What is the Mafia?

The term Mafia (Mafia) originated from the Sicilian Revolt on Easter in 1282. Sicily is an unforgivable place. The desolate land cannot breed tolerance and mercy. Long-term suffering from foreign invasions and wars has caused this land to lose its kindness. It is the largest peninsula in the Mediterranean. The Greeks, Romans, Byzantines, Normans, French, Spanish and Austrians all occupied this land. For a long time, Sicilian peasants were more slaves to the conquerors than farmers. And so the Mafia was born, initially as a secret underworld protecting poor, downtrodden Sicilians. "Racial hatred" originally came from the Sicilians' "sense of justice."

When a Palermo girl was raped by French soldiers on her wedding day, Sicily began to retaliate wildly. They attacked every Frenchman they saw and said "Morto Alla Francica, Italia Anela" ( Italian for "The destruction of France is the desire of Italy"), and Mafia is the abbreviation of this slogan. This uprising was called the "Sicilian Vespers Incident" in European history.

At the same time, Mafia means "place of refuge" in Arabic. Even if history could be overturned and repeated, the Mafia with Arab blood would still be born in Sicily, and they would still choose Mafia as their symbol.

Nowadays, many gang organizations with national hatred are called "mafia". For example: Russian skinheads, the United States, and Italy all have mafia organizations.

We Usually the most talked-about mafia is the Italian-American Mafia from Sicily. They are organized crime groups, organized as family units, and are particularly rampant in North America. At its peak, there were 26 families in the United States—one family existed in almost every major city. The Mafia Council is composed of the main leaders of the major families, of which New York is their mouthpiece, controlling every move of all other Mafia families. The Sicilian Mafia who poured into the United States along with the wave of immigrants, before they set foot on At the same time, this land also brought here the "effective" organizational system and action rules in Italy. The Prohibition passed by the U.S. Congress in 1920 gave U.S. underworld organizations unprecedented opportunities for development. They took the opportunity to produce and sell illicit alcohol on a large scale, and accumulated a large amount of funds. The relationship between the Sicilian Mafia and the American Mafia has therefore become closer. "Prohibition" gave birth to organized crime in the United States and spread rapidly. The emerging Mafia family-style crime syndicate triggers a wage war in order to gain power. They terrorize citizens, newspaper headlines begin to publish bloody news, and their large, black and solemn funeral processions of family members become the most spectacular funeral processions in history. But it all originated from that sinful land thousands of miles away.

From then on, the Mafia's golden rule "omerta" (honor) was introduced. The historical background of being conquered by so many different people has contributed to the fact that Sicilians do not believe in any form of government. Unwritten rules led them to conduct their own affairs outside the government. "Crime" is considered the solution to a personal righteous vendetta.

The literal translation of "omerta" is the following passage: He who uses the law against his fellow man is either a fool or a coward. People who cannot protect themselves without the police are both. It is cowardly to pursue legal action for someone else's violation of you, even if you yourself were the victim of the violation. It is a despicable and cowardly act for an injured man to reveal the name of his assailant; the correct course of action would be to publicly challenge his opponent to seek revenge after he recovers. What an injured person should say to his assailant is: If I live, I will kill you - if I die I will forgive you.

The notorious underworld organizations in the world such as the Mafia in the United States and Italy, the skinheads in Russia, the Yamaguchi-gumi in Japan, the Bamboo Union Gang in Taiwan, the 14K in Hong Kong, China, etc., are internationally recognized. A lot of evil deeds.

The famous movie "The Godfather" profoundly reveals the little-known underworld of the world's most famous underworld, the Mafia, and shows people the composition, power structure and influence of this most representative underworld on a country and even the world. significant impact. Although it is a film and television work, it is a classic that is derived from reality and deeply reflects the reality of the international underworld. As the famous Italian anti-Mafia fighter Falcone said: "The Mafia is by no means a simple criminal organization... In fact, in addition to making huge profits, the Mafia also attempts to control the economy." The Mafia is through smuggling, drug trafficking, Manipulating the construction industry, collecting protection fees and other means to accumulate huge wealth. According to an authoritative sociological research data: the Mafia's annual turnover accounts for at least 10% of Italy's gross national product, and heroin alone generates US$40 billion in revenue for the Mafia every year. They also use large sums of money for political investment, bribing officials, winning people's hearts, or directly participating in political activities. The constant political scandals in some countries are closely related to the underworld. The main topic of the United Nations conference held in Palermo, Italy, which was once the "Mafia Capital", was that countries should further strengthen cooperation against underworld crimes and jointly combat transnational organized crime. 154 countries among the 180 members of the United Nations sent representatives Participated, including 15 heads of state or government who personally led delegations to participate.

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