SOMBRE DAYS AND DREAMS

Late on Monday night I suddenly found myself, like people all over the world but particularly British people, unexpectedly glued to my television screen as horrific events unfolded in Manchester, UK and the gravity of them became clear. The next night, two brave Italian anti-Mafia judges would, I believe, have forgiven me, when Nicola Piovani conducted a performance of the theme from La Vita è Bella at the very place where one of them was murdered exactly 25 years ago, for thinking of the Manchester children who had set out so eagerly for a concert, only to meet with unspeakable carnage. Yes, these two men, who loved life, would have understood.

On 23rd May 1992 [the year I first came to Sicily] Judge Giovanni Falcone, his wife Francesca Morvillo and his bodyguards Rocco Dicillo, Antonio Montinaro and Vito Schifani were killed by a bomb as they travelled from Palermo International Airport [now Falcone-Borsellino Airport] to the city. His friend and colleague Judge Paolo Borsellino was killed, along with his bodyguards Agostino Catalano, Walter Eddie Cosina, Vincenzo Li Muli, Emanuela Loi and Claudio Traina 57 days later, on 19.7.92 as Judge Borsellino was ringing his mother's doorbell.

Yesterday Italy remembered and, in the three-hour Rai special programme, Manchester was present in everyone's thoughts too. If you go to 23.34.46 [scroll down on the right] in this link, you will be able to see the moving performance of the La Vita è Bella theme as a car, a replica of Falcone's - the judge was driving himself - travels along the autostrada to the final notes.

Life, as we all know, goes on, as does death and on Wednesday news came in of the loss of 34 migrants at sea: A migrant boat, carrying 500 people, had got into trouble off the Libyan port of Zuara in bad sea and weather conditions and there was a sudden movement of migrants to one side. This may have been caused by panic as the Libyan Coast Guard threatened them, according to MSF and SOS Méditerranée crew who had gone to back up the Italian Coast Guard but whatever happened, around 200 migrants fell into the sea. The Italian Coast Guard and NGO operatives saved most of them but 34 bodies have been recovered and we do not yet know how many were those of children.

As I think of all three tragic events, I am reminded of the words of bodyguard Montinaro's wife [not "widow", she insists]:  As the remains of the bodyguards' car which was blown up 25 years ago were brought, in stages, from Peschiera La Garda in Veneto to Palermo for the anniversary, Tina Montinaro said that she wanted everyone, young and old, to understand that Judge Falcone's escort had been made up of people "with dreams, a life, children and a family". For that is what links the three groups of people: two judges who were also husbands and one a father, excited children who had parents, brothers, sisters and friends, and migrants who had families either back home or with them on that perilous journey - and every single one of them had dreams. We who are left must now dream for them.

A TALE OF TWO VILLAGES

The Sicilian village of Sambuca di Sicilia [Agrigento Province] had an extra reason to celebrate at Easter when it was named the most beautiful village in Italy in the TV Borgo dei Borghi competition. This result represented a hat trick for Sicily as Gangi had won the title in 2014 and Montalbano Elicona in 2015.

Situated near Sciacca, Menfi and Selinunte and with 6,000 inhabitants, Sambuca di Sicilia was a Sicanian stronghold and boasts impressive churches, a still discernible Saracen district and the remains of a Roman aqueduct. Its "signature dish" is minni di virgini, little cakes in the shape of a woman's breast.   

I've never been to Sambuca di Sicilia but will take the word of honorary citizen Laura Boldrini, currently President of the Italian Chamber of Deputies [lower house] as to its charms. Laura Boldrini was elected to Parliament on a Sicilian list and also has links to Sambuca di Sicilia from her former role as spokesperson for UNHCR.  The village has been particularly welcoming to migrants.

By all accounts there was quite a party there over the Easter holiday, with everyone making plans for the expected influx of tourists following the poll result. The villagers' jubilation, however, was not shared by the inhabitants of Cervo Ligure in Northern Italy, a village which had been excluded from the competition at the last moment due to alleged irregularities in the decisive online vote.  I have been to Cervo a couple of times and can confirm that it is lovely.

Then today, less than a week after the competition result, this happens:  seven Mafia-related arrests in Sambuca di Sicilia. Oh, dear!  If I were a resident of Cervo, I think I would be even more unhappy and if I were the Mayor of Sambuca di Sicila I would be wondering how on earth I was going to get my village out of this one! 

