Speaking of shopping… When visiting Sicily, please patronize stores and restaurants that display the sign (pictured), Addiopizzo. When you do, you are supporting a business owner who refuses to pay “protection money” (i.e., extortion money) to organized crime. When you support such businesses, you are expressing an anti-mafia position and helping dis-empower criminal organizations that have crippled Sicily for centuries.
Here is an explanation of Addiopizzo, summarized from their website:
“Addiopizzo is an open, fluid, and dynamic movement, that through its members and followers, acts as a ‘cultural revolution’ against the Mafia. It is made up of women and men, boys and girls, merchants and consumers who identify with the phrase, ‘A nation which pays protection money is a nation without dignity.’ ”
Addiopizzo is a nonpartisan, voluntary association that focuses on a single-issue: critical consumption.”
I saw this on Facebook yesterday (8-31) and was very intrigued by it. Someone asked you if it was dangerous to put up the sign and you said yes it was. Then I believe you said the more businesses that put it up, the safer it became. When I was writing and editing in the retail industry (we did an international magazine and one for the US), I read about it and how progress was being made…with difficulties. But something had to break the stranglehold the Mafia held on businesses. Maybe they can be convinced to stay away from the legitimate family businesses and look to more underground enterprises. Either way, it’s not right. So hooray for any progress.
Yes, little by little, the people will overcome the inhumanity.