Going Going...

Good bye Magnolias
Originally uploaded by Krista 1366.

And soon to be gone.

This devastation on my street is what I woke to this morning. At 6:45 the chainsaws started their engines and their destruction. By 8 am 6 trees were down and hauled away. At this rate, it will all be over by the end of the day and a once beautiful boulevard will be just a scar running through Chiavari.

So tragic, needless, and sad. A little history on the topic go to my post on March 3rd. Click here.

A few of my neighbors and myself passed around a petition. We gathered thousands of signatures and to no avail. Down now are the beautiful trees. Soon there will be a long road with out shade and blooms. Why? For vanity. For nothing. A mayor's foolish pride and for sure to line the pocket of some friend with a nursery. Do you know where exactly on my street this horror began? Right in front of my apartment building. Which is not at the beginning or the end of the street, it is smack in the middle. Why? Just to piss us off I suppose. Those who dared to oppose the sindaco of Chiavari, who by the way stands as tall as me. He is a very small man, I have shaken his cold hand. The power politics of Chiavari has now only become a vergogna, an embarrassment. A line of stumps on the ground for dogs to pee and poo in.

Should I go on to point out that there is not one person on the street this morning protesting this episode. No one blocking the chainsaws. Imagine if this was another country like the USA or the UK? The uproar would stop the machines in their tracks. Who, these days, cuts down perfectly healthy trees only to replace them with palms - just because at one time there were palms? Which by the way, died, just like the new ones will eventually.

This episode points out what is so clearly wrong with Italy and Italians. Why they elected a Berlesconi, a Prodi. Why there is corruption and why nothing really ever changes. No one stands up. Everyone argues and nothing changes. There is little grass roots action other than to wrap one's self in a rainbow flag and yell "pace" - peace and point the finger at someone else. I ask you, where are all those environmentalists and green people this morning? Sleeping for sure.

Krista