VARESE – A disarming starting point: «Youth hardship is a tsunami that risks breaking its banks before effective solutions are even found»; but also an awareness, planted in the ground as a fundamental stake from which to start: the problem is not only the young people. But also the family, the parents, parenthood and so on. Not only and in a word: society. In its contemporary complexity.
Il summit
This morning (Thursday 27 June), upon summons from prefect of Varese Salvatore Pasquarielloin the board room of Villa Recalcati a meeting was held (very well attended) to take stock of the situation projects (Carpe diem) to combat youth hardship. A very topical topic which, like an infernal spiral, also drags with it a whole series of phenomena linked to the places and institutions frequented by the kids (schools for example, but also oratories and the world of associations) and to security in general. And without excluding (since it is not just a question of security) the complex battle of drug dealing in the woods and the use of drugs and alcohol especially from the younger age groups.
The chief prosecutors of the Court of Varese were present Antonio Gustapane and the addition of Busto Frank Belvisi; the prosecutor of the Juvenile Court; the psychiatrist Simone Feder which works closely with young people on the topic of addictions; representatives of world of school and officials and administrators of Province and Municipality in close contact with the school world. As well as representatives of Ats Insubria, law enforcement he was born in world of culture. In short, to use a term on page the network that still today represents the barrier in the face of the tsunami of hardship.
A worrying picture
The first food for thought was put on the table by Feder: «Today youth distress risks being the tsunami that first it overwhelms young people and with them the entire society. The challenge therefore is to implement, together with the many initiatives already launched (even successfully in several cases), projects capable of hooking kids earlier that the discomfort breaks the banks.” Before the individual’s discomfort degenerates into addiction or antisocial and violent behavior. «With this in mind – concluded Feder – the Carpe diem initiatives were conceived and implemented».
The harsh reality
Confirmation that the youth thermometer is on “red alert” has come from Sabrina DitarantoAttorney of the Juvenile Court. «Crimes by young people are increasing both in numbers and in the severity of the crime itself. From street robberies, the so-called “scavalli”, oriented more towards the abuse of others, we have moved on to phenomena that have become even more violent with the use of the weapon used, no longer as a sole threat, but precisely to do harm. Reports and complaints for carrying knives are increasing. Having a knife in your pocket has become endemic for a minor.».
Parents “slaves” to their children’s requests
It’s still: “AND the culture of families has also changed that these guys have behind them. More and more often I happen to see parents who film their children with their cell phones during the hearing while I’m in front of the judge. And when I ask why, they answer that it’s a request from their children who then want to spread what happened in the trial. Here, not even adults perceive the sense of shame. AND as if the value of right and wrong had been lost. And above all adults do not have the perception of the gravity and delicacy of having a minor child on trial. AND This is what we adults are failing at.”
Drug dealing is not just a matter of security
Drug dealing in the woods, as well as being a widespread and difficult to combat scourge, is no longer just a question of safety. AND became, in fact, also a litmus test of a sick society and perhaps incapable of containing and responding to the children’s discomfort.
Important initiatives have been put in place on the issue which have given concrete results without however curbing the problem. In short, the commitment of the police cannot be denied (provincial ones, but also national ones such as the massive commitment of the special body of the Carabinieri, the Hunters of Calabria and Sicily). And the results obtained cannot be denied: not a day goes by without the local media reporting on successful operations with kidnappings, arrests and camps cleared out in various wooded areas of the Varese area. The collaboration between the public prosecutors of Varese and Busto is now a consolidated modus operandi and it works. But this all seems like an unequal fight.
«We have also changed the approach to this complex problem – explained the deputy prosecutor of Busto Belvisi, the court where it was established an ad hoc Observatory – a mapping of the affected areas was carried out and widespread actions were implemented in the various areas. Only a few days ago, two groups of ten people were defeated, but soon the drug dealing gangs will be reconstituted, since we are faced with the lowest level of the chain “managed” by North Africans. All this has allowed us to “attack” even the upper level, this one in the hands of the Albanians. And then there is a third level, even higher, in the hands of “home-grown” organised crime».
And linked to drug dealing there is the consumption of substances: the aspect of addictions (drugs and alcohol) related to young people was also addressed. Another plague that has a number on the Court of Busto, but significant. «Personally, I sign more than 300 conviction notices per month for drug-related crimes. This makes us understand the amount of law enforcement work. Even if the local police is “missing” among the law enforcement agencies (carabinieri and police) for a very simple reason: municipal officers do not carry out evening shifts, otherwise these numbers would explode.”
Belvisi’s analysis is also shared by the prosecutor of Varese Gustapane, who highlighted “the need to develop more and more coordinated activities. I myself have replicated in Varese the Observatory established in Busto”. And he also underlined the delicate Achilles heel of the reduced number of “forces”. In Varese there are 8 deputy prosecutors, which however drops to 5 operational staff and from September to 3. In Busto however there are 10 against – for example the 27 active in the Canton of Ticino, a smaller territory than the South of the province where, with Malpensa, we are talking about a catchment area of 27 million people who live and pass through).
School: Reversing Educational Poverty
Also interesting is the point of view Cristina Zambon of the Education and Training sector of the Province of Varese. «Until a few years ago, young people grew up in a society that had clear, precise and firm reference values. Today this is no longer the case. And the question we are trying to answer together with those who work in the school world is “When do we lose touch with our kids?”We have given an answer. “We lose them when a 2 on a test or in an oral exam becomes more important than the student in front of us”. That negative vote must not undermine the value of the person and this is a step, among many to be taken, that must be taken”.
Light in a dark-hued painting
The numbers and experiences put together this morning are worrying. The large participation in the meeting is perhaps the first response to be valorised. In the sense that the problems, in addition to being many, are complex but the institutions (all levels of institutions) have created a network that, despite the difficulties, does not give up. But above all, and this morning it came out clearly, he never stops questioning himself and looking for solutions with respect to the great social changes in front of which no one, among those present, felt absolved.
youth distress institutions – MALPENSA24
