It’s not nice and is probably one of the worst crimes anyone can commit, next to being a paedophile that is. However, whereas back in the UK stories about such crimes were quite common place, here in the living museum, such events seemed to be few and far between, or at least did not catch the attention of the media, or, which is more likely, just were not reported. While the last scenario is probable, I have to say that I’ve met a number of women from the UK/Ireland/States that have said that they do not really have any fear of walking home alone late at night. I can understand this feeling, OK, so I am a bloke, but even so, I’ve never seen a punch up in a bar here or had any hassle while walking home from the pub, which is something I can’t say about the UK, where two kind gentlemen once decided to break my nose for me. Considerate fellows. Don’t misunderstand me, punch ups and worse do occur here, only not as often as back home and women, rightly or wrongly, seem to feel safer too.
So, having said all of the above, I’ve got to say that the news this evening contained at least three stories about rapes, and those doing the raping were not Italians, but immigrants. Strange. Does this herald a sad downturn in Italian society? Has the media found out that rapes are newsworthy and will thus sell more ad space (yucky, but sadly very likely true)? Or does someone have it in for immigrants and want to use a few rape and pillage stories to get people to take it out on anyone not obviously Italian? The truth is that I don’t really know. But I’m going to keep an eye on things and see what transpires.
Stop reading, start speaking
Stop translating in your head and start speaking Italian for real with the only audio course that prompt you to speak.
Rape is a serious crime and one which should not be trivialised by the media – heightening awareness and encouraging rape victims to report such incidents is, on the other hand, a good thing. We shall see.
The football season is over…….so news is a bit thin on the ground………