It is easy to criticise so it is perhaps worth pointing out that Sambuca di Sicilia is to be admired for granting honorary citizenship to this brave lady too.

Me in Cervo, 1980s.

IN MEMORIAM - PAOLO BORSELLINO

"Non importa dove si nasce se si combatte per le stesse idee e si crede nelle stesse cose."

"It doesn't matter where we come from if we fight for the same ideas and believe in the same things."

- Judge Paolo Borsellino

Twenty-two years ago today the antimafia Judge Paolo Borsellino was killed, along with five members of his escort, by a bomb as he rang the doorbell of his mother's apartment in Palermo. Sicily does not forget.

Strage di via D'Amelio, 19.7 92

Judge Paolo Borsellino

Agostino Catalano

Walter Eddie Cosina

Vincenzo Li Muli

Emanuela Loi

Claudio Traina

IN MEMORIAM 2014

"Che le cose siano così, non vuol dire che debbano andare così. Solo che, quando si tratta di rimboccarsi le maniche e incominciare a cambiare, vi è un prezzo da pagare, ed è allora che la stragrande maggioranza preferisce lamentarsi piuttosto che fare."

"The fact that things are as they are does not mean that they must stay as they are. But there is this: when it comes to rolling up your sleeves and trying to change things, there is a price for you to pay and it is then that the great majority of people prefer to complain rather than do something."

- Giovanni Falcone, 18.5.1939 - 23.5.1992

In Memoriam 

Capaci Massacre of 23.5.1992:

Giovanni Falcone - antimafia magistrate

Francesca Morvillo - Giovanni Falcone's wife, also a magistrate

Rocco Di Cillo, Antonio Montinaro and Vito Schifani - members of Giovanni Falcone's escort

COURAGE

On International Women's Day last Saturday a 67-year-old Sicilian woman was received by President Napolitano at the Quirinale [the President of the Republic's official residence] and invested with the honour of the Ordine al Merito della Repubblica Italiana.

The woman was Franca Viola, a tenant farmer's daughter from Alcamo [Trapani]. At the age of 17, Franca was kidnapped by her former fiancé, Filippo Melodia and some of his friends. Franca's father had ended the betrothal because Melodia was a member of a Mafia gang. The Viola family home had already been burned down as a reprisal.

Franca was held for eight days and repeatedly raped. Her father pretended to be cooperating with Melodia's gang but actually he was helping the police, who on the eighth day found and released Franca. Her kidnappers were jailed.

In those days, rape in Italy was regarded as an offence against public morality rather than an offence against the person and a man who had raped a woman could be absolved of the crime if he married his victim. The woman would agree to the marriage to save her reputation. 

Franca, however, refused to marry Melodia and her father supported her. This took incredible courage amid the threats that the family received and in the cultural climate of the time but both were determined.

The story has a happy ending, for Franca married her childhood sweetheart in 1968 and had two children. She is now a proud grandmother.

The law whereby a rapist could be absolved of his crime by marrying the victim was abolished in 1981 and Franca Viola was instrumental in bringing about the change. Rape was not designated an offence against the person in Italy until 1996. 

On International Women's Day 2014 the Quirinale was bathed in red light in remembrance of victims of femicide in Italy.

Franca Viola

RED FACES IN POLAND?

From red faces in Napoli earlier this week to red faces in Poland - or at least, there ought to be some!  The publishers of a new Polish guidebook to the island have caused much offence to all decent Sicilians by including the Mafia bosses Bernardo Provenzano and Salvatore [Totò] Riina in a section entitled "Eminent Sicilians", reports La Sicilia.

Whatever were the authors thinking of? How did the editors, employees of a publishing house in the city of Gliwice, let this pass? Right there, on the same page as the entry on the author Giuseppe Tomasi di Lampedusa is a long entry on Provenzano and Riina appears alongside the Modican Nobel laureate Salvatore Quasimodo. Do the compilers really imagine that the island counts these criminals among its greatest citizens?  Furthermore, do they think people want to come here to follow their trail? What about Sicily's creativity, cuisine, history and outstanding beauty? One can only hope that Poles reading this guidebook have the sense to throw it into the nearest bin, where it belongs.

In the next few days there is to be a conference on Sicilian tourism in Taormina and among the delegates will be the Sicilian Region's Councillor for Tourism, Michela Stancheris.  You can bet that this book will be on the agenda!

