Recently Naples, Italy has gotten a great deal of press time on account of their garbage issue. Debris is piled outside people’s homes, on the street, seemingly everywhere with no definite pickup schedule in sight. A visitor might perceive Naples to be a city whose sanitation commission can’t keep up with garbage needs of the people. Upon examining the situation more closely a possible root of the problem is found; the Mafia. On a recent tour of Italy, a Roman tour guide gave the inside story of why Naples is being buried under three feet of trash.
At this point in time Naples, Italy has the highest unemployment rate of all the regions of Italy yet they seem to have a great deal of money pumping through a few select people. The tour guide explained that these few fortunate enough to have such funds are members of the Mafia. Mostly controlling the big businesses, the Mafia of Naples has not made public works a priority on their agenda. Road construction projects have been underway for thirty years. The people hired to do the construction projects are affiliated with the Mafia as well, therefore the longer the project goes on the more money that is paid out.
When it comes to trash pickup, the Mafia has managed to delay any sort of real progress. A few years back the rubbish of the city was not an issue as it was being picked up in a timely manner. A short while later, there were some excavations were done for a completely different public works project and heaps of garbage were unearthed. It was revealed that the garbage was illegally buried there because that was a cheaper alternative than burning the waste, as they were supposed to do. With the newly unearthed piles of compost combined with the warm Mediterranean weather, Naples has become a breeding ground for malady. The people are unhappy and many have spoken out against the politicians. Local leaders have made appearances on television promising change, but thus far not much has occurred. Another concern is flooding, which occurs more often than Naples’ citizens would like it to. Couple this with the garbage issue and many are unhappy.
Awareness has been raised but when it comes time to take a true stand, citizens often back down. The tour guide explained that the Mafia has enough money to make it worth someone’s while not to squeal. At times, when police officials question citizens, the response is that everything is fine. It turns out that on many occasions people have been offered sums of money not to complain.
Several questions can be raised, including, “Who is responsible for this?” On the surface the Mafia would be the most logical answer because they seem to be controlling the city. However one might ask why people are accepting bribes from Mafiosos and to keep silent. Is the quality of life in Naples so poor that one must accept a bribe in order to make a descent living, even though long term public works projects never improve? Perhaps the question that should be asked is whether anything can be done? Naples is a big city with a population of about 1 million; therefore there are many voices to contend to. If the Mafia really is running the show, it is wondered how tight their hold over the city actually is. The issue remains whether the Mafia is holding up real progress when it comes to quality of life in Naples, Italy.
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