Stench figurative and literal: Naples’ garbage crisis deepens

Back in January, I made three separate posts about the mountains of garbage accumulating in the streets of Naples, Italy: “Naples Stinks,” “Followup: Sardinians Resent Naples’ Garbage,” and “Followup: Naples’ Garbage Crisis Laid Bare.” Now, here’s the latest–

(There are two kinds of human filth, here. One is obvious and may be cleaned up with garbage trucks and street cleaners. The other kind is harder to see and is notoriously hard to clean up.)

Camorra cause a stink in Naples

[via telegraph.co.uk]

The Mob has proved no better than Italy’s inept municipal authorities at running waste disposal business properly.

(Excerpt)

..the Mob has proved no better than Italy’s inept municipal authorities at running the service properly. Barely any new waste processing facilities have been built in Naples for decades, and since last December, the region’s dumps have been full to capacity and unable to take any more. Hence the refuse piles 20 feet high in Naples’ once-picturesque alleyways, and hence what Neapolitans call La Puzza, or The Stink.

With it has come another unpleasant smell – less easily detectable but just as familiar in Italian public life. It is the whiff of corruption, and the sneaking feeling that the situation got so out of hand because of murky links between the Comorra and the city’s administration, stymying modern refuse projects that might threaten their waste rackets.

“The fish starts to stink from the head, so we should blame the political class,” said Quarto Gennaro, 51, nursing an espresso in a cafe in Forcella, an old-time Camorra district packed with loafing, jowelly men resembling Sopranos extras. “They always act together with the criminals….”

Read the full article

Top 5 posts

The top five posts at Things That Stink, for the last 90 days, were:

• Tonsilloliths

• Michelle Obama on Barack: “snore-y and stinky guy”

• Musky Matthew McConaughey

• Tales From the Nasty Chair

• Classifying Crap: The Bristol Stool Scale

And since, out of these five posts, “Musky Matthew McConaughey” is the most recent, by far (Feb. 1), it appears that the earthy miasma of this Tinseltown hunkster’s armpits (according to Fool’s Gold co-star Kate Hudson) deeply interests some people.

Oh – and I should note that some of the incoming links on the Matthew McConaughey post are from gay sites, replete with generally artless photos of large tumescent appendages. Henceforth, I think I will call this the “Flamin’ response” which is a play on the scientific term, “Flehmen Response,” a phenomenon which has everything to do with the sense of smell.

“Flehmen response” in the common Tapir (Tapirus terrestrsis)

Busted: Psycho Dog People

Dog-filth suspects were investigated last year

The women accused of serially trashing rental homes by packing them with unsupervised pets received a visit from BSO and DCF after neighbors complained of smelling dog feces last year.

A year before Broward sheriff’s deputies arrested a mother and her daughter on charges they wrecked rental homes with more than five dozen unwalked, unkempt dogs, authorities got a whiff of their scent.

On Feb. 8, 2007, a BSO deputy accompanied a Department of Children & Families investigator to the Oakland Park residence of Ann Centofanti and Ann Hesse-Centofanti for an elderly abuse investigation.

Neighbors of the Centofantis had expressed concern for the well-being of Lucy Centofanti, the family matriarch. Neighbors had not seen her in months.

Those neighbors also complained of a strong smell of dog feces coming from the home at 3475 NW 17th Ter., according to a police report.

Investigators found four dogs, some foul odor, a frail grandmother — but no sign of foul play.

In the next 12 months, the family went through at least three other homes, two of which needed to be completely gutted, and their pooch collection topped out at 63 before they called it quits, according to neighbors, landlords and the Broward Sheriff’s Office.

Earlier this week, they abandoned 46 dogs and three cats at an Oakland Park rental home that was so filled with waste deputies needed to wear hazmat suits to enter, BSO said.

Read the entire article, watch video, etc.

Followup: Naple’s Garbage Crisis laid bare

This article goes considerably more into depth than articles posted here, previously.

The rotten heart of Italy: See Naples and die (of the stench)

Southern Italy’s most celebrated city is drowning in refuse, paralysed by corruption and almost bereft of hope. Peter Popham reports on a life-threatening crisis

The city of Naples, Italy’s third biggest, the capital of the south, is caught in a trap of its own devising. And if you drive to the suburb of Pianura where police have been fighting with residents this week, you can get a good idea of the cruelty and fatality of this trap; and why there is a whiff of fear in the city’s air just now, mixed with the stench of putrid rubbish….

Read the entire article

Followup: Sardinians Resent Naples’ Garbage

Followup to “Naples Stinks”—

Garbage Grates as Sardinians Clash with Police

Via Euronews.net

Police in Sardinia have clashed with islanders angered by the arrival of 500 tonnes of rubbish. A cargo vessel loaded with rancid garbage docked at the port of Cagliari, where protestors were out in force in an attempt to stop the ship unloading. The waste had been shipped from Naples on Italy’s mainland. Refuse collection in Napels ground to a halt before Christmas after tips in area were declared full.

In an attempt to ease the growing public health implications Prime Minister Romano Prodi called on Italy’s regional authorities to accept some of the 140.000 tonnes of rubbish. Sardinia was the first to answer the call.

However, some residents on the island have taken exception to governor Renatu Soro’s decision. Firefighters say they were called out 25 times to put out fires in 48 garbage containers. Critics believe the Campania region’s rubbish problem stems from years of corruption and political cowardice, with local government unable to end Mafia control of the waste industry.

Video: Naples’ Trash Crisis