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Mafia Sinks Ships Containing Toxic Waste
Hugh Pickens writes "For years there have been rumors that the mafia was sinking ships with nuclear and other waste on board as part of a money-making racket. Now, BBC reports on a sunken vessel that has been found 30km off the coast of Italy. Murky pictures taken by a robot camera show the vessel intact, and alongside it are a number of yellow barrels with labels indicating the contents are toxic. The ship's location was revealed by Francesco Fonti, an ex-member of Calabria's feared 'Ndrangheta crime group, who confessed to using explosives to sink this vessel and two others as part of an illegal operation to bypass rules on the disposal of toxic waste. Experts are now examining samples taken from the wreck, and an official says that if the samples prove to be radioactive then a search for up to 30 other sunken vessels believed scuttled by the mafia would begin immediately. 'The Mediterranean is 0.7 percent of the world's seas. If in this tiny portion there are more than 30 (toxic waste) shipwrecks, imagine what there could be elsewhere,' says Silvestro Greco, head of Calabria's environment agency."
EPA doesn't apply. The EPA is a United States government agency with no jurisdiction whatsoever in Italy.
EPA's Italian counterpart, however, does have jurisdiction and probably someone in that organization received some nice bribes.
retrorocket.o not found, launch anyway?
Fuck. Me. I sometimes wonder what it must be like to be a person with no moral fibre at all. I can't imagine it, must be weird.
My wife's a psychologist and we have discussed such people. The answer to what it's like to be one is depressingly simple. They have no morals to trouble them at all; no conscience, no guilt. They're happy as if they had ethics and compassion.
There are people who are simply not like us; just not the same.
Those are my principles, and if you don't like them... well, I have others.
To get a good impression of 'Ndrangheta's involvement with toxic waste, go see Gomorra. Excellent movie, even though it is somewhat depressing to realize that is based on reality.
karma police: arrest this man, he talks in maths; he buzzes like a fridge, he's like a detuned radio. [radiohead]
For years one of Haiti's largest industries was the receiving of waste too toxic for even the most high-tech of US processors to handle. Of course that was one of Baby Doc's businesses, and equally obviously there was no waste-processing facility adequate for the task in Haiti, but that never stopped DOW or any of the other mega-corps that paid them to take the stuff away. The EPA only cares if the waste is going to be disposed of in the US, if it's going elsewhere they don't really care much. Their responsibility stops at the edge of their jurisdiction. I rather suspect that most of the European environmental bureaucracies function much the same, with exceptions for obvious issues like acid rain.
"Think about how stupid the average person is. Now, realise that half of them are dumber than that." - George Carlin
Usually overcharging says more about the tourist than about the shopkeeper. Some people invite getting fleeced by being douchebags. I travel most of the year and have covered about half the globe already, and I'm never overcharged. That's probably because I learn some of the local language, stick to local norms of courtesy, and do some basic research instead of just being a blatant, obnoxious and naïve foreigner.
Anything that is used to handle radioactive materials will be assumed to be radioactive as well. Our local chemistry department actually has a dustbin with a radioactive sign on it. Anything used to handle something with a radioactive sign on it is automatically to have become radioactive as well - technicians gloves, wipes, syringes, tubing, sample containers and dissolved solutions. Other things might include the cobalt in medical scanners and industrial quality control equipment.
Vintage computer adverts: http://www.vintageadbrowser.com/computers-and-software-ads
A few years ago, Royal Caribbean cruise line was found by the US coastguard to have fitted bilge bypass valves on their ships, allowing them to dump oily bilge water at sea with being detected, or so they thought. They were fined heavily for this. They didn't just do it as an afterthought or by accident, they intentionally refitted the ship to be able to do it, meaning the corporation actively intended to pollute the waters they were making their living from. Maybe the scale is different, but the intent is the same.
CM www.cometenergysystems.com Blog: http://caribbeanrenewable.blogspot.com/
Growing up in the '60s-'70s my parents bought many of the Life magazine's series of science books. I distinctly remember the photo of sailors rolling barrels off the deck of a ship, captioned something like "The US Navy safely disposes of its nuclear waste by depositing it in deep ocean trenches." Even at seven or eight years old I knew that was a truly stupid idea.
"Think about how stupid the average person is. Now, realise that half of them are dumber than that." - George Carlin
Sorry, any 7 year old Catholic knows that is not true.
The Rite of Penance ends with "Go, and sin no more."
Sins are only forgiven if you are truly sorry, and intend not to sin again. You can not sin with impunity just by asking for forgiveness.
As an Italian, I can tell you have avoided the crimes-ridden areas (though you were savvy enough to dodge the tourist traps). Naples, for example, is not Bogotá, but is proceeding in that direction; in fact, the local mafia (camorra) is routinely dumping toxic waste in landfills for a business, much similarly to what the 'ndrangheta did in this case.
There are differences between the main mafias: the Sicilian one (the "original" mafia) is structured and hierarchical. In a Sicilian village you can leave the keys in your car, and no one will steal it. However, sometimes when you turn the key the car may explode, if you irritated the wrong person or asked the wrong questions.
'Ndrangheta, in Calabria, is family-based (meaning blood-tied). Small groups with internal hierarchy, but no comprehensive power structure.
The one most dangerous for your immediate safety is camorra (Campania), clan-based and very violent. There was recently a nice film about it. Being pickpocketed in Naples is almost part of the tourist experience, but recently drive-by's have appeared.
Victims of 9/11: <3000. Traffic in the US: >30,000/y
Oh wait.
You forgot.
To look at a map.
Somalia doesn't have a coast on the Mediterranean.
Why not? Lots of 14-year-olds have sex with their boyfriends or girlfriends every day.
Way to delete the part about it involving an older person. In particular those in positions of authority. Two tweens deciding to have sex, even if it's a mistake because they aren't ready, is just a mistake. A tween having sex with a forty year old when they aren't ready isn't just a mistake, it's predation.
You see numbers are arbitrary.
More or less, yes, but the underlying moral analysis that leads to assigning an arbitrary number is not itself arbitrary. That arbitrary number may fail for any particular case, because the underlying code of "it is immoral to take advantage of someone who is not mature enough to understand the consequences of their decisions and avoid predation" may not apply in that particular case because the youth is mature enough. That means the rule is arbitrary, but the morality behind it is not. Which was the GP's point.
The enemies of Democracy are
As an Italian and specifically a Sicilian myself, I think that orzetto's description may be a little too naÃve.
Organized crime in Italy is of course a very serious issue. Still, Naples is not going to become Bogotà any time soon. It is certainly true that Sicilian Mafia, being way much more hierarchical and structured than other criminal organizations, does not use "everyday" violence as it happens in other parts of the country (Naples, yes, but also Bari and others). But if your car will not be stolen in a small village is probably due to a low crime rate. That's it. And, please, car-blowing explosion are not exactly everyday experience in Sicily! Overall, Palermo, Napoli, etc. have murder rates absolutely ridiculous in comparison to many other US and even European cities.
Unfortunately, Mafia is worst that this. Mafia means big business. Like toxic wastes and many others. Mafia means corruption. Sure, violence is there too but do not expect executions at every corner of the streets. It is much more subtle.