“palermo’s cultural revolution and the renewal project of the city administration,”

The renewal that has changed the face and the image of Palermo and other parts of Sicily has also had the effect of creating a climate of confidence and new conditions for getting under way an economic development process at long last free of the distortions of illegality.

The motivations that Moody's gave on 16 October 2000 for assigning the Municipality of Palermo an Aa3 rating, the same as currently enjoyed by the Republic of Italy, made specific references to the important changes of a political, cultural and economic character that the city has recently undergone. And the signs and trends that can now be discerned among the island's various economic sectors, some of which are reported in some detail in this publica- tion, are more than encouraging.

There now exist well-founded hopes that the first positive manifestations of the nascent economy of legality will soon be followed by a whole series of projects creating a strong and decisive acceleration in the drive towards an economic rebirth of the island.

Without weakening its efforts of promoting and reinforcing the culture of lawfulness, which must remain a permanent objective in the formation of the new generations, Sicilian society today finds itself in a position to put to fiuit--from an economic point of view--the cultural changes that have marked these last few years.

A response to the economic and not just cultural needs of the population will probably constitute the key for freeing the island from all residues of the Mafia culture and could well lead to the definitive defeat of Cosa Nostra.

I am personally convinced that face to face with this objective, an objective that not so long ago seemed utopian, Sicilian civil society will succeed in maintaining the force that in the space of just a few years rendered it capable of having such profound and far-reaching effects on a conception of life that had taken root in the population for more than a century.

Enzo Lo Dato, "Palermo's Cultural Revolution and the Renewal Project of the City Administration" Symposium on the Role of Civil Society in Countering Organized Crime: Global Implications of the Palermo, Sicily Renaissance, Palermo, Sicily, December 2000.

Enzo Lo Dato is Executive Director of the Sicilian Renaissance Institute.

Introduction Every revolution in history has a recorded starting date, often artificially made to coincide with the moment when a sudden and dramatic split with the past occurred within a society. In fact, this revolutionary break is almost always the result of a process that has ripened over a period of time.

10 TRENDS IN ORGANIZED CRIME [ SPRING 2000

In the same way, the start of the cultural revolution that set in motion the train of events that has been defined as the "Palermo Renaissance" dates from one of the most terrible years in the history of this city: 1992.

In the summer of that year, in two of the bloodiest mafia massacres ever perpetrated, Giovanni Falcone (murdered together with his wife, Francesca Morvillo, herself a magistrate) and Paolo Borsellino were both killed, within two months of each other, together with several police officer escorts.

Falcone and Borsellino were the two Palermo magistrates who, during the 1980s, led courageous and innovative judiciary investigations, succeeding-- together with only a few colleagues and brave police officers--first in discov- ering and then in beginning to smash the very structure of the Mafia, which until then had been wrapped in mystery and legend and had been considered virtually inviolable. Thanks to them, several hundred mafiosi, including many of the members of the so-called "Commission" (the governing body of "Cosa Nostra" or "Our Thing," the name the mafiosi gave their own organization) were indicted, found guilty, and given long prison sentences.

By the late 1980s, Falcone and Borsellino had become symbols of the fight against organized crime, on an international level. But for most of their fellow-townspeople in Palermo, they came to represent something more: a sort of vision of what each of them wanted to be, though without their succeeding in doing so. This mass of citizens shared with Falcone and Borsellino (in whose basic "Palermitan-ness" each person recognized him/herself) a fundamental correctness of behavior, the rejection of the an'ogant violence of the mafia, the rage at being always and everywhere unjustly labeled, en masse, as accomplices of delinquency, and awareness that the stifling yoke of crime on Sicilian society constituted the main obstacle to economic, social and cultural progress on the island. However, unlike the two magistrates, Palermitans were incapable of finding within themselves sufficient motivation, courage and deter- mination to rebel openly and to become the main actors in a process of rebirth and liberation from the shackles of the Mafia.

In the Grip of the Mafia A centuries-long history, perennially marked by oppression, exploitation or

disinterest by all those who throughout the years had governed Sicily, had buried the spirit of the island under solid layers of hesitation, skepticism and resignation. The key to an understanding of this deeply rooted mental attitude lies in the famous quote in (Sicilian writer) Giuseppe Tomasi di Lampedusa's book The Leopard: "If we want everything to stay as it is, everything must change" The lesson of history in Sicily was that any attempt at renewal was a pretence; at the end of every apparent change everything stayed exactly as it had always been.

SICILIAN PEi~PECTIVES 11

By drawing on this cultural heritage of distrust and lack of hope for the future, the Mafia enjoyed remarkable success for more than a century. It had come into being above all in the rural world of the island, within whose narrow confines it began to organize immediately after the birth of the Italian state in 1860. From the very beginning it concealed its fundamental aim; namely, to exercise power and become wealthy in illegal ways, behind the alluring mask of the "society of honor." This "society" was supposedly an association of just and wise men capable of ensuring the order, safety and justice that the State, distant, indifferent, perhaps even hostile, could not or would not guar- antee. And as it gradually spread and embraced every possible source of profit-- construction, food markets, public contracts, contraband of cigarettes, narcotrafficking--employed every means possible--nepotism, corruption, threats, extreme violence--to increase the gap between citizens and the State and to prevent the development of a civic conscience. It was precisely this dominance over the mental attitude and spirit of the people that guaranteed the Mafia absolute control over the island.

From the end of World War II, side by side with the ever more rapid increase in its illicit earnings, the Mafia thus set up a vicious circle from which it seemed there was no way out. On the one hand, through acquiescent and corrupt local politicians, it had infiltrated all centers of power on the island and ensured the collusion, support, and a favorable disposition of government and national parties. In this way, it succeeded not only in heavily influencing the economy and the daily life of Sicilian society but also in rendering the endeavors of state law enforcement bodies weaker. This, naturally, helped to strengthen the image of invincibility it cultivated, nurturing more and more in the local population a feeling that any effort to fight against it was in vain. On the other hand, the blazes of reaction that the State occasionally kindled, by activating massive police operations in response to particularly shocking Ma- fia crimes, invariably ended up being extinguished, smothered by the people's apathy and refusal to cooperate, as well as by trials that all too often ended in acquittals for "insufficiency of evidence." This, in turn, increased mainland Italians' frustration with the "Sicily issue," which often came to be judged unsolvable, leading to the belief--which was widespread, though not always stated outright--that the country would do better to leave Sicily and the Sicil- ians to their fate. Thus the vicious cycle produced more marked separation, a foreign-ness or "irrelevance" of the island from the rest of the nation.

This was the scenario in Sicily at the beginning of the 1980s, when the Mafia was at the height of its power, boundlessly rich, and so certain of its status that it acted with impunity. Yet from this apparently hopeless situation, emerged one that contained the means of its own break-up. Indeed, it was probably excessive confidence in its own power, combined with insatiable

12 TRENDS IN ORGANIZED CRIME / SPRING 2000

greed and unrivalled cruelty, that drove the emergent Mafia family, the so- called "Corleonesi" (named after their home town), to undertake a ruthless internal war with the goal of achieving domination over the organization while at the same time increasing its level of violence; that is, committing murder- ous attacks on targets heretofore "off limits"--government officials. The first half of the 1980s, therefore, was characterized by an endless list of mafiosi and their relatives, including women and children, ruthlessly killed by the "Corleonesi," and by a no less bloody list of "excellent cadavers": judges, policemen, "carabinieri" (military police), politicians and journalists, slaugh- tered because they were a threat to the organization or, merely, an obstacle to business.

