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Can We Save Venice Before It’s Too Late?
NY Times ^ | August 29, 2016 | Salvatore Settis

Posted on 08/30/2016 11:30:56 AM PDT by C19fan

A deadly plague haunts Venice, and it’s not the cholera to which Thomas Mann’s character Gustav von Aschenbach succumbed in the Nobel laureate’s 1912 novella “Death in Venice.” A rapacious tourist monoculture threatens Venice’s existence, decimating the historic city and turning the Queen of the Adriatic into a Disneyfied shopping mall.

Millions of tourists pour into Venice’s streets and canals each year, profoundly altering the population and the economy, as many native citizens are banished from the island city and those who remain have no choice but to serve in hotels, restaurants and shops selling glass souvenirs and carnival masks.

(Excerpt) Read more at nytimes.com ...


TOPICS: History; Travel
KEYWORDS: italy; venice
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To: BenLurkin

LOL


81 posted on 08/30/2016 1:48:29 PM PDT by DannyTN
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To: C19fan

I visited there in 1998 and it was wonderful. Definitely like a medieval Italian Disney World.


82 posted on 08/30/2016 1:53:21 PM PDT by libstripper
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To: cloudmountain; EQAndyBuzz

“What has happened is that prostitution has GREATLY increased in Germany, since it’s a legal “job.”

What happened is prostitution is simply out in the open and advertised so it is *perceived* as greatly increased. Anyone with money was always capable of ordering a prostitute ever since money existed. All attractive women are constantly offered money/stuff for sex even though they don’t advertise. There were always “matchmakers” in every city that introduced young attractive women to rich (typically old) guys.

“Wouldn’t YOU want your wife, sister, mother, any female (or male) relative to be a prostitute? There she is, MY little baby girl, lying on a bed, buck naked, with her legs up in the air, apart, at the mercy of a total stranger. Isn’t that WONderful?”

NO, but how is that ANY different than countless other dirty/diseased/dangerous jobs? i.e. Garbage collection, sewer workers, healthcare, cop, etc, etc.
I obviously would not want my daughter/son to be in one of those dangerous/dirty professions. BUT there’s nothing worse about being a prostitute besides the society-generated stigma about nudity/sex. You’re probably more likely to get diseases working as a nurse than as a legal prostitute who always uses condoms.
And your kid is more likely to be at the “ mercy of a total stranger” working late in a desolate office than at a legal brothel with security everywhere.


83 posted on 08/30/2016 1:55:16 PM PDT by varyouga
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To: C19fan

One of the great things about Venice...learned from Rick Steve’s book...was the transportation workers’s cafeteria near the train station. Anybody can eat there. Exit the station down to the Grand Canal...turn right at the water, follow the canal a block or two, climb some steps and enter a nondescript building...you’re in the cafeteria. You get a full meal for cheap cheap. Hard to beat in Venice. Also had an expresso bar AND a regular (alcohol) bar.

Interesting city but I’ll take Florence anytime.


84 posted on 08/30/2016 2:09:53 PM PDT by moovova
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To: cloudmountain
Was it Germany or some other place over there where they'd legalized prostitution and the government built roadside stalls. The customer drives up and gets it on inside his car or on the cot. The insane citizens voted on it. Coming soon to a neighborhood near you.

Found it - http://www.usatoday.com/story/news/world/2013/08/26/switzerland-prostitution-sex-boxes/2700877/


85 posted on 08/30/2016 2:18:56 PM PDT by bgill (From the CDC site, "We don't know how people are infected with Ebola")
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To: avenir
I’ve never been there. Is it idyllic or dirty?

I've been there and the answer is yes. Lots of pigeons, and the water is stagnant. Beautiful architecture and artwork.
86 posted on 08/30/2016 2:24:36 PM PDT by Old Yeller (Hillary is Satan's spiritual advisor.)
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To: sheana

Fly into Munich, see that city. Rent a car, hit Liechtenstein (just to say you did it), then Milan. Then head to Venice. It’s an easy drive, beautiful country, and a LOT cheaper than flying into/out from Venice! And if you have time, Zagreb and Vienna on the loop back to Munich.

It’s about 20 hours of road time, total. Spread out over 7-8 days, that’s nothing. Cut that time in half by dropping the trip back from Venice to Munich via Zagreb and Vienna.


87 posted on 08/30/2016 2:53:10 PM PDT by Shanghai Dan (I ride a GS scooter with my hair cut neat...)
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To: Shanghai Dan

It’s not the airfare that kills you. It’s the lodging. Ridiculous!


88 posted on 08/30/2016 3:18:02 PM PDT by sheana
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To: C19fan
Why not just move it to Arizona, brick by brick? For one thing that would clear up that ridiculous flooding problem they appear to have in the streets. Apparently the rest of Venus is like that too.



