The changes in Italy that led to the Neapolitans’ attack on the Gypsies

Vincent Chiarello writes:

While it is much too premature to declare that the current situation in Naples is an augury of things to come for the rest of Italy, there are some unusual aspects to the efforts by Italian government officials and Neapolitans to rid the city of the “Roma,” or Gypsies, the first of which is that it happened in Naples at all.

The residents of Naples, the only major city in Italy that has not been transformed by tourism, are known for their charity to others, especially those who are down and out. While I make no claim to be an expert on this city, I have walked its labyrinthine streets over the past six or seven years—best lemon ice I’ve ever had—and spoken with waitresses from Russia, Ukraine and Moldava, each of whom told me how well they had been treated by the residents of the city, and that they were happy to be there. The central market area near the central train station is heavily populated with Africans, and from what I’ve observed, no major friction has arisen by their presence either. But the Gypsies present another, and far more somber, problem: their teaching and using of children to pilfer and pickpocket, along with their steadfast refusal to adapt, have infuriated a great many Italians, including the normally placid Neapolitans. Until the more recent arrival of the Albanians and Romanians, and the resulting increase of violent crime, I know of no group that was so disliked. While I lived in Rome, one day on the Spanish Steps, I personally observed three Carabinieri protect a group of “Roma” children, none of whom could have been more than 10 years old, who were, presumably for their larcenous ways, in danger of being roughly treated by an angry crowd. But the Gypsy girl, in attempting to kidnap a Neapolitan child, crossed the line, but what is also different in this situation is that the new Minister of Interior, who is responsible for law enforcement, is a member of the Northern League, not a member of the Socialist Party.

The current coalition of the Berlusconi government is dependent on the cooperation of the Northern League’s members, and its leader, Umberto Bossi. Bossi’s platform has, as I’ve indicated before on this website, focused on the need to rid Italy of illegal aliens and undesirable elements, especially among those recent arrivals from Albania and Romania, but Gypsies who have recently come from other countries are also highly suspect. To understand how important Bossi’s cooperation is, there is no slot in the Berlusconi Cabinet that is more critical to the Northern League for fulfilling that agenda than Minister of Interior. It is that success that is the sign of the future.

Still, Flora Martinelli is to be believed when, behaving as a Neopolitan, she expressed sorrow for what had happened as a result of her chasing and capturing the apparent Gypsy kidnapper of her child: she was very sorry it happened, for she never “thought it would come to this.” Neither did the Gypsies.

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Anthony Damato writes:

I am of Neopolitan extraction as my grandfather’s parents were from Naples. I can tell you it takes a lot to get the kind hearted Neopolitans angry. I’m not ashamed to say I felt a sense of pride in reading that it was my people who gave these snipes a well deserved a** kicking.

Having been harassed by a horde of Gypsy children in Berlin who refused to take no for an answer, then kicked me and ran off, I understand just how problematic these people and their institutionalized culture of nomadic wandering, thievery, and begging can be for the average civilized European.

Whoda thunk that Italians would be the first to show some guts? Let’s hope the Moslems take heed.

LA replied:

Isn’t it “Neapolitans,” not “Neopolitans”? Vincent Chiarello also spelled it with an “o,” and I changed it to “a”. So spelling it with “o” must be a common variation.

Anthony replied:

According to Mirriam Webster’s, its spelled “Neapolitan”. That’s logical considering the spelling of “Naples” with an “a”.

Shamefully yours,

LA replies:

Do I get to be an honorary Neapolitan?

Anthony replies:

Your honorary Neapolitano ID card is in the mail along with a illustrated lexicon of Italian hand gestures.

Vincent Chiarello writes:

With all due respect, I must beg the indulgence of the northerner, Signor Antonio Amato, a very widely used surname in Naples. For those of us who are tribal descendents of the Sicii tribes, all Italians are “northerners.” Allow me, then, to add to his list of requirements for those seeking “honorary” status as a Neopolitan (sorry, I prefer the Greek construction) one additional item.

In addition to your ID card and illustrated lexicon of hand gestures, I insist that a dictionary of the Neopolitan dialect be included, for to be without the handy tome is the equivalent of being an Italian speaker amongst those who speak only Mandarin. This way there will be nothing lost in translation.

Agricola writes:

Of course Naples, like the rest of southern Italy (and southern France), was colonized by the Greeks well before the Romans came. Naples in Greek is “Neapolis,” that is to say, “New City.” Since polis is a feminine noun, nea ends in alpha. The best examples of Greek temples still surviving are in southern Italy and Sicily, such as those at Paestum just south of Naples.

LA replies:

I didn’t know that Greeks had colonized southern France.

Kristor writes:

Yeah, Marseille was originally the Greek trading entrepot Massalia, established about 600 BC. It’s a great spot for a mercantile city: easy access to the Rhone River, whose headwaters are close to those of the Seine, so that only a short overland trek between the two is needed to give access to the whole north of France, its northwestern coast, and thus via a short hop across the Channel to England, and via coasting vessels to the Baltic. It was a way for the Greeks to gain access to those markets without passing the Phoenician gauntlet of Gibraltar (Phoenician colonies controlled most of the far western Mediterranean—the coasts of Iberia and North Africa), avoiding also the stormy Bay of Biscay. So Greek traders were all over inland Gaul long before the Romans started throwing their weight around.

Thus Marseille formed one of the most important points of mercantile contact between the Mediterranean maritime civilizations and that of the Atlantic coast that stretched from Scandinavia to West Africa. Malta was another.

The Greeks were everywhere, like their cousins the Vikings, who likewise traded, raided, settled and ruled all over the place.

Posted by Lawrence Auster at May 23, 2008 07:30 AM | Send