Reality, once again.

[nausicaa83]

I spent the entire morning refreshing news sites. This morning, a bomb exploded in front of a school in Brindisi, a city in Southern Italy. A young girl died, many kids were hurt, everyone is in shock. No one claimed the action yet, but it's almost definitely to blame on the local mafia network, the Sacra Corona Unita, the Sacred Crown. In a few days it'll be the 20th anniversary of the death of judge Falcone, killed by mafia, and the school bears his name, and there's no such thing as coincidence.

Now, the even scarier part is that when we turned on the tv, the computer, the radio this morning, we all felt that a new era of terror is beginning. In Italy we had what we call the Anni Di Piombo, the Lead Years. It's a long period, back when my parents were young, when terrorists of different political views, but who all shared the same goal, put bombs in train stations, art exhibitions, public squares, banks, killing hundreds of innocent persons. Everybody lived knowing that fear. In the early nineties, it was mostly the mafia, to counterattack laws againts them. I was a kid, but I still remember clearly my mom hearing of Judge Borsellino's death, and bursting into tears in the middle of the street, where my sister and I were playing. She tried to explain to us what had happened, but she couldn't stop crying.

So today that fear is back. It's a fear I inherhited from my parents, when my dad wouldn't throw away a kleenex in a garbage bin on the street, but would put it in his pocket so he could throw it away at home, because he couldn't shake the feeling that there could be a bomb inside that bin. Today everything my parents feared has come to life, once again.

Comments

[eumelia.livejournal.com]

I've been there.

I'm sorry this happened in your country :(

*hugs*

[nausicaa83.livejournal.com]

I guess there's no safe place from those monsters. But it's one thing when it's a bank, or a postal office, but this is a school! It's... I can't even wrap my mind around it, I saw the pictures, read the articles, but I still can't even imagine it happening. It's too much.

[kryptyd.livejournal.com]

That's really strange. What on earth could organised crime have to gain from bombings?

[nausicaa83.livejournal.com]

They're sending a message against lawmakers. They're planning on making new laws against mafia networks: more years in prison, confiscating their houses and money and giving it to the community. In the last few years, because of that many criminals have "betrayed" their mafia families, giving names to the cops, so that they'll get less years in prison. Many women, wives and daughters of godfathers, have been killed because they talked with the police, they denounce the crimes committed by their relatives.

They use bombings to send a simple message: nobody messes with us, we own the place.

[7veilsphaedra.livejournal.com]

I'm heartsick for you that those times seem to have returned. I wondered if the current economic turmoil would bring back the bad old days when civil war and conflict were so much a part of life in Europe.

It is amazing how our portals of understanding can be opened through art. Letizia Battaglia's photographs of Sicily recently re-surfaced, and brought back Hannah Arendt's observations about how banal evil really is. The mafia tend to be romanticized as some sort of seductive 'brotherhood' through books/movies like The Godfather and television shows like The Sopranos. It is such a lazy-assed view of violence, corruption and moral turpitude.

I hope the perpetrators are found soon, and punished fully.

[nausicaa83.livejournal.com]

That's why I HATE the Godfather movies, with a burning passion. It's not romantic, it's not fascinating, they're bloodthirsty monsters. Period. Every part of Italy has its own specific mafia network, and everyone of them specializes in something: drugs, prostitutes, garbage. With the new economic crisis the corruption in the government has been brought to the surface.

Just one example, Berlusconi was involved with the same men who killed Judge Borsellino. This is not speculation, those are facts. They worked for the mafia, and for him. And they killed a judge who was putting them all in jail. ANd yet the guy got votes, and got into the government for almost 20 years. And now that the Italian people seem to be waking up from their slumber, they have to do something to keep that power in check: bombings.

[stardust-made.livejournal.com]

I read about it this morning—it's shocking, very, very sad, and so wrong! We try to make sense of evil, but we don't need to look far at all, not to other planets, not to some supernatural powers, not to some religious preachings. It's cold-blooded immorality, that's what it is. There is money at the bottom of it, which makes it very rational for me and too horrible. That poor girl and her family.

I'm sorry that you're feeling this fear today. It's the purpose of terror—to fill you in and keep you locked, restricted. I think I've mentioned that I still lived on London when the bombings happened. My train was a stop away from one of the targeted spots. I was on my way to work as usual when all of a sudden everything went dark. There was no message on the speakers, nothing for a while. I didn't think that much of it at first, because such breaks used to happen (some lines are very old), but as the pause grew to over fifteen-twenty second, and then stretched into a minute, I just knew something was wrong. Then the train driver appologized for the delay, after another few minutes the lights came on and we moved on...for me to arrive at my station fifteen minutes later to a number of scared messages and voicemails on my mobile from people checking on me. (No coverage underground.)

