Articles by: E.m.

  • Facts & Stories

    Burnt on A Prank


    Yesterday Nettuno, a small sea-side resort outside of Rome, became the site of uncommon barbarity. An Indian immigrant, 35-year-old Navte Singh, was admitted to hospital with severe burns, perpetrated by three young men while he slept outside the local train station. His Italian attackers, aged 29, 19 and the youngest, 16, had been out together drinking and smoking marijuana when they decided, while at a gas station, that they wanted “to end the night with a bang”. They purchased a container of petrol and sought out a homeless man, planning to set him on fire and "teach him a lesson". Today Italian police apprehended them, with the help of descriptions provided by Singh. The three men, who have no previous criminal records, confessed to the atrocity and were charged with aggravated attempted homicide.

     

    This, the latest in a slew of violent xenophobic reactions against immigrants, is being billed as a hate crime by many political figures in Italy. President Giorgio Napolitano made a firm public statement decrying the acts, “We are witness to horrifying incidents we can no longer view as isolated, but as symptoms of a wider, far more alarming trend. I appeal to our cultural and educational institutions to devote themselves to the cause of eradicating these manifestations of xenophobia, racism and violence.” Setting himself apart from colleagues in an expression blatantly drawn along party lines, and rather beside the point, Berlusconi’s Minister of the Interior Roberto Maroni said that lawmakers had an obligation to be hard on illegal immigration and to "stop acting like softies". Joining the right-wing chorus was cabinet minister Roberto Calderoli who added, “While the attack at Nettuno is to be radically condemned, we cannot shift attention away from an international crisis that is putting our jobs at risk and which necessitates the suspension of new immigrant arrivals and free movement of immigrants across Europe.”

     

    The three Nettuno attackers are children of working-class families from the area, described as “neighborhood bullies” by one investigator. They assaulted Singh, a Sikh man who lost his job in construction, as he was lying under a bus shelter after what he said was a “calm night”. Police found him with his pants still on fire and his legs, back and neck seared. He was able to say only a few words and shortly lost all feeling due to pain: over 40% of his body is covered in second and third-degree burns. Doctors from the Sant’Eugenio Hospital in Rome report that he is not at risk of death but that his condition remains “very serious”.

     

     
     
     

     

  • Life & People

    New Italian Shoes for a New President

    Practically speaking, President Barack Obama won’t follow in the footsteps of his predecessor, George W. Bush. But he will know what it’s like to step into the man's shoes (literally). Along with his new White House digs, Obama will receive new shoes, hand-crafted by the same Italian who made a pair for Bush.

    The Presidential rapport with Adriano Stefanelli, shoemaker to religious leaders such as Pope John Paul II and the Patriarch of Moscow, began with a papal visit to the U.S. Bush so admired John Paul II’s shoes that he went straight to the source and commissioned his own. Stefanelli, who is from the Piedmont city of Novara, said the American embassy asked him to think up a creation for the incoming President, likely to be Obama according to polls at the time. He went straight to work.

    Stefanelli calls his uniquely manufactured footwear “a classic Italian product, perfect for a Made in Italy fan like Obama.” The President’s package from Italy will contain what are known as “francesine”, black shoes with natural leather soles sewn entirely by hand.

  • Facts & Stories

    Gomorra's Author to Leave Italy?


     This week marks the second year of Roberto Saviano’s heavily guarded life, a day-to-day accompaniment by vigilant security detail. It’s not an anniversary the author and journalist relishes. Ever since the staggering success of his book, Gomorra, in which he exposed the activities of a Camorra cartel, he has been under constant threat of reprisals from the criminal organization. His work has become an international best-seller, his celebrity has risen, perhaps to the status of national hero, but the past few days have been a watershed moment, as Saviano has received more ominous warnings and has publicly bemoaned an existence of constantly looking over his shoulder.  

     

    In a television appearance on the Italian show “Fahrenheit”, he described some of the difficulties that naturally arise for a man in his situation—“you’re always under suspicion, in solitude, while the people around you disappear”—and yet he appeared resigned. He added he passes a lot of his time at the gym, boxing and palling around with the carabinieri policemen who have become his permanent escorts.  

     

    Despite the heavy restrictions imposed on his personal life (he has said he would like to be able to visit his mother without her fearing for his life) and freedom of movement, up until now Saviano has resolved to stay in Italy. But a new, more serious call has been made to purge the author. An informant from the Casalesi clan, the protagonists of his exposé, has revealed that the clan’s fugitive leader is seeking a bomb detonator, similar to the one that was used to kill anti-mafia judge Giovanni Falcone in 1992, to do away with Saviano, reportedly “by Christmas”. 

     

    The alarm this announcement has elicited has caused the security around Saviano to tighten, and for the media and public figures, especially from the Democratic Left (the PD Party), to rally around the author. The informant has since rescinded his statement, but investigations into the claim are still being made.  

     

    Saviano has responded that he is now considering leaving Italy to reclaim his life: “F**k, I’m still only 28, I want to write. [..] I felt the moral obligation to become a symbol...but now I want to rebuild my life, far from the shadows”.  

     

    Salman Rushdie, the author of “The Satanic Verses” who lived in hiding for nearly a decade pursuant to a fatwah from Ayatollah Khomeini, supports Saviano’s decision to leave Italy, but says he has to “carefully choose a foreign haven”.  

     

    The question remains: amid cries that the author should stay in Italy as a symbol of courage, of hope against powerful Mafia factions, how long can Saviano hold off?