Sculptures of Borsellino and Falcone vandalized

Eighteen years after they were both killed by Cosa Nostra, Sicilian anti-Mafia investigators Giovanni Falcone and Paolo Borsellino still upset some people in Palermo. Or so it would seem, given that last Saturday sculptures of the investigators, placed in central Viale Della Liberta, were vandalized.

Today marks the 18th anniversary of the Via D’Amelio bomb explosion in Palermo in which Paolo Borsellino and five members of his escort were assassinated.

To mark the occasion, artist Tommaso Domina had created two life-size plaster sculptures of Borsellino and his close friend Falcone, placing them on and beside a park bench in central Viale Della Libertà. However, within hours of being put in place by the Falcone-Borsellino association, both sculptures were knocked to the ground, in the process being damaged. The incident prompted an anti-Mafia activist and Sicilian politician Rita Borsellino, sister of the late Paolo, to comment: “There are people in Palermo who are frightened even of two statues and, what is more, there are still people in Palermo who don’t have the gift of speech . . .”

This latter remark was a reference to the fact that, even though the incident happened in the center of Palermo, admittedly probably at night, no one has come forward with information that might help police inquiries. State president Giorgio Napolitano expressed his “profound indignation” while sculptor Domina promised to repair the works.

Remarkably, only about 100 people attended a march through Palermo centre yesterday by the People of the Red Diary, organised by Salvatore Borsellino, brother of Paolo. The red diary is a reference to a diary kept by the late Mafia investigator which, inexplicably, vanished within minutes of the explosion that killed him.

Members of both the Borsellino and Falcone families as well as of the Falcone-Borsellino association have long argued that Italian secret services were involved in both 1992 killings, a point underlined by Salvatore Borsellino at a meeting outside the Palermo courthouse on Saturday: “. . .state forces along with the Mafia stopped Paolo from continuing his work. But we’re gathered here today to express our support for the magistrates . . .”

He continued: “On Monday we will gather at Via D’Amelio to celebrate our own form of state funeral for Paolo and we don’t want to see unworthy politicians and state representatives in attendance . . .”

Source: the IrishTimes.com

Another punch to the Mafia

The keys of the Sicilian villa where the notorious Mafia godfather Toto “the Beast” Riina spent his final months as a fugitive have been handed over to the local branch of the Italian journalists’ guild, several of whose members died under his bloody rein.

The gift is the latest from the national agency that confiscates mob assets and hands them over to deserving causes. Sicilian journalist leaders immediately dedicated their new headquarters to colleagues who were killed for exposing the activities of the Mob.

“This will become our home,” said the head of the Sicilian branch of the national journalists’ guild, Franco Nicastro. “It will be an outpost of legality and a memorial to slain journalists.”

The Italian state has been steadily seizing and redistributing the assets of jailed mafiosi for many years. Under law introduced in 1996, the state automatically assumes ownership of goods and property of those convicted of serious Mafia-related crime. The state then allows assets such as property to be used by other groups, as with the Sicilian journalists, or sometimes the assets are sold off at auction.

Source: www.independent.co.uk

A view on the Mafia by a British expat who lives in Sicily

Who follows us on SicilyGuide knows that we always like to hear the point of view of people who experienced the island and are not Sicilians. To share feedback is always useful, even criticism can be productive.

We read Sicily Scene almost daily. Our friend “Welshcakes Limoncello” loves and cares about Sicily. Lately, she has posted one of the smartest explanations about the Mafia I have not seen in a while. I copy and paste some of her wonderful writing down below.

First of all, let me make it clear that I am talking about Sicilian Mafia here, not Calabrian ‘Ndrangheta or Neopolitan Camorra. I cannot tell you that the Sicilian Mafia does not exist because of course it does. Nor can I tell you that it is not extremely nasty, for we all know that it is. I am no apologist for the organisation but I will say that there are criminal organisations in all countries. The trouble is that in Sicily every crime is attributed to the Mafia.

The Mafia differs from other crime associations in its “swearing in” and so-called “family” structure. But surely every nation’s criminal organisations reflect or mock the society that allows them to flourish?

Does the Mafia impinge upon the everyday life of ordinary, hardworking Sicilians, then? Indirectly, in some areas of Sicily, probably yes, in that it can affect the type of politicians who gain power and thereby the kind of services the populations of certain comuni receive. But politicians in a number of countries not so far from Italy also have unorthodox ways of acquiring funding, power and influence.

To read more, please visit http://sicilyscene.blogspot.com/2010/02/mafia-view-from-ragusa.html

Silvio Berlusconi announces plan to defeat Mafia in its own backyard

This is an article from the British Times Online. Anyway, let’s hope that this time they are serious about defeating the Mafia. I have heard many announcements like this…

Silvio Berlusconi, who has been accused of links to the Mafia, today unveiled a ten point “extraordinary plan” to defeat organised crime at a Cabinet meeting held symbolically in Reggio Calabria, the heartland of the ’Ndrangheta, the Calabrian Mafia.

However, critics said the move was a face-saving stunt ahead of regional elections in March, seen as a test of the embattled Italian Prime Minister’s popularity. Pierluigi Bersani, leader of the Democratic Party, the main opposition party, said it was “electoral propaganda”.

[...]

