via Anelli, solo un fenomeno locale?

Riporto di seguito due post che avevo inviato tempo fà al blog Subtopia e le risposte del suo curatore. Insomma sta cosa del muro ha fatto il giro del mondo, il fatto è stato anche affrontato dalla BBC e quanto ho scritto sotto ha destato l’interesse di un giornalista della Cbs canadese che a quanto pare è interessato a realizzare un servizio, un documentario sulla faccenda…almeno mi ha contattato dichiarandomi queste intenzioni. Dunque una questione di interesse internazionale e non soltanto vergogna di casa nostra visto che tensioni e problemi connessi al fenomeno migratorio ci sono ovunque.

“Hello, Padua is my city and some years ago I wrote the thesis degree in Political Science, field of Sociology about these things “Social tensions and housing policies: immigrants in Veneto region” and in the last chapter I wrote about via Anelli.
I did a long research about the story of these flats and I passed some time here with the immigrants that lived here..too much time, the place was and it is horrible.
What I would like to say is that for about 10 years the situation in these flats is an important issue of the city and the object of many political campaign: until now the risult is zero. Past administraion uses an only kind of policy: police, police, police. They catch a lot of pusher, a lot of illegal immigrants but social problems as the lack of houses and was not solve, none integration policy was taken.
A wall is never a solution but in my opinion, in this case, It should be considered as a temporary instruments to face drug trade. The public administration is finding houses to the inhabitants of these flats because it is not easy for an immigrant to find an house in the private market so this wall doesn’t segregate different communities.
A lot of people in my city and in italy see this wall as a symbol and maybe It is a symbol but some days ago the public administration received representants of different communities to talk about integration and the problems they have by now and mayor is “fighting” to guarantee the adinistrative vote to immigrants. Next week in these flats a new “moschea” will open…so not only walls but also “bridges”…”

Alberto (albotton@yahoo.it)

5:13 PM

Bryan Finoki said…

“albertothanks for that info. it just seems like the ‘wall’ is always excused as a temporary solution, needed to deal with the interim problems. but as long as we keep accpeting walls as temporary fixes we will continue to ignore the necassary work that needs to be done to prevent them from needing such temporary fixes. walls are crutches that immigration politics have become dependent on. we cant keep tolerating these barriers, even as temporary fixes or else we will always rely on them to solve our integration problems.anyway, keep us updated on Padua, very curious to hear from your perspective.
thanks! b”

12:43 PM

Alberto said…

“”Hi! I’m Alberto. I would like to update you of the situation of the Padua wall. Do you remember? The wall that separate flats of immigrants from flats of local people. The public administrations rise up that wall on demand of the securization commettee of that neighborhood.
Nowadays nobody talks again of this wall in Padua and local and national press is concentrating theit interest on other things; it seems to have lost hi interestingness.This is not a good news because some time ago the debate about integration of immigrants seems to take off while now the argument are return to be the same: criminality, drugs trade, violence and repression from the police.In the last 2 months an other flat has become empy…public administration found new houses for families who lived there and closed the 4th flat. Other two flats are still open. Now the problems are still the same…immigrans people with their children are living in awful flats, horrible igienyc conditions and barricaded there because otuside, in the backyard, nearby the wall the traffic of drugs and violent behaviour still goes on. Some pusher are now “working” in the main street, using this flats, also the “closed” ones as warehouses of drugs. So now it is easier for the police to control their activity in the main street than in the yard of the flats. Infact these 6 flats forms a sort of protect area, being erected on 4 sides; things happening inside this area are not visible fron the outside so that pushsers organize a vigilance service to protect their activity from the police.
The negative aspect in the main street is that many pushers there are not a good thing for the mall which is there. The same mall that ha s a great responsabilities, in my opinion, of the whole story, causing commercial damages to the shop that were nearby “our” flats. Commercial desertification caused a different use of the public space….that street became only a street to drive from a place to another and not a street to live so that pushers could take it for their activity.Next year it seems that, eventually, the public adminstration will find new houses for the people who still live in the 2 flat and then the 6 flats will be destroyed and it might start renewal plan. The risk is that that area will causes a real estate speculation race..as usual in this cases.
In the future It seems that the mall will close and re-open in the outskirt of the city and a new police station will open.Bye Bye and Happy new year to you and to all the readers of “Subtopia”! “

9:52 AM

Bryan Finoki said…

“Albertothanks for the update. though, it doesn’t sound good, and i can’t say that i am suprised. the wall only hides, masks, neglects the problems, removes the immigration debate from plain view, from plain sight.the pervailing attitude with neoliberalism seems to be, as long as i dont have to see it. as long as it doesnt affect ME. craziness. people will let anything go on around them as long as they don’t have to deal with it in any way. so, sadly, when in doubt, just throw up a wall. anyway – i hope there are strong activist groups there fighting for the political dialogue that has to be held, how to integrate and create jobs and livelihoods for the migrants?keep us posted. i really appreciate you taking the time to update us.thanks again Alberto, i hope you have a good 2-007.”Insomma quello che volevo dire è che si, alzare muri non è mai una soluzione ma che nella fattispecie di Padova la stampa e l’interesse si sono concentrate sul muro senza approfondire le iniziative dell’amministrazione pubblica volte a superare il “ghetto” trovando una nuova soluzione abitativa per gli abitanti del complesso “Serenissima”, anche attraverso un’azione di accompagnamento sociale.Anche il giornalista della Cbs canadese di cui parlavo all’inizio aveva conoscenza dell’esistenza di questo muro ma non sapeva assolutamente nulla che le palazzine stavano per essere svuotate e il “ghetto” superato. Alla fine lui stesso mi ha detto che per nonostante la scelta del muro sia stata impopolare in ogni caso l’intera operazione potrebbe rappresentare una soluzione al problema.Mi attendo che come promesso le due palazzine ancora abitate vengano svuotate nel più breve tempo possibile e che il successivo abbattimento del muro o della recinzione dia il via ad un piano di riqualificazione dell’area. Sperando che il tutto venga portato avanti nell’ottica dell’interesse comune e non degli speculatori edilizi che già, ipotizzo, avranno messo gli occhi su una zona senz’altro appetibile, baricentrica rispetto al centro città e a Padova est.