A SERIOUS INSULT

Some years ago, I pointed out how insulted Sicilians felt when some British football supporters whose team was about to play Palermo donned T-shirts emblazoned with what were supposed to be humorous "Mafia" slogans.  This kind of insult - and it is an insult to all decent Sicilians - has never really gone away but I had hoped that it was happening less often and that this blog, in a small way, might have contributed to changing people's perception of Sicily abroad.

Therefore I was sad to read this evening that Fabrizio Ferrandelli, a Member of Parliament and vice-president of the Sicilian Antimafia Commission, found himself faced with this kind of tasteless "joke" whilst on holiday in Copenhagen. Dining out last night, he and his wife were upset and angry to see a "pizza mafioso" - the fools in the restaurant cannot even get their grammar right, because it should be "mafiosa"- and a "pizza Al Capone".

To the restaurateurs concerned and anyone else who thinks that this is funny I would like to say the following:

1.  There is nothing funny about the Mafia and there never has been.

2.  Many Sicilians, and other Italians, have died fighting the organisation and others continue to risk their lives doing so every day.

3.  Sicilians who come up against this type of "humour" will be not only justifiably angry but also genuinely hurt and I will be angry and hurt on their behalf. 

4.  Here is a short history lesson for you.

STOP IT. IT'S NOT FUNNY.

Notes:
The ungrammatical pizza seems to have disappeared from the restaurant's menu now but the "Al Capone" is still there.
Thanks to Alex for drawing my attention to the story on twitter.

THE WILL TO CHANGE

Paolo Borsellino

19 January 1940 - 19 July 1992

"Palermo non mi piaceva, per questo ho imparato ad amarla. Perché il vero amore consiste nell'amore di ciò che non ci piace per poterlo cambiare."

"I didn't like Palermo, so I learned to love it. Real love is loving what we don't like in order to be able to change it."

DON'T SAY THAT IN MODICA!

Beppe Grillo
Image:  Lucarelli via Wikimedia Commons

I am, on the whole, a fan of Beppe Grillo though I am beginning to believe that he falls into the category of people whom Lillian Hellman called "good rebels who are bad revolutionaries". [I rather hope I am one myself!] Here is what Miss Hellman has to say about such souls:

"Rebels seldom make good revolutionaries, perhaps because organized action, even union with other people, is not possible for them."
- Lillian Hellman:  An Unfinished Woman

Anyway, in April Mr Grillo, whose anti-corruption Movimento 5 Stelle party has been winning important local elections in Italy, offended Sicilians when he said that even the Mafia doesn't strangle its victims but takes 10% protection money instead, the implication being that the government, with its anti-crisis measures, is "strangling" the electorate.  Obviously this is a hurtful remark, especially to those who have lost loved ones in anti-Mafia campaigns, and a storm of criticism ensued.

Rosy Bindi

Next Mr Grillo turned his attention to Rosy Bindi, the President of the Pd [Democratic Party]. Ms Bindi has been much maligned in the past, most famously on television in 2009 by Mr Berlusconi, who said she was "more beautiful than intelligent". [The saddest thing about this remark, I've always felt, was that Mr Berlusconi probably genuinely believed it to be a compliment.]  In July Mr Grillo, referring to the Democratic Party's stance on gay marriage, said that Ms Bindi had "probably not had cohabitation problems with the love of her life", earning himself the accusation of being "worse than Berlusconi" from Pd Secretary Pierluigi Bersani and winning few women friends in the process.

As if all that were not bad enough, now Mr Grillo has launched an attack on the Olympics with the following statement on his blog:

"I don't know, nor have I ever known in all my life, anyone who practises foil or sabre fencing, yet when the Olympics are on I'm proud if my country wins. Then for another four years, I couldn't care less.  It's not the athletes who win, but nations.  It's the trimph of nationalism."

You'd better not say that in Modica, Mr Grillo!

Italian Male Fencing Team, including Giorgio Avola from Modica, wins gold in London:

REMEMBERING JUDGE PAOLO BORSELLINO

Today Italy remembers anti-Mafia Judge Paolo Borsellino, killed as he was going to visit his mother in via D'Amelio, Palermo on 19th July 1992 and the five members of his escort who also died.

Rai Uno:  Paolo Borsellino - I 57 giorni [scena finale] 

In the above video clip, Luca Zingaretti plays Judge Borsellino in the last minutes of his life.  The next day, Judge Borsellino's daughter, Lucia, insists on taking a viva voce university examination even though the examiners are of course ready to excuse her.

