Prize giving

Palazzo d'Orleans

This morning the whole of the European Economic and Social Committee’s ‘top brass’ (The President and Vice-Presidents, the Group Presidents and yours truly) set off for the Palazzo d’Orleans, the seat of the government of the Regione Sicilia, for the prize-giving ceremony. It was an impressive but also deeply touching affair. We were first addressed by the President of the Region, Raffaele Lombardo, who also read out a congratulatory letter from the President of the Italian Republic, Giorgio Napolitano, and then we heard from the leaders of the two honoured organisations, Ivan Lo Bello, the President of Confindustria Sicilia, and Don Luigi Ciotti, the President of Libera. Confindustria, Lo Bello explained, fights the mafia by seeking constantly to avoid the sort of typical mafioso practices that serve as a constant drain on the local economy, from the ubiquitous pizzo to pre-cooked calls for tender to direct and indirect intimidation. Libera is a militant organisation constantly encouraging and supporting Palermo’s citizens in a fight for a mafia-free life. I cannot do justice to the rich discussion in a short post, but here are a few snippets. Don Ciotti, a priest, explained that he had previously served as chaplain in the local maximum security prison, where he had sought to understand the mentality of the mafiosi. Thus, he realised, doing time in prison is an absolutely indispensable badge of honour for a mafioso and, indeed, whilst the mafiosi are incarcerated the mafia looks after their families – a sort of social security system. Once, when he was arguing the anti-mafia case, he was asked ‘ma l’anti-mafia; e qualcosa che si mangia?‘ (‘but this anti-mafia; is it something that you can eat?’). We heard about the Scuola Giovanni Falcone in the Quartiere Zen. The local school is the only symbol of the state in that quartiere and so it is regularly torched. Two closing soundbites. Our President, Mario Sepi; ‘We should not be afraid of the mafia’s noise, but of the silence of the innocents.’ And Don Ciotti; ‘I look forward to a day when children will ask “Mummy, what was the mafia?”