By Annalisa Coppolaro
A surprise press event with Roberto Saviano at the Foreign Press Association on the 5th March. A treat for its members, a special evening at the FPA address, and also an event which, while telling us more secrets and scandals of a dark Italy, has also given to all of us the will to get together and fight to keep all the precious gifts of a country we all love, despite all its problems.
Roberto Saviano and its book Gomorrah have been a literary, social and political case already for some time, both in Italy and abroad: everybody knows of the existence of Mafia, Camorra, ‘Ndrangheta, and Sacra Corona Unita, but knowing about it is one thing, while actually discovering that the infiltrations of this criminality have permeated many fields of our lives, from politics to fashion from banks to commerce, in Italy and in the world, is even harder.
What Saviano tells us in his pages, now translated into English and therefore readable in UK and America, is the portrait of a sinister world, where crime, votes of exchange, favours and vendettas are everyday news, but what he said at the FPA was also more serious. It was the cry of a man who had to undergo grave consequences in his own family only because he was born in a region, Campania, which has been ruined for centuries by camorra itself. Today it appears in the news for the problems with rubbish collection.
“The emergency of litter in the streets has exploded now – Saviano said – but it has always existed, because it’s a really essential business for camorra”.
Criminality is growing too: we are talking of 100 million euros of turnover a year, “which is higher than any other Italian business, Fiat, Benetton…”, he underlines.
Elections: Saviano confirms he will not run in the April elections, and then he describes the horrible menace of the vote of exchange, something too deeply embedded in our elections already.
“It’s a growing phenomenon. Once they used to promise a job, then a master degree, today it’s enough to promise they will pay your monthly bills. Or just a mobile phone with a camera: these people give a mobile phone before going in the voting cubicle, then the voter will take a photo of the voting papers, and if the person has voted for the right party, then the mobile is theirs…”, Saviano says.
We look at each other in disbelief. What are people doing to avoid this? – Saviano asks. His question remains unanswered.
“In Italy the number of deaths generated by faida – a mafia vendetta – in the last two years is higher than the number of death in Lebanon”, Saviano adds. Then he underlines the presence of Mafia all over Italy and not just in the South. So he quotes the Parma businessman who was arrested for camorra, and he also talks about all the camorra money arrived from the South to help the Northern businesses in crisis. Then the topic starts to cover Europe and the UK, where there are no laws or organisations to fight mafia. Saviano wonders why there are none, and why people do not seem to realise that the mafia money arrives to be recycled all over Europe just like in Italy.
“How would the people working in the City feel if they knew they were working with mafia money? But it’s necessary to make a distinction between the Italian community abroad and the mafia community – Gomorrah’s author underlines. In Europe the good part of the Italian community has been essential to fight criminality, in Germany, Spain, the UK and so on”.
Then Saviano adds that he was surprised to discover that in the UK the term “mafioso” is a word with cultural connotations, which can become an offence similar to “black” or “gay”.
“And this made me also understand that the criminal cartels, one understood the culture of this country, actually decided to bring their business here. It is incredible that one of the most important democracies of the world can be so behind”. In fact, the crimes of mafia are not included in the UK law. The law only intervenes when there is blood.
Saviano goes back at this point and tells us how mafia history has changed during the years, from the Nineties to today, from the time of Borsellino and Falcone killings. He talks about the role of the supergrasses like Brusca and Schiavone, who told the story of when they got invited to take part in the killings but they refused. Here a new strategy was born: never appear in the news, do not kill magistrates, but instead concentrate on local politicians. Now mafia hates being in the press, and acts in a different way. And Saviano talks, again, about something different: Italian politics.
“The big mistake of the centre left and Prodi has been in the fact of considering themselves immune from infiltrations – adds Saviano – and in fact the government fell over the Neapolitan crisis, on the way to face this problem”. And about rubbish Saviano adds that the role of the criminal cartels has been crucial, being this a very lucrative business. Worth millions of pounds.
And then Saviano talks about words, about the power of words.
“My story teaches me that the danger is not in who writes, but in who reads. If my book had sold only 10 thousand copies, then it wouldn’t have given anybody any problems. Instead it sold 750 thousand, and this has bothered them. Words are dangerous when they become an instrument. In my area nobody says criminal cartels”.
Roberto Saviano also faces the topic of a strange religious renaissance in Italy, and quotes John Paul II when he said: “A culture of death cannot impose itself in a country like Italy”, but not many remember his words. He then talks about his great admiration for a priest who was killed when Saviano was only 16, father Peppino Diana. This is a priest that Saviano, who is not religious, admired immensely. He had courage and he spoke in public with force: his sermon “For the love of my people I will not be quiet” was symbolic. And the silence is the best ally of the mafiosi: many things are not written in the press, and such important trials like Spartacus did not get any visibility in the papers. Only brave journalists write about mafia. Events like a mayor burned alive in his car or a union activist killed do not appear in the press.
The questions from the audience are mainly about being brave, on Italian politics, on Veltroni and on how he will be able to be a real alternative at today’s situation in Italy, something that Saviano sees possible if Veltroni will not be afraid of losing, if he will break the mechanism of vote of exchange, if he will understand that a lot of the game is played in the South.
Another question is about what hopes we have in Italy to break the system of criminality.
“I am not optimist but I don’t despair either – Saviano replies –We will have to change the rules of economy, and Europe will have to wake up and understand the presence of camorra and mafia, then we’ll be able to change and fight against these criminals”.
There are more themes Saviano talks about at this event: the lost of confidence of the people in politics, for example, since politicians seem to take care of their own interests, and also the fact that sometimes arresting mafiosi actually destroys a monopoly and this helps the criminal organisations.
Then, when somebody asks how he would describe his writing, Saviano underlines the role of truth in his book. And then quoting another writer, he says he wanted to create “a book with the truth of journalism, the readability of a novel and the indignation of poetry”.
And judging from the critics and the audience, it seems he has actually achieved his aim.
Copyright 2008 GIORGIOSTUDIO Ltd – All rights reserved
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