I can't remember what we did before the internet, I suppose we went to libraries, but it certainly is easy to learn about things now with information at your fingertips. I suppose I sound ancient now. But I have been enjoying my composer and country duo, I am up to the letter "I" now. For H, the country was Honduras, and I must say I was horrified to discover the state of this central American country. It somehow sounds exotic and like a holiday destination, Honduras, but it has the highest murder rate in the world and is far from a holiday hotspot. I had no idea but the cities are full of opposing gangs and terrible violence and everyone is getting killed including small children. If you look at google images, the gang members are identified by having lots of tattoos across their whole bodies, including faces - this might remind you of an advert. Honduras is where Kenco coffee are helping give people a future by training them to grow coffee, rather than become part of gangs. I was horrified at what I saw and read and felt very sad that it is in such a bad state. The country itself sounds lovely, with a rich diversity of wildlife, and so many bats! Bat paradise.
A similar thirst for knowledge - (and general thirst. I seem so dehydrated, don't know what that's about) - has taken hold of me at certain times. I was watching the last episode in series 2 of the Young Montalbano - who thought that anyone could replace Luca Zingaretti, but they have all done a good job. Montalbano was supposed to be joining his girlfriend on the mainland, but we all knew he wouldn't. It wasn't surprising to hear the characters saying to Salvo, "But won't you miss Sicily?" Everyone in Sicily was obsessed with it and couldn't envisage leaving (except one unusual student). But Salvo was all ready to go, and was driving to the airport, when you saw him stop at the turning and drive back to the town. When he got there, the streets were strangely empty, no one was about, but you could hear a radio or tv news report. It was the true story of when the judge Falcone was murdered by the mafia, by a bomb outside Palermo. All the characters were frozen, watching the news, in shock. It was a very powerful ending to the series and got me wanting to know more. I had heard about another judge, Borsellino, who worked with Falcone and was killed by the mafia just 57 days later. Why were they killed, because they opposed the mafia. Because they had put so many of them behind bars. I decided to read more about it all.... I read about many names who had worked against the mafia, either in the law or journalism, or whatever. Every sentence after someone's name went on to say "so and so was killed..." Everyone who had opposed the mafia had been murdered by them. Falcone and Borsellino's murders were a turning point and the people became angry that not enough was being done.
You may wonder why I didn't know all this before; I did read about them before, I am sure of it, but perhaps I didn't take it all in. But no one in Sicily would talk about the subject, not at all, so we stayed off it. I can see why now and I can understand why they're so insular and close ranks. The whole thing seems terribly complicated, of course and I'd not appreciated the links to New York before. But I was rather chilled to see a photo of one of the top bosses who is now in jail, who had that definite Sicilian look, whose eyes were so much like the eyes of my favourite student while I was out there. It was a bit weird; someone so vile reminding me of someone I'd liked so much.
What I don't like is how the mafia has been glamourised as if it is somehow cool; it is not. I could never understand at the time some of my fellow acquaintances' take on some of the people we came into contact with. All rather unpleasant.
