DESPERATE TIMES, DESPERATE MEASURES

The negotiating skills of flying squad officers and a Provincial Councillor were instrumental in averting a suicide on Tuesday when Bruno Nativo, a former school porter, threatened to throw himself off the balcony of the office of  Ragusa Province Education Authority.  

Mr Nativo, who had chained himself to the railings of the building for the previous six days, had been protesting because his work contract had not been renewed but when no one seemed to be listening, he made the threat to end his life.  He had, in fact, been employed as a school porter in Vittoria for five years but was dismissed when it emerged that he had lied in a declaration stating that he had committed no criminal offences;  it was found that he had committed several minor offences such as driving without a licence.  Mr Nativo was later reinstated after appealing to an industrial tribunal but in August last year his annual contract was not renewed.

The last straw for him was to be told that he would no longer receive any unemployment benefit and, as he has a wife and three sons, two of whom are disabled, he decided to make his desperate protest.  On Tuesday he said he wanted to speak to the Prefect of Ragusa Province and came down from the balcony after he was promised that the Prefect would be informed of the situation.

Those in public jobs should not, of course, lie in their declarations to their employers but how different is what Mr Nativo did to exaggerating a little on a CV, which we have surely all done at some time in our lives?  Personally I think this man has suffered enough.  What do you think?