SHAMED INTO ACTION

The drone video below, of parking on Le Pergole beach in Realmonte [Agrigento]  was first posted by the environmental association Mareamico and at the weekend it went round the world. We probably all had a good laugh: yes, it's Italian anarchy at its most absurd and reinforces the stereotype of the Italian driver, but the disregard for the environment and for other people that it demonstrates is also tragic.

On Monday the police moved in to clear the beach of cars but the Mayor of Realmonte says that he just doesn't have the resources to regularly police both his town and the seven beaches that come under his jurisdiction.

The moral seems to be that in Sicily, what common sense won't do, shame will.

"Cu' nun avi russuri nun senti mancu 'i vastunati - He who does not feel shame [for the bad things he has done] does not feel the strokes of the cane either."
- Sicilian proverb

SARDINIA

Official flag of Sardinia

This has turned out to be an unkind autumn meterologically in several parts of the world and last night, as many of you will have seen in news reports in your own countries, the island of Sardinia was hit by a major cyclone, Ciclone Cleopatra.

The worst-affected area is the town of Olbia and the whole Gallura region is, according to Corriere della Sera, on its knees. The death toll at the moment is 18, including four children and the latest estimate is that 2,737 people have been made homeless.  

Tragically, a policeman escorting an ambulance was among the victims as the bridge which his vehicle was crossing collapsed in Dorgali [Nuoro]. Three of his colleagues were also injured and there is as yet no word on their condition.

Prime Minister Letta, who is on his way to Sardinia as I write, has declared a state of emergency and referred to the event as a national tragedy. His government has allocated €27 million for emergency relief and the miltary have already been deployed in the rescue and clearing up operation. 

Italy's Environment Minister, Andrea Orlando, has said that 17.3" of rain fell on the island last night - a figure equivalent to half the average rainfall there for a whole year. This has put an unbearable strain on Sardinia's water system. President of the Camera dei deputati Laura Boldrini has said that the tragedy has once again brought environmental issues to the fore and has called for more environmental protection measures.

As always in such circumstances, Italy has rallied to help those in need: Hotels in Olbia are receiving the displaced and a medical emergency room has been set up in a pharmacy as the local hospital is still difficult to reach. Following reports of the disaster late last night, I was impressed by the speed with which social media were being used to inform people about where they could go for help and to offer accommodation to those who have been evacuated.

President Napolitano has expressed his solidarity with and sympathy for the Sardinian people and Pope Francis, on twitter, has asked people to pray for the victims, especially the children.

TAKING THE PISS?

Image: WP Clipart

Italians love their cars and Modicans, I would say, more than most: every one of them will tell you, "We have a transport system that doesn't work" but this doesn't seem to matter because, as a student told me some years ago, "Only old people use it." "Thanks very much", said I.

So frustrated am I by the infrequency of Modica's buses that, whenever I go to Catania, I am like a child let loose in some Christmas wonderland at the sight of buses that actually appear to be going somewhere and bus stops placed in locations where people might want to alight.

Using your car for every journey is all very well but, in these days of the crisi - which is showing few signs of abating in Italy - it is, more than ever, costly. Help, however, may be on hand from our neighbours in Sardinia, where on Tuesday entrepreneur Franco Lisci unveiled a plan to use urine as petrol. This is not a new idea but it is new to Italy and Mr Lisci was very happy to demonstrate the use of a filter made of 100% Sardinian wool to isolate impurities. 

By all accounts the plan could work and help not only the Italian environment but the health and purses of the country's citizens as the use of urine as fuel for cars and for the running of domestic appliances would not only be cheaper but would reduce CO2 emissions.

Two questions come to mind:  firstly I would like to know how long it will take the Italian government to think up a way of taxing the stuff - not long, I suspect - and I have visions of everyone walking about with those pretty revenue stamps of which Italian officials are so fond attached to their private parts. Secondly, from whom is the quantity of urine required to be procured? I do have a suggestion:  Get it from the politicians, Italy.

OF BUTTS AND GELATO

Yesterday an army of Modican school students, along with their teachers and some of their parents, gathered in the city's Piazza Matteotti to begin a very special clean-up:  yes, it was war on cigarette ends!  Fed up with seeing the streets and piazze of their lovely, historic city being scarred by the presence of carelessly discarded cigarette ends and the pollution that the presence of these causes, the students had decided to take action themselves.

And their reward?  For every 50 cigarette ends collected, each student received a traditionally made ice cream supplied by the Pasticceria DolceSalato.    Hmm... if I'd had time, I'd have joined them!

Piazza Mateotti and farmers' market

ECOLOGY - SICILIAN STYLE

Image:  Wikipedia Italia

The citizens of Palermo have for some time been urged to separate their rubbish and place it in special communal containers for plastic, paper and organic waste on specific days at specific times and many of them have spent much time and energy making sure that they comply with these requirements.

