| The Mafia: Facts and Fiction |
| Sicily has been in the spotlight for decades: everything bad about this island has been analyzed and dissected, much often to seek (or even invent) evidence of doom and gloom, rather than to describe Sicilian society how it looks like. Facts have been too frequently overshadowed by fiction! |
| What is the Mafia? |
| The mafia was born out of an absence of leadership Rich landowners happily left the economy in the hands of corrupt employees and ruthless masters who had no qualms about using the heavy hand to maintain order among the peasants. They where also eager to get their social status acknowledged and their influence extended by becoming MPs in unified Italy. Regarded as an outstanding example of the "changing things so everything stays the same", The Leopard is instead a faithful representation of how things changed - for worse |
| The Mafia today is less and less concerned with shooting and bombing, and more and more with lobbying politicians in order to seize control of the economy of a territory. Then they totally lack any expertise or skills needed to manage it properly, but securing monopoly is the only way they have to win competition: they would be dead in a free market. The main consequence of this is that Sicily has unlocked only a small part of its considerable potential, becoming one of the leading "brain exporters" in the Western world |
| Giuseppe Tomasi di Lampedusa, The Leopard translated by Archibald Colquhoun (London: London and Harvill, 1960; New York: Pantheon Books, 1960) Also check the 1963 wonderful cinematic rendition by Luchino Visconti, featuring Burt Lancaster, Alain Delon and Claudia Cardinale! For further reading: Simonetta Agnello Hornby, The Almond Picker (London: Penguin Books Ltd, 2005) |
| Who Fights against the Mafia? |
| The Mafia Today |
| A stubborn Resistance against the Mob has always been present in Sicilian society. In the '90s, the Italian government took action in support of local courts and police and many mafia top dogs were arrested. Confidence grew that this would finally come to an end. Many Sicilians engaged in this struggle putting their own lives at risk: hundreds were murdered. Nevertheless, the long-standing link between politics and the mafia could not be severed. Nowadays, a new Resistance movement is defying "protection racket", or money paid monthly to the mob by shopkeepers. Founded in Palermo, Addiopizzo is slowly extending to the rest of the island. The local branch of the Italian national manufacturers association has also taken side, expelling members who have paid protection money |
| No shootings, no peculiar accents: "Godfather" atmosphere is entirely US fictional: the Sicilian Mafia is about secrecy, not about displaying wealth and power. Resistance is entirely visible, instead! What you are likely to meet in Sicily is an endless struggle to find a way out. Just Look at the (b)right side! |
