Photos

This is one of the most famous corner of Camogli.
The red buidling separates the lonw waterfront from the main square and the harbour.
Two assimetric tunnels linked the two different part of the city.

On the right side there is an old gipsy Rom woman, asking some coins to the tourists, with few good results.
This is not a good period for gipsies in Italy.
From centuries in the North Italy (over 30.000) and in some cities of the South Italy (less than 30.000) lives the Sinti people, gipsies comin' centuries ago from India.
For a large parte, the ones of North Italy aren't nomads, they have all Italian citizenship, a job. A normal life. The ones of South Italy have big problems of poverty, specially the group living in Calabria and in Napoli.

But in the past 3 years more than other 100.000 gipsies Rom came in the country from Romania, and for the must part they haven't a job, so they have few other occasion to have some money: alms or theft.
No mind for other romantic way to find money in Italy without a job!

In the same 3 years the total numbers of thefts in the houses, robberies, rapes, stolen cars...grew up in Milano, Roma, Firenze, Bologna, Torino, Genova...sometimes of more than 200%!
The 70% of this crimes in the North-Central Italy (where this over 100.000 gipsies live today) are committed by illegal immigrant people, and of this 70% more than the 40% are commit by Rom people.

Racists Parties as Lega Nord and the extreme Right Parties jumped over this problem, they are criing from months about that, and with the elections in the next w.e. they pump up the volume!

But the problem exsists.

In the past month Municipality of Milan offered to a group of over 2000 Roms houses, school for children, food, and for someone also small jobs. In change the respect of the Law. Nothing more! It was did in the past with the Sinti and it had a great success!

The answer was negative by all the Roms.

Italian Sinti gipsies are angry with the Roms.
After decades of "work" they were accepted by Italian few years ago. A job, a house, a normal life, the children at school, some of them that today are University Teachers in Milan and in Roma, other ones have big groups in constructions and transports, other ones have normal job as ordinary people.
They have Italian name, surnames, they are citizens as all the other ones....but from some months something is changed.

They were back in the past. They back to be Gipsy, Zingari as are called in Italian (as the french Tsigane or the german Zigeuner come from the old Greek "Athinganoi", that means: Untouchable, as in India social system).
Decades of work, of hard work to become citizen, to have a normal life, to have the respect, and now all is collapsed.
Today there are Sinti people that MUST to hide their origins!

Model: NIKON D40
Software: Capture NX 1.0.0 W
Exposure Time: 25/10000 sec
F-Stop: f/22.0
ISO Speed Ratings: 1600
Focal Length: 26/1 mm
Date Taken: 2008-02-24 14:16
Metering Mode: Pattern
File Size: 191 kb