What?

89 posted on 08/30/2016 3:31:36 PM PDT by Billthedrill
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To: C19fan

Libtards just can’t abide prosperity.


90 posted on 08/30/2016 7:44:00 PM PDT by Some Fat Guy in L.A. (Still bitterly clinging to rational thought despite it's unfashionability)
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To: varyouga
1. The German government said that the "industry" had increased. That is, it got even BIGGER than it ever was and now that it was LEGAL it had burgeoned.

I believe THEIR bookkeeping more than I believe you opinion because they DO keep records since the sex workers there get medical care.

2. I was attractive when I was young and was NEVER propositioned for prostitution. Of course, I didn't go to the part of town where there were pimps and prostitutes. Prostitution doesn't happen everywhere all the time either. It's endemic to a part of town, usually ratty, and to bars.

NO, but how is that ANY different than countless other dirty/diseased/dangerous jobs? i.e. Garbage collection, sewer workers, healthcare, cop, etc, etc.
In case you were born in a barn those "dirty" jobs are LEGAL and moral. Prostitution is not.
Women don't want dirty, dangerous jobs or jobs that are away from home. SO, women don't work on the merchant marine ships, as men do, collect garbage, work in the mines, dig ditches, etc.
They want CLEAN jobs: doctors, attorneys, bankers, etc.
Hospital work is only dangerous if those hospitals and doctors are third world numb-nuts. People come from ALL over the world to OUR hospitals...WE don't go there.

I obviously would not want my daughter/son to be in one of those dangerous/dirty professions. BUT there’s nothing worse about being a prostitute besides the society-generated stigma about nudity/sex. You’re probably more likely to get diseases working as a nurse than as a legal prostitute who always uses condoms.
I guess you aren't a Christian. For Christians sex outside of marriage is a sin. But, since you don't think that...you are either a foreigner, amoral or haven't a clue as to the horror of the sex trade. It's considered a sin in every society on the planet because it undermines marriage and the beauty of the sex act, God-given, for pleasure to married couples and for children.
Sex outside of the bond of marriage is sinful, to all Christian, Muslim and, I THINK, Jewish faiths.
The prostitute HAS NO CHOICE whatsoever. She is for sale by her pimp. She MUST perform sex, any KIND of sex, oral, anal, with/without pain, group, you name it If s/he doesn't do what the pimp wants she gets beaten. Some prostitutes get killed.

Think of it: five "johns" a night = 1,825 "johns" a year...and in ten years, 18,250 "johns." Do you ACTUALLY think that it's a good thing? Sex with WHOMEVER the pimp tells her? With WHATEVER kind of sex he/they may want?

What does SHE get out of it?
*She gets STDs up the wazoo, literally;
**maybe AIDS;
*** maybe anal diseases (if that what the "john" wants)
****the drugs her pimp gives her to make the job less horrible;
*****emergency care for when the pimp beats her and/or she overdoses from the drugs he gives here.
******Also, when the prostitutes get older and are not so attractive they WILL take the man who will give them money to have sex WITHOUT a condom. Those poor women, being pretty desperate, DO have sex without the condom. They NEED the drugs so they do what they have to in order to get their drugs.

This isn't rocket science...it's pretty common knowledge.

You keep forgetting to mention the pimps. They make their money SELLING sex, selling their women to the highest bidder. Is that YOUR idea of a good thing?

===============================
And your kid is more likely to be at the “ mercy of a total stranger” working late in a desolate office than at a legal brothel with security everywhere.
Why would ANY human, with ANY brains, work late in a "desolate office"? S/he would be an IDIOT.
Also, what kind of boss has an employee, male OR female, work late in a "desolate office" and NOT get her/him a taxi home? THAT IS INSANE.
That is no good boss...that is what pimps do: sell their women to ANYONE who wants to buy an hour or more of WHATEVER kind of sex he/they want with her.
If she doesn't want to do it...she gets beaten. Wow, ain't it wunnerful?

MAYBE you ought to do some reading on the horrors of the sex trade. Women who worked it can TELL YOU how dehumanizing it is, how demoralizing and how humiliating it is to be SOLD for sex.

It's such a miserable job that pimps usually get the women hooked on drugs...to palliate her job. SO, the prostitutes are not only enslaved in the sex trade, they are also either drunks or drug addicts (or both).

varyouga: are you female? young? old? male? WHAT possesses you to think like you do?

PAX TIBI.

91 posted on 08/30/2016 8:02:21 PM PDT by cloudmountain
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To: bgill
Those stalls look like former HORSE stalls.

It looks like you got the thread from Switzerland. Lord have mercy.
CHRISTIAN countries? Not a snowball's...
Satan has been hard at work, hasn't he?