Signs of "Spring" The "Corleonesi" did not realize that their cruel arrogance exposed once

impenetrable internal fissures in the protective system that the Mafia had built up over years of operation. It was certainly not by chance that unprecedented events occurred in Sicily during this period. The first, and the most remarkable, was that two top members of the "losing" Mafia families, declaring their disgust at slaughters carried out by the "Corleonesi;' whom they defined as "a band of cowards and murderers," broke the fundamental rule of "omert?t" (silence) that represented the central doctrine of Mafia culture and revealed much of what they knew. They made their confessions to those magistrates, and primarily Falcone, whom they credited with sincere and deep devotion to the fight against crime but also with an unrivalled capacity to go on with the battle to the bitter end (this too was something new). And it was precisely the revela- tions of these first "pentiti" ("repentants"), backed up by evidence and proven through incredible reconstruction work, that provided the framework of the accusations made by Falcone and Borsellino against the Mafia. Finally, the Mafia was publicly exposed for what it was: a true criminal organization, to be judged as such in what, in 1986-87, was to be the first "maxi-trial" in Sicilian history.

In the same period, other signals came from civil society and the world of politics. Widespread indignation at the murder of so many courageous and upright people began to inspire the formation of numerous anti-mafia associations, led, above all, by educators, religious figures and other volunteers, who were engaging in a brave work of proselytism, often at the risk of their lives. The fervour and commitment profused by these pioneers was symptomatic of the fact that at the popular level, too, the limit of putting up with criminal violence had been attained. Above all, the example they gave proved to be a seed that, albeit not immediately, was eventually to bear fruit in the popular conscience.

SICILIAN PERSPECTIVES 13

The Catholic Church, breaking a silence that lasted for too long, finally adopted, through the voices of its most authoritative figures, a public position of clear condemnation of mafia crimes and behavior. In the educational sector, the Palermo Superintendency of Schools took the initiative to set up a special group of teachers and principals (known as the "Lawfulness Group") who began analyzing, planning and promoting activities aimed at developing students' civic conscience. And so, in the second half of the 1980s, when in Ital- ian schools it was not yet considered useful or valid to talk about organized crime, the Palermo "Lawfulness Group" was developing important educational anti-Mafia projects, laying the foundation for what in the following years was to become one of the most worthwhile features of Palermo schools. The individual schools carried out their anti-Mafia programs with the modest contri- butions granted by the Sicilian Region, which in June 1980 adopted an ad hoc law, but the quality and the effectiveness of these educational projects de- pended above all on the enthusiasm and dedication of individual school teachers and directors, who---especially at the beginning--had to overcome the resistance of a strongly apathetic environment.

Finally, in the political sphere and even within the Christian Democratic Party itself (which had been accused of being the most pliable in the face of organized crime), there was growing pressure from those who, like the young city councilor Leoluca Orlando, publicly denounced the climate of complicity and connections that permitted collaboration among Mafia, politics and business. These new faces fought for a total break with the corrupt systems of the past and for a new, more civil and democratic way of conducting politics and government.

These were important fissures and signs. However, they were not yet sufficient enough to crack the centuries-old layers of diffidence and skepticism that kept people from assuming civic responsibilities. Besides, history taught that even in the face of the harshest repressive action, conducted with authori- tarian and illegal methods--as had been the case under Fascism in the 1920s-- the Mafia had never been wholly rooted out. Rather, it had simply made itself less visible, to the extent that it was thought to have vanished, and had waited for the wave of repression to end before beginning once again to weave its webs of crime, as strong as ever. "Calati juncu ca passa la china" ("The reed bends over until the flood waters pass") says a well-known Sicilian proverb, teaching people that the safest way to withstand adversity is to put up as little resistance as possible. Having grown up in this culture, how could people believe that a Mafia trial--however vast and important, or a competition for school students on the theme of civic values--like the one promoted by the Palermo Super- intendency of Schools in 1987, or the political experiment of a municipal council aimed at renewal--like the one formed in 1985 by Orlando (elected mayor by a


city council still dominated by the old party system), was enough to consider the fight against "Cosa Nostra" as the one that would endure? Falcone himself, a genu- ine Palermo man in heart and mind, was perfectly aware of this. Commenting on the fact that the new municipal council had taken part in the first maxi-trial against the Mafia as a plaintiff, the less pessimistic Borsellino said: "The people are rooting for us?' Falcone answered: "To me, it looks like they are standing at the window, waiting to see who wins the bullfight."

And, in fact, the city continued to stand at the window for several years, until, after the maxi-tfials, Falcone and Borsellino found themselves confronting a series of serious obstacles to the continuation of their work. And until after Orlando's "Palermo Spring" (as his administration had been called) had been brought down by top Christian Democrats, he was forced to recognize that it was impossible to renew politics from within the old party system. Orlando formed a new political movement, which was openly pro-reform and committed to fighting against the Mafia: "La Rete" (The Network). "La Rete" re- ceived respectable results in the 1991 Sicilian Region's Parliamentary elections; however, it seemed that, after voting for the new movement in the privacy of the voting booth, not many people moved away from the window and risked their safety in order to join the anti-mafia movement.

The bullfight was not over yet. The bull was wounded but, in the people's perception, still strong enough to fight. And, it would not take much to revive it. It was sufficient, for example, that the Court of Cassation, the highest court in the Italian judiciary system, dismissed or lightened sentences given to mafiosi at the maxi-trial. This had happened many times in the past, thanks to the Court's using extremely strict criteria to evaluate the proceedings of the lower courts. And the Court's frequent decisions in favor of people accused of Mafia crimes had--rightly or wrongly--spread the conviction that the Court was inspired not so much by respect for the law as by respect for the Mafia. If it happened again, people would close their windows and shut themselves up indoors, more convinced than ever that, once again, "everything had changed so as to remain exactly as before?'

The Palermo Spring Instead, on January 31, 1992, the section of the Court of Cassation called

on to reexamine the maxi-trial fully confirmed the sentences of the Palermo Court. All the mafia bosses, in prison or indicted, for the first time in history found themselves sentenced to life imprisonment with no appeal: the era of impunity was over. Falcone immediately rose in the people's esteem. His de- cision of the previous year to leave Palermo and accept a position at the Min- istry of Justice had provoked much criticism and puzzlement, for it almost looked as if he were running away. Once again, however, Falcone had been


right. In his new position as director of penal affairs at the Ministry, he had demonstrated his ability to exert a major influence on government activity on the anti-Mafia front. Now, the Court of Cassation's confirmation of the sentences of the maxi-trial opened to him the way for ever-greater success in leading the fight against organized crime at both national and international levels.