The Prime Minister’s plan involves integrating laws to fight Italy’s various Mafias in a single body of legislation, a measure which the opposition backs. It also includes calls for the creation of an agency based in Reggio Calabria to manage confiscated Mafia assets.

“To defeat the Mafia you have to go after their assets,” Mr Berlusconi said. “If the Mafia buys them back, we will confiscate them again. The Mafia — the ’Ndrangheta and the other organisations — are a terrible pathology for our country”.

Mafia Inc. Makes Record Profit During Economic Crisis

Italian organized crime boomed as the country’s economy shrank last year, while Sicilian prosecutors today seized 550 million euros ($772 million) in Cosa Nostra assets in their latest anti-mob operation.

The country’s main crime groups boosted their profit by 12 percent to more than 78 billion euros ($110 billion) between 2008 and 2009, according to Rome-based anti-racketeering group SOS Impresa’s annual report.

Estimated revenue by Italy’s main mafia groups rose 4 percent to 135 billion euros. That exceeds the revenue of oil company Eni SpA, the country’s biggest company by market value, and is almost 9 percent of Italy’s gross domestic product.

More at www.bloomberg.com

Posters of the Mafia bosses in Palermo’s streets

On January 20, the movement Giovine Italia promoted a singular initiative and Palermo’s streets were covered with posters of arrested Mafia bosses in handcuffs that say: “Farete tutti questa fine” which reads more or less “you all will end up this way”. A clear message to the local criminality.

The movement wanted to remember Paolo Borsellino’s birthday this way. The judge Paolo Borsellino was tragically assassinated by the Mafia in 1992.

Addiopizzo Travel

Not without reason, holidaymakers often leave Sicily with an uneasy feeling that they have been funding Cosa Nostra.

To ease their qualms a company to be launched this week will offer them a chance to do the reverse – visit one of the Mediterranean’s most beautiful islands while contributing to the struggle against organised crime.

Addiopizzo Travel, the first part of whose name means “Goodbye protection money”, is an offshoot of an organisation that brings together shopkeepers, restaurant owners, hoteliers and others committed to refusing the mafia’s unrefusable offers. Until now, the only route open to tourists worried that they might be giving their custom to businesses owned, or extorted, by Cosa Nostra has been to consult Addiopizzo in person or through its website. But now its travel agency is planning to make things easier with tours guaranteed mafia-free.

Dario Riccobono, one of the founders, said some of the packages would be aimed at “those who just want to have a relaxing holiday, but want to be reassured that they are not subsidising organised crime”. Others, though, would be tours with a “rich, broad programme” of anti-mafia activities. People will be able to dine in a pizzeria owned by the brother of a man who was killed because of his stand against Cosa Nostra, for example, and the next day visit land confiscated from the mafia, said Riccobono. “We find that all the tourists who come to Sicily ask about the mafia and the people who are fighting it.”

Addiopizzo was founded five years ago. Its website lists more than 400 commercial organisations that have vowed not to give in to Cosa Nostra’s demands for protection money.

Source: Guardian.co.uk
More information also at www.addiopizzotravel.it

Sicilian women gang up to hurt the mafia

TimesOnline is reporting the news that a group of young women is standing up to the mafia in its Sicilian heartland by refusing to contribute towards the £130m a year it demands from businesses on the island in protection money.

Five years ago businesses banded together to fight the mob and founded Addiopizzo, meaning Goodbye Pizzo — a reference to the notorious 10% levy imposed on the entire business community by the Cosa Nostra. At first Addiopizzo’s members were forced to remain anonymous, fearing reprisals. Now the women are coming out of the shadows.

“At the end of each month in Palermo the mafia will be standing on the pavement as you open the shutters of your business,” said Silvia Pellegrino, 28.

“They’ll carry revolvers in their pockets. Two henchmen stay back in a parked car. Their chat will be trivial but menacing. They’ll ask after your parents, your friends and name names to let you know they can get to any part of your life, and then they ask for their pizzo.”

More at TimesOnline.co.uk

Sicily without Mafia prosecutors

This news is upsetting to me. It tells a lot about the status of things back home. I know I am supposed to talk about the good things Sicilian… But I cannot now. Apparently, there are not many prosecutors willing to work in Sicily against the Mafia these days. I have so many classmates that went to attend law school and I know plenty of them who are unemployed. This does not make sense to me or maybe it does, but I would have expected a more feisty and courageous attitude from the people that should help Sicily with such a calamity.

Of course, the British media caught up on it right away. Here is an excerpt from the Herald Tribune.

Sicily is facing a dramatic shortage of state prosecutors willing to work on the Italian island, creating a major obstacle in the fight against the mafia, the National Judicial Association said on Friday. The association, which represents almost all of Italy’s 9,000 magistrates, said there was a “very serious emergency” on the Mediterranean island after a tender for public prosecutors reportedly attracted just four candidates.

“The situation today appears dramatic: there are many judicial offices which risk being paralyzed or destined for closure,” the association said in an open letter to Italy’s Superior Judicial Council, which regulates the judiciary.

Italy’s Corriere della Sera newspaper, citing unofficial figures, said there were only four applicants for 55 public prosecutors’ jobs in Sicily, all of whom were already working on the island.

More at iht.com