Observations from my latest trip to the region of Calabria, Italia
Francesco Abbruzzino, The Uncensored Report, LLC
As many of you know, I tend to write about observations as my travels, be it in Sarasota or across the world in Italy. I am still in Italy until Saturday and I have spent the past week Calabria with my sisters and step-mom. Two of my five sisters live in San Giovanni in Fiore. Even though they have never been to America, they are American’s and carry a US passport. Well, they use to, when our father died here in Calabria, they never renewed their passports. My father use to do it for them and they just do not have the money to renew a passport, that they will never use.
It has been interesting, but Calabria has not changed much over the years that I have been coming home to visit my family. There are still holes throughout the streets, trash all over the side of the roads and on the beaches, and poverty throughout the area. However, it is still a beautiful area of Italy and one that has been able to retain the charm of years pass.
One thing I noticed right away was the impact of the new Prime Minister. She has stated that Italians do not want to work because the government is paying them enough welfare, so that they do not have to work. I have talked about my sister’s boyfriend (we will call Luigi) in the past. He has not worked since Covid because the state basically pays him as much as a restaurant would. Well now the government has forced his hand and he will no longer be able to stay at home because Italia has cut all his welfare and he must go back to work. Now there is a downside to working in Italia. The labor laws appear to be very weak. My sister’s boyfriend Luigi got a job making pizza. They pay $40/night, no matter if he works 2 or 6 hours. Last night he went in at 3 and because he was the only pizza maker, he did not get off until 1:30. So, 8.5 hours of work for $40 or $4.71/hour. Hardly a living wage, but in the south, this is not out of the norm. That is why h is considering moving north where the pay is much better.
I agree with the Prime Minister and think that the government should not be paying individuals an amount of money that encourages them to stay home and not work. It is not productive for society or for the individual, for that matter. I think it would work much better if the state would incorporate some type of labor laws that would institute such key requirements as minimum wage. One thing I like about their welfare system is having individuals provide services, if they want welfare. The other day I was out and about in the city, when I noticed some nicely dressed ladies working in the street, cleaning it up. They are part of a program, when individuals have to work “x” amount of time for the city, if they are on welfare. A great concept, however whenever I see these folks, they appear to be going through the process at a snail’s pace. Yesterday I saw them just hanging out or hiding out in the park.
I mentioned the trash on roadsides. It is pretty bad. As I walk along the road, you will find trash scattered throughout. As if the drivers do now know how to dispose of trash properly. It is not just the drivers, but I see this everywhere. We went to Crotone, which is on the water. The beach was littered with trash, cigarette buds, and from what my family says, drug paraphilia. I guess the kids hang out there at night and drugs appear to be an issue. It is hard to sell tourism as the government of Calabria is trying to, when the beaches appear in the manger that I saw last night. It is not rare either, I have been to Crotone on several occasions and at different times of the year, it is always the same. I tend to avoid the beaches there and head further south to Capo Rizzuto, where the water is clear and the beach is clean.
As I mention in an article last March, the impact of Covid and inflation are being felt throughout the area. Many businesses have closed down and many of the youth have left for the north, to find work. The majority of the individuals remaining in San Giovanni in Fiore (SGF) are pensioners. Of the young that are in town, I am not sure what they do for work. I see them out and about in the streets during the day, just hanging out. Now that may be due to the welfare system that is place, which as I mentioned is coming to an end. What type of impact that change will have on the local area remains to be seen, but I suspect it will only get worse.
I have talked to quite a few people about Covid and they are all tired of it. Many feel that the government working with social media and mass media, used it to control the people and population. My brother-in-law told me about how he had to get the vaccine to work and immediately he had health issues, which the doctor attributed to the vax. Also, he lost one family member to the vaccine. The saddest was my step-mom. Her brother that she is very close to passed away a couple months ago. That morning they brought him to the clinic and he was tested for covid, which came back negative. He later died that day and they listed the cause as Covid. They would not let the family see the body. Instead, they put him in a black plastic bag, with a red triangle symbol, which I guess meant Covid. She showed me a picture of it, as he cried about the situation, stating that they treated her brother no better than a street dog. They have the same issue as in the states, where hospitals are paid much more if they diagnosis Covid. Facebook claimed I was wrong when I posted about the higher amounts being paid over covid, even though I included the emergency order with the fees. I had the information because I have owned a medical billing company for over 22 years and we had to update our fees. As it stands, may will not take the vaccine and want nothing to do with it. If they think they have covid, they will do a self-test and not the doctor over fears of being locked down and logged into a database.
