Chronicles of ordinary racism 2011 - Cronache di ordinario razzismo

contracts have already been signed for temporary residence in council housing, must
instead be placed in privately‐owned apartments. “We have agreed that the
Commissioner,” Letizia Moratti states, “should find housing solutions which differ
from those initially conceived (in flats run by the municipality) for the 11 families in
question” insisting that the agreement reached with the Interior Minister Roberto
Maroni should take precedence over what was initially established in the “Roma
emergency scheme”. The Roma forum association, the “Casa della Carità” (house of
charity) and the Chamber of Labour in Milan are indignant.
Source: Corriere della Sera
1 October 2010 Acilia (RM), Lazio
Two Bangladeshi men, aged 19 and 29, are assaulted and hastled by a gang of about 15
Italian youths while selling leather goods outside the subway station. When one of the
Bangladeshi men threatens to call the police if the Italians don’t stop touching and
moving the goods on the stall, the gang responds violently, hurling racist insults at the
two, kicking and punching them, and threatening them with a pair of scissors and a
wooden bar. A private security guard and the Carabinieri police arrive on the scene,
forestalling any further trouble. Ten youths, of whom three are over 18, are taken to the
police station. ‘They started it, they grabbed metal bars and threatened us’, one of the
Italians told the police. ‘And anyway, who do they think they are They’re foreigners,
they should just shut up.’ Source: La Repubblica
5 October 2010 Giugliano in Campania (NA), Campania
Mayor Giovanni Pianese gives his approval to a project, financed to the tune of 300,000
euros by the provincial council, for a wall to be built around the industrial zone. The
project foresees the construction of a wall three metres high to separate the industrial
zone with its 48 factories from a Roma camp. Of the 600 Roma currently living in the
camp, only 120 will be allowed to remain. The Roma are accused of ‘re‐routing mains
water pipes to steal water, damaging electrical boxes, wreaking havoc on telephone
lines by stealing copper from them, and throwing stones at workers and clients.’ Opera
Nomadi is furious: ‘this is a shocking decision: they’re segregating them to feel safer.’
The industrialists, on the other hand, play down the decision: ‘we don’t have it in for
anyone, but every now and then there are annoying incidents. We’re tired of it.’ Source:
La Repubblica
6 October 2010 Prato (PO), Tuscany
During exceptionally bad weather, three Chinese woman die in a car trapped by
floodwaters in an underground car park. The town council refuses to declare a day of
mourning but, after protests from the Chinese community, the AssoCina association
and Bishop Somoni, Mayor Roberto Cenni announces that the council will fly its flag at
half‐mast in a sign of mourning and that there will be a minute’s silence during the
council meeting. ‘We didn’t declare a day of mourning because we have never done so
for anyone,’ the mayor explains. ‘I have talked to the victims’ families on the phone to
express my condolences and those of Prato, and I have written to the Chinese
ambassador to Italy to communicate the sorrow of the city. Source: immigrazioneoggi.it
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