Strage di via D'Amelio, 19.7 92

Judge Paolo Borsellino

Agostino Catalano

Walter Eddie Cosina

Vincenzo Li Muli

Emanuela Loi

Claudio Traina

"E normale che esista la paura, in ogni uomo. L'importante è che sia accompagnata dal coraggio."

" It is normal for every man to feel fear. The important thing is to also have courage." 

- Judge Paolo Borsellino

IN MEMORIAM

Twenty years ago today the anti-Mafia Judge Giovanni Falcone, his wife Francesca Morvillo and three members of his escort were killed in a bomb outrage that has become known as the Strage di Capaci - the Capaci Massacre.  Fifty-seven days later his colleague Judge Paolo Borsellino and five members of his escort were killed as he was going to visit his mother in via D'Amelio in Palermo.

Today these two brave men and those who lost their lives trying to protect them have been commemorated in events all over Italy, among them, and taking place as I write, a charity football match between teams of singers and judges in Palermo.  There have been talks in schools, processions and concerts and the Mayor of Rosolini in Siracusa Province asked citizens to hang out white sheets in memory of Judge Falcone this morning.

IN MEMORIAM

Strage di Capaci, 23.5.92

Judge Giovanni Falcone

Francesca Morvillo 

Rocco Di Cillo

Antonio Montinaro

Vito Schifani

Strage di via D'Amelio, 19.7 92

Judge Paolo Borsellino

Agostino Catalano

Walter Eddie Cosina

Vincenzo Li Muli

Emanuela Loi

Claudio Traina

Nowhere is the calvary of Judge Giovanni Falcone better documented in English than in John Dickie's Cosa Nostra and I recommend this volume to you.

20 [NON-MAFIA RELATED] REASONS TO VISIT SICILY

I was sad and disappointed to learn, over the Christmas holidays, of tour operators who are again setting up "Mafia tours" of  Sicily.  I am not going to pretend that the Mafia is dead and I have expressed my thoughts about its continued existence in this post.  However, there is so much that is lovely to see here, such a varied and fascinating culture to explore and there are so many fantastic taste sensations to be enjoyed that I cannot understand why anyone would want to persist in promoting the stereotypes.  Sicily and the Sicilian people deserve better so here is a very personal and eclectic list of good reasons to visit my island in the sun:

1.  Marvel at the Greek sites of Agrigento, Segesta and Selinunte.

Tempio della Concordia, Agrigento

2.  In the summer, attend a performance of a Greek play at the Greek Amphitheatre in Siracusa.

Performance of Medea at Siracusa in 2009

3.  Visit the Infiorata [carpet of flowers] in Noto in May.

4.  See the breathtaking beauty of the Val di Noto towns, which collectively form a World Heritage Site.

Duomo di San Giorgio, Modica

5.  See the Venere di Aidone, over two thousand years old and home after so many years of enforced wandering.

6.  Relax on clean, unpolluted beaches.

7.  See the settings of the Montalbano films.

8.  And, talking of that gourmet detective, try the local arancini!

9.  Breathe in the heady scent of orange blossom and buy some zagara cologne.

10.  Eat a Sicilian vanilla orange!

11.  Take a bus ride along the edge of the Stretto at Messina.  It is stunningly beautiful.  While you're there, gaze over at the Calabrian coast - you could even take the ferry across if you have time - and remember all who passed along this route as they emigrated to Northern Italy and far, far beyond.  Like migrating peoples today, they wanted only a better life. 

12.  Go to a street market, such as the ones in Modica and Catania.  You'll be amazed by what you find there!

13.  Visit Bellini's house in Catania.

Image of Vincenzo Bellini: Wikipedia

14.  Admire Norman and Arabic architecture in Palermo and visit the seat of one of the world's oldest parliaments.

15.  See Modican chocolate being made to the Aztec method at Bonajuto in the town's Corso Umberto.

16. Don't miss out on the best gelato in the world!

17.  Take a trip up grumpy old Etna.

18.  Eat plentiful prickly pears in autumn and sip prickly pear liqueur.

19.  See traditionally painted Sicilian carts at Donnafugata in Ragusa or at the Mostra Permanente del Carretto Siciliano housed in the Museum at Terrasini [Palermo Province].

20.  Go to a Sagra, such as the Strawberry Festival at Casssibile in spring, the Prickly Pear Festival at Militello in Val di Catania or any number of chestnut festivals in the Etna area in autumn.  Relearn the art of living in tune with the seasons.

