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Federico Varese and Antonio Scurati
Mafia, movement |
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| 08/12/2011 |
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“I think that the next big inquiry into the Mafia will take place in Valle d’Aosta. I can’t say more, but I have this impression,” says Federico Varese, one of the world’s most renowned “mafiologists,’ a Cambridge University professor and author of Mafias on the Move, which explores the how and why mafias move from their places of origin.
“The Mafia doesn’t always emigrate for economic reasons,” he adds. “In Italy, for example, one of the reasons why organized crime penetrated the north were the mandatory residence permits. But the mafia doesn’t always manage to take root in places other than where it was born. In Italy take the examples of Bardonecchia and Verona. In the first city, one of the bosses of the Gioiosa Jonica managed to penetrate the town, thanks to the boom of second homes and the manpower market. He was able to ‘assist’ local companies, offering non-union manual labor at low prices and further impeding non-local companies from penetrating this market. This despite the fact that a great and little-known hero of the Anti-mafia – town mayor Rocco Lo Presti – tried in every way possible to stop this situation.
“On the other hand, we have Verona, where in the same years a boss of the same family tried in vain to enter the drug trafficking business, without undermining local crime, which didn’t know what to do with the mafia’s services. It wasn’t the first time that something like that happened. In the late 19th century various attempts were made to penetrate new territories: in the United States and in Rosario, Argentina, thanks to Prefect Mori who in fact deported numerous mafia bosses from Italy. In New York the Mafia was wildly successful. In Rosario, not at all, and the reasons, ironically, lie with the police. In Argentina the police officers were corrupt and they themselves offered racket protection and prostitution. In New York, on the other hand, in those years Mayor Gaynor had moralized the police. The corrupt cops were pushed out, which left an open playing field for the mafiosos who replaced them in the protection racket. Prohibition took care of the rest.”
The mafia, claims Varese, takes root in moments of transition and the opening of a market, an opinion Antonio Scurati shares. In his La seconda mezzanotte he depicts a post-apocalyptic Venice that is destroyed then reconstructed by a Chinese company that transforms it into a city of entertainment, whose locals live like slaves, cannot procreate and are used as gladiators. The year is 2072 but the presence of the Chinese is not accidental. Says Scurati: “I read that the Chinese will dedicate the next decade to developing the country’s artistic and cultural patrimony. This enormous economy is entering the tourism market, which will have an explosive effect.”
Parallel to that came the news of the flood that could potentially destroy the Laguna, the city and almost the entire Mediterranean. Concludes Scurati: “The Japanese earthquake took place when the book had already gone to press, but we already understood that it was a possible scenario. I’m not a futurologist, and I don’t think that futurology is a science. But literature and art can and must imagine and speak of what is happening and what could happen.”
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