From that moment on, events began to move quickly. In February 1992, Milan investigators opened a case on public sector corruption; it was destined in a very short time to spread, with a landslide effect. This was the beginning of the "Mani Pulite" (Clean Hands) operation, in which the Milan magistrates brought to light a deep and complex network of corruption involving almost all of the national parties and that was to end up overwhelming the old political party system in Italy. Then, on March 12, Salvo Lima, member of the European Parliament and one of the main Sicilian voices of the Christian Demo- cratic Party, was killed in Palermo. For years public opinion, including Leoluca Orlando, had considered Lima a main link between the Mafia and political power in Rome. In Palermo, the murder was seen as the mafiosi punishing someone who, after enjoying their support at the polls for years, had failed to protect them when the Court of Cassation ruled on the maxi-trial. This belief was later confirmed in judiciary circles as well. On April 5, the date of Parlia- mentary elections, the parties most heavily accused of corruption--above all, the Christian Democratic Party--saw a dramatic decrease in voter support. Orlando's "La Rete" which had a platform based on the fight against crime and corruption, won 12 seats in the Chamber of Deputies and six in the Sen- ate, an exceptional result for a local political movement that had been put together only a year before and was mainly staffed by volunteers. After so many years, a fresh wind of renewal had at last begun to blow over the entire nation.

The Two Murders Nearly two months later, late in the afternoon of May 23, 1992, a 500-

kilogram bomb, placed in a tunnel under the Palermo-Punta Raisi motorway and set off by remote control, killed Giovanni Falcone, his wife and three police escorts as their motorcade passed through on its way into the city.

Alexander Stille writes in his book, Excellent Cadavers, that Italy reacted to the news of the murder of Falcone "as if a head of state had been shot" But, above and beyond the official expressions of grief throughout the country, which were often full of rhetoric, in Palermo the murder of Falcone had an impact that no one could have predicted. For the people of Palermo, Falcone was not only the intelligent, tenacious and innovative magistrate that the world had learned to respect and admire. Above all, Falcone was the man that the

16 TRENDS IN ORGANIZED CRIME ] SPRING 2000

people of Palermo had entrusted their desire for lawfulness to, lawfulness that they realized they were incapable of generating. He was the man in whose courage they had found a kind of pardon for their own fears and inertia. That brave man was a Palermo native, after all, and this was enough for every Palermitan to imagine him or herself lit by the reflection of his light.

This aspect of the special relationship that had grown between Falcone and his fellow-townspeople has never been analyzed in depth, nor, perhaps, ever been taken fully into account. Yet it can offer the most immediate clue to the shock felt in the city at the news of his murder, and in the people's incredible reaction. As if led by a common uncontrollable need to give a public voice to this new sentiment that had exploded in their hearts, most Palermitans left their windows and poured out into the streets. For days and nights on end, floods of people marched in the streets, formed human chains, organized night wakes and sit-ins, hung bed-sheets out on their balconies with anti-Mafia slogans, plastered the walls with posters. People shouted and cried not only out of incredulous grief and impotent anger at the killing of the man who, for them, symbolized the best part of the city, but also out of a vague feeling of guilt that somehow, through their own inaction they had allowed his murder to occur. Men and women of all ages and social classes, white-collar and blue-collar workers, shop owners and housewives, students and retirees, found themselves side by side (and certainly surprised that there were so many of them), united by a need to shake themselves out of resignation, to repudiate the past, to commit themselves personally to the fight against crime. Palermo witnessed a revolution of conscience; a new civic drive captured the city, and with it the idea (not yet a hope, not yet a certainty) that it was truly possible for the people of Palermo to build a different future. Years before, in 1982, in the place where the Mafia had riddled Prefect of Palermo General Carlo Alberto Dalla Chiesa and his young wife with bullets, an unknown hand had written out: "Here dies the hope of honest Palermitans." After the killing of Falcone, another unknown hand wrote a completely different sentence on a board: "Today begins a dawn that will see no sunset."

In those anguished days, perhaps not even the Palermitans themselves fully realized the historical implication of the cultural revolution they themselves be- gala. Certainly, the "Corleonesi" totally blinded by a vengeful fury that over- whelmed all sense of humanity and reason, did not realize what was happening.

On the afternoon of July 19, in front of Paolo Borsellino's mother's house in downtown Palermo, a car bomb blew up, killing the magistrate and his five young police escorts, including a woman, who were going towards the en- trance. The terrifying blast was heard all over the city. The apartments on the lower stories of the buildings in the street were completely gutted.


The townspeople responded to the death of this second Palermo man, who in their hearts had already replaced Falcone, by intensifying their demonstra- tions-rejecting Mafia violence and mafioso mentality--and by insisting the State take effective action. Public pressure remained very strong for a long time, proving that its motivations were much deeper than the emotion caused by a "normal" tragic event. Finally, under this pressure, the national government passed a series of measures that struck heavier and heavier blows at the Mafia. Blows such as arrests of major figures--including Tot6 Riina, the boss of the "Corleonesi"--who had been in hiding for decades; increased numbers of mafiosi willing to cooperate with the authorities; new investigations; new trials; and new stiff sentences for members of the organization, always with respect for the law and without employing undemocratic measures. In sum, in terms of crime repression, it can be said that, since 1992, Palermo has had one of the most positive periods in its history. Yet, all of the law enforcement people directly responsible for the fight against the Mafia have often warned ener- getically against the dangers of resting on one's laurels. "The Mafia is seri- ously wounded," is their constant warning, "but be careful not to think that it is defeated forever, because it can always make a comeback"

The Palermo Renaissance It is precisely because of this risk that the "Palermo Renaissance" endeav-

ors, that a colorful but also realistic definition of the movement's projects, actions and effects was initiated.

Law enforcement bodies can--and must--take action against planned or committed crimes. But they cannot do very much to influence the causes that favor or lead to crime, other than limiting their own inefficiency, which could foster a lack of confidence in state justice, or which could increase a criminal's feeling of impunity from the law.

All other preventive actions of a democracy, whether social, economic or cultural, are the responsibility of the political circles, in the sense that they represent the will of citizens. And in the political sphere, the people of Palermo chose the road of collective participation in the city's life when, in November 1993, they gave Leoluca Orlando 75 percent of their votes in Italy's first direct election of mayors, a majority that no other mayoral candidate achieved any- where in the country. In the exceptional climate created by this cultural revolution, the people of Palermo entrusted to Orlando all their wishes for renewal. They gave this trust to a politician who, over many years, had fought hardest against the corruption, degradation and paralysis of the old political class, as well as against all forms of consent toward and collaboration with Mafia crime.

It was clear to the new administration how difficult, and how ridden with obstacles, its mandate was. In the Italian system of government, the powers of


the mayors, the city administrations and the municipal councils are quite limited. For example, combating crime is entirely the responsibility of the national government's law enforcement agencies and judiciary apparatus. No less limited is the capacity of city administrations to promote large-scale economic programs aimed at reducing unemployment. But within the limits of his own sphere of action, the new mayor of Palermo identified the way for the city administration, along with the State, to make an essential, effective and long-lasting contribution to the renewal process.

