NEW ITALIAN HEROES

1. ISTITUTO DI ISTRUZIONE SECONDARIA SUPERIORE “VITO CAPIALBI” VIBO VALENTIA – ITALY COMENIUS PROJECT School Year 2008-2009 NEW ITALIAN HEROES “NATIONAL HEROES : CULTURAL AND INTERNATIONAL IDENTITY TO GET ACTIVE CITIZENSHIP” Comenius Partnership: Greece - Italy - Poland - Portugal - Turkey Headmaster: Mr. GIOVANNI POLICARO Project Coordinator: Mrs. Anna Pia Perri English Language Expert: Mrs. Helen Margaret Putterill

2. GIOVANNI FALCONE Giovanni Falcone was born in Palermo on May 18, 1939. He was an Italianmagistrate who specialised in prosecuting the SicilianCosa Nostra. Shortly after the murder of judge Cesare Terranova, Falcone started to work for the investigative branch of the Prosecution Office in Palermo. The murder was organized by Salvatore Riina in revenge for Falcone's conviction of dozens of mobsters in the Maxi-Trials.

3. SLAUGHTER AT CAPACI Falcone was killed with his wife Francesca Morvillo (herself a magistrate) and three policemen: Rocco Di Cillo, Antonio Montinaro, Vito Schifani, near Capaci on the motorway between Palermo International Airport and the city of Palermo on May 23, 1992.

4. PAOLO BORSELLINO Born in a middle-class Palermo neighborhooud, Borsellino obtained a degree in law at the University of Palermo with honours, in 1962. Then, he passed the judging exam in 1963. During those years, he worked in many cities in Sicily. Paolo Borsellino today is considered as one of the most important magistrates killed by the Sicilian Mafia during the 1980s and 1990s, and he is remembered as one of the main symbols of the battle of the State against the Mafia.

5. Borsellino against the Mafia Paolo Borsellino worked in many cities in Sicily. with Rocco Chinnici, where he then started his unfinished work to fight and defeat the growing Sicilian Mafia. His he accomplishments included the arrest of six organization members in the 1980; in the same year, one of his workmates, the Carabinieri captain Emanuele Basile, was murdered by the Mafia. Because of that event, he was assigned police protection. During those years, working together with Magistrates Giovanni Falcone and Rocco Chinnici, Borsellino continued his research into the Mafia and its links to political and economical powers in Sicily and Italy. He became part of Palermo's Antimafia Pool, created by Chinnici.

6. Falcone-Borsellino Airport Palermo airport is now also known by the name Falcone-Borsellino Airport in honour of Giovanni Falcone and Paolo Borsellino. A memorial by local sculptor Tommaso Geraci can be found there.

7. Falcone-Borsellino plaque at Palermo International Airport

8. Falcone and Borsellino murder In the major crackdown against the Mafia following Falcone and Borsellino's deaths, Riina was arrested and is now serving a life sentence for sanctioning the murders of both magistrates as well as many other crimes.

9. Chinnici created the Antimafia Pool, a group of investigating magistrates who closely worked together sharing information to diffuse responsibility and to prevent one person from becoming the sole institutional memory and solitary target. The famous Antimafia magistrates Giovanni Falcone and Paolo Borsellino were part of the Antimafia Pool as well as Giuseppe Di Lello and Leonardo Guarnotta ROCCO CHINNICI

10. ROCCO CHINNICI ROCCO CHINNICI On July 29, 1983 a car bomb explosion in Palermo killed Chinnici, two of his bodyguards, Mario Trapassi and Salvatore Bartolotta, and the concierge of his apartment block, Stefano Li Sacchi. The bomb was triggered by the notorious Mafia assassin Pino Greco who acted under orders from his uncle Michele Greco. Michele Greco was subsequently sentenced to life imprisonment for ordering Chinnici's assassination.

11. A brave man against the Mafia: ROBERTO SAVIANO

12. ROBERTO SAVIANO He is an Italian journalist and a writer. He uses literature and newspaper reporting techniques to analyse reality and his first book, Gomorrah, published in 2006, soon became a bestseller and sold almost two million copies in Italy, and has been translated in 51 countries. As a consequence of the book’s outstanding success and of its uncompromising attack on organized crime, Roberto Saviano received a number of serious death threats that obliged the Italian authorities to provide him with 24-hour police protection.

