At the end of March 2007, all the major Italian newspapers published articles on the possible presence of dioxin in the mozzarella produced in Naples and in Campania. The emergency had immense economic and cultural consequences. Mozzarella is probably the most famous Italian cheese and Campania is the region where, historically, the best mozzarella is made. Mozzarella is the key ingredient to prepare the most famous Neapolitan dish, pizza. The presence of dioxin in mozzarella had now become the symbol of the invasion of garbage that was threatening Naples and Campania, putting a painful end to the dream of a Neapolitan Renaissance started at the beginning of the Nineties.
Nobody could affirm with certainty that the garbage and dioxin, a chemical known for causing cancer and an array of other illnesses, were connected, but for months the Italian TV stations had shown images of piles of garbage set on fire. Burning garbage produces dioxin, and it was only rational to be scared by the possibility of contamination, even though the alarm might have been exaggerated. After living with a garbage emergency for 13 years--the Italian government first appointed a special Czar to deal with the problems of Naples’ garbage in 1994--the people of Campania, Italians, and International health authorities were all fed up with Neapolitan garbage.
The temptation to blame the situation on the proverbial inefficiency of Italian governments, or on even more stereotypical images of the people of Southern Italy, must be resisted. It cannot be denied that the problems of the local and national governments contributed to the situation, but the dramatic spectacle of the accumulated garbage of Naples, the culture of perpetual emergencies, the breaking down of political, social and moral communities in the face of unsolvable ecological problems, seem to place Italy, as often in the past, at the forefront of common problems for Western societies. Italy, and Southern Italy even more, is the weakest link of advanced capitalist societies. One can decide to look at Italian problems as the results of Italy’s difficult modernization, but one can never dismiss these problems as if they were not common problems of modernity. If garbage is unmanageable in Naples, it might become unmanageable in New York or Paris.
The problem is easy to understand. Garbage is produced in massive quantities. The Italian government needs to dispose of the garbage. Unscrupulous entrepreneurs, organized crime, and corrupted politicians have, in the past, exploited the business of garbage disposal. The local citizens no longer have any faith in the promises of entrepreneurs, criminals and politicians, and start to believe that there is no secure way to manage the garbage. The state is then confronted with two equally unpleasant options: either negotiate with the local citizens who do not trust the government, or impose a solution without the support of the local citizens. When the state chose to negotiate with the local communities, the citizens of the places where the garbage was supposed to be brought used the negotiation simply to delay the construction of the new facilities. When officials tried to force the local communities to accept its decisions, citizens interpreted these acts as proof of the potentially dangerous consequences of locating the garbage in their communities. The emergency is prolonged, and the normal relationship between citizens and the state in a democratic society, based on consensus as much as on the repressive power of laws, is shattered. Unscrupulous entrepreneurs, organized crime, and corrupted politicians exploit the breaking down of the political community to strengthen their power. The garbage is everywhere. The problem is impossible to solve democratically.
As soon as it assumed the constitutional power, the new Italian government led by Silvio Berlusconi reaffirmed the emergency situation in Naples and sent the army and the police to regain military control of the territory. The government approved, with the support of the President (who is an exponent of the opposition), an emergency decree that stated that “in order to solve the garbage emergency in the region Campania,” the government could operate “ignoring some laws and regulations pertaining to the environment, the protection of the territory and of the landscape…” The decree, which much like any other emergency decree did not need to be approved by the parliament, gave the government the power to expropriate any property needed for the managing of the garbage emergency, authorized the government to use the Army to maintain order, and modified the normal procedures for the criminal prosecution of those who tried to obstruct the action of the government. It suspended, at least temporarily, the normal democratic procedures that regulate the relation between local governments and central government, modified the law that regulates the use of the Army in time of peace, and suspended the laws that protect the environment and public health. The garbage issue then disappeared from the front pages of Italian newspapers and Italian television. The emergency still continues but, like the garbage, it is now a managed emergency.
The lesson that the garbage of Naples teaches politicians everywhere is that ecological emergencies rapidly become political emergencies and that they can easily become unsolvable with the normal democratic procedures. For the citizens of democratic societies, the lesson, however, is different. The management of ecological crises can force us into a political conundrum. The citizens of Naples certainly did not want to live in a city full of garbage, but they found out that the first victim of their desire to live in a healthy environment were the laws created to protect the environment. We also might have to choose between the desire to see the government manage the potential threat to public health (that comes from our own hyper-exploitation of natural resources) and the refusal to accept state’s policies that compromise the environment and public health adopted in the name of the resolution of ecological crises. The choice increasingly seems to be between two evils: either the garbage in the streets or the garbage under the streets. The idea that technological advances will solve the problem in the future seems less and less plausible. So is the idea that the logic of profit and of market forces could take care of ecological problems. If the citizens of democratic societies do not promote a systemic solution, however, democracy itself might end up in the garbage, as in the case of Naples.
DECRETO-LEGGE 23 maggio 2008, n. 90.
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