Land of Fires: The Sentence Comes Late, the Deaths Do Not

Lo deridevano.

Some said he only spoke to get noticed, "he's just a showman" some of his "priest colleagues" claimed.

Now the ruling of the Court of Human Rights puts in black and white what Don Maurizio Patriciello – and a few others – have always said: the Land of Fires has been poisoned, those who live there have been left to die, the State knew and pretended nothing had happened.

Qualche uomo coraggioso l’aveva detto. Ma chi denuncia dà fastidio. È più comodo ridicolizzarlo, screditarlo, fargli terra bruciata attorno. Chi direbbe che la camorra ha seppellito tonnellate di rifiuti tossici in quei campi?

All with the complicity of entrepreneurs and politicians? That the dirty wealth of some has transformed into tumors for others? It hurts even those most distant to know that entire generations have grown up breathing poison, that children are born already condemned, that my peers, twenty-year-olds, are ready to leave the city.

But now it is written in a sentence: the ECHR condanna l’Italia
But will it serve any purpose? Will it serve to compensate those who lost children, brothers, parents? Will it serve to restore dignity to those who were treated as liars while their land became a landfill?

The Camorra did its job. The State didn't.

The State let die without intervening, without controlling, without stopping the massacre. And now? Who will pay? Because in this country responsibility is always a vague concept, diluted, never clear enough.

The truth is there for all to see, but the question remains the same: will it be of any use? To this day, the dead continue to be numbers and the guilty continue to be ghosts.

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