EDITORIAL
The harsh reality of the gangmaster system a world away from the glossy magazine covers by Flavia Pankiewicz
T
he Pugliese summer is fast approaching, the beaches are getting a make-over in preparation for the long season of sun and sea, the old centers of cities and towns are buzzing with cultural events, the days are stretching out and the longer hours of strong sunlight bring the desire for leisure, travelling and vacations.
But alongside the world of the many lucky people who can afford to travel and live it up there is a parallel world, unseen by most people. It is the world of those who have nothing, of immigrants, of those forced to work in the harshest conditions for a crust of bread, of those who may even die of extreme overwork, like the Pugliese Paola Clemente, a farm laborer who last summer lost her life at the age of 49 while slaving in the countryside, under the sun of Puglia.
This tragic story is the subject of a book recently published by Imprimatur Editore, entitled Morire come schiavi (Dying like slaves), written by Enrica Simonetti, a journalist with La Gazzetta del Mezzogiorno, also one of our contributors, an extract of which appears in this issue.
“It is a glimpse of the Medieval that appears in what some people call the California of the South – writes Simonetti – … the Puglia of the sea and luxury masserie where there’s the night of those who gaze at the stars from a beach and the night of those who travel to work”.
It was a brave decision to devote a book to the story of Paola Clemente, breaking the veil of silence that, after the short-lived media interest, had fallen on this terrible happening. This decision acts as a wake-up call to our conscience, calling on us not to forget, during our leisurely summer, that it is only the strong pressure of public opinion that can help to get rid of the disgraceful practices of exploitation and inhuman working conditions that are going on just a short distance away from our idyllic vacation settings.
The book is an appeal to ensure that what happened to Paola will never happen again. Not ever again.
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