Imagine their anger, then, at learning that their efforts have apparently been in vain: on Saturday night a passing resident surprised refuse collectors who were loading rubbish from all three containers onto the same lorry with the intention of unloading the mixed waste in one go onto the same dump.  The passer-by took photographs and sent them to Corriere della Sera.

"We were just following orders", said the hapless refuse collectors. 

WHAT, NO BAGS?

When I first moved to Sicily, it was virtually impossible to purchase a simple shopping bag of the kind you can buy in any supermarket or indoor market in the UK.   When I was out I never saw a man or woman carrying  a shopper, unless it was by Gucci.  Indeed, when I ventured out armed with my faithful British shopping bag Rosa, in particular, used to tell me that a woman carrying two bags looked odd. 

Well, all that may be about to change as  Italy introduced a blanket ban on plastic carrier bags in stores from January 1st.  Whilst environmentalists have welcomed the ban, store managers have been predicting chaos and warning that the country's environmental crisis will worsen, as people will no longer be able to recycle store plastic carriers as rubbish bags and will just go out and buy lots of oversized black bags.

Italy is responsible for 25% of the plastic bags used in the EU each year or approximately 300 bags per person annually and, whilst I appreciate that the ban has been introduced partially to avoid scenes like the one below, I personally  regard the ban as a nuisance:  It is not always possible to know how many bags you will need before you shop and paper bags disintegrate in the rain - not a concern for those who shop by car but a problem for the rest of us.

It is true that local councils in Italy have been trying, with little success, to get people to separate their rubbish but it is hard to keep a check on this in a country where most people live in flats and take their rubbish to communal containers.  In my view an education campaign is needed to raise awareness about the consequences of not recycling while Napoli-style bag mountains can best be avoided by paying refuse collectors their salaries on time!

So far I have seen no chaos in my local supermarket and neither have I seen any alternative to  plastic bags but this may be because stores are being allowed to use up their current supply of carriers provided they do not charge for them.

Cloth bags are on sale in some stores but I have not seen any durable, PVC bags of the type you can buy cheaply in Britain.  But then, I have never seen a wipe-clean PVC apron on sale here either and I am sure this is because Italian women prefer aprons that they can iron.  So now I am waiting to see if they will start washing and ironing their cloth bags.  I wouldn't put it past the perfectionist Sicilian housewife!

SILLY WEEK: SILLY PACKAGING

I find it very easy to be silly - in fact, I've almost made a career of it - so I was delighted when the Man in a Shed announced the second annual Bloggers' Silly Week.  What's the point of it?  To report silly things and to be silly!

To kick off, I have to say that I am not one to get particularly worked up about environmental issues but this packaging of a magazine strikes me as not only wasteful but extremely silly.  In Italy, nearly all magazines come like this and Italian "Vanity Fair" is the worst offender, for it has the tightest plastic wrapping and there is usually nothing extra inside it but a facsimile of the cover.  Strangely enough, if I buy a magazine I want to read it, not spend half an hour hacking it free.  But perhaps that is silly of me.

WHAT THE ELLE...?

I'm not usually one to rant about environmental issues but that's what I'm going to do tonight. The November edition of Elle Italia has excelled itself with all this packaging

in order to give you this:



What the elle do they think they're doing?

DAILY DOINGS - 24

Another Ferragosto has come and gone, and that means I have almost survived both the summer and the silly season! The summer takes some surviving because of the heat and, for women, it entails even more worrying about one's appearance than usual. As I reported on twitter earlier, the following has become my Sunday routine: shower, epilate, shower, exfoliate, apply moisturiser and then fake tan to legs. [I am pale and it's the only way!] Then wait at least an hour for it to dry and develop a bit [while I read, pluck my eyebrows, exfoliate my face and give myself a facepack]. The "Sicilian silly season" is definitely August, when many stores shut down for 2 whole weeks around Ferragosto and others do not reopen after siesta. It's a bit churlish to want to deny the Italians, who work so hard all year round, their August break, but I do find it absurd that a chemist's can close for a whole month! Even my beloved Altro Posto bar has been closed for the past two weeks but Raffaele the hairdresser is only closing for four days this year, instead of a whole week. This, I imagine, is due to increased competition from several new hairdressing salons which have sprung up in Modica this year. I can just about manage four days without a hairdo!

The Post Office, that embodiment of "abandon all hope", is again closed in the afternoons until the end of August. And, talking of that establishment, last week a post box appeared outside it. This may be normal in other parts of the world but it seems no one had suggested it as a logical place to put one in this part of Sicily!

The Edicolè bar is only closed until Monday afternoon, and they were feeling in generous mood when I popped in for an aperitivo and an ice cream on Friday: how about this for a complimentary snack?

