Urban Blight? Don’t Worry, Black Angels Are Coming
I know, in order to improve the quality of our lives the first step to do is to respect our cities, our neighbourhood and people around us. While we run up and down to full every empty space of our days, the Italian cultural heritage takes a rest to tell us about ancient families and artists, old palaces and frescos. Rome, Florence, Venice and other historical cities that today have to face many social challenges: urban blight, social degradation and abandoning of public spaces. Italy spends hundreds of thousands of Euros every year cleaning up historical monuments that have been defaced by writing or graffiti art.
To face urban blight and raise a common sense of respect Florence launches today a new idea: ten black angels passing through the city centre in order to guarantee decorum and educate people. Starting tomorrow, the group will go around the city talking with citizens and tourists, seeing that they respect the cultural heritage and don’t leave their garbage everywhere. The ten angels are citizens from Senegal living in Florence for a long time; they have been chosen and trained for this project by the consulate of Senegal and the council administration of Florence.
The decision to form a special group of guards is the last effort to save Florence from degradation. On Monday a long article reported that Japan’s two largest newspapers, Yomiuri and Asahi, apologised to Italy on behalf of a Japanese tourist who scrawled his name on the walls of Florence’s famed 15th-century Duomo.
The 30-year-old Japanese high school teacher’s job hung in the balance after an anonymous message to his school revealed he had written his name and date on the marble wall of the Duomo’s panoramic terrace during his honeymoon in January last year.
”I did it without thinking much after hearing that writing your name on that stone brought happiness,” the teacher said.
Another anonymous tip-off led to three Kyoto university students being suspended after writing their names, the date, and the name of the university on the Duomo earlier this year. It’s very difficult to believe that this can be happening when the Japanese are known for their correctness! Florence city council’s security chief Graziano Cioni described the trend for writing on the landmark as shameful. “But I like the fact that there’s been a mass uprising in Japan against tourists who carry out these acts,” he said. ”It’s a question of culture. I hope that everyone will police themselves so that we can bring back decorum to the city,” he added.
Sources: La Nazione - La Repubblica
Image courtesy of Flickr under Creative Commons