I couldn't even go back home that day; London was paralyzed. I stayed at a friend's house and that was a pretty grim dinner we had. On the next morning I got to the nearest Underground station. It was so, so eerie and quiet—and London quiet during a weekday is a scary place. I remember looking at the open carriage, waiting for the passengers. It was the first stop of the Jubilee Line, for which I had fondness because it took me to my college on Baker Street, to Regents Park, and to the heart of London. (A year later it was to become the line that took me to the place I think of home when I think of London and it remained my 'home' line until I left the country a few years later.) Because it was the first stop, the train just stood there, empty and silent, doors open. I thought it looked like home to me. I thought I had to get on that train, no matter how shaken I still was. It was like, "This is my life. This is MY train. This is OUR life here and these are OUR trains and this is London so fuck off you stupid, horrible people." I'll never forget how I stepped in and sat down, then welled up immediately. And God, the quiet. I think there was only one more person in my carriage.

Sorry for the long post! I just wanted to say that you have my sympathy and understanding about that feeling of fear. It lingered in London for years to come.:/

[nausicaa83.livejournal.com]

I think the worst part about it is that it's caused by other men. We had a terrible earthquake three years ago that destroyed an entire city. We had floodings in Genova that looked like the end of the world. And that was so scary. But this, this was made by human beings. I could get on the bus and sit right next to them.

This is what I can't understand, a person wakes up in the morning, drinks his coffee, pops into his car, and drops a backpack with a bomb in front of a school. How can they even do it? They're not crazy, they're not sick: when they catch them, they're all so calm and collected. They think they're defending their rights, and so they abduct kids and melt them in acid, torture their own sisters because they talked to the cops, and put bombs in front of schools. How can we even belong to the same species?

[stardust-made.livejournal.com]

I know! It's utterly incomprehensible! And that's what I meant when I said it wasn't anything complex like religious fanaticism or such. This is all about money and interests and preserving power through fear. (Which, of course, fanaticism also is, now that I think of it.) Any way you look it, it is despicable and I don't know how these people can just...be.

[nausicaa83.livejournal.com]

Yep, it's the kind of fear that comes from other persons hurting you. In my experience, having cancer was freaking scary, but not as mom's accident. It didn't just happen for the sake of happening, it was someone's doing.

And the government is to blame too. All mafias grew much more powerful during the last few years because of the corruption that it's destroying our country. Some even say giving money to the mafia is better than paying taxes because they protect their territory. And when they teach a different way of thinking in school, they kill the kids.

[fioredelmale.livejournal.com]

"it's almost definitely to blame on the local mafia network, the Sacra Corona Unita"

I'm not so sure. My sixth sense tells that this is not mafia. We'll see...

[nausicaa83.livejournal.com]

Considerando il nome della scuola, l'anniversario la prossima settimana, il fatto che la scuola aveva appena vinto un concorso per la legalità, e che oggi dovevano fare una manifestazione antimafia proprio in quella città... Una sarebbe una coincidenza, ma questo è un messaggio bello e buono.

Inoltre erano giorni che leggevo di come fossero tutti sul chi vive, aspettando qualche tipo di azione da parte della mafia. L'unica cosa che stupisce è che sia stata la Sacra Corona Unita e non la Camorra o la 'Ndrangheta...

[fioredelmale.livejournal.com]

Potrei sbagliarmi, ripeto, vedremo.

Tuttavia non posso fare a meno di notare che:

1 - la mafia generalmente usa esplosivi come il tritolo, la bombola a gas mi sa di rudimentale
2 - la mafia, nel suo perverso codice morale, difficilmente colpisce i cosiddetti "innocenti". Questo obiettivo non sembra essere nelle sue corde

Detto ciò, le coincidenze sono tante. Non posso escludere la mafia da quanto accaduto, ma queste due cose mi sono subito balzate agli occhi.

[nausicaa83.livejournal.com]

Sulla bombola concordo. Sui bambini, no. Ne hanno rapiti troppi, per poi strangolarli e scioglierli nell'acido, per dire che abbiano un qualche tipo di riserva. Anzi, questi erano persino più grandicelli.

Certo, ora stiamo ad aspettare cosa diranno i magistrati, speriamo riescano a prendere i diretti responsabili, anche se di indiretti responsabili ce ne stanno fin troppi. =_=

[fioredelmale.livejournal.com]

Sì, ma di solito c'era un (perverso, crudele e orrendo) motivo, per esempio erano figli o nipoti di qualche pentito o veniva usati come leva. Qui non vedo questo nesso... per quello non sono convinta al 100%.

Riguardo ai responsabili... eh. La vecchia storia dei mandanti che non si trovano mai :(

[nausicaa83.livejournal.com]

Che poi diciamolo, i mandanti sono anche 'ste merde di governi che abbiamo avuto. Tutta gente amica di questo o quel mafioso, un favore qui, uno là, chiudiamo un occhio quando trasportano camion di spazzatura dal nord verso il sud, tanto chissene, e a forza di dar loro potere hanno nutrito queste organizzazioni a dismisura. E ora che si parla di togliere loro un pò di quel potere, ecco i colpi di coda.

