Shocking Indifference To Drowned Victims
More news from 2008 that The Wit Continuum cannot forget. Article found in July on CNN.com/europe:
“Italians wereexpressing outrage over published photos that show beach-goers near Naples going about their day as the bodies of two Roma girls lay on the shore. The girls had drowned earlier in the day, but the tragedy draws attention to what one group calls Italy’s atmosphere of “racism” toward Gypsies.
“While the lifeless bodies of the girls were still on the sand, there were those who carried on sunbathing or having lunch just a few meters away,” Italian newspaper La Repubblica said. The young girls reportedly had come to the beach with two others to sell trinkets. They then went swimming but were overpowered by the strong currents. Lifeguards were able to save only two of them.
Their bodies were eventually laid out on the sand under beach towels to await collection by authorities who arrived hours later to carry them away in coffins. The incident also drew condemnation from the Archbishop of Naples. “Indifference is not an emotion for human beings,” he wrote in his parish blog.”
Three photos show the sunbathers (as above) near the bodies, another shows the coffins being carried past those lounging in their beach chairs, and another, which we find so appallingly disrespectful, a guy talking on a cell phone not two feet from girls’ bodies, as if they were piles of sea weed washed ashore. I wonder if the people in these photos admit it to anyone they know. I could only hope not.