At the beginning of the 1993 campaign, Orlando had stated in an open letter to the townspeople: "Palermo today is not the same as yesterday. There are more and more citizens who are shaking off the old resignation to the connections and the yoke of Mafia and evil politics. The State has done its part: it has pursued murderers and dishonest people; it has punished those who colluded with the criminals. The task now awaiting all of us in Palermo is to liberate and re-build: to restore the city to ourselves, to its people, to its history. What is in front of us is a collective and very exciting undertaking. Not of one man alone, nor of a few; not of groups, nor of corporations. It is the undertaking of the whole city, and the Palermo Renaissance will succeed if this becomes the project of its people"

The principal goal, and the path traced out for achieving it, became clear as soon as the new city administration began to work. The idea was to take advantage of the civic thrust that the cultural revolution had caused, to prevent it from withering, to cultivate it and make it grow stronger; it was to cause the revived wishes of the citizens to be able to do something good together to become first a hope and then a certainty; it was to give back to the people of Palermo what the Mafia had succeeded in denigrating, debas- ing, destroying and denying: the sense of belonging to a civil community and of sharing a historical and artistic heritage of unparalleled richness, the value of a joint effort in an environment of lawfulness as an essential premise to the revival and development of a healthy economy. In sum, the objective was to dig up the earth on which the mafia had flourished, to pull out the roots from which it had taken its nourishment: that is, the distrust and pas- siveness of people who had permitted it to rule over the territory for so long.

The problem to be faced was enormously complex, and the city administration sought multiple and varied methods. First of all, it was necessary to restore credibility to the municipal institution itself, which in the past, through major Mafia pollution evident to everyone, had engaged in political corruption and had been a source of incredibly indecent privileges, rackets and illicit gains. The new administration took its first steps in precisely this direction, carrying out the cleanup that Orlando had already begun when he was mayor from 1985-1990. At that time, the old political-mafioso-racketeering appara-


tus, which still dominated the Sicilian scene, had succeeded in hampering and blocking the reform work of the "Palermo Spring" administration. In the very different political environment of 1993, the new administration was able to fairly rapidly eliminate the residue of illegality that had encrusted the Palermo City Council since time immemorial and to initiate a government inspired by correctness and transparency. There thus ended, in the sphere of the city's administration, the first phase of the political project that Orlando had been stressing for years, summed up by the slogan: "First you have to destroy [the bad things], and then you can construct [the good things]"

The new administration began to move in three main directions which, though different from one another, answered a sole need and aimed at a sole result: the growth of a civic conscience linked to respect for lawfulness. The spheres of action chosen were those of school, town planning and culture.

Schools School represents the most obvious place for implementing long-term edu-

cational campaigns, since it is there that the citizens of the future are formed. But in the Italian school system - which depends entirely on the Ministry of Education for curricula - the competence of city administrations is limited by law to specific issues connected to logistics and the functioning of elementary and junior high schools, while it is actually non-existent with regards to high school.

Exploiting to the full the opportunities afforded by school legislation, however, and taking advantage of the particular inclination of the Palermo Superintendency of Schools to favor education for lawfulness, the City De- partment for Education, chaired by Alessandra Siragusa, has been able to promote an extensive series of activities that have produced encouraging results.

For example, the Department organizes 1. annual environmental education programs that teach new ways of using the city's resources and avoiding their degradation; 2. multicultural education programs to create a rapport of understanding and peaceful coexistence with the growing numbers of immigrants who are integrating into the texture of the city; 3. partnering Palermo schools and schools in other Italian regions, which have led to partnering with a larger scope between Palermo and other cities. And, whenever these partnerships focus on the theme of education for lawfulness, the Palermo students debunk the still widespread myth outside the island that holds that all Palermitans are mafiosi, accomplices of or submissive toward the Mafia. The partnership also help everyone understand that organized crime is not limited to Sicily but is a national and international issue that must be faced and can be solved only through a collective and united effort by the nation.


The City Department for Education has also initiated projects for continuing education, informative exhibitions and teacher seminars and, together with the Ministry of Education, has conducted training courses for teachers involved in City projects. Moreover, the Department has actively participated in inter-ministerial campaigns that seek to combat the phenomenon of "scholastic dispersion" (a term comprising those students who drop out of school, who quit school in the course of the year, who are exonerated from compulsory attendance--though without having completed the course--because they are over age, and who have failed at the end of the year. This statistic is a key indicator of a community's commitment to education.)

In the 1980s, some areas of Palermo showed a scholastic dispersion as high as 40 percent, an alarming sign of how large the gap was between certain circles of the city and a conception of civic life in which people refused even the most fundamental element, education. In the school year 1991-92, the fig- ure had gone down to 3.5 percent for elementary school and 16.8 percent for junior high school. In 1996-97 it had gone down still further, to 1.9 percent and 13.9 percent respectively, and has continued to decrease, to reach an almost total disappearance of dropouts and school abandonment.

The City Department for Education has also had major results in taking back control of school construction, which for years represented one of the sources of profit for the Mafia. Taking advantage of the complicity of politicians, the Mafia had constantly endeavoured to prevent school construction funds from being used for repair or for new schools, instead diverting the money to pay expensive rents on private apartments used as schools. Of course, the owners of the apartments were almost always mafiosi or friends of the Mafia. Apart from the illegality, this situation also put a heavy strain on the city's education system (which was not, for sure, of any concern to the Mafia). The shortage of classrooms forced many schools to conduct lessons in two shifts, one in the morning and one in the afternoon, which clearly inconve- nienced both students and teachers, and which resulted in a drop in the quality of teaching. In 1992-93, there were no fewer than 284 classes taught on the afternoon shift, and 58 percent of the schools were located in rented private apartments (as opposed to 42 percent housed in buildings belonging to the City or other public institutions). In 1999-2000, there were only 28 classes with a double shift (and the total will be set to zero during the current year); 28 percent of schools were located in private buildings and 72 percent in public ones. Further, while in 1994 no schools were built and none were planned, in the years between 1995 and 2000, 33 projects for building or repairing schools were completed, another 10 sites are under construction, 10 contracts are in the bidding process, and 50 projects are ready to go to bid. To complete the works, the De- partment for Education has used funds from the Italian central government, the


Sicilian Region and the City of Palermo itself. An interesting footnote to this story is that, of the buildings rented in the past for use as schools, 40 have been seized or are being investigated as the property of mafiosi.

Outside school circles, however, most people in Palermo are not aware of these measures, which the Orlando administration's Department for Educa- tion has promoted over the last few years. As often occurs, the most important task of a civil society, that of forming the citizens of the future, all too often goes forward with the spotlights off and without attracting the public attention that it no doubt merits.

Partly to address this lack of awareness--which in no way detracts from the major contribution (a contribution sadly all too infrequent in many Italian towns) the City has made to improve the quality of public education in Palermo--the City Department for Education initiated another project, one that has generated interest beyond the city. Thanks to the European Union's "European Training Via Satellite" program, and to two international confer- ences held by CIVITAS International (one in Mexico City in 1997, and the other in Palermo in 1999), this program has reached educators the world over.

