THE NEW YORK TIMES: For generations, Italian craftspeople have built scenes depicting Jesus’ birth, sometimes including figures of celebrities. This year, some are adding statuettes of President Trump.
President Trump has likened himself to a king, a dictator for a day and an emperor.
Now, during Christmas in Naples, he can be remade as one of the three wise men.
On Via San Gregorio Armeno, a street in the center of this ancient port city in southern Italy, shops have for generations sold meticulously crafted carvings of Nativity scenes — sometimes adorned with miniature statues of contemporary celebrities. For years, figures of Diego Maradona, the Argentine soccer star who played for the city’s leading team, have been perennial top sellers, as have statuettes of Silvio Berlusconi, the media tycoon and four-time Italian prime minister.
This Christmas, models of Mr. Trump are the new front-runners.
Mr. Trump “is very loved,” said Michele Buonincontro, who founded a studio and shop 32 years ago to make and sell the traditional Neapolitan Nativity scenes known as presepi. Three rows of Trump figures, wearing dark suits with red ties and crowned with bright yellow helmets of hair, stood on a table in a workshop at the back of Mr. Buonincontro’s shop.
Some of Mr. Buonincontro’s clients insert figurines of Mr. Trump into Nativity scenes as one of the three wise kings who brought gifts for the newborn Jesus, he said. “I am not saying he is a saint, but he is connected to religion, to religiosity,” Mr. Buonincontro added.
At Naples Cathedral, where an elaborate Nativity scene is set inside a chapel near the front of the church, the Rev. Federico Battaglia, secretary to the archbishop of Naples, said he saw no reason Mr. Trump wouldn’t fit in.
Jesus was born “under the Empire of Augustus,” said Father Battaglia, referring to the Roman emperor Caesar Augustus. If Jesus were born today, he added, it might be “under the Empire of Trump.”
“Augustus was the most powerful man of his time," he said, “as Trump is of ours.” » | Motoko Rich | Reporting from Naples, Italy | Tuesday, December 23, 2025
Showing posts with label Naples. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Naples. Show all posts
Tuesday, December 23, 2025
Friday, June 10, 2011
The long and passionate kiss between the two young men continued for several seconds, as onlookers gawped and photographers snapped incessantly. Their lips finally parted when police officers yanked one man away and shoved him into a waiting police car.
Uninhibited public shows of affection between men are seldom seen in Italy. But these two weren't lovers. And the show they put on outside Naples police headquarters on Wednesday evening was something rarer still – a full kiss on the lips between Camorra mobsters as a powerful sign, made very public, that the bonds of the crime syndicate would remain strong and the arrested man would remain silent. Experts say that this particular mob tradition has never previously been filmed or photographed.
The young mobster under arrest, Daniele D'Agnese, 27, a senior figure in the notorious Scissionisti clan of the Camorra, locked lips with not one but two younger male associates in front of press cameras and crowds. La Stampa newspaper said the kisses were a message telling the pair that they would not be left to fend for themselves.
"It was a sign to the weaker members of the group telling them, 'We'll continue to be a group; we'll command the same territory and whatever happens, you won't be abandoned'," it said. The kiss may also have been a sign to rival clans that Scissionisti bonds remained strong. (+video) » | Michael Day | Friday, June 10, 2011
Friday, November 27, 2009
THE TELEGRAPH: Pupils at a school in Florida have been suspended after taking part in a "Kick a Jew Day".
Ten students at North Naples Middle School were sent home for a day after a girl told the head teacher that she believed she had been kicked for being Jewish, prompting further instances to come to light.
Florida passed strict anti-bullying laws last year and schools that do not do enough to stop it risk losing their state funding.
Margaret Jackson, the school's head teacher, has responded to the kicking incident by setting aside the first 20 minutes of each day to teaching students – aged 12 to 15 – about kindness, respect and ways of preventing bullying.
David Barkey of the Florida Anti-Defamation League said the organisation had been consulted over the incident. >>> Tom Leonard in New York | Thursday, November 26, 2009
Tuesday, May 20, 2008
LE FIGARO: Depuis le 21 décembre, Naples est confrontée à une crise sans précédent dans le ramassage des ordures. 100.000 tonnes de déchets jonchent les rues. Alors que l'armée italienne est appelée à la rescousse, les Napolitains composent depuis plusieurs semaines avec un paysage chaotique. EN IMAGES: Naples et ses ordures >>> 19/01/2008
The Dawning of a New Dark Age (Broché)
The Dawning of a new Dark Age (Relié)
Subscribe to:
Comments (Atom)