Dear Director Feltri,
from the height of your wisdom that I would dare to define as rather simple, that is, practical and simple, could you explain to me why I, an ordinary working citizen who pays taxes, toils all year round and allows himself ten days at the seaside, have to put up with the constant intrusions of street vendors, especially Africans and Indians, who try to palm off anything on me while I lie under my beach umbrella reading or dozing? I am very annoyed by this incessant coming and going that seems to have actually increased this year. Perhaps I will seem rude, impatient, intolerant, but I am not asking for much. Just to be left in peace.
How do we solve it?
Bruno DeChristopher
Dear Bruno,
luckily I don’t go to the beach, in fact I’ve never been to one. And the reason is simple: to escape the sight of the prevailing bad habits. And when I say “bad habits” I don’t mean the unflattering bathing suit. I’m convinced that the beaches are dominated by vulgarity, rudeness, lack of respect for others, and loudness, which makes the beaches the least suitable places to rest, relax and recharge your mental batteries unless they are areas located on deserted islands that are difficult to reach. Children and even adults playing ball splashing everyone, people throwing all kinds of waste everywhere, who scream, who make a racket, who use the sea as a public latrine, who smoke and throw cigarette butts on the sand, who believe that the beach belongs to them and therefore does not represent a public place where my freedom ends right where that of others begins. I think that the presence of street vendors is the least of the problems. In short, pretend to be deaf and ignore if you really don’t want to repeatedly communicate: “No, thank you, I’m not interested”. In desperate situations, rudeness represents an absolutely legitimate form of self-protection. Therefore, I don’t judge you and I understand your intolerance.
Having said that, however, I would like to point out that what is truly unbearable to me about the phenomenon you are presenting to me is one specific aspect: the illegality that in Italy is practiced, lives and thrives in broad daylight. And there is plenty of sun on the beach, indeed. And I am not angry with the thousands and thousands of poor people who patrol our coasts far and wide, loaded with stuff to sell, sweaty and exhausted, but with those who supply that merchandise by forcing these desperate people to peddle it illegally, working every single day for hours and hours. The loot will go into the pockets of the criminal organizations that run this racket. This is an unscrupulous form of exploitation of human beings by human beings, of the weak by the strong. A contemporary slavery no less shameful and serious than others from distant times. Actually, I correct myself, perhaps even more shameful since nowadays the progress in the recognition of human rights is consolidated and we live in democratic and civilized countries where such facts should not even happen. Finally, I point out that this phenomenon of street vendors, also called “vucumprà”, is closely related to illegal immigration, encouraged and viewed favorably by the left for decades. It is the illegal immigrants, or rather the irregulars, who end up in the clutches of organized crime and become low-cost labor for the mafia.
I wish you would remember this every time one of these poor wretches comes to you.
ask if you would like to buy the slippers, the beach cover-up, the hair tie or the plastic bracelet. Maybe, sometimes, your exasperation will give way to pity and you will offer him a glass of water.