Today it’s the 20th anniversary of Giovanni Falcone’s death, killed by the Sicilian mafia on May 23rd 1992 while driving on the highway near Capaci, a small town in the city area of Palermo, Sicily. Falcone was a Prosecuting Magistrate born in Palermo, who spent most of his career investigating the Sicilian criminal organization called mafia (or “Cosa Nostra”, “Our Thing”). He achieved to revolutionize the way judicial inquiries were conducted in Italy, using new instruments as the testimonies of informants and “Maxi Trials” in order to get results that were unthinkable before him in the fight against organized crime.

 

Giovanni Falcone’s heroic endeavor and precious work, now decorated by the Italian State and celebrated every May 23rd in the last twenty years, were actually never as appreciated by the authorities of the time as they are praised today. He was constantly obstructed in his service to the nation, as his determination to follow the “money trail” led him to unveil liaisons between the mafia and the State that generated upsets in people in power, and that ultimately signed his death sentence. Still today, 20 years from the day when a half-ton of explosive blew up Giovanni Falcone, his wife, and three bodyguards, we still don’t know who the people behind this brutal massacre were. One thing is for sure: Falcone was not only bothering the mafia with his effort, but also many people in the establishment who had relations with the mafia and whose power was undermined by the magistrate’s work.

 

The reason why I am writing this post in English, and the reason why I hope to be listened by someone somewhere out of Italy, is that I believe that fighting the mafia should be an international priority, and not just Sicilian, or Italian. In a moment of dismantlement of the values that forged the European Union, a response of unity, of solidarity, and of firmness against organized crime and its “rootedness” in the political and business cultures of the countries that are part of it. The biggest mistake that has ever made with respect to Sicily was to let us, the Sicilian people, deal with the mafia on our own. To let the men and the women who fought the mafia on their own.

 

In a period of economic crisis such as the one we are living, the mafia has the economic power to change the social, political and economic environment to its advantage. Neglecting these likely consequences of the economic downturn could be disastrous for entire regions, entire countries, and the people who live in them. I hope that one day, soon, the mafia will be just an awful memory of the past. But this kind of things doesn’t happen from one day to the other. I also hope that the international community will finally understand that the mafia is far from being just a local issue: only by raising awareness in every nation, we will be finally able to defeat the cancer that is spreading in Europe. Starting could be as easy as: how about a UN International Day Against Organized Crime, maybe on this exact day, May 23rd? Today's Google Doodle honored the memory of Robert Moog, the inventor of the synthesiser. I wonder what would be the impact of a Google Doodle dedicated to Giovanni Falcone and his colleague Paolo Borsellino, as pictured by the Italian website http://www.ofalo.it

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