From: Amara Graps (amara@amara.com)
Date: Thu Jul 25 2002 - 03:57:33 MDT
http://europe.cnn.com/2002/WORLD/europe/07/17/mafia.pasta/index.html
Farmers fight Mafia with pasta
CORLEONE, Sicily (CNN) --Residents of Corleone, the Italian village made
famous by Hollywood's Godfather movie trilogy, have come up with a food
fit to frighten mobsters -- anti-Mafia pasta.
A group of farmers dedicated to fighting the Mafia are now producing the
pasta under the brand name "Libera Terra" -- "or free land" -- after
setting up a co-operative to farm land seized by the Italian government
from the Cosa Nostra's jailed "boss of bosses" Toto Riina.
Farmer Antonio Castro told CNN: "We want to prove that these fields are
no longer controlled by the Mafia and can remain profitable and generate
even more revenue as well as give jobs to many more people, so that all
can benefit from it, not just a few."
But despite the apparent success of the pasta, the farmers say finding
people to work the fields that were once owned by feared criminals is
proving difficult.
Although one operator of a combine harvester did agree to work, he has
kept a low profile and refuses to discuss what he is doing through fear
of reprisals.
Elisabetha Viola, the owner of a shop that is producing the pasta, said:
"This proves that the village of Corleone is emerging from the grip of
the Mafia and it is an opportunity to link this name to something clean.
"The reality of Corleone is so different from what is described in the
movies."
Although some people in the village in Sicily remain scared of upsetting
the Cosa Nostra with the pasta venture, a local butcher told CNN there
is generally no real fear of reprisals, as the Mafia "goes only where
there is big money at stake".
Government moves on mobsters
Since the Italian government adopted a law in 1982 to confiscate
property owned by crime syndicates, around $118 million worth of Mafia
assets have been seized.
Italian police recently arrested 15 suspected Mafia bosses in nearby
Palermo as they sat down in a Sicilian country house to elected a new
godfather.
The 15 men, including a councillor from Prime Minister Silvio
Berlusconi's Foraz Italia party, were caught in an operation hailed as
an unprecedented scoop in the fight against organised crime.
The group were about to choose a new head for the Agrigento region in
southwestern Sicily and were preparing champagne when police pounced.
With Corleone's Toto Riina behind bars, residents now want a change of
image for the village.
CNN's Alessio Vinci said: "Toto Riina was the Mafia's most powerful boss
-- a man feared and respected by many in Corleone.
"But he is now in jail, serving a series of life sentences including one
for ordering the killing of two top anti-mafia magistrates."
Before his arrest, Riina spent months hiding from the police in an old
farmhouse in the village.
But now the farmers now have their eyes on that too -- and plan to turn
it into a country hotel.
-- ******************************************************************** Amara Graps, PhD email: amara@amara.com Computational Physics vita: ftp://ftp.amara.com/pub/resume.txt Multiplex Answers URL: http://www.amara.com/ ******************************************************************** "It's not the pace of life I mind. It's the sudden stop at the end." --Calvin
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