Sdg - Il forum

Aliena · Persona perbene Registrato: 20/03/08 00:35 Messaggi: 5

Yes, lets talk about it...

While I believe, in general, that life in Italy "feels" safe - especially for Signore e Signora Average.. does it not have it's darker undertones only slightly hidden under the surface.. especially in the main cities?

I love studying people - the psyche - just watching, observing.. you can pick up certain character traits. I'm probably not explaining this very well.. but hey.. I can only speak about my own experiences - mainly in the Naples area - but there are definitely certain 'no go' areas where even I fear to tread. Sometimes I wonder if it is just my imagination.. but it's not. There is a tangible aura.. you just know something is not right.

Some of the people have a certain look - a way about them - the way they size you up - the way they narrow their eyes almost invisibly.. you know not to hang about too long - they know you are onto them and so they let you pass through.. they are suspicious - not just because you are in their area and they dont know you.. but because they have learnt to be.. to be what they have become.

I don't quite know how to explain it - but you know that just around the corner in the doorway that you cant quite get a clear view of.. something is going on. Other people in the area have another look about them.. one of defiance.

When I go to explore these places.. it is a calculated risk.. and nothing more than seeing life in a different way.. nothing has happened to me and I'm brave enough to say nothing ever will, because it's not a fear of personal harm I am picking up on.. it's a way of life. Anyway, I get a buzz from it and seem to have a sixth sense that kicks in when its time to leave and find another avenue to explore.

However.. this experience was completely different.

Not so long ago, I took a wrong turning in the centre of Naples.. and ended up underneath one of the flyover sections of the Tangenziale, the motorway that encircles the city. I knew I had messed up, but thought.. "Oh well lets see what's down there" - half of me wishes I wasn't as curious as I am sometimes - and even though I have always known these things exist - this stopped me in my tracks with open mouthed shock to see it in such a brutal way right before my eyes.. right in the centre of Naples.. in broad daylight and yet, because of the road overhead.. almost as if underground. A hidden part of the city.

I could have driven on.. but I had to look.. and although I knew I had stumbled on a place that most Neapolitans know about, I knew very few would ever visit.. let alone stop and stare. My sixth sense was on red alert.

I cannot describe the sheer intensity of the scene.. the heaviness.. of how this section of life has been swept away underneath the motorway that carried the "normal" members of society above them. Plastic bottles - crack pipes - syringes - littered the area.. dirty mattresses - rubbish - prostitutes too numerous to count, disappearing behind the motorway columns and returning a few minutes later to hand the money to pimps.. or have it ripped out of their hands as they were sent to make some more. The "lowlife" of society crawling on it's knees for a drag on a pipe full of smoke.

Cardboard boxes - with beady, scared eyes peering out - women of African origin 'adjusting their dress' as kerb crawlers eyed them up.. shouting obscenities that I could never dream of.. degrading these women even further and then using them for a few minutes of.. of what? Further down, more women.. none Neapolitan as far as I could see.. possibly not even Italian.. the majority more likely Eastern European.. but just as drained, soulless and degraded as everyone else there.. working their pitch.. pimps barely out of sight. The crack dealers milling around in between the pimps and the other people in cars who had come just to buy drugs. Packages exchanged for notes with drivers barely stopping and driving away to who knows where, as long as it was away from this place.. until next time.

I lived in London for years.. New York, L A and Chicago.. travelled a lot.. seen it all. I've been to Italy many times since childhood - I've seen the Neapolitan puttana's burning the braziers by the roadside - in full view of everyday life - streetfights.. muggings - pickpockets - all part of the daily routine - but this place really was something else.

I was angry.. angry it exists, because I felt I could do nothing. I wanted to scream out at these manipulators and their Neapolitan customers.. "Vieni qua.. dai.. ti spezzo le gambe", but I knew better.. even if it was the truth!

What I came to realise is that this place is only the tip of the iceberg.. these people are wasted.. walking dead, despondent, hardened and defeated by the drugs used to control them. The women are "run" by pimps.. who are, in turn, run by the drug dealers.. who are run by the suppliers, who are controlled by the next one up the line - the one who distributes and buys from the one who imports.. not only the drugs.. but the women from wherever.. on who knows what type of false promise or fear.. all the way up to the head of this 'family' that spews over every city in the world and murders humanity.. as we all drive on.. in a rush to watch another repeat of The Godfather and sigh about how wonderful life is.

I'm not defending anyone - but these were not Neapolitans running the show.. the customers were Neapolitan, fairly young men from what I saw.. driven by an addiction and perhaps a need for danger.. but they were almost as scared as I was. I could smell the fear.. perhaps it was the crack.. who knows?

Naples is heaven on earth for me.. but this.. this was her Hell.. and I thanked the God I do not believe in, that I could escape.. by simply driving on. Not so for those trapped in this sewer of control and exploitation that is their daily life.

Perhaps I am naive, perhaps it was always like this.. perhaps I haven't noticed the changes over the years and I didn't want to see a place I love degraded this way.. see people mangled into early death.. but to me.. it just seems so much more cold hearted and brutal than my imagery of zio buying something on the black market and the 'piccolo Camorristi' of yesteryear.

And so, my questions are.. where are the Neapolitan Camorra involved along this chain of suffering? Have the Neapolitan prostitutes moved up a step? Are they having their drugs delivered to a nice apartment in Vomero by their pimp in a Ferrari? Is the Camorra still run by Neapolitans at this level, or have the Eastern Europeans taken over.. with even more visible brutality?

What has happened to the old families like the Mazzerella's - who used to throw sweets and coins to all the kids and gave money to the widows of the men they had murdered for disloyalty or breaking the code? Chi e' la Nuova Famiglia.. che vuole risiedere in casa mia?

But most importantly.. where is the Neapolitan spirit and determination to change all this now hiding?