92 posted on 08/30/2016 8:04:33 PM PDT by cloudmountain
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To: cloudmountain

Most of the issues you talk about are not endemic to sex work but to slavery. Which is the same nomatter what work the slave does. People are also enslaved under similar conditions to work in mines, factories, housekeeping, etc, etc, etc. My point is that by outlawing a service which there is ALWAYS demand for, you actually create MORE slavery because that job MUST now move underground. There is no legal competition/alternative. Instead of being allowed to buy sex legally, 100% of that HUGE market is handed over to violent criminals on a platter. Of course criminals are FAR more likely to enslave and abuse people who work for them.

I stand by my statement that LEGAL sex work is no more disgusting or dangerous than working in the healthcare industry. In healthcare, you handle even more disgusting bodily fluids and excrement than with 99% of sex work. Yes there are modern protections but they can fail just like a condom. How is that ANY different? Healthcare work is equally risky and dangerous to your sacred body. And IMO, sex work is equally as necessary of a job in our isolated society. It is truly a form of mental healthcare. Pretty much all humans have the NEED for friendship/intimacy but many can’t for various reasons. For many lonely clients, they don’t even want sex. A sex worker is simply the closest they can come to getting a hug and being alone with “someone to talk to”. People are so damn overworked 24/7 in our society that nobody talks to anyone unless they’re making money or “networking”.

When sex work is legal, it is done in the open where there is security, cameras, records, health inspections, etc, etc. There is no need for violence because police and courts handle disputes in a LEGAL industry. Only in an illegal industry do you need things like chains and pimps. If a client harms the sex worker or doesn’t use a condom, they can hold the client and call the police immediately but ONLY when it is legal. When you are an illegal prostitute you have ZERO protection. The main purpose of pimps was to provide that protection with violence. Pimps and slavery ONLY come about because it is illegal to get the justice system involved. Get it now?

I’ve met countless beautiful women all over the world and many have done it and could tell me first-hand what the industry is like. Very few American women would talk about it due to the stigma but for many countries around the world it is 100% legal and no big deal. Friends and family talk about it openly with each other. The girls make good money, actually have fun doing it, meet rich gentlemen who mentor them and then go to college or open their own business. It isn’t some last-ditch option either. Many friends of these girls WISH they could be beautiful enough to make money so easily for their future


93 posted on 08/31/2016 10:18:20 AM PDT by varyouga
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To: varyouga
Most of the issues you talk about are not endemic to sex work but to slavery. Which is the same nomatter what work the slave does. People are also enslaved under similar conditions to work in mines, factories, housekeeping, etc, etc, etc. My point is that by outlawing a service which there is ALWAYS demand for, you actually create MORE slavery because that job MUST now move underground. There is no legal competition/alternative. Instead of being allowed to buy sex legally, 100% of that HUGE market is handed over to violent criminals on a platter. Of course criminals are FAR more likely to enslave and abuse people who work for them. I stand by my statement that LEGAL sex work is no more disgusting or dangerous than working in the healthcare industry. In healthcare, you handle even more disgusting bodily fluids and excrement than with 99% of sex work. Yes there are modern protections but they can fail just like a condom. How is that ANY different? Healthcare work is equally risky and dangerous to your sacred body. And IMO, sex work is equally as necessary of a job in our isolated society. It is truly a form of mental healthcare. Pretty much all humans have the NEED for friendship/intimacy but many can’t for various reasons. For many lonely clients, they don’t even want sex. A sex worker is simply the closest they can come to getting a hug and being alone with “someone to talk to”. People are so damn overworked 24/7 in our society that nobody talks to anyone unless they’re making money or “networking”. When sex work is legal, it is done in the open where there is security, cameras, records, health inspections, etc, etc. There is no need for violence because police and courts handle disputes in a LEGAL industry. Only in an illegal industry do you need things like chains and pimps. If a client harms the sex worker or doesn’t use a condom, they can hold the client and call the police immediately but ONLY when it is legal. When you are an illegal prostitute you have ZERO protection. The main purpose of pimps was to provide that protection with violence. Pimps and slavery ONLY come about because it is illegal to get the justice system involved. Get it now? I’ve met countless beautiful women all over the world and many have done it and could tell me first-hand what the industry is like. Very few American women would talk about it due to the stigma but for many countries around the world it is 100% legal and no big deal. Friends and family talk about it openly with each other. The girls make good money, actually have fun doing it, meet rich gentlemen who mentor them and then go to college or open their own business. It isn’t some last-ditch option either. Many friends of these girls WISH they could be beautiful enough to make money so easily for their future

.

94 posted on 08/31/2016 12:30:12 PM PDT by cloudmountain
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