13. Articles about Gomorrah 'When I read Roberto Saviano's book, it had only been published for a couple of weeks,' says Italian director MatteoGarrone. 'So many things have changed since then. The fact that Saviano has been placed under police protection has helped the movie become so popular.' It's fair to say that not many authors find themselves needing police protection. But then, not many authors detail the activities of the Camorra, the Neopolitan Mafia. Adapted from Saviano's best-seller, Garrone's stunning film, Gomorrah, weaves together five stories to illustrate the power wielded by organised crime syndicates in the provinces of Naples and Caserta. The film, a commercial hit in Italy and winner of the Grand Prix at the Cannes Film Festival, has drawn praise for its rejection of glamorous underworld stereotypes. Saviano's book gives countless examples of Camorra criminality, and Garrone felt it was vital to root those he chose to feature in a recognisably realworld.

14. Gomorrah: the film Gomorrah is a gangster film that departs from the glamorizing norm. The acclaimed winner of the Grand Jury Prize at Cannes and Italy's entry in the Oscar race, it is a vividly panoramic film about a pitiless world of criminality. A world where no human impulse or attempt at decency goes unpunished, a world where it's worth your life to get out alive. "Gomorrah's" title is not only a reference to the reviled biblical city, it's a play on the word "Camorra," the name of the Mafia-type organization that rules Naples and environs like an alternate government.

15. Gomorrah That's why Italian journalist Roberto Saviano chose "Gomorrah" as the title for the book he wrote exposing in dramatic detail the workings of the Camorra, a book that caused so much of a sensation when it was published in Italy in 2006 that the author remains under round-the-clock security protection to this day. "Gomorrah" opens with a brief scene that isn't part of the interconnecting stories but sets a crucial tone. Occurring in, of all places, a tanning salon, it illustrates the violent chaos that rules this world and presents the beginning of a turf war that will derange everyone's lives even more. The oldest of "Gomorrah's" protagonists, Don Ciro (GianfeliceImparato), is a fastidious bag man for the organization who makes weekly rounds delivering money to the families of imprisoned mobsters. The youngest is 13-year-old Toto (Salvatore Abruzzese), a wannabe gangster who thinks only of becoming a player in the adult world.

16. Gomorrah "Gomorrah" ends with type on the screen, informing us thatthe organization caused 4,000 death in the last three years while funnelling money into enterprises both illegal and legal, including the rebuilding of the World Trade Center towers. The fingerprints of the Camorra are everywhere, this film wants us to know, and its grip is lethal. Equally enamoured of the thug life are Ciro (CiroPetrone) and Marco (Marco Macor), two older teens who have so memorized sections of "Scarface" that they've deluded themselves into thinking they've become the characters. The scene of these two firing automatic weapons in their underwear has become "Gomorrah's" signature image. The film's last two stories involve mature adults. A Camorra executive involved in toxic waste disposal (Toni Servillo) tries to bring a younger man (Carmine Paternoster) into the organization. And a master dressmaker (Salvatore Cantalupo) has to decide whether to clandestinely aid a group of Chinese rivals.

17. Gomorrah: book cover • ITALIAN VERSION • USA • ENGLISH VERSION

18. From the book… “The container swayed as the crane hoisted it onto the ship…. The hatches, which had been improperly closed, suddenly sprang open, and dozens of bodies started raining down. They looked like mannequins. But when they hit the ground, their heads split open, as if their skulls were real. And they were. Men, women, even a few children, came tumbling out of the container. All dead. Frozen, stacked one on top of another, packed like sardines.” (Chapter 1 The Port)

19. Dal libro… “Il container dondolava mentre la gru lo spostava sulla nave. Come se stesse galleggiando nell’aria, lo sprider, il meccanismo che aggancia il container alla gru, non riusciva a domare il movimento. I portelloni mal chiusi si aprirono di scatto e iniziarono a piovere decine di corpi. Sembravano manichini. Ma a terra le teste si spaccavano come fossero crani veri. Ed erano crani. Uscivano dal container uomini e donne. Anche qualche ragazzo. Morti. Congelati, tutti raccolti, l’uno sull’altro. In fila, stipati come aringhe in scatole . (Capitolo 1 Il porto)

20. From the book… “The port is detached from the city. An infected appendix, never quite degenerating into peritonitis, always there in the abdomen of the coastline. A desert hemmed in by water and earth, but which seems to belong to neither land nor sea. A grounded amphibian, a marine metamorphosis. A new formation created from the dirt, garbage, and odds and ends that the tide has carried ashore over the years. Ships empty their latrines and clean their holds, dripping yellow foam into the water; motorboats and yachts, their engines belching, tidy up by tossing everything into the garbage can that is the sea. The soggy mass forms a hard crust all along the coastline. The sun kindles the mirage of water, but the surface of the sea gleams like trash bags. Black ones. The gulf looks percolated, a giant tub of sludge…” (Chapter1 The port)

