more about beggars
rome's welfare and social problems
church
politics
corruption
superstition
superstition
The previous page discussed just some of many extraordinary ways in which Italy’s people are co-erced into helping make some provision for the poor in their midst, without the State having to lift a finger. And the State doesn’t, for it is cheaper for successive Italian governments to allow the well-meaning and otherwise intelligent and educated citizens of Italy continue in superstitious folk traditions blended and blurred with Christian faith.
Though there are doubtless many sincere Roman Catholics in Italy with genuine faith-based motivation to do good works, it is of course possible to be sincerely wrong. Religion is a powerful tool through which to direct human and indeed national behaviour, and Romebuddy wonders just how far and deep the national church's union with the Italian state goes towards keeping the well-meaning citizens of Italy in ignorance of what their government really should be doing for them. We also wonder how far the Roman Catholic Church (and when I speak of the Roman Catholic Church, I am referring to the corridors of power, 'Head Office' ie, that big building just west of the river in Rome where all the decisions are made for its faithful disciples around the world) has gone towards apostasing the gospel for the sake of maintaining good (ie, tax-free) relations with the Italian state. And with the Roman Catholic church actually being allowed to screen commercials promoting itself on network television in Italy, it is clear the church enjoys a uniquely fabulous immunity from government restraints and a free hand to promulgate any creed it wishes.
For instance, it is disturbing to note that, in a manner far removed from the Bible verse 'Greater is He that is in you than he that is in the world' (meaning that those whom Christ indwells are automatically protected from the attacks of satan) most Italians seem quietly afraid of gypsies, for they are believed to possess black-magic powers, and will curse you with ‘the evil eye’ if you do not give them a handout. Thus, due to (intentionally?) lax and errant teaching of the Vatican, ancient, Godless superstition and fervent fatalistic religiosity remains the cultural norm in southern Italy, allowing beggars and buskers to make a decent (if degrading) living in Rome at the expense of gullible citizens and visitors hoping to avoid supernatural retribution or to lessen their time spent in purgatory. And this of course takes the responsibilty off the Italian government to provide official assistance for the homeless, jobless underclass.
One might imagine that the strong left-wing governments espousing near communistic idealogy which have often held sway in Italy in the past would have shunned the church as its partner, and discouraged religious fervour and superstition within the proletariate. However, as our hypothesis, and European history might illustate, Communism is at its strongest when it has the Roman Catholic Church in its pocket. By licensing a state church for ostensive engagement in merely charitable works, the governing party can lower its budgets for social care and responsibilty, whilst allowing just enough religious opium to leak out to keep nation from complaining that the state is heartless and ineffectual in charitable provision. In the same way as prison warders may quietly enlist the help of hardened inmates to 'take care of' an intractable new prisoner in the cell block, so may the Italian government unofficially encourage the Vatican cuckoo in the seven hills to have its way with the souls of Italian citizens, in order that the state itself need not get its hands dirty with their bodies. And if this is the method of left wing Italian governments, one could only expect a more fervent outworking of the same policy from the right. Thus, whether communistic or capitalistic, Italian politics seem uniquely and historically bound up with the church in a manner that would discredit both left and right ideologies if the Italian model of national government were ever to be adopted worldwide. The climate of civic inefficiency, squalor, corruption, begging and homelessness that can be glimpsed on the streets of central Rome today may understandably be perceived as evidence of an insidious union of church and state in Italy.
politics
If the authorities outlawed and properly policed beggars, then they would be obliged to provide employment or financial aid and housing for them. So it is cheaper to let them remain on the streets, trusting to the superstitious generosity of a tax-paying public which for centuries has been emotionally blackmailed by the Mother Church of Rome into never sending a beggar away empty handed, while the church itself receives tax breaks from the State. It’s a cosy relationship.
A
lot of vagrant street-life could be caused by political trends: When I
first visited Rome in 1980, the streets were also full of beggars then,
as well as much rubbish and scruffy buildings. When I returned in 1987
the beggars had all but disappeared and the city looked cleaner and smarter.
However, ten years later in 1998 the beggars were back, more numerous
than ever. This fluctuation in numbers of beggars is probably indicative
of successive changes in local government administration.
The problem lies with the City of Rome itself: The beggars well know that
Rome is a magnet for devout Roman Catholics wishing to visit the Vatican
and all its associated historical sites of interest. They know that a
good Catholic tourist is a soft touch for charity. The civic authorities
of Rome also know this. Therefore, rather than set up an effective system
of social-security benefits and cheap lodging and help for down and outs
and other unfortunates, it turns a blind eye to the homeless and disadvantaged
on its streets, relying instead chiefly on you and I, the tourists, to
subsidise it’s underprivileged citizens.
If tourists in their millions suddenly stopped coming to Rome, most of
the beggars (that tourism supports) would either leave Rome or get jobs.
If they remained in Rome but continued to beg, the City authorities would
then have to do something to support them out of it’s own coffers.
But of course, this is unlikely to ever happen.
church
The Church
itself (ie, the Vatican) enjoys a most profitable relationship with the
city authorities. For as far back as anyone can remember, Rome and the
Vatican are one and the same and indistinguishable in terms of who is
really running Rome.
Though the church no longer exercises the power it had a few hundred years
ago to extract vast amounts of money from every individual in the
western world, (on pain of excommunication or death), today it still wields
the power to attract a no lesser amount of revenue from tourism
to Rome together with rents and leases on some of the most fabulous residential
and commercial real-estate on earth.
Yet the church wears a weary face. It claims to have no money. ‘How
can we have money, when we are just a church, sustained only from charitable
donations from good Christian souls?’ it will surely cry when pressed
on the subject.
Thus, such institutions that the Vatican puts its name behind and calls
charitable missionary endeavours, such as The Hospital of the Infant Jesus,
(Rome’s equivalent of London’s Great Ormond Street Hospital
for Sick Children) are shabby, clamorous, understaffed affairs, where
children’s parents are instructed to stay overnight with their children
because of a lack of auxiliary nursing staff, and must provide their own
knife and fork from home, because the hospital is allegedly too underfunded
to purchase any cutlery... What a poor testimony to Christ, and the God
they claim to serve! - Surely a hospital built in the name of Jesus should
be the best it can possibly be? Otherwise, please guys, take Jesus's name
off the door and the headed stationary. By their fruits shall ye know
them.
corruption
The City
and the Vatican combined make Rome the richest city on earth. But corruption
in high places has milked public funds dry. And as, it seems, has always
been the case, the City lets the Vatican play front-man as the bleeding
heart mother church who can offer nothing certain in this life to tourist,
beggar or pilgrim but a benediction from The Man himself, a cup of cold
water from the marble fountains and a little ‘indulgence’ courtesy
of the girls on the Lungotevere San Paulo.
Meanwhile the begging, the sleeping rough, the busking, the pick-pocketing,
the prostitution, the obstructive yet impotent bureaucracy, the half-hearted
policing and the lousy public services continue.
And the fat cats running the City of Rome quietly pocket the cash which
should be earmarked for public services and welfare, turn their backs
on the situation, and instead run a guilt trip on hard-working Italian
and expatriate citizens of Rome and you the tourist to dig into
your pockets to solve the city’s unemployed and homeless problem.
click here for more about rome's:
subway
beggars
buskers
hookers
traders
and
other opportunists...
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