How Many Care Takers Do You Have? Seven!

Padova, la truffa di colf e badanti: solo il 19% è stato messo in regola

Padua, the scam with care takers: only 19% had been legalized


This was in the local Padua news in December. The police did some local investigations and found that several families had up to seven care takers for a single elderly person. The police found that either there were too many badanti, or they were not properly legalized. Obviously some people are trying to help the immigrants in this work category stay in Italy. They are often women coming from such countries as Romania, Moldavia and Ukraine. Other Italians involved in the investigation did not even know that their names were on documents responsible for the legalization of these workers. Still others are probably associated with human trafficking and channelling Chinese and North Africans into Italy this way.

The question of immigration is a hot topic in Italy and these findings don't help simmer down the turmult.

Source article from 21 December, 2010: Il Mattino di Padova

Local Headlines

Sacchi di pane fresco gettati nell'immodizia

Bags of fresh bread thrown in the trash

Leggo, giovedì 2 settembre, p. 20

The city was up in arms about the wasteful gesture on the part of the supermarket on via Gattamelata, Eurospar. Last Wednesday afternoon, they threw away kilos of fresh bread. This was probably because they did not sell everything that was baked in the morning and all food stores are closed on Wednesday afternoons. The local poor and homeless steadily arrived at the public trash container in question and took advantage of the boon.

I have seen homeless pilfering from that exact trash spot for years. There are two men in particular that gather their fruits and vegetables there just about everyday. There must have been more poor coming by that particular day, with the overflowing bread. In general, I have never seen anyone upset by these people going through the trash. The sight is an affirmation that poverty exists and that we are a wasteful society nowadays, throwing away things that are still usable and edible. It's an old and sad story...

In Italy, tons of unused bread ends up as rubbish from bakeries, food markets and individual houses. In January, the Corriere della Sera reported that Italy averages 24,230 tons of bread ending up in the waste bin a month. Not everybody uses their day-old bread. We can buy pane gratttugiato (bread crumbs) for very cheap, and even if Italian grate up the old crusty bread, there is only so much they can use of it at once. It's an interesting dilemna. Fresh is great but can be wasteful. Long-lasting is convenient but can be terrible as far as taste and health is concerned. We already consume enough preservatives in other food stuffs, right?

Veneto bread does not last as long as some other varieties on the penisola. I remember the bread I ate in Tuscany and other more southern areas of Italy would last up to a week. You just cut off slices as you go. The crust is thicker and must protect the bread from the air better. Here the bread shapes are all rather small and have thin crusts. Most of the bread is sandwich size: mantovani, zoccoletti, francesini, ecc.

F is buying some as I write. We just better make sure we finish off what we buy today. Panini are in order for lunch.

Local Headlines

Marijuana nell'orto della scuola
Marijuana in the school garden

Saturday August 21, 2010 Il Gazzettino, Belluno edition, p. 9

A dozen marijuana plants of various sizes were found in the little botantical garden at the "Anna Frank" elementary school in Spinea (Venice). The school's director spotted the "Cannabis sativa" and promptly called police.

The plants were dispersed among the many others being used for educational purposes by the students, faculty and parents.



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So how is the next Parents' Board meeting going to go at that school, might I ask?

Local Headlines

This is the first in a new series of featured headlines from local newpapers. They go from funny to tragic.

Today's feature:

VIAGGI, SCOUT OCCUPANO L'AGENZIA
Il Mattino di Padova, front page story

"TRIPS, SCOUTS OCCUPY THE TRAVEL AGENCY"

A group of 20 boy and girl scouts based in Crespano del Grappa found out their tickets had never been purchased to go to Brazil. They found this out yesterday when they showed up at the airport, bags in hand. It is suspected that the Euro 15,000 they spent back in January for the July departure had just been pocketed by the travel agency's owner, Vito Barbieri. The scouts had planned a 20-day mission in the South American country.

Once the group and its organizers realized the truffa (scam), they promptly occupied the travel agency in Padua, where they had deposited their money. Despite spending all day there, no real answers were given.

Now the police are on Vito's tail.