Finally, if you are genuinely interested in Mafia history but not in sensationalising tragedy, please pay homage to those brave Sicilians who lost their lives campaigning against the criminal organisation:  Giuseppe Impastato, Paolo Borsellino, Giovanni Falcone and others like them deserve wider world recognition, as do the thousands of Sicilians who work daily to preserve their best traditions and make their region a better place.

For all of them, please come and see the Sicily I love.

A STREET FOR A HERO

On Sunday Modica named a street in honour of Giuseppe [Peppino] Impastato, the anti-Mafia campaigner from Cinisi [Palermo Province] who was murdered at the age of 30.

Giuseppe Impastato was born into a Mafia family but, traumatised by the Mafia murder of an uncle, began to ask questions and campaign against the criminal organisation during his teenage years. He became estranged from his father, who threw him out of the family home.  As a left-wing activist and writer, Peppino used humour to criticise both the Mafia and politicians and, in the year of his death, became a candidate in local elections.  He was brutally murdered on the night of 8th - 9th May 1978 and his body, with TNT beneath it, was tied to a railway line, either to make it look as if he had been involved in a botched terrorist attack on the line or to simulate his suicide.  Two days later the people of Cinisi symbolically elected him as a town councillor.

Peppino's mother and brother fought for justice for him for many years and in 2002 Gaetano Badalamenti, the head of the Mafia in Cinisi, was sentenced to life for the murder by an Italian court.  However, Badalamenti was already serving time in a US penitentiary and he died in America in 2004.

The house where Giuseppe Impastato was killed is to become an anti-Mafia museum and exhibitions of documents, photos and art have already been held there.

NABBED - BY SANTA

myspace graphics

A man suspected of collecting protection money for the Mafia received a seasonal surprise on Christmas Eve when he was arrested – by Santa Claus.

The man was being watched by an undercover policeman dressed as Santa as he collected the money from a Catania shopkeeper who had been the victim of a Mafia extortion racket for some years.  “Santa” was distributing sweets to children outside the shop but dropped some just before he pounced on the man, who was about to drive off.  Other police officers who had been waiting nearby then arrived on the scene. 

The police had placed hidden cameras both inside and outside the shop.  The shopkeeper, who did not know that his premises were being watched, admitted to having paid protection money for over a decade.

At the time of his arrest, the suspected mafioso was carrying a ceramic dish, 200 euros and a panettone which he had allegedly obtained by extortion from a nearby bar.   I wonder if he enjoyed the panettone in jail?

ITALY MAGAZINE ROUND-UP - 17

Here is my pick of last week's Italy Magazine articles:

I very much enjoyed talking to Dana of the Stresa Sights blog  and I learnt a lot from her about that lovely part of Italy.

If you like torrone, this festival is for you and, staying with food, I can't wait to try out Katia's recipe for chocolate fondue with chilli.

Those of you lucky enough to be travelling in the Padua area during October will have a chance to see this interesting exhibition  and, for cycling fans visiting Rome, there is the Fausto Coppi exhibition.

The saddest news story of the week was surely this and I was sorry to read on Monday that the search had been called off.   This was the week in which Italy's Tourism Minister called for the removal of an iPhone application which plays on that old joke, the Mafia - except that it is not, of course, a joke - and I can't say I blame her.  I had a great time summing up Milan Fashion Week and decided that, when I win the lottery, it will be Armani blue and Alviero Martini 1 Classe for me!  It's always reassuring to know what Italy's Supreme Court is up to and that esteemed institution did not let us down last week.

Finally, for my Patti Chiari column, I wrote about the "unofficial saint of Modica", Nino Baglieri, a man I wish I had known. Sadly, Nino is no longer with us but his spirit lives on here in his home town.

Happy reading.

MAFIA - THE VIEW FROM RAGUSA

Well, here is the post some of you have been awaiting for the past [almost] four years! Why have I got around to it now? Because a new commenter of mine, Andrew Scott, who has an interesting blog, asked me a few weeks ago whether it is true that Sicily is entirely controlled by the Mafia and I decided that he deserves an answer:

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.

Whilst we are talking politics, let us not forget just who helped reestablish the Mafia's power after World War II, for it wasn't the Sicilians and it wasn't the Italian government. Whether accidentally or not, the Allied liberators of Sicily handed the Mafia local power on a plate and this has been well documented.

In Midnight in Sicily, published in 1996, Peter Robb describes a Palermo which falls silent at night, its citizens just melting into the shadows, for

"Nobody wanted to be a witness. You might as well be the victim."