On to other issues, like gas. It is outrageously expensive here with the war in the Ukraine. Something the Italians blame America and European governments for prolonging. They know that if the US would stop financing the war, the inevitable would take place and it would end. Along with the war ending, so will the deaths and the economic impacts, such as gas in Italia. As it stands, when I walk into a small business, the lights are off and so is the heat. The employees or owners are wearing jackets and gloves, up here in the mountains. It is a similar situation in Roma. My sisters do not turn on the electric until after 4:30 when the sun sets. Luckily for my sisters and step-mom, their homes and water are heated by the fireplace, which I am sitting next to as I write this article. However, the the price of 4 meters of wood has gone from 4 euro to 9 euro, so they are not really that lucky. Even the price of gas for cars has shot up. The cheapest gas I have seen is $1.85 euro/liter. There are just under 4 liters in a gallon, so about 7.35 euro/gallon ($7.84/gallon in dollars). These factors drive up the price of goods, which are being impacted significantly. My sister told me that she can basically buy ½ of what she used to get for 50 Euro.
In Calabria a lot of their food is farmed or made themselves, but even that is a problem this year. For the past two years they have seen very little rain. Even now, it is in January and there should be snow on the ground, but they have not seen one snowflake yet this season. That leads to a lack of things like mushrooms that they pick from the hillsides or smaller fruit. We had oranges from my brother-in-law’s farm the other day and they were only a third of the regular size. He said the rain was impacting the amount the fruit will grow.
The local government can’t really help because they themselves are dropping the ball on issues that they should be controlling. A perfect example is the road ways. The same pot holes that were their last march are still there today, with even more. Many feel it is the corruption of the local politicians, along with the lack of concern for the area of SGF. For example, the mayor of the city is the President of the Cosenza region (would be like Sarasota County) and her attention is focused to much on politics, not enough on helping the hopeless of SGF. The other issue may revolve around the amount of taxes that are taken into the system. My understanding is that Italian’s hate paying taxes more than Americans and they find ways to elude paying taxes. So, the city brings in less and they can not provide many of the services that may be needed.
I did have an interesting encounter with Jehovah’s Witness. Two nicely dressed men tried to get me to see the way of beliefs. They ended up showing me a recruitment video in English, even though I expressed to them that I am a baptized Catholic, that is non-practicing and have zero interest in religion. I guess they are converting a lot of people in the area, from their catholic beliefs. Also, while here Pope Emeritus Benedict died, but many of the Italian’s really did not care. They took issue with the Pope and his actions with issues like pedophilia, prior to his retirement. Even though it was all over TV and the media ran with it for a few days, the average Italian really showed no interest. I did learn something new just today, from my step-mom. Italia takes 10 Euro a month out of her paycheck for the Catholic church. Even when her and my dad lived in Germany and worked there, Italy would take money out of their check in support of the church. The amount they take is contingent upon the amount of money you make, so it could be more than 10 Euro. How crazy is that?
The other morning I had to drive about 30 minutes down the mountain to Crotone, which sits on the Ionian Sea. That is one thing about SGF, it sits in the middle of the Ionian and Tyrrhenian Sea. During this trip I have been to both seas, visiting Paola the other day on the Tyrrhenian Sea. Well back to why we drove to Crotone, we had to drive down there because Italia faces the same problem that many mothers with newborns face in America. No baby formula or a short supply. My niece is about 6 months old and there is no baby formula in town. So, we drove down and found some in Crotone.
After Crotone, we made our way to a shed that sits in the middle of nowhere, which you see in the picture below. When you walk in there, it smells like rotten eggs. I guess in the summer a ton of people go there to get revitalized, similar to Warm Mineral Springs. Then about 2 minutes away are two mud pits, which people use as part of 
the revitalization process. They walk into these mud pits and rub it all over them. A video is below.
One last observation is the pharmacy, which is near our home. There were several people are waiting outside. There is still a fear of covid. Which makes this ridiculous is the fact that they are all huddled together outside, but are not allowed to huddle together inside. Mask are not required, but they do utilize this type of social distancing, which makes no sense. I have only seen it at this pharmacy, nowhere else. I did stop by Louis Vuitton in Roma and they control the number of visitors into the store, but that was over security reasons and not covid.
I am here for a few a couple more days and I head to Roma on Wednesday, where I will stay until my flight on Saturday. While there I am going to try and research some issues that were brought to my attention and see if I can write an article or video covering the subjects. It will give me something to do on the long flight home to Venice on Saturday. Below are a few of the postings from my visit to Calabria, which I posted on my personal page. Have a great day!!!!