No Laughing Matter

As I have noted again and again, there are many things in Naples that would shock an American. If you're in a good mood, you'll react with a perplexed guffaw: "Ha! There's no way I'll get the car through that ridiculously tiny space!" Then you tuck your mirrors in, add a ding or two, and, laughing all the way, emerge from said tiny space.

If you've had a trying day, certain cultural differences will get less funny and more annoying. "Grumble Grumble. Did that guy have to park right in the middle of this ridiculously tight alleyway? Grumble Grumble. Turn the steering wheel. Reverse. Turn again. Advance. Bump. Turn again, reverse. Scrape. Grumble Grumble."

On days like this, you have less patience for the woman who walks at a snail's pace in front of you, then decides to stop, turn around, and hold an entire conversation with the person behind you. You give the guy trying to cut you off a taste of his own medicine. And the huge piles of trash go from ridiculously unbelievable to sad, sad reality.

Unfortunately, all that trash has more of an effect on the city than just taking away from its beauty. When improperly disposed of, it seeps into the ground and ends up affecting the entire food chain. The following video, found by a fellow expat and friend, is the eye-opening and poignant story of two local sheep farmers. (Their home province of Acerra is not far from the base that houses many military families.)



Luckily, we Americans have the base and its regulations behind us. We are highly encouraged to use bottled water for everything but cleaning, and the tired-looking produce at the Commissary is not usually local. But what about the people who live all their years here, with an omnipresent smell of burning trash in the air and invisible toxins in their refrigerators? This video says a lot about what shortcuts can do to the environment, but it says even more about the devastating consequences of governmental shortcuts.