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Cap Mandrake -> RE: OT: Corona virus (3/28/2020 5:50:05 PM)
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quote:
ORIGINAL: RFalvo69
First signs of social disruption in Southern Italy.
All started when the lockdown of Lombardy was leaked to the press hours before it became official. At once, hundreds of people fled in the middle of the night by rushing to catch the last trains to the South. What we are now seeing there are the outbreaks caused by these idio... er... "human-bombs". We feared from the first moment that this could happen.
Now, a leaked report by the Italian Intelligence Services warns about "the danger of moderate to severe social disruption in Southern Italy".
The key problem is simple: the lack of an adequate infrastructure. Not only hospitals, but banks, post offices and other "daily needs" services. Lombardy has one of the best infrastructures in Europe, and the Coronavirus sent it to its knees. Also, people are more wealthy in Lombardy, with more savings. With a lockdown like the one seen here, people in the South risk to spend all their savings and not be able to buy anything. This means that the situation in the South seriously risks to become ebullient.
The first signs are reports of people literally attacking groceries (that, due to the crisis can't provide everything) because they don't believe that there are shortages, supermarkets and even closed banks - which is amazing: videos of of people hammering the bulletproof glass and screaming obscenities (this one is from Bari, the two strongest screams you hear say "I have no more money!! How can I buy what I need?" and "Please, I don't have anything to eat!!")
Right now we can only wait. I chat via Skype with my wife every day, and she is very worried. Then I see this (in Italian). Basically: "We are already not ready. We were already creaking under normal circumstances (*) - now imagine with the Coronavirus"
But it gets better! Our local bank is opened only on Wednesday and Friday, and from 9:30 to 13:30 (way to create crowds of people and throwing social distance under the bus). I told my wife to avoid the bank altogether, use home banking and wait for some decrees that forces banks to stay open for other operations.
Only time will tell how much disruption the virus will cause. I fear it will be bad. The government must show strength - also because be sure that were the government fails, the Mafia will fill the void.
(*) Just an example. In Milan if you have an emergency you can get an ambulance within 15 minutes - or, for less serious cases, call it like you could call a cab and get one within 30-40 minutes. A few years ago, back in Calabria, my father fell from a ladder while checking some wine bottles. He wounded his head, so he was losing a lot of blood. We called an ambulance, and, after a long wait, the operator told me that one was arriving from Catanzaro. Check a map and look for Lamezia: Catanzaro is on the other side of the Apennine Mountains. We were actually able to stabilise my father before the ambulance arrived - and then, of course, they had to return to Catanzaro, where my father was admitted in a local hospital. Now upscale this to a Coronavirus-level Emergency...
Are the banks running out of cash? Are they just protecting their employees? Are electronic banking systems failing? That doesn't sound good.
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