The "Adopt a Monument" Initiative This is the project entitled "Palermo opens its doors. The school adopts a

monument?' Begun earlier in Naples by the Napoli Novantanove (Ninety-nine) Foundation, the City, together with the Palermo Superintendency of Schools and PalermoAnnoUno (PalermoYearOne, the union of anti-Mafia associations created immediately after the 1992 massacres) decided to create a similar "Adopt a Monument" program in 1994. (Other cities, including Turin, Genoa, Crotone and Syracuse, also created programs in that year.) At a national level, the program called for "entrusting museums and monuments to students" as an "instrument for promoting full integration between educational activities and the region." The goal was to "spread knowledge of the cultural and artistic heritage of the community and to promote its full use, emphasizing the fundamental role of the school as the site for educating the younger generations?'

From the beginning, the project took on a different shape and significance in Palermo from that in other cities. The City immediately understood that "The School Adopts a Monument" could be the most immediate and vital response to the Mafia's oppression over the years and to its attempts to stifle the historical memory, urban identity and sense of community in the people of Palermo. The first to give voice to this response could only be young people, who had not yet been fully psychologically conditioned by the Mafia. After- wards, the voice would move on, through the young people, to their friends, their parents, their relatives, their acquaintances, to all the townspeople.


For this reason, from the first annual inauguration ceremony, held on Feb- mary 7 1995, the program was designed to be rich with symbolic meaning. For example, the Mayor himself, in official dress complete with tricolor ban- ner, entrusts the monument to the students. He then explains that the "adopter" has a parental function, one of love and care, toward an entity that has been abandoned and has no family, and that the students are charged with taking on this function. The monuments chosen are those most marked by neglect. Each adopting school, represented by a student who has been elected by his schoolmates, then receives a medal, "for responsibility" which has the golden eagle, the symbol of Palermo, and a certificate of adoption signed by the Mayor. The medal is given in the presence of the "godmothers" of the event, Mafia Falcone and Rita Borsellino (the sisters of the two magistrates murdered in the 1992 massacres), because from the beginning, the project was dedicated "to Giovanni Falcone, Francesca Morvillo, Paolo Borsellino and all those who have given their lives for the freedom of Palermo?' In sum, the ceremony is designed to transmit to the pupils the awareness that what they are doing is not a typical school task nor a simple recreational activity but an important component of the process of the city's rebirth from the degradation caused by a prevailing culture of illegality.

From the very beginning, Palermo's youth unfailingly responded to this call with an enthusiasm and a participation that was so spontaneous, intense and powerful that it surprised--and then ended up infecting--their very own teachers. In truth, we cannot overlook the teachers' dedication and hard work to ensure the project's success, out of free choice and over and above their institutional duties. The teachers help the young people in their often difficult research (conducted by reading books, meeting experts and arranging per- sonal interviews), and in their projects to create informative and illustrated materials--texts, drawings, photographs, maps, posters and exhibits--on both the adopted monuments and on the city's history.

As the program evolves, the young people transmit their enthusiastic ex- citement to growing numbers of friends, acquaintances, and elderly people who live in the area around the monument. The students had probably never even spoken to these retirees before, but now they are encouraging them to recall distant memories of their lives in the city. And gradually, the monument that often was just a ruin, whose original function had been forgotten or was buried under layers of debris, begins to regain an elegant look and--in the students' eyes--much of its original splendor. Such a special relationship grows between the monument and the boys and girls who study it, draw it, work around it and look after it, that one of the comments students most frequently make is: "I feel at home here?'

And when the period of the year for public visits to the adopted monuments occurs (weekends in May, and in particular May 19-23, which commemorate

S l c ~ PERSP~CI~ 23

the dates of Borsellino and Falcone's deaths), the boys and girls act as guides to thousands and thousands of Palermo citizens and tourists who can admire the monument brought back to life. It is at this moment (which students prepare for with a commitment that exceeds their mere scholarly duties, even learning complex historical presentations in foreign languages) that we can truly understand the scope and the educational effects of the program. In the shining eyes of the students who are retelling the history, the leg- ends, the artistic, architectural and cultural traits of "their" monument, we can read the joy of having discovered a part of the city that Mafia oppression had kept hidden from everyone. We understand the pleasure of students learning shared histories that were long forgotten, we see their satisfaction at being able to contribute to the revival of artistic gems of the city's distant past, jewels that seemed lost. We watch their pride at sharing with their schoolmates and the townspeople an important cultural heritage that dates back centuries and that is greatly appreciated and admired by people all over the world. And lastly, every time that the students' pressure, echoed by the local press, convinces the building's owners (private individu- als or public entities) to completely restore and re-open the monument on a permanent basis, the young people see for themselves how much weight citizens' commitment to improving community life can carry in a democratic society.

More than 25,000 students from 150 elementary, junior senior and high schools have participated since the program started five years ago. Altogether, 160 monuments have been adopted, including churches, castles, public and private historical sites, villas, towers, schools, necropolises (ancient cemeter- ies), theaters, tuna-processing stations, railway stations, private chapels, for- tresses, parks, fountains, streets and neighborhoods. About 60 percent of the monuments have been restored and reopened; 20 percent are currently under restoration. The realization of the projects has involved groups of volunteers, anti-mafia movements, civic and environmental associations, shopkeepers, craftspeople and other economic actors in the areas affected, as well as the owners of monuments. Moreover, in 1997-98, an experiment was begun, involving joint adoption by students and their parents, who have worked alongside their children, acting as researchers, historians, journalists, photographers and interviewers.

All this remarkable work is documented in the material collected by each adopting school. To expose the educational message to a broader public, however, the City published the most significant experiences in bound vol- umes. In 1996, the Department for Education had published a book with a major emotional impact, "I colori della speranza" (The Colors of Hope), which presented drawings, thoughts and ideas related to the 1992 mafia


massacres by elementary school students from one of the neighborhoods considered most "at risk" in the center of Palermo. This book contains a drawing that is perhaps the most significant expression of what the cultural revolution in Palermo has meant: a line of children who form a circle by holding each other's hands. Inside the circle there is a bad man armed with a gun, who is identified with the word "MAFIA"; below the children are the words "NOI SIAMO UNITI" (We are united)--a perfect summary of an entire dissertation on education for lawfulness. After seeing the positive effects resulting from the distribution of '7 colori della speranza," in 1998 the Department for Education published eight additional books on the students' adoption projects. The titles of the books are (in English) "The Monumental Complex of Palazzo Marchese," "The PitrO Museum," "The Massimo Opera House," "Sweet Traditions," "Borgo Nuovo on the Move," "Palermo Is Ours," "Journey in Sicily To Get To Know Palermo" and "School and Family in the San Lorenzo Neighborhood" These books have been distributed to schools, libraries and Italian and overseas civic associations interested in knowing more about the project.

In conclusion, it can be stated that, for all these years, for Palermo "The school adopts a monument" has been the most important and productive project from a social and cultural viewpoint. The project has fit perfectly into the reality of the region and has responded to the needs of the students and the schools, a happy blend of education to lawfulness, civic spirit and democracy--a unique mix that is perhaps difficult to repeat.

Of course, even if the project can be deemed a great success, we have to wait until today's students become tomorrow's adults in order to truly evaluate whether this educational approach has had a deep and permanent effect, whether it has contributed to the formation of a new generation of public- spirited and responsible citizens.

