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Nov. 22, 1999
Italians are an emotionally demonstrative folk, renowned for their arm gesticulations and passionate tirades. People of the booted peninsula revel in Fellini-esque self-expression, but in 1999 they were rendered bashful by their Nigerian guests.
In Lagos on Friday, the Italian ambassador admitted that 350 "beautiful" Nigerian girls between the ages of 18 and 25 were repatriated from Italy last year because of "their indecent mode of dressing, behavior and their penchant for sex in open places," reports the Nov. 18 Africa News. The young women's provocative exhibitionism managed to outrage even chic Milan and decadent Rome.
The evicted hussies were undoubtedly prostitutes, explained the ambassador, Giovanni Germano. Over 7,000 Nigerian sex workers currently reside in Italy, he claimed; the young women are from good families and they arrive "of unquestionable character" to seek legitimate employment, but they're quickly lured into the lucrative skin-trade by their flesh pimps. "Nigerian girls are slaves to the foreigners," the ambassador concluded.
If the gregarious deported gals continue their bodily fluid occupation back in their homeland, they're playing a dangerous game. A Nov. 16 Village Voice article reports that in the messy mega-city of Lagos (8 million), many johns refuse to wear condoms. "If I put it on, my prick can't rise," fumes a truck driver. The Society of Women Against AIDS in Africa estimates that 75 percent of the young prostitutes comply with this request for unprotected sex, a potentially fatal risk in this heavily infected continent.
Will Italy continue to evict the most obvious Nigerian hookers? Probably. Dark-skinned immigration into Europe already irritates conservatives; if Nigerians outdo the locals in their own traditional extroversion, they'll definitely be getting the boot. An unfortunate policy, if it concludes with a death sentence from AIDS.
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