At what point is enough trash too much trash.  Tourists are canceling reservations and shortening stays in Naples because the stench from the trash is overwhelming, fires are erupting through out trash piles across the town not only spontaneously but also as residents attempt, in futility, to burn the trash, and CNN reports that the U.S. Navy has sent for chemical and biological testing of on-base water supplies to see if whether or not the piling trash has also effected the drinking water.  The U.S. Navy has in Naples about 1,200 service members and their families, and there is a NATO contingent based in a Neapolitan suburb who would also be wanting to see the results of that water test.

The water testing comes as cheese from the Naples region has been found to have higher then acceptable levels of toxins in it, probably due to the fact that residents are taking their trash and dumping it in the countryside.  Barges are taking trash out of Naples and sailing it to Germany for processing, but this only seems to make a dent in a very large problem.

The piling trash is due to collectors refusing to pick up trash citing that the landfills are full.  Only a few problems rise out of this tremendously stupid argument.  First, landfills don’t get full unless they’re hundreds of feet high; correct reprocessing of plastics and other recyclables (no matter the fact that recycling doesn’t help the environment) can lead to a decrease in overall garbage volume defeating the “landfills are full” argument.  Secondly, there does exist an Armed force in Italy, that, last I checked, does take orders no matter what they are.  Why doesn’t the government order the military to service the trash needs of the city?  Lastly, an organization, such as the trash collectors of Naples (whatever their official name may or may not be) don’t just come up with idiotic arguments because they believe them to be true.  The fact is, organizations use idiotic arguments as a facade to what is really going on.  The question is what is really going on with the trash collectors?

The Italian Government says that criminal entities have infested the trash collectors and are instigating their insurrection.  While there is no way to confirm that, it does seem plausible, if the trash collectors aren’t acting with criminal backing, then it just makes them look that much more idiotic.

Update:Reading the short-term history on this, it does seem that the criminal Camorra entity has taken over the waste-management industry.  It seems that the Italian government, with all its Army, Police, governmental-like qualities can’t stop the criminals from occupying the basic service regimes of which the Italian people pay taxes in order for the government to take on such basic services.

The Italian example here is a perfect reason against the fundamental Republican economics of “let the people handle it.”  Obviously the people aren’t handling it, they’ve given it up to the other end of governance which is criminality.  In fact the people have protested against the government, even violently, halting the construction of new incinerators and the opening of new landfills.  The “people” cite the health risks such new measures would pose of the populace near such incinerators and landfills.

While the people have a point, they somehow forget to mention the health risk associated with not containing the trash, like the leaking of toxins into the basic food supply.  Furthermore it’s not out of the question that the people who protest are not goaded or even bought into the process of protesting by Camorra, who would have a lot to loose if the government starting taking care of the trash.  What makes these peoples protesting against government action so ironic is that it is well documented that Camorra, through it’s waste-management line of companies, have taken in toxic waste from other parts of Italy and dumped them into river(s) in Campania (Province where Naples is located).  This dumping of toxic waste has led to clusters of cancer sprouting up through out Campania.

Far reaching lessons can be learned from the trash escapades of Naples, Italy.  The criminal control over basic services can cripple a nation.  What the people need to understand is that they need to demand the basic services owed to them from the government and the government needs to combat against the false rapprochement of services offered by seemingly well-to-do organizations.  Examples would include Hamas providing food, electricity, and health-care for Gazans as well as certain militias providing electricity for citizens in Iraq.

Who knew you could write so much about trash.