Urban and Cultural Renewal On the other hand, we can already assess the impact that the "construction"

work undertaken in other prioritized sectors of community life has had---often with surprising immediacy--on the mental attitudes and the behavior of many of the townspeople.

The urban renewal projects have produced the most visible and significant results. In this case, too, the city has operated on the supposition that, in order to gain people's trust and co-operation, it was indispensable to demonstrate with hard facts that the time was truly over when things only changed to stay as they were before. The urban decline caused by decades of administrative inefficiency, political corruption and Mafia rackets presented the city planners with the best opportunity to test both the capability of the municipal adminis-


tration to respond concretely to the city's needs and the real will of the townspeople to contribute actively to the work of renewal.

The challenge was an extremely difficult one. Not only was the appearance of the city, once defined as "most happy" altered in an apparently incurable way; but the sense of "irrelevance" that had built up over time in the townspeople toward the state, institutions and the very concept of civil community had resulted even in poisoning their relationship with the physical appearance of the city. After over half a century, the signs of the destruction wrought by World War II were still visible. But who cared? Monuments, palaces, churches, were falling to pieces. But who cared? The decline of the city was nothing but a reflection of the moral decline overwhelming the city, and regarding both, the majority of people, though embittered and discouraged, had long ago given up expressing their protest.

Instead, all the uncertainties and doubts that accompanied the newly formed Department for the Historic Center's work to restore the city to its former self just evaporated. The revolution in conscience unleashed by the Mafia massacres of 1992 proved to be much more broadly based than even the people of Palermo themselves probably realized. Their participation in the many restoration projects that were initiated simultaneously was, in many cases, decisive for overcoming difficulties and ensuring ultimate success.

Of all the projects of the Department for the Historic Center, headed by the ad-hoc City Commissioner and Deputy Mayor, Emilio Arcuri, one in particular stands out because of the resonance it generated at national and international levels: the reopening of the Massimo Opera House.

Even more than the Cathedral or the Norman Palace, the Massimo Opera House is the architectural symbol of the city of Palermo. Built in 1875-1897 by Palermo architect G. B. Filippo Basile and, after his death, by his son Ernesto, the Massimo is the third-largest opera house in Europe; Paris and Vienna boast grander houses. Certainly, it is one of the most impressive. It was closed in 1974---ostensibly for six months--in order to upgrade some safety aspects. Instead, it remained closed for 23 years, once again a symbol of Palermo, but in this case a symbol of administrative inefficiency, political corruption and of the prevalence of illicit Mafia interests over the common good. In 1995, the city regained full possession of Basile's jewel and began a restoration project to return the theater to the people of Palermo. At the same time, a high school and an elementary school adopted the Massimo. These students were the most ardent in working to mobilize their fellow citizens; eventually the entire city took part in the restoration work, step by step. This participation was indispensable. The countdown really began in February 1997, and it was a true race. City technicians and craftsmen worked feverishly, day and night, and the townspeople passionately supported them and cheered as they attained goal

26 TRENDS IN ORGANIZED CRIME [ SPRING 2000

after goal. Thanks to this shared commitment, and also to sponsorships, large and small, from institutions, businesspeople, and individual citizens, the Massimo Opera House reopened on May 12, 1997. That evening an overflow- ing crowd of Palermo people of all ages and backgrounds filled the square outside the Opera House to watch the inaugural concert on a giant screen mounted outside by a sponsor. Along with those who had managed to get seats inside, the two audiences shared an unforgettable moment of joint gratifica- tion, expressed with joy and emotion by all.

The reopening of the Massimo Opera House represents the symbolic jewel in the crown, the most outstanding expression during the city administration's first mandate of its commitment to restore and revive Palermo.

Although less public and spectacular, the other restoration projects completed during Mayor Orlando's first and second administrations (he was re- elected by a direct majority vote in November 1997) have perhaps had a more profound, penetrating, and extensive impact on the people of Palermo. Every project transformed the relationship between each individual and his street, his neighborhood, including its buildings and monuments, and with his fellow-citizens. The Massimo Opera House event was certainly exciting, and it conveyed to all how crucial--and and how possible--it was to change the outside world's perception of Palermo. But in the daily life of people in the historical center, and especially for those who knew they would never see an opera at the Massimo, it was surely more gratifying to see their own street finally lit at night, whole blocks of neighborhood buildings renovated and once again occupied, a pretty fountain clean and working again, historical mansions free from rubble and open to the public, churches, monuments, and cultural sites restored and receiving an increasing flow of Palermitans and tourists alike; in sum, seeing their "own" part of the city wake up, come to life and begin to offer new opportunities for both workers and investors.

One example of this transformation is the complex of Santa Maria dello Spasimo in a depressed neighborhood called Kalsa. Over the years of its tor- mented history, the sixteenth-century Gothic style church was used as a theater, a warehouse, a leper colony, a hospital and an old people's home. By 1900, it had been abandoned, and throughout this century it was used as a dump for construction materials. In 1995, the Department for the Historic Center decided to reclaim the Spasimo, and in the space of a few months they removed tons of debris, restored the church and created a surrounding garden. Members of an ex-convict co-operative, who were then entrusted with guard- ing the monument, worked long and hard alongside city employees to resur- rect this architectural jewel, which has been unknown to even the people living nearby. The Spasimo reopened in July 1995 and since then has been the site of innumerable exhibitions, concerts, plays and cultural events. It has become a

S ~ c ~ PE~PrC~r~s 27

must on the city's tourist itinerary, and above all, it has been transformed into a meeting spot for the people of Palermo, day and night, to spend time in a charming and peaceful setting. Moreover, the entire Kalsa area around the Spasimo has changed; what was four years ago considered a high-risk neighborhood now has very few incidents of theft, mugging or other types of petty crime. On the wall of a nearby house, in childlike handwriting, you can read "W Spasimo" (Long Live Spasimo).

This re-vitalization was precisely the goal the Department for the Historic Center set for itself when it took up the task of recovering the most ancient part of the city, the area once encircled by city walls. This is a key historical area that bears traces of many peoples and many Western and Eastern cultures, who left their mark on the island over hundreds of years. The Historic Center is a rectangular area of about 240 hectares with two kilometers fronting the sea. It includes 400 mansions of noble families, 158 churches, 55 monasteries and seven theaters. Residential buildings cover 40 percent of the surface. Af- ter the war, the resident population had gradually decreased because of ever- worsening living conditions, and in 1996 it reached its all-time low, 22,960 inhabitants.

Given the enormity of the task, which involved tackling architectural, artistic, financial, political, bureaucratic, organizational, commercial, legal and community issues, the strides made to restore the city center to the townspeople are already remarkable. A summary table drawn up by Department for the Historic Center in August 2000 details the public works that had been completed and that were in progress at that date.

Just over six years after it began its work, the Department for the Historic Center completed or is completing a total of 107 municipal public works (with an overall cost of 308 billion lire), and has another 36 projects (cost: 161 billion lire) ready to be approved and 26 (estimate cost: 55 billion lire) in the design phase. These works include the restoration and conversion of churches, monasteries, palaces, and residential buildings, installing streetlamps and light- ing, creating new public spaces and green areas, paving and sewage work, and ordinary and specialized maintenance work. As to the restoration projects in the welfare housing sector, the table shows that 215 such projects have already been or are currently being carried out, while another 142 are going through the approval procedure and 95 are actually on the drawing board.

