Mafia
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
This article is about the criminal society.
For other uses, see Mafia (disambiguation).
The Mafia (also known as Cosa Nostra) is a
Sicilian criminal secret society which is
believed to have first developed in the
mid-19th century in Sicily. An offshoot
emerged on the East Coast of the
United States and in Australia[1]
during the late 19th century
following waves of Sicilian and
Southern Italian emigration
(see also Italian diaspora).
In North America, the Mafia
often refers to Italian organized
crime in general, rather than
just traditional Sicilian organized crime.
According to historian Paolo Pezzino:
"The Mafia is a kind of organized
crime being active not only
in several illegal fields, but
also tending to exercise sovereignty
functions – normally belonging to
public authorities – over a specific
territory..."[2]
The Sicilian Cosa Nostra is a loose
confederation of about one hundred
Mafia groups, also called cosche or
families, each of which claims sovereignty
over a territory, usually a town or village
or a neighborhood of a larger city, though
without ever fully conquering and
legitimizing its monopoly of violence.
For many years, the power apparatuses
of the single families were the sole
ruling bodies within the two associations,
and they have remained the real centers
of power even after superordinate bodies
were created in the Cosa Nostra
beginning in the late 1950s
(the Sicilian Mafia Commission).[3]
Some observers have seen "mafia"
as a set of attributes deeply rooted
in popular culture, as a "way of being",
as illustrated in the definition by
the Sicilian ethnographer, Giuseppe Pitrè,
at the end of the 19th century:
"Mafia is the consciousness of one's
own worth, the exaggerated concept
of individual force as the sole arbiter
of every conflict, of every clash of
interests or ideas."[4]
Many Sicilians did not regard these
men as criminals but as role models
and protectors, given that the state
appeared to offer no protection for
the poor and weak. As late as the 1950s,
the funeral epitaph of the legendary
boss of Villalba, Calogero Vizzini, stated
that "his 'mafia' was not criminal,
but stood for respect of the law, defense
of all rights, greatness of character.
It was love." Here, "mafia" means
something like pride, honour, or even
social responsibility: an attitude, not an
organization. Likewise, in 1925,
the former Italian Prime Minister
Vittorio Emanuele Orlando stated in
the Italian senate that he was proud
of being mafioso, because that word
meant honourable, noble, generous.[5][6]
Cosa Nostra
Information about this organisation was last updated on Wednesday, October 29, 2008.
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Latest Clusters - English [it] [pt] [fr] [es] [de] [pl] [sl] [ar] [bg] [ro] [da] [tr] [nl] [no] |
Quotes about - English [de] [it] [es] [ro] Kumar [said:]: no words are adequate to denounce it. A young man, who had recently completed a diploma in radiology and wanted to pursue a decent career cannot be described as mafia. HindustanTimes 28-OCT-08 | Mesic [-said]: Now it is either we or they -- the law-based state, or criminals, terrorists and mafia, setimes 24-OCT-08 | Sanader [-asked]: Is it Mafia or terrorism? IHT 24-OCT-08 | Sanader [-said]: It's not necessary to declare a state of emergency, but we promise final score-settling with organized crime, mafia and terrorism. Croatia will become a safe country, makfax 24-OCT-08 | Sanader [-told]: There is no need to declare a state of emergency, but we will introduce extraordinary mobilisation measures. We shall deal thoroughly with organised crime, mafia or terrorism. Croatia will be a safe country, javno 24-OCT-08 | Sanader [-told]: We promise final score-settling with organised crime, mafia or terrorism, sbs 24-OCT-08 | Mesic [-said]: The state is faced with an unprecedented challenge from the criminal circles. Now it is them or us...rule of law and safety of citizens against criminals, terrorists and mafia, alertnet 23-OCT-08 | Gryzlov [-said]: This is not the first time that, by using the old broken record about the so-called Russian mafia, Russian politicians and businessmen become targets of inexplicable claims by foreign law enforcement authorities, MoscowTimes 20-OCT-08 | Atanas Atanasov [ said]: Other countries have the mafia, novinite 16-OCT-08 | Geoana [ said]: A strong state and a coherent security policy might shelter Romania from the junction of these big organized crime axes, as they are called in the international jargon. We are currently witnessing a phenomenon organized crime globalization, a kind of worldwide Mc Mafia. Romania should continue to be a place where the networks of organized crime do not cross each other evenimentul 13-OCT-08 | Sanader [ said]: We are committed to an unrelenting struggle against organised crime, against the mafia, irishtimes 08-OCT-08 | Sanader [-said]: We will not allow, under any costs, Croatia and Zagreb or any other city to be an unsafe place to live. We will not