Things are very different now, however, and Palermo is lively and happy at night, just like other Italian centres of art and culture. The Mafia was for a long time an attitude of mind, existing because it was allowed to, but this mentality is changing. These changes were prompted by two events above all others: the sickening murders of the anti-Mafia magistrates Giovanni Falcone and later Paolo Borsellino in 1992.

In 1997 the director Roberta Torre made Tano da Morire, a film which makes fun of the Mafia. Such a project in Italy would have been unthinkable during the previous decade. Confindustria, the Italian Employers' Federation, has threatened to expel members who pay the pizzo - the word comes from Arabic jizia - or protection money, to the Mafia and shops stocking only "pizzo free" goods have sprung up in cities like Catania. Small steps, you may think, but they are significant.

Modica is in the Province of Ragusa, which is known as the safest in Sicily and it is said that no one pays the pizzo in this area. Indeed, there is said to be no Mafia activity at all in the Province. All I can tell you is that people live normal, happy, family lives here and that I have never felt threatened in any way.

Sicily is not the Mafia, any more than the London of the 1960s was the Kray brothers. The Mafia is entwined in the island's history, yet it is but a thread in a rich and complex tapestry.

Simm'a Mafia from Tano da Morire

UNEMPLOYMENT AMONG YOUNG PEOPLE IN SICILY

Ellee has an interesting post about the plight of unemployed graduates in Britain and I thought that readers would be interested to learn a little about the situation here:

First of all, what are the unemployment statistics for Italy as a whole? According to Eurostat, in 2008 the number of unemployed shown as a percentage of the total labour force was 6.9%, 5.9% among males and 8.4% among females. The figure was 21.3% among the under-25 age group. If we look at Sicily, where the total unemployment rate is said to be 25 - 26% but is probably higher, the figure rose to a staggering 42.9% among young people in 2001. In 2007, Eurostat calculated the figure for 15 - 24-year-olds to be 32.2%, still the highest in Europe.

The reasons for this are many and complex and the situation cannot be blamed solely or even mostly on the global recession: the fact that young people now enjoy better access to higher education and tend to prolong their studies is cited as a reason in one article I have read [not online] but surely many prolong their studies precisely because they fear, or know, that there are few jobs to be had?

The major factor is far more likely to be the way that the system works in Italy and particularly in Sicily: When I tell my Italian students that in the UK it is possible to apply directly for a professional job, they are flabbergasted, as in Italy they have to put themselves through a complicated series of "competitions" and the job is usually awarded on the results of these, with no interview. Apply this already flawed arrangement to Sicily, where, alongside a young generation obsessed with the technological revolution and social networking sites, the old ways persist, and you can imagine what happens - or maybe you can't: in some spheres it is impossible to get a job without a "recommendation" and in others it is even possible to "inherit" a job! The EU can bring in all the equal opportunities policies it likes and abundant are the pieces of paper on which these are circulated to all employers; it makes no difference.

Worryingly, in 2001, 14% of young Sicilians about to leave school said that they would not hesitate to seek the protection of the Mafia if this would secure them a recommendation for a job. Another 34% stated that they would not but that they could understand why others would do so. In the same poll, 49.7% felt unready to face the jobs market and most blamed their schools, nearly half blamed society in general and 7% blamed their families.

"I feel I will have to leave Sicily because I can't get a good job here unless I know someone important. It would be different if my family was rich", a student told me a year ago.

AN ANNIVERSARY IN PALERMO

Yesterday the fifteenth anniversary of the murder of the antimafia Prosecutor Paolo Borsellino was marked in Palermo. Borsellino, along with five members of his security escort, was blown to pieces by a car bomb as he rang the bell at the gate of his mother's apartment. Il Giornale di Sicilia comments that though the ceremony was attended by dignitaries, tourists, boy scouts and people from all over Italy, there were few Palermitani in attendance. This is partly explained by the fact that the working life of the city had to continue but there is also a suggestion that people want action, not symbols. Borsellino was a brave and honourable man who knew what his fate would be. The obvious grief of his widow at yesterday's ceremony was heartbreaking but I also feel for the families of the security guards [four men and one woman] who were just doing their job and presumably had no choice. You can see some photos of the ceremony here. The fourth photo shows Borsellino's sister, now a politician, with the only member of the security escort to survive.

Now the Mayor of Corleone wants to open a Borsellino Museum. Where? In the confiscated house of the captured Mafia boss Provenzano. There is something nicely Sicilian about that.