Sunday, February 22, 2004
So Mr Bush has been ignoring a Pentagon report into Global Warming. Here there is no need of a report. Yesterday in Milan there was half a metre of snow, in Palermo it was 26 degrees. It all tops off a strange week. Firstly, it's carnival. Tiny tots are being paraded around the streets in elaborate costumes at all hours of the day and night. Teenagers amuse themselves by throwing eggs at passers by and spraying anything and anyone with foam, fake snow and silly string.
Secondly, the city is still reeling from the senseless murder of an 18 year old last week. He smiled at a girl and was promptly fatally stabbed. The culprit was a 16year old boy. Even more shocking to those of us who are not Neapolitans was the complete lack of help the victim received as he dragged himself along the road. In the press there has been an outbreak of breast beating and self flagellation, but the fact remains that Naples has become noticeably more violent in recent months. My students blame it all on television, and then sit and watch horrifically violent Japanese cartoons. As always the blame comes back to the forces of law and order, and in some cases it is hard to disagree. When the police sit passively by as people break a myriad of laws all around them, you wonder if any punishment is meted out in this city. Then there is the bizarre monolith of Italian justice, which is a hopelessly flawed system in need of a radical overhaul, but as politicians seem to benefit most from the state's inability to punish wrongdoers it's unlikely anything will ever be done.
In the meantime school children are permitted to miss 2 months of school a year without penalty. Coming from the UK where 2 days off can lead to being excluded, allowing children such freedom can only be seen as a basis for their later transgressions. With a day off for carnival next Tuesday, the schools have insituted an 'unspoken' long weekend. I had classes cancelled yesterday, there will be none on Tuesday and every child I know has decided they wont be going to school on Monday as it is a ponte (a bridge) . The sad truth is that its not in the governments interest to tighten the education laws, an educated electorate might ask too many questions of the ragbag that holds power.
On the plus side, the sales are still going strong.. though now its 80 or 90 % reductions. My haul yesterday included a suit, 2 shirts, a pair of shoes and a tie for 40 euro. And to think I used to break out into a sweat on teh first day of Selfridges sale.. the Brits dont know what they're missing here.
Secondly, the city is still reeling from the senseless murder of an 18 year old last week. He smiled at a girl and was promptly fatally stabbed. The culprit was a 16year old boy. Even more shocking to those of us who are not Neapolitans was the complete lack of help the victim received as he dragged himself along the road. In the press there has been an outbreak of breast beating and self flagellation, but the fact remains that Naples has become noticeably more violent in recent months. My students blame it all on television, and then sit and watch horrifically violent Japanese cartoons. As always the blame comes back to the forces of law and order, and in some cases it is hard to disagree. When the police sit passively by as people break a myriad of laws all around them, you wonder if any punishment is meted out in this city. Then there is the bizarre monolith of Italian justice, which is a hopelessly flawed system in need of a radical overhaul, but as politicians seem to benefit most from the state's inability to punish wrongdoers it's unlikely anything will ever be done.
In the meantime school children are permitted to miss 2 months of school a year without penalty. Coming from the UK where 2 days off can lead to being excluded, allowing children such freedom can only be seen as a basis for their later transgressions. With a day off for carnival next Tuesday, the schools have insituted an 'unspoken' long weekend. I had classes cancelled yesterday, there will be none on Tuesday and every child I know has decided they wont be going to school on Monday as it is a ponte (a bridge) . The sad truth is that its not in the governments interest to tighten the education laws, an educated electorate might ask too many questions of the ragbag that holds power.
On the plus side, the sales are still going strong.. though now its 80 or 90 % reductions. My haul yesterday included a suit, 2 shirts, a pair of shoes and a tie for 40 euro. And to think I used to break out into a sweat on teh first day of Selfridges sale.. the Brits dont know what they're missing here.
Sunday, February 15, 2004
I'm having one of my, admittedly rare, weekends when I hate Naples, though even as I write this the weather is unseasonally mild and you can sit in the sun merely shirt sleeved. However, I shall nurture my feelings of injustice and loathing towards Naples at least until I have finished this post.
So.... where to begin? For a start Neapolitans have no sense of pavement etiquette and should be sent to London en masse for a month to learn how to walk the walk and not to stop dead - bang in front of you - and start a conversation with nobody in particular. Secondly, they have no sense of personal space, which results in people pressing you from all directions. You constantly feel you are being pickpocketed, which perhaps is why you are constantly pressed in the first place. Which brings me to my major gripe.. I had my watch stolen yesterday. Thieving little magpies. 'Microcriminalità ' as it so charmingly called is on the up. Again. Leaving the shops at 9.15 yesterday morning I was jumped by two teenagers who ripped off my watch and legged it. Now, I know Naples has more than its fair share of crime, but at 9.15 in the morning??!! I am obviously not Italian, and therefore fair game. The presumption is that as a 'straniero' I am rich and wear a Rolex. I am not and I don't. However, my Citizen Quartz sparkled in the sun and attracted the magpies that go for anything shiny and metallic. Consequently I have now bought a matt black plastic Swatch that will either glint, glisten or remotely resemble a Rolex from 20 metres away.
So.... where to begin? For a start Neapolitans have no sense of pavement etiquette and should be sent to London en masse for a month to learn how to walk the walk and not to stop dead - bang in front of you - and start a conversation with nobody in particular. Secondly, they have no sense of personal space, which results in people pressing you from all directions. You constantly feel you are being pickpocketed, which perhaps is why you are constantly pressed in the first place. Which brings me to my major gripe.. I had my watch stolen yesterday. Thieving little magpies. 'Microcriminalità ' as it so charmingly called is on the up. Again. Leaving the shops at 9.15 yesterday morning I was jumped by two teenagers who ripped off my watch and legged it. Now, I know Naples has more than its fair share of crime, but at 9.15 in the morning??!! I am obviously not Italian, and therefore fair game. The presumption is that as a 'straniero' I am rich and wear a Rolex. I am not and I don't. However, my Citizen Quartz sparkled in the sun and attracted the magpies that go for anything shiny and metallic. Consequently I have now bought a matt black plastic Swatch that will either glint, glisten or remotely resemble a Rolex from 20 metres away.
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