CCTV to combat street prostitution
a front-page article in the messaggero today, translated for your reading pleasure (original article in italian):
rome anti-prostitution cameras. they will be installed on the major sex streets. they won't film the prostitutes but will record only traffic violations commited by the johns. the images will stream to the city headquarters, they will be recorded in powerful computers, and made available to police. this way, using fines, the city of rome, which yesterday also obtained approval from the provincial committee for order and security, intends to counter prostitution and especially the trend of **** prostitutes. the government privacy czar agrees with the project "as long as the law is followed."
link: [url]http://www.ilmessaggero.it/view.php?data=20060921&ediz=01_nazionale&npag=1&file=troie.xml&type=standard[/url]
(note how the link contains the slang word "troie" which is a pejorative italian expression for "prostitute")
my comments: another stopgap measure resulting from italy's bizarre rules on prostitution, discussed at length in a previous italy thread.
i think this project will be abortive or short-lived. there is too much money in street prostitution for it to be stamped out. cameras will most likely be vandalized, or the prostitutes will simply move to other areas. there are plenty of streets in the city of rome and the municipal government can hardly afford to install cameras on all of them. even if they could, who would watch them all? the messaggero even points out that a similar program in ostia was defeated when punters started to ride bikes, which police don't typically hold to traffic laws, to meet with prostitutes. i bet this will blow over in a few weeks.
Prostitution, Magicians and Traffick
Check my posted report #80 in General Info - Italy.
Just not to write two times the same report I prefer to redirect you into it.
Prostitution, Magicians and Traffick 2
[QUOTE=Upforit]Roman guy's post is interesting. It seems that many Italians, particularly women and religious types, are far more comfortable believing the fairytale that unwitting young women are heartlessly lured to Italy with promises of high-paying jobs. (...)
[/QUOTE]
I think that everybody of us used to enter chat rooms, Yahoo!Messenger, Yahoo!Meetic, ICQ and other similar internet service created to know new people have experienced how African internet girls are interested to come to Italy - or Europe generally - "to work".
On the internet we mostly meet educated girls, students, employee, all people living on this side of the digital divide with a good cultural degree.
In spite of all this, they wish to come here, they pray to receive an invitation letter with the ambition to enter in the prostitution biz maybe as free lancers or indipendent professionists fashinated by the plenty of Euros they might gain.
During my recent visit in Ghana I was approached anywhere from girls, ready to depart to Italy, ready to marry me just to immigrate - I am still receiving calls - with the dream to work here: no one had the ambition to work as cooker or baby sitter or cleaner; the point was to get money easly and quickly so, prostitution or cokaine biz.
Because of the difficulties in order to travel to Europe (visa, staying permit, ticket) they have to enter in touch with the local mafia and from there all this stories of witches, magiccrafts, voodoo, loans, ... we have read in the previous article.
Me too, I believe that a good 16% of cases is about girls who didn't suppose to finish on roadwork, naive girls, ignorant, villagers, bushgirls, a.s.o but it is a limitated case, specially in the African enviroment.
Different case is for countries such as Romania, Russia, Moldovia but honestly I don't have a great deal of knowledge about that.
Safe for Americans in Rome?
I need some honest feedback. I have some concerns about being an American in Europe, when I go in November. I have to go, in order to bring my Colombiana novia back with me to the states. She is not a working girl, but works in Rome for her aunt and uncle, she has her Visa ready to go
I have read a story about an american tourist being severely beaten in naples by locals and then by the police. His crime was to chase after a thief , who stole his camera. He was stopped by the locals who beat him, spat on him and called him a " dirty jew" and a "dirty american". He was not a jew. The police then roughed him up afterwards. It took a fromal apology from the mayor of Naples to soothe things over. This bothers the hell out of me, along with two ugly incidents in the sporting world this summer bewteen the US and Italy. A vicious and intentional elbow to the head of an american player during the world cup, and a low blow elbow thrown at Carmelo anthony during the world's at hoops.
Is the hatred of Americans widespread in Rome? Should I be on the defensive and should I avoid speaking to the Italians? Maybe I should speak Spanish?
I also while in Cartagena, was called a " dirty american by a couple of drunkin Italians. What the fuck?
What areas should I avoid, ya I want to see the ruins and the vatican, but I know near Termini is rough, where else should I keep my head on a swivel?
Rome - at least from Rome north - is safe
MJG,
I was in Rome a few months ago and have been in Florence and elsewhere in Tuscany three times this year - most recently last week.
When I was in Rome, I walked all over the city, day and night. I don't know where you get the idea that the area around the Termini is dangerous. I was there twice on my most recent trip and have never seen anything to be afraid of.
I have never, ever run into anything resembling a threat of violence anywhere in Italy from Rome north. I know people who have had things stolen from their cars - but that happens in the States as least as often. You can also get robbed by Gypsy beggers - especially the little girls, but they also don't threaten you with violence. Of course neither of these has anything to do with being American.
I have not been in Naples in 20 years. In those days, I did not feel safe there, but again that had nothing to do with being American. I don't think anybody was safe in Naples, in those days, but I understand things have gotten much better, and I plan to give it another chance.
As far as politics are concerned, the only reaction I get to being American is indications of sympathy for anybody as poorly governed as we are.
I wonder if your fear stems from traveling in South America, where there certainly is a threat of violence (I had a Rolex ripped off my wrist in Caracas -one block from the presidential palace). Europe simply isn't like that.
Martin Brady
