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by Sonofjoe

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We have recently moved (1 September 2006) from Hull in the north of England to Pozzuoli just outside Naples in Italy. Our house in Hull was very close to (according to the national Sun newspaper in 2002) one of the top ten worst housing estates for crime in the UK. During our 19 year stay we had been burgled or had things stolen from our property 7 times (not many times considering the years, as we had installed good security). I was also one of the lucky ones in that my car was very rarely damaged as I was able to park it close to a telegraph pole so my near-side wing-mirror never got pulled off on a Saturday night. We have seen near riots with petrol bombs thrown at police cars and semi-naked youths running a-mock at two in the morning with their drunken parents! For the past two years we had experienced at first hand gatherings of youths from 10 years old upwards in groups of up to 20 people, drinking, swearing, urinating openly in the street and jumping on car roofs. We also witnessed the police fight a loosing battle to bring order to the area. This was not an isolated area within the city, this type of behavior is happening in most areas of Hull and the rest of the country if you read the local papers. Hulls local paper in their infinite wisdom once reported gatherings of youths in another part of the city where girls as young as ten where hanging around a secluded place getting drunk late in to the night, later it was then reported that they had a problem of pedophiles in the same area! What was the editor thinking!

Although we live in what is considered a crime ridden area of Italy, we do not and have not felt threatened by any of our daily activates form the locals. We have found them to be very friendly, courteous and helpful! Yes, we have walked around Naples city and we was not mugged, neither has my car been scratched maliciously through boredom. Today we walked through a group of youths standing on a street corner and did not feel intimidated. However, my command of the Italian language is very basic and our time here has been short, I am sure I am missing many of the problems aired locally and nationally but will no doubt, find out in due course.

The problem as I see it with Britain is deep rooted and has gone beyond repair. People do not have the respect they had in the 50s and 60s. Each generation has been given a longer and longer leash to a point that there is now no longer a leash and people, that includes the children and their parents, are allowed to do as they please regardless of respect to property or to the members of the British society. I have seen this at first hand. Before I left England I was working at a secondary school (9-16 year olds. Not as a teacher I might add) where discipline was and is none existent and the children are allowed to smoke, take drugs, play truant and swear at the teachers with no recourse!

What future, have their children?

Learn more about this author, Sonofjoe.

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