ITALY:FOR MONTHS now, the city of Naples has earned itself less than flattering headlines because of its much-publicised rubbish crisis. According to Cardinal Crescenzio Sepe of Naples, however, the city managed to show an even uglier face to the world last weekend when two Roma gypsy children drowned off the beach of Torregaveta, near Naples.
Eleven-year-old Cristina Ebrehemovich and her 12-year-old sister Violetta lived in the nomad encampment of Secondigliano, one of more than 1,000 illegal - and squalid - favelas or shanty towns that have grown up near Rome, Milan and Naples. Last Saturday, the two children were sent out to sell trinkets, cigarette lighters and other objects at the Torregaveta beach, easily reachable by suburban train.
Given the hot day that was in it, the children opted to take a swim. Perhaps because they had eaten, and almost certainly because they did not know how to swim, the two children soon got into difficulties in the choppy sea.
Emergency services and lifeguards from a nearby private beach were alerted but they were unable to save the two, whose drowned bodies were thrown back up by the rough sea.
It was what happened next that aroused the indignation of many, including Cardinal Sepe. As the two bodies were laid out on the sand, covered by beach towels, until such time as police authorities removed them, other beach-goers continued to sit on, taking the sun in apparent indifference.
Newspaper pictures show couples sitting in deck chairs or sunning themselves close to the rocks as the bodies first lie on the sand and are then removed in coffins: "The sadness comes not just from seeing those two bodies stretched out under the covers on the sand, but also from the sight of those on the beach sitting idly by and not feeling in any way involved. Sometimes, looking the other way and doing your own business can be worse than the events themselves," said Cardinal Sepe.
While Franco Iannuzzi, mayor of nearby Monte di Procida, argued yesterday that many of those on the beach had done all they could to save the children, commentators pointed out that the drownings come at a very particular moment.
Just last month, the newly installed centre-right government of Silvio Berlusconi announced the ministry of the interior would carry out a census, complete with finger-printing, of the inhabitants of nomad camps.
Interior minister Roberto Maroni, of the Northern League, claims the measure will help to provide both health and education services to the Roma. Critics see it as a racist move aimed at combating communities held responsible by many Italians for petty theft, burglary and violent crime.
The Roma problem is complicated by the fact many Italians confuse them with Romanians, who have continued to pour into Italy. The law and order issue played heavily both in the spring general election and in mayoral elections in cities such as Rome with centre-right candidates calling for the destruction of nomad camps, identified as hotbeds of crime.