The Department has also begun a program of financial grants to condo- miniums and single private owners for the partial or total recovery of residential buildings in the Historic Center. Each contribution amounts to about two-fifths of the cost incurred by the condominium or private owner for recovering their building. Thus far, 340 grants have been given with an overall cost of 101 billion lire.


In 1998, the Department also initiated a program to revamp the street network in the historic area. Through the reorganization of public and private traffic and the creation of pedestrian walkways among recovered buildings, markets, gardens and narrow lanes, the city is becominge more attractive and accessible for residents and businesses alike. This will further encourage the present trend of growth in the historic area (in the last few years, the resident population has increased from fewer than 23,000 in 1996 to more than 27,000, and continues to grow).

Finally, in April 1999, the Department for the Historic Center began to reclaim the center's worst areas by taking over for public use dwellings and warehouses that had been reduced to ruins to the point where their owners were no longer interested in restructuring them. 1,091 properties of this kind have been identified for which, upon their expropriation, the owners will receive the (rather modest) compensation envisaged by law, while the Munici- pality will arrange to redevelop what are at present highly degraded buildings, transforming them into temporary housing. 289 expropriation procedures had been completed by August 2000.

The Department has covered all the above costs with funds from the Euro- pean Community, the State, the Sicilian Region, and Palermo City itself.

The statistics and the expenditures are already extraordinary in a city that had long grown used to seeing public funds frozen for years because of bureaucratic inefficiency and political siphoning. The most remarkable aspect of the Orlando administration, however, is how it operates: It has ensured that citizens are involved in a way never before seen. People whose lives will be affected by the projects participate directly in the work, through assemblies, debates and meetings with residents and shopkeepers, and their needs and feedback are incorporated into the project.

Following the same criterion of the maximum possible involvement of the citizenry, the Municipal Administration also organized a consultative referen- dum on environmental topics in May 2000. This is a sector in which the City's Bureau for Town Planning and Environment (which forms part of the Depart- ment headed by Deputy Mayor Arcuri) has undertaken initiatives of such im- portance in 1999 and 2000 as to be awarded two first prizes in competitions called by the Italian Ministry for the Environment for the "Car-free Day" and the "Sustainable Cities" projects.

In fact, Palermo not only disposes of an efficient network for monitoring traffic pollution, but has also given itself a Municipal Energy Plan that is in line with the most up to date criteria for pinpointing the choices that have to be made for improving the environmental situation and reducing energy con- sumption. Within the framework of the EU-financed "Zeus" (Zero and law Emission vehicles in Urban Society"), moreover, the City has got under way a


series of coordinated actions that aim at developing a new urban mobility In particular, it has already acquired about a hundred electric vehicles and a dozen methane-operated buses, and has converted to methane 420 vehicles owned by the Municipality and the Special Agencies (the former municipal utility ser- vices) that were previously run on gasoline and Diesel fuel. It has also set up a public service for renting electric cars (the so-called "Car-Sharing Club"), con- structed a large photovoltaic plant based on silicon panels for recharging these cars, made a start with putting up a station where private citizens can refuel their cars with methane and, lastly, adopted a series of initiatives and drawn up other ecological projects that aim at raising the level of the quality of life in the city.

From February to May 2000, for example, it instituted the "Car-free Sundays" by closing a large part of the city center to private traffic. Then, it got under way the work of defining numerous tracks that are to be re- served for cyclists. The first eight of these tracks--for a total of 70 km- - should be finished before end of the year 2000 and will connect the northern area of the city to its southern area. A start has also been made with the installation of the so-called "intelligent traffic lights," which are equipped with special sensors capable of assessing traffic intensity, so that the times during which vehicles are brought to a halt at crossroads can be appropri- ately adjusted. It is precisely in view of this wide range of projects already realized that Palermo has for the last two years chaired "Car-free Cities," the European network of cities committed to the development of a sustainable urban mobility.

Any review of the achievements of the past six years must include a mention of the restoration and reopening by the Sicilian Region of a monument of very great historical and artistic value; namely, the Zisa Castle (12 th century). Nor can one fail to note the fact that, in addition to their various designated responsibilities, many municipal offices have contributed in a very real way to this ongoing process of the rediscovery of Palermo's historical memory and urban identity, portended to constructing a new spirit of active and conscious participation in the life of the city.

In this connection one cannot but mention the large series of projects realized by the Department for Public Works outside the city center, as also the social and relief initiatives got under way by the Department for the Person, the Family, the Community and Social Activities to meet the needs of the worst-off citizens and the most degraded neighborhoods. One must also recall the projects either directly promoted or sustained in various ways by the De- partment for Sport. Indeed, it is not by any means wrong to say that one can fight the Mafia also by means of sporting activities, if these activities are such as to subtract groups of young people from a probable Mafia influence and develop in them a taste for and pride of belonging to a healthy environment in


which there prevails a spirit of fair competition accompanied by forms of collaboration and mutual respect. In general principle, the work of the Department for Sport-- from the construction of new sports facilities in areas where Mafia influence is strong right through to the organization of tournaments under the motto "Together in Sport"--has been wholly underlain by this concept.

But the project that, in addition to the Spasimo, gives the clearest picture of the breadth and depth of this movement for social and cultural rebirth, is un- doubtedly the ongoing transformation of the Zisa Yard.

The Yard was primarily a furniture factory, built next to the Zisa Castle at the end of the 1800s. Covering an area of 55,000 square meters, its 40 huts had been used over the years in various ways, from producing furniture to construction of art nouveau chairs and divans in the early twentieth century, to assembly of fighter-bombers during World War I, once again furniture, and lastly for constructing railroad cars. Then, the factory was abandoned. For decades, the huts stood empty and became increasingly decrepit. In the 1970s, the City had even planned to demolish them, in order to make space for needed residential areas. However (and this time fortunately), the all-too-typical administrative inefficiency meant that the project was never carried out.

In July 1996, Mayor Orlando and the then City Commissioner for Culture, Francesco Giambrone, visited the abandoned area and saw an opportunity to put the sheds to good use. The restoration work, undertaken at low cost, began a few days after their visit and is still on-going. Although much remains to be done, the Cantieri Cutturali alla Zisa (Zisa Cultural Yard, as the area has been re- named) is already known internationally as one of the most interesting projects of recovery of abandoned industrial areas. In just four years, more than 60 seminars, 80 exhibitions, countless theatrical premieres, musical meetings and other artistic activities have taken place in the thirteen sheds renovated thus far and in the newly designed outdoor areas. There is a new reading room, and plans for the creation of a Museum of Contemporary Art, hopefully designed by a world-famous architect. Along with the famous names, young Palermo artists also have access to the Zisa Cultural Yard. There they find the chance to make themselves and their talent known and receive a little boost toward international success.

Like the Spasimo complex, the Zisa Cultural Yard has also become a top attraction for city residents and tourists alike. People head to the Yard to see the on-going cultural events held there, to visit a very unique and historical part of the city, or simply to meet for drinks and conversation. Here, too, the surrounding neighborhood is beginning to change and offer new prospects for economic development. It has a new look, is more livable, and its residents feel it is more "their own."

