden Raisin]

15. Berlusconi.

Just as with Bush in the U.S.A., the moral tone and agenda for the Nation is set at the top.

[Nutmegger]

16. The Italian electorate went insane and voted for Berlusconi.

Why Italy? Why???

:puke:

[matt007]

17. Backlash wave going on across Europe

to different degrees however.

Sarkozy in France ....moderate
Merkel in Germany.....moderate


probably Carmeron in the U.K. in a year or so......not moderate enough for me. I dont trust him.
London Mayor Livingston out Johnson tory loudmouth in.

Berlisconi is just riding the wave...he'll pull a fat cat stunt pretty soon like most other rw italians do and get flushed in the next election cycle i hope.

Most of the reasons for the backlash in Eur. is immigration greivences.Italy is having some economic fits but its minor. Eastern Europe is still powering along strong......Spain is doing well under a socialist. Cyprus will probably re unify due to moderate communists on both sides.

The E.U. as a whole has firmly intrenched progressive values. I dont think this hickup will hurt it in the long run. The Lisbon Treaty will come into effect and things will run much more smoothly.

[reggie the dog]

20. Sarkozy is moderate

He wants to expell illegal immigrants, but at the same time nominated women, blacks muslims, and north Africans to important posts in his government. He has said nothing agianst our French nomands up unitl this point.

Do not fall for the Lisobn Treaty, it is just about forcing countries to open up their state monopolies to private sector competition.

We have our EU rights without the Lisbon Treaty. The Treaty of Maastrich and the Treaty of Nice give me more rights than the French constitution already.

Sarkozy, (I did not vote for him) is about as far right as the US Democratic party. He supports our single payer national health care, wants a mix of private and public control over natural gas, electricity, trains, and hospitals, supports civil unions but not gay marriage (but gay marriage is a right according to EU law so now France has to respect the right of gay people to marry and adopt). He talks tough shit against Iran. I voted for the Socialits in the second round and a radical unionist, José Bové in the first round. They wanted public control of the things sarkozy wants mixed control over and are much cooler about immigration.

Merkel is ever further to the left than Sarkozy, much less war like and willing to talk to the Iranians, more open for gay marriage, and favors mixed private/public control of some industries.

Donner in the Netherlands on the other hand.....Not as bad as W but not far from it.

[matt007]

23. I think Sarkozy will tone down soon

He is only trying to distance himself from Chirac. He will become more moderate. France has a good tradition of liberal values.

I wish I had a socialist option to vote for here in America. New Orleans needs to adopt social values at least..


You are lucky to live in the E.U.

Who do you think will win the European Presidency spot from the new Lisbon treaty? I dont like Blair. I think maybe Barrosso or Ahern.

[Posteritatis]

18. This in Naples, an openly fascist mayor in Rome... the hell? (nt)