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Naples Trash Trauma: Psychologists to Counsel Italians on Garbage Crisis - International - SPIEGEL ONLINE - News

They've been to Rwanda, Kosovo and other disaster areas. Now, a group of crisis psychologists is on its way to Naples. It's all part of Silvio Berlusconi's army of volunteers known as the "Angels of Garbage."

Few would deny that living side-by-side with stinking, oozing piles of garbage for months on end makes life more difficult. Even in the normally chaotic southern Italian city of Naples, garbage-induced temper tantrums have periodically resulted in trash piles being set on fire -- and the firemen who respond to the call are then pelted with detritus.

 Help is on the way. Italian Prime Minister Silvio Berlusconi not only pledged on Tuesday that the problem would be solved within two weeks, he also is sending a thousand volunteers to Naples to teach the city about the importance of separating recyclables out of their garbage. Among those volunteers will be dozens of psychologists from an organization specially trained for missions in disaster areas.

"We're not talking about psychology in the way that many people understand it," Luigi Ranzato, president of the group Psicologi per i Popoli, which is sending the psychologists, told SPIEGEL ONLINE. "Instead, we will be there to try to help introduce a sensibility about garbage disposal to, for example, the old and the young. They need to learn how to separate the garbage so that it doesn't become an inconvenience for their daily life."

by Fran (fran at eurotrib dot com) on Thu Jul 3rd, 2008 at 03:57:22 PM EST
[ Parent ]
So 300 "psychologists for the people" turn up out of no where. Given that it's an "emergency", the government is free to award contracts without bidding to an association so close to their political position that Ranzato ran for the European parliament for them.

I wonder how much money Ranzato's association will get for its perfectly useless services.

Der Spiegel is doing a cute job by selling trash.

Check back in a couple of weeks to see how much garbage is gone.

by de Gondi (publiobestia aaaatttthotmaildaughtusual) on Thu Jul 3rd, 2008 at 08:13:19 PM EST
[ Parent ]
Great! Instead of removing the garbage, teach people how to live among the garbage... Nice metaphor!

"Dieu se rit des hommes qui se plaignent des conséquences alors qu'ils en chérissent les causes" Jacques-Bénigne Bossuet
by Melanchthon on Fri Jul 4th, 2008 at 02:07:21 AM EST
[ Parent ]

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