So the third path of action chosen by the Orlando administration, the cultural path, has proved to be a winner, too. Not only the Spasimo and the Zisa

SIClHA~ P~aSPECTIV~ 31

Cultural Yard but the entire city has become a venue for entertainment and cultural events. Every summer, for example, the project "Palermo on Stage" offers a wealth of cultural events, most of them held outdoors. Audiences include crowds of Palermo people and tourists, but also many immigrants, who find in Palermo a rare climate of understanding and integration, portended to constructing a new spirit of active and conscious participation in the life of the city. "Palermo on stage" is an international festival of visual arts, cinema, dance, music and theater organized by the City Department for Culture. And the new Commissioner, Giusto Catania, continuing the work of his prede- cessors, has opted for constructing the program of the cultural activities in the conviction that culture is a flywheel of social and economic development. The events of this year's edition organized between July 20 and October 8 (and there were more than 280 of them!) thus saw as their protagonists world-famous ce- lebrities of art and entertainment by the side of young local talents coming to the fore and were conceived and structured in such a way that the cultural element expressed by them would provide additional lymph for the recovery of the civic conscience of the townspeople and for the building of an increasingly broader and deeper sense of shared participation in the life of the city by all those who live there, whether newcomers or generations-old families.

Conclusion This, then, is what is meant by the "Palermo Renaissance": the seizing of

that moment of revolutionary change in 1992 and the transformation of that energy into positive and productive behavior and concrete action. From decline to recovery, from isolation to association, from corruption to transparency, from a mafioso culture to the culture of lawfulness, from skepticism to trust, from darkness to light--these are the pathways of the Renaissance along which the city has been moving, with the contribution not only of the Munici- pality, but also of all the subjects of civil society (clergy, associations, schools, press, trade unions and other government agencies) who, quite independently of the municipal interventions, moved in the same direction.

Parallel to the city's reawakening, in the last few years there has been a significant reduction in the number of crimes committed each year, and in particular, serious crimes like murder. From the approximately 200 murders that were committed annually in Palermo throughout the 1980s and early 1990s, from 1994 to 1999 the murders committed were, respectively, 14, 14, six, six, nine and 11. Just as striking is the increase in the number of arrests. From 1994 to 1999 arrests amounted to, for murder, 10, 18, 19, 20, 31 and 10, and for mafia association, 27, 13, 81, 84, 92 and 65. Finally, recent research by ISTAT (Italian National Institute of Statistics) on Italian cities has shown that Palermo has one of the lowest overall number of crimes in proportion to the population.


Of course, this does not mean that the Mafia, crime and corruption have disappeared. There is still a long way to go to achieve a full recovery of lawfulness in Palermo. Wounds inflicted over centuries cannot be healed over night. But the treatment applied in the last few years is proving quite effective. So far it has been made up of three elements, each of which is indispensable to produce results: the political will of the State to maintain a high and constantly vigilant commitment to the fight against organized crime; the determi- nation of the townspeople to be free of the limitations - including psychological ones - imposed by criminals and to assume their own civic responsibilities; and the will and capacity of local governments to nurture the people's civic movements and to be accountable to its citizens.

Apart from depriving the Mafia and its culture of space and breath, this treatment has already begun to produce some indirect effects also for the economic development of the city. In recent months, for example, numerous Ital- ian and foreign companies in the telecommunication sector, among them Nortel, Blu, Wind Lts, Ericsson and Alitalia, have confirmed their investments for the creation of "call centers" and research centers at Palermo. Palermo will also become the hub of "Nautilus," an optical fiber network that is to cover the whole of the Mediterranean, and will also be the headquarters of the new the- matic satellite network that Italy's RAI-TV is about to install. It is expected that these new projects connected with the "new economy" will produce 2700 new jobs before the end of the year. "The interest of the investors is undoubt- edly bound up with the new climate of security that Palermo offers today," affirms Mayor Orlando, adding a comment that at first sight seems a wise- crack, but really represents a serious assessment: "For those who want to op- erate in the Mediterranean Sicily today is the most secure among the Arab realities and also the most advantageous among the European ones"

The signs of a reawakening are more than encouraging also in the sectors of the traditional economy. For example, the tourist flow, following the negative peak recorded in 1993 (the year after the killing of the judges Falcone and Borsellino), is now continuously increasing. And it is particularly significant that--as compared with 98,369 foreign tourists who arrived in Palermo in 1993--far more than twice that number, namely 220,263, arrived in 1999 and that the first six months of 2000 have seen arrivals in the city increase by a further 9.55% over the same period of the previous year.

This provides yet another indication of just how productive in every sense is the new image and the new reality that the city offers today. An image and a reality that have already had an ample launching all round the globe on the occasion of the World Congress of CIVITAS International held in Palermo in June of last year and will be projected in an even more striking manner in December this year, when the United Nations Convention on the Fight against


Transnational Crime is to be signed in Palermo, the city having been chosen specifically as a symbol of the capacity of reacting to Mafia dominion. It is precisely in view of this extraordinary event, when the new positive aspects of the city will be held up to the eyes of all the world, that the Italian government decided at the end of August to grant the city special financial allocations totaling several tens of billion lire. Among others, this will enable the City Administration to proceed immediately with the first part of a series of projects intended to restore, restructure and embellish monuments, mansions, roads, etc., projects that have already been defined and approved and are to be completed next year. This "Plan for the Requalification of Urban Spaces" drawn up by the Department for Public Works and the Department for the Historic Center, has been named "Geonardo" a name that evokes the Arab-Norman epoch, when Palermo was immersed in green parks and the rustling of fountains. "Geonard" indeed, is Arab for "paradise on earth."

Thus, as we said before, the treatment is proving efficacious both directly and indirectly. But since the disease is not yet wholly cured, it is absolutely essential to continue applying the treatment in all its parts. Rather, it could and, indeed, should be further intensified by getting all the competent government agencies, be they national or regional, to adopt concrete economic development policies capable, above all, of creating new jobs. The high unemployment rate, especially among the young, continues to be the greatest obstacle standing in the way of the attainment of a full condition of freedom and responsible autonomy of the citizens.

The Palermo Renaissance is, to conclude, simply a therapy of full democracy, which is centuries old but all too often forgotten. And if anyone asserts that this therapy, this treatment, is useless in areas where crime and corruption have taken over entire territories, the Palermo experience demonstrates that this is not always true.

Guido Lo Forte, "Legislative and Cultural Strategies in the Fight Against the Mafia," Symposium on the Role of Civil Society in Countering Organized Crime: Global Implications of the Palermo, Sicily Renaissance, Palermo, Sicily, December 2000.

Guido Lo Forte is the Deputy Prosecutor of Palermo, Sicily.

Judicial inquiries by the Public Prosecutor's Office of Palermo into the military-like structure of Cosa Nostra and its external relations with significant parts of the economy, civil society, and the institutions, have determined that the following conditions facilitate the development of Mafia organizations:


“palermo’s cultural revolution and the renewal project of the city administration,”

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