allow organized crime to create the impression that anything can be done and that there will be no sanctions. It seems there are attempts to create this impression, which is why we will embark on the most determined fight against organized crime, against the mafia, peopledaily 07-OCT-08 | Sanader [-said]: I expect swift police action. It is high time we cracked down on the mafia, alertnet 06-OCT-08 | Goff [said:]: You can pass a law banning gangs, but has that ever stopped the Mafia, Yakuza or Triads from operating? nzherald 14-SEP-08 | Veltroni [said:]: the fight of Pino against the Mafia is also our fight, his words are our words, his courage is our courage. theglobeandmail 10-SEP-08 | Castro [-said]: I do not have to remain silent in the face of a mafia, sbs 26-AUG-08 | Correa [-told]: We will crush the old country ruled by elites and mafia groups, javno 23-AUG-08 | Saviano [-said]: Australia is a place which has been known by investigators to be a place of money laundering … this has occurred for many reasons. The biggest is emigration, which has provided some local support. But … Australian police have not turned their attention to the Mafia … and that they will not do so until they [the clan] start shooting, smh 04-JUL-08 | Alfredo Pérez Rubalcaba [said:]: By dismantling the Russian mafia we want to say to all criminal groups that they will never feel comfortable in our country. kavkazcenter 21-JUN-08 | Frattini [-said]: We cannot have mafia or traffickers or terrorists using better technology than our police, register 05-MAR-08 | Chavez [-added]: a liar, a Mafia boss, a paramilitary who leads a narco-government and leads a government that is a lackey of the United States, alertnet 03-MAR-08 | Roett [ said]: The FARC have been able to maintain themselves through kidnappings and through very close ties with the drug mafia, voanews 03-MAR-08 | Rogozin [-said]: Kosovo long ago became not just a base for drug trafficking to Europe, but also a massive laboratory. These huge sums could be used for political aims by Kosovo's drug mafia to boost Kosovo's declaration of independence, rian 22-FEB-08 | Oswald [-asked]: Are you with the Mafia? irishtimes 19-FEB-08 | Frattini [-said]: We cannot have mafia or traffickers or terrorists using better technology than our police, that's why we have to improve our capacity, peopledaily 14-FEB-08 | Frattini [ said]: We cannot have mafia, or traffickers, or terrorists, using better technology than our police, euractiv 14-FEB-08 | Taylor [ asked]: What do you get when you cross a sociologist with a member of the Mafia? guardian 14-FEB-08 | Castro [-wrote]: It is incredible that at this point in history, the Republican candidate, decorated as a hero, would become the pawn of that mafia. No one who believes in himself would commit such a serious ethical mistake, caribbeannetnews 14-FEB-08 | Frattini [-said]: he said. Frattini's proposals, if approved by all 27 EU governments, would represent one of the largest security overhauls in the EU and could cost billions of euros (dollars). We want to be generous toward honest people coming from outside Europe, but we want to be very tough and very clear to Mafia groups, traffickers, criminals, terrorists, kuwaittimes 14-FEB-08 | Naranjo [-said]: In the perverse mafia logic of the FARC, I imagine they viewed (Uribe's children) as an extremely valuable booty, news 13-DEC-07 | McEnroe [-told]: The thing that worries me is that mafia types, like the Russian mafia, could be involved. That's potentially pretty dark and scary, xinhuanet_en 11-DEC-07 | McEnroe [-told]: >John McEnroe expressed his concern on Friday that organised crime, such as the Russian mafia, could be infiltrating tennis. The former world number one believes that threats to tennis players or their families could be forcing them into throwing matches. �The thing that worries me is that mafia types, like the Russian mafia, could be involved. That's potentially pretty dark and scary, gorkhapatra 08-DEC-07 | Panday [said:]: I don't think the UNC had anything to blame for ... Dookeran split the votes, the Mafia will carry on and for that they have a high price to pay. trinidadexpress 07-NOV-07 | Caruso [ said]: When you control Palermo, you control the Mafia, IHT 06-NOV-07 | Caruso [-said]: There will likely be some internal adjustments, but I wouldn't say there will be a war within the Mafia, afp 06-NOV-07 | Francesco Forgione [ said]: It's a tough blow ... because they (the Lo Piccolo family) were in charge of restructuring the Mafia, news 06-NOV-07 | Francesco Messineo [said:]: We are really pleased with this operation because these people are not just fugitives but Mafia chiefs who were wielding their power dailymail 05-NOV-07 | Francesco Forgione [ said]: It's an extraordinary day for Italian democracy and the fight against the Mafia, NEWScomAU 05-NOV-07 | Ziercke [-said]: We want to increase our knowledge about the activities of the Italian mafia in Germany, NEWScomAU 03-NOV-07 |
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