When I bought a kilo of grapes for 80 centesimi from our local greengrocer, also on Friday, he didn't have 20 c in change to give me, so instead he plonked another kilo of grapes into the bag! OK, I know he had to get rid of them before the holiday, but I can't imagine that happening in the UK, can you? It seems that there are some advantages to the "silly season" after all!

Now, changing the subject completely, my friend M from Girl on the Run wanted to see what accessories I would buy to go with this outfit:

Well, I finally got them, in the end-of-season sales!

Meanwhile, Modica's young people have been having a busy time down on the beaches: I'm ashamed to relate that our lovely, clean beaches have been badly littered with cigarette ends and the Comune's machines don't pick them all up. Under the clever slogan, Filtriamo la spiaggia young people have been invited to clear the beaches of this mindless pollution and have been offered a free ice cream for every 50 cigarette ends they've been able to collect today. [I must say, I wouldn't like to be the person who had to count them!] A good initiative, encouraging the young to care about their environment and allowing local makers of traditional ice cream to sponsor an environmental event or the Comune evading its resposibilities and even potentially exposing the volunteers to a health risk? I've heard both arguments here and now would love to know what all of you think.

A SICILIAN SOLUTION ...

.. to refuse collection.

Back in March, the inspirational and aptly-named Mayor Cicero of Castelbuono [Palermo] had the idea of using mules to collect the refuse in this town of 10,000 inhabitants. The scheme seems to be a great success, for, as the Mayor says, this way they are cutting down on pollution whilst saving their historic heritage; the mules also have names and are popular with the town's children.

"National environmental concerns" is an oral examination topic so I was discussing this with students yesterday. Then I read more about it here .

Hat tip to my student Luca.

MADONNE AND MANAGERS

Just a few thoughts and observations for you tonight:

I never thought I would say this but I feel some empathy for Fabio Capello, who yesterday took a break in Sicily [Pantelleria] - for one day! It seems he just wanted to stroll along to the bar, read a newspaper there in leisurely, Italian fashion and enjoy some sunshine. [It's a good thing he didn't choose today as it has been rainy and cold!] My friend the Winchester Whisperer reminds us of the possible status of that gentleman's efforts to master the English language.

Talking of bars, you can see all of life if you sit in the Altro Posto for long enough at lunchtime: the "regulars" are nearly always there by 12.45, most of these being business folk who cannot get home for lunch but still want their piatto di pasta. It does amuse me to watch them transfer from their comfortable chairs at their tables to take the parting espresso seated on barstools and I often wonder why; perhaps they are afraid to get too comfortable, in case they won't want to move? Then along comes the old chap who just sits awhile outside, or inside on a day like this. No one moves him along or is unkind to him. Just after 1.30pm the bank managers all arrive. I think you can always pick them out, in any culture! And finally, we witness the entrance of the madonne: beautiful, busy young women whose features you would recognise wherever you come from as these have adorned Italian art down the centuries. I like observing what they are wearing and taking fashion notes. But I haven't seen Mr Gorgeous for ages, ladies!

This week it has been reported that the price of bread and pasta could go up by as much as 12% by December and imports are mostly blamed for this. Imports in general are becoming a worry as, in this wonderful country where every foodstuff anyone could wish for is cultivated or produced, tins of Chinese tomatoes are sometimes found on sale!

Tonight the lights of the Colosseo, Fontana di Trevi and other tourist attractions in Rome were switched off for half an hour to mark the anniversary of the Kyoto Protocol, whilst in Florence tonight all are dining by candlelight [which does not seem a bad idea to me every night of the year!] I gather that the lights of the Tour Eiffel were also switched off for a period. What do you think? - A meaningless gesture but a gesture nonetheless or total nonsense? Was the occasion marked where you are?


Buona notte from Sicily.

TALKING RUBBISH

Update, 17.1.08: Just saw this in Telegraph online.

Domestic rubbish continues to pile up in Naples, where the landfills are full and promised new incinerators have not been built. The background to this story is here and for the past two weeks things have become nastier and nastier, with effigies of Prodi and the Mayor of Naples having been burnt and left hanging from trees last week. Finally the problem has impacted upon Sicily, where there have been some scuffles between protestors and the authorities as the island has been asked to accept some of the Campania's refuse. With 250 tonnes of the stuff being bound for the Agrigento region last weekend, many Sicilians have declared that they do not see why their beautiful island should become the "wastedump of Italy". On Sardinia the protests have been violent.

ONE FOR MY OWN COUNTRY ...

... parts of which are in a bit of trouble.

These are the landscapes of my childhood and I remember them thus.

- Just another reminder of how something can suddenly hit you for six, emotionally, when you live abroad.

Anti-monarchist that I am, though, I would like to know what our beloved heir to the throne, who has a mansion not a million miles from these scenes, is doing to help? [Other than being towed along in a dinghy to survey the scene, that is.] OK, I know he can't exactly throw Highgrove open to the public, for security and other reasons, but surely the man could do something?