Palermo Is Buried Under Rubbish. We Tell Silvio Berlusconi How To Sort It

June 3, 2009

You may not know this, but the fine city of Palermo in Sicily is buried under mountains of rubbish as local garbage collectors are stubbornly refusing to clear up the mess, fearing that their employer, the once mighty refuse collector, Amia, is going out of business and would soon not be able to pay them for their hard work.
It is a rather silly situation and, as usual, it is the hard working honest people of Palermo who are suffering.We, at StirringTroubleInternationally, hold a cynical view on rubbish. As in litter, that is. We think that rubbish collection is best run by serious people like the mob. They are very good at dealing with rubbish. They are the best. And the Italian government should always remember that and ask the gangsters to sort out the mess when it occurs. Many moons ago I suggested this to Silvio Berlusconi and he must have taken my advice because a similar crisis in Naples was finally resolved. Today we post that article from our back catalogue and remind Mr Berlusconi that effective methods exist to sort out the problems with the uncollected garbage.

What I Would Advise Silvio Berlusconi To Do About Rubbish In Naples

Italian Prime Minister Silvio Berlusconi is trying to sort out the mess in Naples. By ‘mess’ in this case I mean real mess, tonnes of uncollected garbage lying on the streets of the city for months.

Mr Berlusconi honoured his pre-election pledge and brought the whole cabinet for a meeting at the Naples central police headquarters, an impressive building that, as I was told, had been actually housing the Ministry of Foreign Affairs during the Bourbons. Great effect, I must say, especially as the meeting had been guarded by something like half of the police force of the city. Power politics in action.

As I understand it, the Prime Minister has signed a special decree at that meeting allowing the army to use special sites in military zones to bury the rubbish. Not only that, but anyone who would try to stop the removal of rubbish on the grounds of environmental concerns or simply because the local mob told them to do so will be arrested and could face a long prison term. Once again, very impressive.

I have researched the subject of rubbish in Naples. Why, I asked some people who are seriously into rubbish, this whole crisis has erupted in the first place? What really happened? Why the stench and no movement? They explained to me that rubbish collection in Europe generally is a highly criminalised business (you don’t say?) and in Italy, of all countries, the Mafia is very touchy on the subject of any competition emerging in this sector of the economy.

Now, as I understand it, a state owned company called Ecolog has been collecting rubbish in Naples for the last eight years and shipping it to Germany for incineration. I suspect – and here I am only guessing, as you understand – the boys from the Camorra (that’s the local Mafia) were probably staying out of it all because they were paid off. Otherwise they would have put an end to this whole arrangement long ago. But you know gangsters – they always want more money. That’s how they are. Always complaining about inflation, their women wanting better presents and good cars going up in price. So, as I understand, they put in a request for a raise and got a ‘no’. And then the whole arrangement with Ecolog simply feel apart and it wasn’t safe anymore to collect rubbish in Naples.

A stand-off developed, while rubbish kept piling up. And because of the parliamentary elections and all that energetic campaigning no one really had any chance to do anything about it. So the rubbish kept on piling and the poor inhabitants of Naples had to stay at home, or walk out and avoid breathing in the air for as long as possible.

But now that Mr Berlusconi has won the elections he is finally taking measures to resolve the crisis and avoid further embarrassment. Especially as the EU has already announced that it is going to take Italy to the European Court for mishandling rubbish collection in Naples, and Campania region as a whole.

The army was ordered to move in and for the first time in four months the centre of Naples has been cleared of rubbish. Not all the city, mind you, but the centre where the cabinet meeting took place. Because ministers can’t be expected to perform their duties properly when there is such a stench around.

Now, I have been advising governments and presidents in the past and this is the sort of conversation I could have had with Mr Berlusconi.

Me: ‘Yes, Mr Prime Minster, you made a good start. Showed everyone that you mean business, involved the armed forces. Good, very good. But the problem is, you see, that once you leave Naples with all your ministers, the Camorra boys will be back in full force. Things will start to get difficult again and rubbish will return to the streets. Because that is how it always ends, you see. All those bold initiatives, that is. They always end in nothing.’

Mr Berlusconi: ‘So what do you suggest?’

Me: ‘Well, Prime Minister, why don’t you let me have a chat with those Camorra boys. You know, sit down with them, have a glass or two of wine, discuss life generally and rubbish collection in particular.’

Mr Berlusconi: ‘And then? And then what?’

Me: ‘And then, as we Russians say, we’ll establish how much this whole issue is worth. And once we agree on the price, that would be the end of it. No more rubbish.’

Mr Berlusconi: ‘I’ll never agree to pay the Camorra. I’m not going to give in to blackmail.’

Me: ‘But, of course, you will, Prime Minister, of course you will. Because you don’t really want to break your promise to the nice people of Naples, now do you?’

And you know what? He would agree to it. He will pussyfoot for a while, like all prime ministers do, but he’ll agree to it in the end. Because that is how you keep rubbish off the streets. You get serious people to deal with it.

– End –

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