21. Dal libro… “…Il porto di Napoli è una ferita. Larga. ….” “…The port of Naples is an open wound. ….” “Il porto è staccato dalla città. … Un’appendice infetta mai degenerata in peritonite, sempre conservata nell’addome della costa. Ci sono parti desertiche rinchiuse tra l’acqua e la terra, ma che sembrano non appartenere né al mare né alla terra. Un anfibio di terra, una metamorfosi marina. Terriccio e spazzatura, anni di rimasugli portati a riva dalle maree hanno creato una nuova formazione. Le navi scaricano le loro latrine, puliscono stive lasciando colare la schiuma gialla in acqua, i motoscafi e i panfili spurgano motori e rassettano raccogliendo tutto nella pattumiera marina. E tutto si raccoglie sulla costa, prima come massa molliccia e poi come massa dura. Il sole accende il miraggio di mostrare un mare fatto d’acqua. In realtà la superficie del golfo somiglia alla lucentezza dei sacchetti della spazzatura. Quelli neri. E piuttosto che d’acqua, il mare del golfo sembra un’enorme vasca di percolato. …” (Capitolo 1 Il porto)

22. GOMORRAH A MESSAGE OF PEACE from the students of Class II AL and II BL of “Vito Capialbi” Language School in Vibo Valentia

23. Gomorra, un incredibile e sconvolgente viaggio nel mondo della criminalità , che attraverso le avvvincenti pagine di un libro duro e inquietante ma possente e appassionato, racconta una storia che penetra nelle coscienze sotto forma di letteratura d’indagine in cui, il giovane autore, Roberto Saviano, trasporta il lettore nel profondo abisso di una inimmaginabile realtà. Gomorrah, an incredible and disquieting journey into the world of organized crime, which winds its way through the pages of this hard but powerful and passionate novel. The story gets under your skin with its journalistic style and format enabling the young author, Roberto Saviano, to transport the reader into the depths of this unimaginable reality.

24. HOPE NOT FEAR Uniti per sostituire la speranza alla paura; la pace al conflitto; l’altruismo all’egoismo. United for hope not fear; peace not conflict ; selflessness not selfishness.

25. La civiltà del passato I fasti, la gloria, l’imperitura memoria della civiltà antica siano da monito alle nuove generazioni perché si possa vivere in un mondo migliore in cui valori quali l’onestà, la lealtà, la solidarietà, la pace diventino le vere e uniche ragioni di vita. The magnificence, the glory and the everlasting memory of the ancient civilizations must be a warning to the new generations to live in a better society in which honesty, loyalty, solidarity and peace become the real reasons for existence.

26. Freedom Essere liberi è meno difficile di quanto si crede. It’s less difficult than people think to be free. “La lotta alla Mafia deve essere, prima di tutto, un movimento culturale che abitui le persone al fresco profumo della libertà e contrasti il cattivo odore del compromesso morale, dell’indifferenza e della complicità”.(Paolo Borsellino) “The struggleagainst the Mafia mustbe, aboveall,  a cultural movementwhichaccustoms people to the freshsmelloffreedom and contrasts the stenchofmoral compromise, indifference and complicity.”                                                         (Paolo Borsellino)

27. Dutyandsacrifice “La vita può essere un’avventura coraggiosa, o il nulla.”                                 (Helen Keller)“Life is a courageous adventure or nothing”                                               (Helen Keller)                            “Gli uomini passano, le idee restano, restano le loro tensioni morali e continueranno acamminare sulle gambe degli altri”                                             (Giovanni Falcone)“Men pass by Ideas remain,                            Their moral tensions remain And carry on marching On the legs of others”. (Giovanni Falcone) “Occore compiere fino in fondo il proprio dovere, qualunque sia il sacrificio da sopportare, costi quel che costi, perché è in ciò che sta l’essenza della dignità umana.” (Giovanni Falcone) “You must carry out your duty, whatever the price, whatever the sacrifice, because that is the meaning of human dignity.”           (Giovanni  Falcone)

28. United in the struggle against violence GOOD BYE FROM VITO CAPIALBI SCHOOL