Questo è uno di quei giorni "che merda di paese in cui vivo, mi trasferisco all'estero".

[fioredelmale.livejournal.com]

Ti viene da pensarlo. Siamo dei cumuli di rabbia ormai. Io sto cercando stolidamente di non lasciarmi andare ai giudizi, per questa strage... ma che il clima sia quel che dici tu, è vero.

Per quanto ne sappiamo potrebbe anche essere stato un dinamitardo psicopatico. Io in certi momenti vorrei davvero spegnere il cervello, perchè sono partita a razzo con le ipotesi, e non riesco a smettere di ragionarci su.

[nausicaa83.livejournal.com]

Io di fiducia ormai ne ho solo nei magistrati. Quindi aspetto che si esprimano. Però santo dio, non se ne può più.

[nausicaa83.livejournal.com]

Definitely! =_=

[harriet-yuuko.livejournal.com]

Mi piacerebbe trovare il modo di sfogare quello che provo al riguardo, magari come un post come il tuo, ma sono veramente senza parole. Sarà che ieri riguardavo le pagine sugli Anni di Piombo per spiegarli in classe la settimana prossima. Sarà che continuavo a pensare anche ai miei, di ragazzi, e ai discorsi che facciamo spesso in classe, di come loro siano già ora sfiduciati nei confronti del loro stato e di quello che vedono tutti i giorni. Io tento di spronarli alla reazione, allo svegliarsi, all'essere coraggiosi. Ma non so veramente come si può continuare a dirglielo, quando cose come questa ti spiazzano totalmente.
Davvero... Senza parole e molto spaventata.

[nausicaa83.livejournal.com]

Avevamo appena finito di parlare dell'anniversario della morte di Falcone, con Saviano in prima serata, e ora questo. E se i ragazzi si sentono sfiduciati nel governo, ne hanno ben donde. E l'altro ieri hanno riesumato quel capo mafioso a Sant'Apollinare, manco a farlo apposta. Giusto per ricordarci che oltre al governo anche la chiesa è culo e camicia con la mafia. Poi è ovvio che uno non sa neppure a chi rivolgersi. =_=

[harriet-yuuko.livejournal.com]

Vergognosa, quella cosa del capo mafioso sepolto in basilica. E anche quella, oltre alla gravità intrinseca della cosa, un simbolo potentissimo della dissoluzione di questo paese.

[nausicaa83.livejournal.com]

Esatto! Mi mettessi a parlare del potere dei simboli staremmo qui fino a domani (è un argomento che amo), ma in realtà basta solo quell'esempio. Se sei capo mafioso, ti seppelliamo in basilica. Se sei Peppino Impastato, non ti facciamo la messa all'anniversario "perchè il clima non è ancora quello giusto" (sic). Da vomitare.

[nyxviola.livejournal.com]

che grandissimo schifo. Veramente, chiunque sia stato, grandissimo disgusto. Non mi voglio neanche provare a immagine cosa può voler dire trovarsi in mezzo ad una cosa del genere...

[nausicaa83.livejournal.com]

Terribile, terribile. Povere ragazzine...

[nyxviola.livejournal.com]

e adesso ci si mette anche il terremoto...

[les-lenne.livejournal.com]

I don't know much about the mafia, apart from movies, but I could never understand why so many people find organized crime cool. I find it absolutely horrifying. Organized crime is like a virus reprogramming your cells (the government, the law, society) and feeding from your resources.

I hope things won't turn out as bad as you expect them too at the moment.

[nausicaa83.livejournal.com]

Exactly. I hate all this feeling of 'romance' attached to the idea of the mafia. That's why I hate the Godfather movies. Those men are monsters, period.

[capracotta.livejournal.com]

Ora pare non sia stata la Sacra Corona Unita. In ogni caso sono recentissimi i casi di Genova e Torino, che ancora non hanno nomi di indagati, ed è palpabile la paura. Con l'episodio che hai raccontato del fazzoletto e del cestino mi hai risvegliato ricordi d'infanzia che, effettivamente, avevo sepolto.

[nausicaa83.livejournal.com]

Ho sentito, però non mi sento tanto convinta. Troppe coincidenze, un messaggio troppo chiaro... Beh, stiamo a sentire che dicono i magistrati.

[nefertina86.livejournal.com]

Read your entry and I don´t know what to say... This sounds so cruel and unrealistic to me. "Mafia" is for me only a thing in the movies... and to read about it from you - it becomes so much more real for me and I have to remember something like this exists, for real.

[nausicaa83.livejournal.com]

Sadly here it's something that's almost normal. With Berlusconi the corruption in the government was so strong that the various Mafia organization became incredibly more powerful than before. Lately they're less in the killing people (although obviously they still do that), and more in the exploring new businesses. It's crazy.